Set up online booking

This guide shows you how to configure a booking template so clients can book, pay and confirm on their own, from an empty template to a customer on your confirmation page. Online booking turns a link or a QR code into a self-service storefront where clients pick a time, pay and confirm without picking up the phone. You shape that storefront with a booking template in the dashboard: each template publishes one public booking site, and the template's slug is the last part of its address.

Before you start

• You need the Configuration & settings right set to Manage.
• What customers should book must already exist and be active: resources, treatments with their schedules, and for group offers the generated and activated dated sessions. A booking template selects offers; it does not create them.
• For paid bookings the payments module must be on with the Saferpay details entered (see Organisation), and the client fields you want to ask must be defined (see Template fields).
• Get ready to take bookings lists everything in order. Most organisations need a single booking template; see Which template to use.

1. Create a booking template

Open Configurations > Templates and go to the Bookings tab, which lists every booking site you run. Click + (Add template); the template opens in the full-screen booking template editor. Give it a clear Name on the Profile tab — a template cannot be saved without one. A new template starts with its online switch on and an empty slug.

2. Set the address

Still on the Profile tab, enter the Slug, the memorable last part of your booking site's address; the read-only Public URL shows the full address <booking address>/<slug> as you type. The slug must be 3 to 40 characters — letters, digits, hyphens and underscores, starting and ending with a letter or digit — and unique across all go flow booking sites. go flow shows a QR code for the address, plus one for video appointments when video calling is set up for your organisation. If the template covers more than one organisation, the Profile tab also shows Organisation sort order.

The online switch reads Template is online or Template is offline, but the booking site does not check it in the current release: the address works as soon as the template is saved and synchronised. Keep the address to yourself until the checks in step 7 pass.

3. Set the booking options

The Attributes table further down the Profile tab holds the booking options of this site. Each is explained in detail under Attributes:

• Booking email — enter an address your team reads. It is the reply-to address of every booking email; left empty, customers' answers reach nobody.
• Link to favicon — optional web address of the browser-tab icon.
• Booking UI mode — Calendar grid for a week calendar of sessions; Session picker when you also offer treatments (appointments with a person or room), which the calendar grid does not show.
• Express booking — on for a one-sheet booking without cart, details and summary pages; off for the full step-by-step checkout with vouchers, credit and pay at the desk.
• Client accounts — leave it at Required (every booking on a client account); the booking site does not read it, and every customer signs in with an emailed code.
• Reservation timeout — minutes a place stays held while the customer completes checkout (default 5). Paying does not count against it: once the customer goes to the payment page, the place stays held for the payment.
• Waitlist promotion timeout (min) — minutes a customer from the waitlist has to book a freed place (default 15).
• OTP code length — digits of the emailed sign-in code (3 to 6, default 3).

If your organisation runs several templates, give them all the same Booking email, Reservation timeout, Waitlist promotion timeout (min) and OTP code length.

4. Choose what can be booked

Physical versus video (or both) is not set on the template: a time is offered for an appointment type only when both the treatment's Appointment types (Treatments) and the Appointment types of the resource's availability rule allow it — see Run video appointments. Open the template's Resources tab and tick which resources (and, for a group, which organisations) clients may book through this template. Ticking an organisation includes all of its resources, including ones you create later; tick individual resources for a narrower site. What you tick is exactly what appears in the customer's catalogue, as long as the resource is active — see Resources for setting up the resources themselves.

For group offers such as surf sessions, tick the session resource. Its physical wave or room is a separate standard resource used as the calendar: link it under the session's Dependencies, then generate and activate dated sessions — the session guide gives the steps, including what to check if Generate is missing. Each resource's Reservations possible setting limits how many days ahead customers can book it.

5. Decide what to ask at checkout

The Fields tab controls which of your client fields are collected when someone checks out on this template. Tick Use field for each one you want and drag rows to set the order. Ask only for what you need. Only fields whose definition is Self managed reach the booking site (process fields always do); a ticked field without it is not asked. The shared field definition decides whether an answer is required; selecting the field here does not make it mandatory. At checkout the fields of each booked session and product come first, followed by this list. The fields themselves are defined on the Templates page's Fields tab, covered in Template fields; check the finished form and the customer profile as described in Configure checkout fields.

While the payments module is on, the billing fields addressLineOne, postalCode and city stay ticked and locked, because a paid checkout needs them. On a new template they are added when you open the Fields tab, so open it at least once before your first save.

6. Tailor the look

The Theme tab controls the look of the booking site. Under Theme Settings, tick which of Light, Dark and System clients may use and pick the default; Variant sets the button style (elevated, flat, tonal, outlined, text or plain) and Rounded the corner style (none, XS, SM, LG, XL, Pill or Shaped), with a live preview. Light Theme Colors and Dark Theme Colors set the exact colour for each role (primary, secondary, background, surface and their text colours) in each mode, and the Icons table overrides individual icons. Reset to Defaults restores the standard look.

Back on the Profile tab, upload the confirmation image shown at the top of the confirmation page. The Texts tab is not shown to customers in the current release, so you can leave it empty. The wording customers read comes from your sessions, treatments, products and fields.

7. Save and check the booking site as a customer

1. Click Save in the toolbar. Wait until synchronisation has finished without an error message; an error naming urlCode means the slug is invalid or already taken.
2. Open the Public URL in a private browser window, so you see the site as a new customer. Reload any booking page that was already open.
3. Check the intended week, the offers, start and end times, free places, prices, languages, images and video. For several session pictures, watch the whole sequence; a video takes precedence over those pictures.
4. Pick a place and add it to the cart. Sign in with an email address you can read: this creates a client record for that address, and the place is held for the Reservation timeout with a countdown.
5. Continue to the details: check the checkout fields, the billing address for a paid offer, the terms and any declarations.
6. On the order summary, check the prices, VAT lines and total, and the pay-at-the-desk choice if your organisation allows it.
7. Stop here instead of paying: go back or close the window. Until the countdown ends, the session's participant list in the dashboard shows you as Reserved with an Expires time; then the place is free again.

Expected outcome: every offer, time, price and question appears as you configured it. If you complete a free test booking, cancel it afterwards in the session's participant list.

8. Share the link

Once the checks pass, share the link or QR code wherever clients find you. Session links and QR codes for single sessions are created from the session in the Scheduler. A new single appointment in the Scheduler also has a Booking template field (fixed when you have only one template); it records the template on the appointment and does not change what the booking site offers.

If something is missing

What you see	What to check
The address shows Something went wrong. Please try again.	The slug is saved and synchronised without an error, the template has not been deleted, and it offers at least one online session or one online resource with an online treatment ticked.
An error message naming urlCode after saving	The slug breaks the rules in step 2 or is used by another booking site; change it and save again.
An offer is missing	The resource is ticked on the Resources tab and active; the session is generated and activated for that week; its visibility allows it to be listed (Session visibility); the date is within Reservations possible.
Treatments are missing	Booking UI mode is Session picker; the calendar grid shows sessions only.
A paid booking fails at the details step or asks for a billing address the form does not show	Open the template's Fields tab, check that addressLineOne, postalCode and city are ticked, and save.
A change does not appear	Synchronisation has finished; reload the booking page.
The sign-in code does not fit the input boxes	All templates of the organisation have the same OTP code length.
Customers' email replies do not arrive	Booking email is filled in and spelled correctly.

What your customer sees

When a client opens the link or scans the QR code, the booking site loads this template's configuration — theme, languages and everything bookable. With Calendar grid they see a calendar of sessions; with Session picker they choose an offer from a list, then a session's weekly times or a resource's treatments and free times, with a physical/video choice when the treatment allows both. When they add a place, they sign in with their email address and a one-time code, and the place is held with a countdown. Without Express booking they continue through cart, details, order summary and payment, and can add products, vouchers or a wallet top-up in the cart; with Express booking one sheet with Book or Book & Pay replaces those pages. They pay through the payment provider — or complete instantly when nothing is left to pay, or choose to pay at the desk when you allow it — and reach your confirmation page with your confirmation image. The confirmation email follows, with the receipt attached for a paid order. Online booking checkout describes every step and what each payment screen means.