Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Setting Up Online Bookings on Client Portal - Beta

This article will show you how to set up online bookings on your Client Portal. 

  • To access the online booking settings page, navigate to Settings > Schedule > Client Portal > Access and Settings. 
  • On this page, scroll to the Online Bookings section and go through each setting. You can work on those before you enabled your client portal for clients accessing online bookings. 
  • For more instructions on enabling your client portal and accepting online bookings, refer to this detailed article:  Getting Started With Your Client Portal 

In this article:

Clients Can Book With Any Practitioner

If enabled, clients can book with all practitioners with availability. If not enabled, clients can only book and see availability with their primary or assigned practitioners.

  • Note: In accounts where clients can only book with their assigned practitioners, contacts will see both their own and the client’s assigned practitioners - making it easier to ensure the right person is booked with the right practitioner.

Require Clients to Register/Log In First

If enabled, clients must log in or register to access the portal. If new client registrations are not allowed, this setting will be enabled by default to only allow existing clients to access the portal.

Allow Group Bookings

If enabled, clients will see the option to book into groups that have not yet met their maximum number of participants.

Show Service Price

If enabled, clients will see service prices when viewing the list of services to book. This setting is enforced when payments are optional or required.

Request Payment When Booking 

It is possible to set up credit card payments via the Client Portal when clients book individual sessions or book a class:

You have the option to have the payment of the associated individual or group service

  • Disabled which means there will be no option to pay for a service online via the Client Portal. 
  • Required which means clients cannot book without paying upfront.
  • Optional which means the credit card details are prompted but it is not compulsory to book an appointment.

Payments will only be taken if the practitioner for the appointment is linked to Stripe, or if the account has a business Stripe account connected.

✔️ Practices are also able to pass the Stripe processing fees to clients when they pay for their invoices online. See the detailed guide here. 

Earliest Time Clients Can Book

Select the earliest interval in which a client can book an appointment from the current time.

This setting determines how soon clients can access your available appointment times. For example, if you select 'three days ahead,' clients will be unable to view or book appointments within the next three days. If today is Monday, your availability will become visible to clients starting from Thursday of the same week.

Limit How Far Clients Can Book

This setting allows you to control how far in advance clients can view and book your available appointment times. For example, setting this limit to ‘3 months ahead’ means clients can only see and book appointments within the next three months. If today is January 1, availability will be visible to clients through to March 31 of the same year—dates beyond that will not appear as bookable options.

Minimum Gap Between Bookings

Sets the period that appointment start times are offered in the portal. If there is an existing booking in the calendar, the start times shown will be based on the end of that appointment and any minimum gap set.

To understand how this setting works, first, we need to understand how your availability is displayed for your clients:

  • Your appointment availability is shown in 'slots'. The slots that appear depend on the duration of your service that the client has selected, plus your availability.
  • For example, if your service is 30 mins in length, and you've set yourself as available for 9:00-5:00 pm, your availability will display in 30 min slots from 9:00-9:30, 9:30-10:00.
  • However, you might not want your clients to book appointments back to back with you and instead would like to add a buffer between appointments.
  • To do that, you can use this gap setting. For example, if you select 15 mins, your appointment slots will display like this: 9:00-9:30, 9:45-10:15, 10:30 - 11:00.

🚨 Important Note

The gap between appointments does not apply to Personal Appointments. If you have a time slot blocked by a Personal Appointment, the Client Appointment will be booked straight after it without the configured time gap buffer. 

Cancellation Policy

  • You can choose to allow clients to cancel their appointments through the Client Portal, or you can restrict this option using the cancellation policy settings. You also have the flexibility to define how many days in advance a cancellation is permitted—clients will only be able to cancel within this window. Outside of the allowed timeframe, clients will receive a notification instructing them to contact your practice directly to request a cancellation.
  • If the 'Cancellation Policy' is set to 'No Cancellations Via Portal', clients will not see the 'Cancel Appointment' button next to their appointment. 

🚨 Important Note

  • If cancellations are allowed via the portal and there are no payments associated with the cancelled appointment, the generated invoice will be deleted.
  • If a payment is associated with the appointment, the invoice and payment will remain active. In this case, you will need to unallocate the payment and delete the invoice manually if required.

Default Flag Applied to Bookings 

Select a flag to be applied by default to every booking made via the portal. Useful for viewing and reporting on the source of bookings in the calendar.

Display Start Times Every

Define the minute interval in which appointment times are offered to clients. Determined by the availability and existing appointments.

With this setting, you can define the start times of available appointments from the first available time slot. 

For example, your availability starts at 9 AM, your appointments last for 50 minutes, and you select the 60-minute interval in Display Start Times Every setting. 

  • When no appointments are booked yet, the available times will display as 9 AM, 10 AM, 11 AM and so on.
  • When the first 50-minute appointment is booked, the client portal will display availability for this day as 9:50 AM, 10:50 AM, 11:50 AM and so on. If you still wish every appointment to start on the hour, add a 10-min gap between client appointments.  

Booking Terms and Conditions

Any sensitive policies or conditions regarding booking/payments can be displayed here. Clients need to click the text " terms and conditions of use" in order for this to show and be read before clicking Book Now. The character limit for this field is 1900 characters, if your text exceeds this limit you are able to enter a hyperlink to link to a separate page.