Timely makes it super easy for your customers to book in with you online, whatever the time. You'll love waking up to new appointments and marvel at the times your customers are booking online (remembered they needed to book in at 3am? Okay!). You've still got full control over how your customers book online, so you can set and forget and we'll take care of the rest.
This guide will step you through the process of setting up your online booking process and policies.
We'll cover how to:
- Turn online bookings on
- Set your online booking policies.
- Set your default online payment policy.
- Customise the online booking process.
- Add online booking to your website or Facebook page.
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Turn online bookings on
The first step is to make sure online bookings are switched on. This will determine if your customers are allowed to book, or change, their appointments online.
- Customers will only be able to book online once you share your online booking link with them, or once you've added online booking to your website.
- Don't worry! You still have full control over which services, staff members and/or locations can be booked.
- Head to Setup > Online bookings:
- Set the Allow online bookings slider to On:
Set your online booking policies
Now that you have switched online bookings on, you can customise and control your online booking settings to suit your business.
This can be done from Setup > Online bookings. You will be able to set the:
- Status for your online bookings.
- Preference for staff selection.
- Multi-service booking, customer information and customer time zone settings.
- Online booking policy - time restrictions.
Check our our How to set the cancellation and online booking policies guide for more detailed instructions on these settings.
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Set your online cancellation and payment policies
After setting up your online bookings policies, you can customise your online cancellation and change settings and default online payment settings. This can be done from Setup > Online payments.
- If you want to accept online payments and have a payment gateway connected, then you are able to set a default online payment policy. It is also possible to set different online payment settings for individual services.
- Your default policy can be amended under
Setup > Online payments > Online payment terms
- . You can choose from:
- Do not accept online payments.
- Require full payment.
- Require a deposit (percentage).
- Require a deposit (fixed amount).
Check out our How to set up online payments for bookings guides for more information.
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Customise the online booking process
The same format and style of the online booking process is used across all of your online booking channels. This includes the mini website, booking buttons, booking widget and on the Timely Facebook app.
- While most of the design and the order of the online process will be set, there are a few ways you can customise the booking process:
- Change the colour theme of the online booking process to match your business/brand.
- Add custom text or instructions to each step of the online booking process.
- Determine which staff, services and locations are available online.
Check our our How to customise the online booking process guide for more information.
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Add online booking to your website or Facebook page
Once you have online booking set up, you'll want to get some customers booking online! Every Timely account comes with a free mini website.
- You can also add booking buttons, links or widgets to your own website or Facebook page, to encourage customers to book online. Online booking buttons can be created for specific staff, services, categories or locations. Or, a combination of those options.
Check out the guides below for more information:
- How to get customers to book online
- How to add Timely to your website.
- How to add Timely to your Facebook Page
- How to set up your mini website