To find your Online Booking settings, go to Manager > Settings > Online.
On the initial Online Booking screen, you can enable/disable your online booking, add an announcement banner to your booking page, and change the coloring to match your brand.
Online Booking Setup
The Brand color setting will change the color of the buttons on your Phorest online booking page, while the Book Now website button setting will change the color of the Book Now widget button embedded in the corner of your website when you set up online booking.
For information on linking online booking to your business website, check out this guide.
Booking Rules
The Booking Rules section allows you to control how your online booking system works.
In this Article
Here's what each setting does:
Booking slots
This setting decides the time intervals at which your available appointment times will be displayed from the earliest available timeslot.
For example, if this setting is set to 30 Minutes and a column is open from 9:00 a.m., the available timeslots for that column will be 9:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m., etc.
Minimum Gap time
This setting prevents booking appointments if it creates a gap of 'x' minutes or less before the first service in the appointment.
This setting does not apply if there's no gap or if the gap is equal to or longer than the number of minutes specified in the Minimum Gap Time.
The purpose is to minimize gaps between appointments that cannot be filled, typically based on the shortest service duration (excluding services that wouldn't be booked on their own, like add-on services, etc.).
Example
Minimum Gap Time is set to 30 minutes, and Booking slots are every 15 minutes.
In the example below, where we're booking a 15-minute appointment, an appointment at:
- 10:45am is allowed because no gap is created before the appointment.
- 12:00pm is allowed because no gap is created before the appointment.
- 12:15pm is not allowed because it would create a 15-minute gap before the appointment, which is less than the time specified in the setting (30 minutes in this example).
- 1:30pm (or any time after) is allowed because it creates a gap, but that gap is not less than the time specified in the setting (30 minutes in this example).
Note: To allow maximum online booking timeslot availability in your calendar, set this setting to 0 minutes. However, keep in mind that setting to 0 minutes may result in unwanted gaps in your calendar.
Cancellation period
Clients cannot reschedule or cancel their booking online within this period. For more information on the cancellation period, check out this guide.
Patch test period
Services that require a patch test cannot be booked online within this period. For more information on patch tests, check out this guide.
Short notice period
Your online booking system will not show available time slots within this short-notice period, even if there are timeslots available in your Phorest appointments calendar.
Limit availability in the future
This setting allows you to limit how far in advance your clients can book online. Click here for more detailed information on how this setting works.
Multi-service rules
This setting decides whether online bookings with multiple services in the appointment can be booked across multiple staff members or not.
- Can Be Split - Multiple services can be performed by multiple staff members.
- Can't Be Split - Multiple services can be performed by only one staff member.
- Will Only Split For Max Utilisation - Multiple services can be performed by only one staff member, but when you run out of free slots we'll offer slots where multiple staff can perform the services.
Discount for booking online
Here, you can decide whether clients should receive a discount for booking online. This setting is great if you're just getting started with online booking and want to promote it to your clients.
- No Discount - This will not apply discounts to any online bookings.
- First Appointment Only - This will only apply a discount to the first appointment made by each client.
- Every Appointment - A discount will be applied to every online booking that comes in.
Discount Amount
If a discount is enabled for online bookings, use this to decide the discount amount. You can click the gray box to choose between a percentage or monetary discount amount.
Double TreatCard points
Enabling this setting will reward clients with double the number of TreatCard points when they book online. For more information on setting up your TreatCard system, check out this guide.
Show Notes
This enables a comment box at the final booking confirmation screen, where your clients can leave a note/comment on their appointment.
The note will then be visible on your appointment details in Phorest.
You will also receive an email notification to let you know that a client left a note:
Send Abandoned Cart Emails
When this setting is enabled, an email will be sent automatically to any client who adds services to their online booking basket but then leaves without completing their booking. Here's what the email looks like: