Bookings

Open online booking

Booking is set up under Settings › Booking. The page has four tabs: Services, Hours, Staff and Other service.

1. Add at least one service under Services.
2. Check your hours under Hours.
3. Press Open booking at the top of the page. Only the account owner can do this.

Opening booking adds a Book page to your website. If your live website has no other unpublished changes, the page goes live straight away. Otherwise publish your website to put it live.

Once booking is open, the top of the page shows Your booking link. Copy it for your Google Business Profile, your website and directories.

Already use another booking service? Connect it under Other service instead.

Services

A service is something customers can book. Press Add service and fill in:

• Service name, such as Initial assessment.
• Duration in minutes.
• Price. Leave it blank to hide the price, or enter 0 for a free appointment.
• Short description, to help someone choose the right appointment.
• Time between appointments, before and after, for preparation or cleanup. Customers book only the service duration.

Drag a row to change the order customers see. To stop new bookings for a service without deleting it, edit it and turn off Available for online booking.

Prices are shown before booking, and payment is collected at the appointment. If you take payments through Mainmark, a service can instead ask for A deposit or The full price when booking. Unpaid times are released after 30 minutes. See taking payments.

Hours, time zone and rules

Weekly hours are when customers can book. They are set separately from the opening hours shown on your website.

Under Closed days, add a holiday, or a single day with different hours, then press Add day.

Under Booking rules you choose:

• New bookings: Confirmed right away, or I approve each one.
• Time zone: the zone your times are in. The Book page shows times in this zone.
• Notice needed: the soonest someone can book, from now.
• Bookable up to: how far ahead someone can book.
• Start times: how often a time is offered. Every 30 minutes offers 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00.

With I approve each one, a request holds its time until you approve or decline it. Requests wait under the Requests tab in Appointments. Open one and press Approve, or open More and choose Decline request.

Staff

With nobody listed under Staff, every appointment shares one calendar. Add staff when people need their own services or hours.

Each person is their own calendar. A new person offers every service at first. Edit them to choose their services, or tick Keeps their own hours to give them their own week.

On the Book page, a customer can pick a person or choose No preference. No preference books the first person free at that time, in the order your Staff list shows.

What your customer sees

On the Book page, the customer chooses a service, a team member when you have staff, a day and a time, and then gives their name and a phone number or email.

When bookings are confirmed right away, they see You are booked and an Add to calendar button. When you approve each one, they see Awaiting confirmation instead.

Someone booking for the first time also becomes an enquiry, and you get an email about them. See enquiries.

Emails, cancelling and moving

When the customer gave an email, Mainmark sends them:

• A confirmation, with the service, the time, and your address, phone and email.
• A reminder 24 hours before the appointment. An appointment booked less than 24 hours ahead gets no reminder.
• For a request, a receipt saying it is not confirmed yet. Once you approve it, they get the confirmation.

The confirmation and reminder have links to choose another time or to cancel. A new time is picked on your Book page. The links work only for that customer.

You get an email at your Notification email when a request needs approval and when a customer cancels.

To stop customers changing or cancelling from their email, turn off People can change or cancel from their email under Booking rules. They then contact you instead.

You can move or cancel an appointment yourself: open it in Appointments and press Reschedule, or open More and choose Cancel appointment. If the customer gave an email, they are told by email.