How to use the front desk calendar

The Front desk group holds the day-to-day work. The pages work on desktop and on phones. All times are in the salon’s time zone (Salon → Location).

Video tutorials #

How to run the front desk calendar in Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ 1.0.0

Watch on YouTube

How a stylist runs their day in Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ 1.0.0

Watch on YouTube

Online booking is described in Booking online.

The calendar #

Front desk → Calendar opens the day, with one column per staff member on a 5-minute grid. It shows:

• each appointment, with its finish work after a free processing gap;
• the preparation and clean-up time before and after a service, as faint stripes (a key under the grid names every shading);
• breaks, time off and time the staff member does not work;
• who is free now, and the day’s appointments as a list below the grid. On a phone the list carries the details that the narrow grid cannot show.

Use Previous, Today, Next and Go to date to move around, and Week to see each staff member’s week. Select an appointment to open its page. A day without staff or business hours, or a closed day, says why (“Business hours are not set.”, “Closed today — …”).

Moving by dragging. With the permission Move bookings, drag an appointment to another time or staff member. Its Move form opens filled in: check it and choose Move. Nothing moves until you do. The appointment’s page offers the same Move form without dragging.

Online bookings show in the calendar like any other appointment, and their page says Booked online. While a client is paying a deposit online, the appointment is listed as Held.

Home visits show the staff member’s travel before and after as hatched blocks (Travel to or from a home visit in the key). The calendar never shows a client’s address.

The calendar of a staff member with See own bookings only shows the appointments that include their own services.

New booking (desk and phone) #

Front desk → New booking:

1. When — the Date and the Time, typed in the site’s format.
2. Where — only while you offer home visits: see Home visits at the desk below.
3. Services — the Service, and Then (optional) for more services in the same appointment: the form has rows for up to three services. A service with options is listed as a group of its options (“Balayage · Long hair”): choose one. For each service choose a staff member or Any available.
4. Client:
   • Name;
   • Phone (mobile preferred) — required for desk and phone bookings. Type it with the country code (for example +1 202 555 0143), or, when the salon’s country is set on Salon → Location, as a number of that country without the code. A landline is fine. The number is stored in international form.
   • E-mail (optional — please ask for it).
5. Booked by — At the desk or By phone.
6. Note from the client (optional), then Book.

Confirmations and reminders. Once your site’s e-mail is set up, a client with an e-mail address gets a confirmation e-mail, and later their reminders (see Messages, reminders, text messages and push). The e-mail gives your salon’s address and phone, and a Manage your appointment link with which the client can change or cancel online within your rules — whether or not you take bookings online. With text messages set up, reminders can also go to a mobile number.

The form tells you when a client cannot be reached:

• while neither e-mail nor text messages are set up: “Nothing goes out to clients yet: neither e-mail nor text messages are set up … Tell the client their appointment time yourself.”;
• for a client without an e-mail address: “This client won’t receive confirmations or reminders.”, with the reason — no e-mail address and text messages off, or a number that text messages cannot reach — and “Ask for an e-mail address if you can.”;
• after booking with a landline, a note that text messages cannot reach that number.

Deposits. No deposit is taken at the desk. A service with a deposit booked here shows Deposit due on the appointment (see Deposits and paying at the salon).

When the time is taken. If the staff member already has an appointment at that time, the form refuses the booking and shows the Next free times as buttons: choose one to book it with the details you typed. Book it anyway (below) is only for the soft rules, never for a taken time.

“Any available”. The software picks a free staff member who can do the service — by default the one with the fewest booked minutes that day (Booking: who is chosen for “any available”). It only places appointments inside staff members’ working hours. Outside them, name a staff member yourself.

Soft rules and “Book it anyway?”. Booking a named staff member outside their working hours, during a break or time off, or into their preparation or clean-up time breaks a soft rule. The form names the rule and, for staff allowed to Override soft booking rules, asks Book it anyway? with a Reason (written to the audit log). Book anyway records the rule and the reason in the appointment’s history and in the audit log.

The minimum notice and the days ahead that you set for online bookings do not apply at the desk.

Home visits at the desk #

While you offer home visits (Salon → Home visits, see Booking online), New booking asks Where: At the salon or At the client’s home. For a home visit choose the Area, or Not listed (needs a reason), which needs a reason and the permission to override, and type the Address. A home visit has one staff member: the first service’s. Their travel time before and after is blocked in their calendar.

Who sees the address: the owner and the manager / front desk role (See the addresses of home visits), and the staff member assigned to the visit. Anyone else sees the area and “The address is shown to the assigned staff member and managers.”

Walk-ins #

Front desk → Walk-in starts an appointment now; no client record is needed. Choose the Service and a staff member (or Any available). Name (optional) and Phone (mobile preferred, optional) may stay empty. Start now creates the appointment with the status Arrived.

Outside the staff member’s working hours, give a Reason to start anyway (written to the audit log) and choose Start anyway.

A walk-in gets no confirmation e-mail: the client is already there.

Staff may start walk-ins too.

An appointment’s page #

Open an appointment from the calendar, My day, Find an appointment or a list. The page shows:

• the date and time, the status, and how it was booked (Booked online, Booked at the desk, Booked by phone, Walk-in …);
• the services with their options and staff members (a processing gap is shown as free);
• for a home visit, At the client’s home with the address for those allowed to see it, the travel time held and the travel fee;
• the client’s name and note; the phone (tap to call) and e-mail address only for accounts allowed to see client contacts;
• the price, the balance and the payment state (Deposit due, Deposit paid, Refund to make …);
• Add to a calendar (.ics);
• the History of every change.

Its actions:

Every action is recorded in the history and the audit log. Staff act only on appointments with their own services.

Appointment statuses #

Booked → Confirmed (for example by phone) → Arrived → In progress → Completed. An appointment may also become a No-show or Cancelled. A walk-in starts as Arrived. An online booking waiting for its deposit is Held; if the deposit does not arrive in time it becomes Expired and its time is free again.

End of day #

Front desk → End of day lists a day’s appointments that are still open; use Previous day, Next day or Go to date for another day. Only appointments that have started can be chosen. Tick several (or Choose all) and choose Mark completed or Mark no-show. An appointment that was booked or confirmed but never marked as arrived is completed directly, and its history records the arrival as not marked. When nothing is left, the page says Everything is marked.

Call-backs #

Front desk → Call-backs lists today’s and tomorrow’s appointments that are booked but not yet confirmed. For each one, Call (tap to call, for accounts allowed to see client contacts) and Confirmed by phone. When the list is empty it says Nobody to call.

My day #

Front desk → My day is the staff member’s own day, made for the phone: the Next client, Later today and Earlier today, with one-tap status buttons. Appointments still unmarked are listed with a reminder to mark them. A home visit shows its travel there and back, and its address. A staff member without access to client contacts sees their clients’ names and notes, but not their phone numbers.

My day appears once the account is linked to a staff member on Salon → Staff sign-in.

Reminder rules #

Front desk → Reminders holds up to two reminder rules: for each, the Hours before and minutes, the channels and On. Leave the hours empty for no reminder. The page states the quiet hours (none between 21:00 and 08:00: the first reminder is then sent the evening before, the second is skipped).

The page first suggests two reminders (24 hours and 2 hours before, by e-mail); they are not active until you choose Save reminders. Reminders go out by the channels each rule names once that channel is set up, and each one is listed under Messages. A change reaches the appointments already booked too: their reminders are planned again within a minute or so, as the page says. Everything about reminders and their channels is in Messages, reminders, text messages and push.