Booking Pro

Booking Pro adds to the free Booking Tool. Everything is set up in Booking itself: each service gets a Booking Pro section in its editor, new bookings can repeat, and a Waiting lists tab appears beside the Diary.

What it adds

• Online appointments. A service can be held online, as a video call on your own site - no Zoom, no accounts, nothing to install.
• Call now. Open an online booking's call straight away, or call anyone - a customer, a contact, whoever emailed you - on a video call that starts now.
• Services that need more than one person or thing. For example, a tennis lesson needs the coach and one of the courts. A time is only offered when both are free, and the booking holds both.
• Classes. Give a service more than one place, and that many people can book the same time with the same person or room.
• Waiting lists. When a class is full, customers can join its waiting list. If someone cancels, the first person waiting gets the place automatically and is emailed their confirmation.
• Questions asked on the booking form, such as "Any injuries we should know about?" or a choice of level. The answers show on the booking.
• Repeat bookings. Book the same time every week, every two weeks or every month.
• Limits. A service can be limited to a number of bookings a day for each person or room, and to one booking per customer every so many days.

A lesson that needs a court

1. Add the coach and each court in Booking > People & rooms, with their hours.
2. In Services, open (or add) the lesson and tick the coach under Provided by.
3. In the Booking Pro section, click Also needs... and tick the courts. Customers only see times when the coach and at least one court are free.
4. Save. Each booking shows which court it took, and that court is shown as busy for everything else.

A class with a waiting list

1. Open the service and set Places to the class size, for example 12.
2. Tick Waiting list when full.
3. Customers see how many places are left. Once the class is full, the booking page offers to join the waiting list instead.
4. Booking > Waiting lists shows who is waiting for each class, in order. When a place comes free, it goes to the first person automatically. You can also book someone straight away with Book now, even one over the places, or remove them.
5. The email telling a customer their place on the list has a Leave the waiting list button (when the site's address is set in Settings > Site). Using it takes them off and tells you; their place goes to the next person. Entries for classes that have started are tidied away by themselves after a day (a month for the ones who got a place).

Online appointments

1. Open Booking > Services and edit the service.
2. In the Booking Pro section, tick Held online, as a video call.
3. Optionally tick The host may record the call.
4. Save.

What happens then:

• The booking page shows the service as online. Customers book it as usual.
• Their confirmation, reminder and calendar file carry a Join the call button. So does their booking page.
• The person booked gets a Start the call button in their copy of the email and on the booking in Booking. They are the host: people who join wait until the host lets them in.
• The call opens 10 minutes before the start and closes an hour after the end. It runs in the browser, with a camera and microphone, or either one. People can mute, turn their camera off, share their screen and chat.
• An online service can be a class of up to 5 places: a call holds the host and 5 more. It never needs a room.

Recording. When it is allowed, the host sees a Record button. The recording is saved on the host's own computer when they stop; nothing is kept on your site. Everyone is told when they join that the call may be recorded, and sees a red Recording notice while it runs. Check you have your customers' agreement before you record.

Call now

On an online booking. Open the booking and click Call now. The call opens straight away, even if the booking is for later, and stays open for at least 2 hours. A new tab opens with you as the host. Your customer joins with the link already in their confirmation email. Tick Email them that the call is open now to send a short email with a Join the call button. The panel also shows their link, so you can copy it or read it out. Only online bookings have Call now; for anything else, use a call from the banner.

Anyone, any time. Click the video button in Booking's banner, or choose Call Sam now… on a contact's menu or an email's menu. Pick a contact or type a name and email, then click Start the call. It isn't a booking, so nothing goes in the diary. A new tab opens with you as the host, and the panel shows their link to copy or send. With Email them the link ticked, they get an email with a Join the call button. The link works for 3 hours. These calls belong to the CMS: Booking Pro switches them on, and so do Contacts Pro and the Calendar, so they stay while any one of those is running.

Either way, they wait until you let them in. If your browser blocks the new tab, the panel shows a Start the call button instead.

Questions

In the service's Booking Pro section, click Add a question. For each question, choose the kind of answer: short or long text, a number, a choice, a tick box, a date, an email or a phone number. You can make it required. To change the order, drag the grip or press Alt+Up / Alt+Down. Customers must answer required questions; staff making a booking in the admin can leave them out.

Repeat bookings

When you make a booking in the admin, choose Repeat (every week, every two weeks or every month) and how many there should be in all. Dates that aren't free are skipped, and you're told which ones. Ticking Email the customer the dates sends one email listing all the dates. On any booking in the series, Cancel this and the later ones cancels the rest of it together.

Limits

• At most a day: the most bookings of this service each person or room takes in one day. People joining a class that is already running don't count again.
• Once per customer every N days: a customer (by email address) can't book this service again within that many days of another booking of it. This doesn't apply to bookings made by staff.

If Booking Pro stops

If the Booking Pro licence lapses, Booking carries on as the free Tool:

• Services become plain appointments again: one place, no extra people or rooms, and no questions or limits.
• Existing bookings stay exactly as they were, including the rooms they hold and their answers.
• Waiting lists stop filling places.
• Services are no longer offered online, but online appointments already booked keep their call, so nobody is left without one.
• Call now goes away from bookings and Booking's banner. Call Sam now… on contacts and emails stays only while Contacts Pro or the Calendar is running; otherwise it goes too, and links to those calls stop working.

Your Pro settings are kept on each service, so they come back when Pro does.