Advanced Online Booking Per Service Category

Modified on Thu, 17 Sep at 9:14 AM

This feature allows you to set custom online booking windows for specific service categories, giving you greater control over how far in advance clients can book appointments. Category-specific booking windows can be configured to accommodate different scheduling needs and will override the general company booking window when applicable.

Things to know:

The ability to configure advanced booking settings by service category is governed by the "Accessing Account Settings" access control setting.
Any custom setting saved in the category modal will override your general, company-level "How far in advance can clients book?" setting.
If a service category is deleted from your service menu, it is automatically removed from the advanced booking modal as well.

To configure online booking settings by service category:

Navigate to Business Setup > Settings
Scroll to the Online Bookings section
Locate the "How far in advance can clients book?" setting
Click the "set advanced settings by service category" hyperlink to open the configuration modal
Adjust the following fields for each relevant category:
- Service Category: Displays your service category name (populated from your service menu).
- Clients can book from: Set the minimum lead time required before a client can book (e.g., 3 hours or 1 day from now).
- Clients can book up to: Set how far into the future a client can book from today's date (e.g., 3 months or 1 year out). Note: Options for both settings include minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Click Save at the bottom of the modal.
Click Save at the bottom of the main Settings page to commit your changes.

Example Scenario

Let’s walk through an example to see how the settings apply in the booking widget.

Assume you configure the following rules for your Haircut category:

Clients can book from: 3 days in advance
Clients can book up to: 3 months in advance
Current Date: May 8

special dates.png

Here is how those rules affect client scheduling in the booking widget:

Minimum Booking Window ("Book from"): Because appointments require at least 3 days' notice, the earliest available date for a Haircut is May 11. All dates prior to May 11 are grayed out.

Screenshot 2024-05-08 145858.png

Maximum Booking Window ("Book up to"): Because bookings are capped at 6 months out, clients cannot schedule past August 7. All dates after August 7 are grayed out.