Your first week: a setup checklist

Available times are calculated from your services, your staff, and your hours together. Set your hours before you have any services and you have nothing to test against; add services before staff and nobody can perform them. So: services, then staff, then hours, then the rules, then how it looks, then test, then share.

1. 1

   Step 1: Open Services from the Setup group

   Add one entry for each thing a customer can book.

2. 2

   Step 2: Give each a realistic duration

   Use how long the appointment actually takes you, start to finish — not the best case. Duration decides how times are laid out, so an optimistic number here is what makes days run late later.

3. 3

   Step 3: Add prices, or leave them off

   Prices are shown on your booking page by default. If you price after a consultation, you can hide them for everyone in Settings → Booking.

Add each person who takes appointments — including yourself if you do the work. A service can only be booked when someone who performs it is working, so this step is what makes your services bookable at all.

Photos are worth the two minutes. Customers choosing between names alone book less confidently than customers choosing between faces.

1. 1

   Step 1: Open Hours & time off

   Set the times you are open for each day of the week.

2. 2

   Step 2: Mark the days you are closed

   A day with no hours saved counts as closed — which is right if you are, and a puzzle later if you are not.

3. 3

   Step 3: Add known closures now

   Holidays and planned time off, while you are thinking about it.

Settings → Booking is where you decide how much notice you need, how late customers can cancel, how far ahead they can book, and the gap you want between appointments. The starting values suit most businesses; the one worth thinking about on day one is minimum notice, because it decides whether same-day booking is possible.

Every option is explained in Booking rules: notice, cancellation, and how far ahead.

On Settings → Profile, set:

• Your booking web address — the end of your booking link. Short and recognisable beats clever. Worth settling early, because changing it later breaks any link you have already shared.
• Your logo and brand colour, so the page looks like you rather than like software.
• A phone number. It is shown to customers whenever online booking is paused, so it is your safety net.
• Your booking page layout, if you want a different style.

Do not skip this. Use View booking page at the top of the dashboard and book yourself in as though you were a customer, start to finish. Then check:

• The times offered look like hours you would actually work.
• The confirmation email arrives, and reads the way you want.
• The appointment shows up on your Today and Calendar pages.
• The manage link in the email lets you reschedule and cancel.

Then cancel the test booking so it does not clutter your first real day.

If the times look wrong or nothing is offered, work through Why a time slot isn't showing to customers — it covers every cause in order.

Open Booking page in the Setup group and copy your link. The places it earns the most:

• Your Instagram or Facebook bio.
• Your Google Business Profile, as the booking or appointment link.
• Your email signature.
• Your voicemail greeting — spoken aloud, for the calls you miss.

That is the setup done. From here, A tour of your dashboard covers what each page in the dashboard is for.