How to set up online booking in Salon Booking OS

Your clients can book an appointment on your website themselves, day or night, and pay a deposit when a service asks for one. Bookings made at the desk or by phone are in Front desk.

Video tutorials #

How a client books online with Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ 1.0.0

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How to set up Google sign-in for clients in Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ 1.0.0

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Turning online booking on #

Online booking is off on a new site. You decide when it starts, on Front desk → Online booking:

1. Set up your site’s e-mail first (System → E-mail (SMTP)). Every online booking is confirmed with a code sent by e-mail, so until e-mail is set up the page says “Set up e-mail first: clients get their booking codes by e-mail.” and its button cannot be chosen.
2. Choose Take bookings online. The page now says “The site takes bookings online”.

To stop, choose Stop taking bookings online on the same page. Appointments already booked stay, and clients can still change or cancel them.

Only the owner opens this page. Get started shows it as the optional step Taking bookings online.

While you take bookings online, your website:

• shows Book now as the header’s button, and adds Services & prices to the header menu, after its first item;
• adds My bookings at the end of the header menu, for clients to sign in with a code;
• adds Book online and Services & prices to the footer’s first column;
• lets clients start a booking from the home page’s Popular right now and Services & prices sections, and from a team profile linked to a staff record (Book with and the person’s first name).

The slides on your home page do not change by themselves. If you give a slide a Book now button, see The website, the team and your profile.

Before you take bookings online #

1. E-mail (System → E-mail (SMTP), see Messages, reminders, text messages and push).
2. Services. Under Salon → Services, tick Bookable online on each service clients may book themselves (it is ticked on a new service). A service with options is booked online as one of its options.
3. Staff. On each staff member who takes online bookings, tick Clients can book … online (Salon → Staff).
4. Your booking rules under Salon → Business settings:
   • Booking: minimum notice for online bookings (minutes) — 120 on a new site;
   • Booking: how many days ahead clients can book online — 60;
   • Booking: free cancellation and online rescheduling until this many hours before the start — 24;
   • Booking: online reschedules allowed per appointment — 2;
   • Booking: services per appointment — 5.
5. Your Terms and your Cancellation Policy. Publish them under Website → Legal pages and tick Visitors agree to it at booking on each. Clients then tick that they agree to them before they book.
6. Deposits (optional). A service that asks for a deposit can be booked online only once a payment gateway is set up (see Deposits and paying at the salon).

The page Salon → Hours, staff and services shows marks for what online booking needs: business hours, one staff member bookable online with working hours, and one service bookable online. Its box is titled Before you take bookings online until you turn them on, then What online booking needs.

The minimum notice and the days ahead apply to online bookings only. You and your team can book any free time at the desk.

What your clients do #

The booking pages take a client through seven short steps. The steps show as a trail at the top; on a phone a bar shows where they are (“Step 3 of 7 · Time”).

1. Service — “Choose your services”: up to five services for one appointment. Under a service with options, they Choose one.
2. Staff member — “Who would you like?”: a named staff member, or Any available, which offers the most times.
3. Time — “Choose a time”: a week of days, and the free start times of the day they pick, grouped morning, afternoon and evening. The page says that times are in your salon’s time zone.
4. Details — “Your details”: their name, e-mail address and mobile number, an optional note, and the agreement to your Terms and Cancellation Policy. The mobile number must be one that can receive text messages; a landline is refused. They choose Send me a code.
5. Code — “Enter your code”: a 6-digit code sent to their e-mail address. It works for 10 minutes. This proves the address is theirs.
6. Review — “Review and confirm”: the services, who does them, the total, the deposit (if any) and what is left to pay at the visit. They choose Confirm booking — or, with a deposit, choose how to pay and Hold the time and pay the deposit.
7. Done — “You are booked”, with the booking reference.

If someone else takes the time while a client is on the review step, the page offers the free times later that day, or Choose another time.

If your site’s e-mail stops working while you take bookings online, the details step tells clients that online booking is not open and gives your phone number.

Deposits and the held time #

When the services ask for a deposit, the review says how much holds the time and how much is left to pay at the visit. After Hold the time and pay the deposit, the page “Your time is held” shows Held until and the button Pay the deposit. The client pays on the payment provider’s own page.

• When the deposit arrives, the appointment is booked: “You are booked — Your deposit was received …”.
• If it does not arrive in time, the time is released for others.
• If it arrives late, the appointment is still booked when the time is free. If someone else has taken the time, the deposit is refunded in full automatically.

The time is held for 10 minutes on a new site (Booking: hold minutes while the client pays a deposit, under System → Website settings, owner only). How deposits are set and refunded is in Deposits and paying at the salon.

After booking #

The page “You are booked” shows the reference, the appointment, the total, what was paid now and what is left to pay at the visit. Under Change or cancel it gives the client their own link, says until when they can change or cancel online, and offers Manage this booking and Add to calendar (.ics). It also tells them the link is sent by e-mail too, and that they can sign in to My bookings with their e-mail address later. For a visit at your salon it offers Get directions, which opens the route to your salon in Google Maps in a new tab: from your map point when you set one, otherwise from your address. The page shown after a deposit is paid offers it too. A visit at the client’s own address has no directions.

Your site e-mails the client a confirmation with the appointment, a Manage your appointment button, and your address and phone. Reminders follow your reminder rules (Front desk → Reminders).

Changing or cancelling #

Clients change or cancel through the link in their e-mails, or by signing in to My bookings. The appointment’s page offers Move to another time (Choose a new time) and Cancel.

• Free to change or cancel until your free-cancellation time (24 hours before the start on a new site). The page tells them the exact day and time.
• Moving online is allowed up to your number of online reschedules (2). After that, or after the deadline, the page asks them to call you.
• Cancelling stays possible after the deadline, but a deposit paid online is then kept, and the page says so. Before the deadline it is refunded in full.
• After a move the earlier links stop working. The page shows the new link, and the e-mail about the change carries one too.

A deposit that is to be refunded is marked Refund to make on the appointment. You make the refund under Payments → Orders (see Deposits and paying at the salon).

My bookings #

My bookings lists a client’s Upcoming and Past appointments booked online with their e-mail address. From there they open an appointment to move or cancel it, within the same rules.

Clients sign in with a code sent to their e-mail address. There is no password to remember: on the page “Sign in with a code” they enter their address and choose Send me a code, then enter the code. The first code creates their client account.

• A code works for 10 minutes. A new code can be asked for once a minute, and only a few times an hour.
• Appointments made at the desk or by phone do not appear in My bookings. Their e-mails carry their own link to change or cancel.
• What a client can do with their own data (Privacy and my data) is in Clients and their data.

Continue with Google #

Clients can also sign in to My bookings with their Google account. The sign-in page then shows, under the code form, “Or, with your Google account:” and the button Continue with Google.

To set it up:

1. Open System → Google sign-in. The Google client ID field’s label shows your site’s redirect address (your site’s address followed by /auth/google/callback).
2. In your own Google Cloud project, create an OAuth client for a web application, and enter that redirect address as its authorised redirect address.
3. Back on System → Google sign-in, tick Enable Google sign-in, enter the Google client ID and the Google client secret, and choose Save settings. Allowed e-mail domains is optional: leave it empty to let every client continue with Google.

What clients get:

• The first time, Continue with Google makes a client account with their Google e-mail address, without a password, and opens My bookings.
• An e-mail address that already has an account here is never joined to Google by its address. The client is asked to sign in with a code instead.
• A Google account whose e-mail address Google has not verified is refused.
• Continue with Google is for clients. Your team signs in on the team’s sign-in page with their own sign-in.

Home visits #

If you go to your clients, offer home visits on Salon → Home visits. They are off on a new site.

1. Tick Offer home visits (“Schedule Home Visit”). Set the Travel fee per visit (0 adds no line), its tax class, the Travel time before and after (minutes), and, if you like, a longer Minimum notice for home visits. Choose Save home visits.
2. Under Areas you visit (postcodes or towns), Add an area for each place you go. An area can be renamed, or stopped with Stop visiting (it is kept for the visits that used it).
3. On each service you offer at home (Salon → Services), tick Available at home, with an Extra price at home if it costs more there.
4. On each staff member who goes to clients, tick Does home visits.

The page’s Ready list shows whether you have an area, a service available at home and a staff member who does home visits.

What clients see. The first step asks “Where would you like your appointment?”: At the salon or At my home. At home, they choose their area (or “My area isn’t listed”, which tells them where you go and offers to book at the salon or call you). Only the services you offer at home are listed, one staff member does every service, and the time is when you arrive. The details step asks for their address. The travel fee is added once per home visit.

Who on your team sees a home visit’s address is in Front desk. How long an address is kept is in Clients and their data.

While online booking is off #

• Your website’s header shows Call to book with your salon’s phone number, or Contact us when no phone is set. Nothing in the header or footer links to the booking pages.
• The home page’s Popular right now and Services & prices still show your services and prices, with “To book, call us on …” when a phone is set.
• The booking pages show “Page not found”.
• Appointments already booked can still be changed or cancelled through their link. E-mails about appointments booked at the desk carry that link too.
• My bookings and signing in with a code keep working, but nothing on your website links to them.