Set up online booking

With the Online booking add-on ($19/mo), customers pick a time on your site instead of waiting for a call back. One calendar is included.

Before you start

Turn on Online booking in Add-ons. It includes up to 15 services and 500 bookings a month. Extra calendars are $5/mo each, up to 5 calendars in all. The Service area checker is included for free while booking is on.

Then open Bookings in the dashboard menu and go to Setup. Times are in your business’s time zone, shown at the top of the page.

1. Add your services

Under Services, add what customers can book. Each service has a Service name, How long it takes, and an optional price text, such as a starting price or “Free estimate”.

2. Set your calendars and weekly hours

Under Calendars & weekly hours, set the hours each calendar takes bookings. A calendar takes one booking at a time, so use one per person or crew. A day can have more than one time range, for example to leave a lunch break.

3. Choose your booking rules

Under Booking rules:

• Book at least this far ahead: the least notice you need before a booking starts
• Visitors can book up to (days ahead): from 1 to 365 days
• Offer a start time every: 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes
• Instructions for customers (optional): shown above the time picker and in the confirmation e-mail, like “Please arrive 5 minutes early.”

Select Save rules. Your site shows them within a minute, pausing included.

4. Add days off and special hours

Under Days off & special hours, add holidays, vacations or a day with different hours. They win over the weekly hours.

5. Show booking on your site

Turning on the add-on doesn’t put booking on your pages: you choose where it goes. In My site, open Home page sections. If the Online booking section isn’t there yet, select Add a section and add it. Then publish.

The top of Setup tells you whether booking is on your site yet. Until it is, Add the booking section there opens Add a section in My site for you.

On a page with the booking section, buttons that say “Book” take visitors to it. If the quote calculator is on that page too, quote and price buttons still go to the calculator.

Tip: Need a break? Turn on Pause online booking in Booking rules. Within a minute, visitors see your request form instead, and existing bookings stay.

Getting told about bookings

Every new, moved or canceled booking is e-mailed to you (Booking alerts in your notification settings). Each booking e-mail comes with an “Add to calendar” file, and you see all bookings in Bookings. Google Calendar sync is coming soon.