Introduction: Booking statuses

When adding a booking to the calendar, you have the option to set an initial booking status. This will affect how that appointment is treated when it comes to reminders and notifications. There are also additional booking statuses available, that allow you to easily see where the customer is in the booking process. In this article you will learn an overview into booking statuses. For more information, see our help guide How to set the status for new bookings.

Timely note: you also have the option to add your own appointment statuses. These can be selected when making bookings, but can't be used to filter on reports. Our How to manage your calendar display settings guide takes you through the process of adding or editing booking statuses. To find out what all the different icons on the calendar mean check out our Introduction: Symbols and icons in Timely.

What are booking statuses?

There are four main booking statuses that you will come across in the Timely calendar:

Confirmed

This status means that the appointment slot has been confirmed and locked in for this customer. 
This will show as a solid colour in the calendar:
 

• The customer will receive a confirmation that this booking has been made for them, if enabled
• The customer has the option to change this booking online, if enabled
• The customer will receive a reminder of their booking, but won't be explicitly asked to confirm
• Once a booking is confirmed, there are additional booking statuses available

Pencilled-in

This status means that the appointment time is being reserved for that customer, but has not been confirmed by the business or customer yet. This will show as a striped appointment in the calendar: 
 

• You can set up a notification letting the client you've received their booking request, but they won't receive any notifications regarding changes to this booking.
   
• Pencilled in bookings will be asked to confirm their appointment time in their SMS or email reminder (if reminders are enabled for Pencilled in booking).
   
• Cancelling a pencilled-in booking will send a notification. If you wish to remove a pencilled-in booking from the calendar, without sending a cancellation email, you can Decline the appointment. If the appointment was booked online, then declining or cancelling the appointment will send a notification.

Arrived

You can use the Arrived status to let the staff member know that their customer has arrived. This will be available once the booking is marked as Confirmed. The border on the left-hand side of the booking will change to show up as striped, as well as an icon appearing in the top right corner.

Completed

This status indicates that the service/appointment has been successfully performed by the staff member. This will show as the appointment having a white background on the calendar to allow you to quickly distinguish your completed appointments from the upcoming. 
 

• If you raise a sale at the end of the appointment, the booking will automatically be marked as Completed at the same time.
   
• If you raise a sale before the booking (e.g. you take a deposit for the booking), then you would need to mark the booking as Completed separately.
   
• Marking a booking as Completed will mean the booking is included in the reports under the Completed status.