Creating and Changing Appointments
Available on: Desktop · Web · Phone
Appointments are made and changed in the Create Appointment window. Open it from the Appointment Viewer:
Double-click a free time in a stylist's column, or right-click it and choose New Appointment, to book a new appointment.
Double-click an existing appointment, or right-click it and choose Open, to change it.
The window
Top: who and when
Prefix and Number
The appointment number. Pick or type a prefix; the next number for it fills in when you pick it or move on. The prefix you used last is offered next time.
Date and Time
When the appointment starts — filled in from the time you clicked. Times are in 5-minute steps.
Select / Change Customer
Picks the client. Their details and balance show beside it; Ledger opens their account.
If you start a new appointment without a customer, the customer search opens first.
Left: choosing services
The Service Groups tree lists your service groups — type in the box above it to find one. Pick a group to list its services. Three buttons switch the list:
Available
The services in the chosen group — Item Code, Service Name, Pack (its size or variant) and Rate
Previous Services
What this client has had before — service, date, status, stylist and cost — handy for "the same as last time"
Packages
The client's packages and how many services are left on each. This list opens by itself when the client has a package
The button in use is highlighted.
Bottom: Selected Services
Each service you add becomes a line with its Service, Stylist, Start, End, Cost, Status, Group, Customer and Other Agents.
Booking step by step
Pick the customer.
Pick a service group, then a service from the list, and click Add Service.
The Stylist Selection window lists the stylists who can do that service, with the Date and Time each is next free from the appointment's start time — the client's preferred stylists first, then those the client has recently visited, then everyone else available. Pick one and click OK.
The service is added to Selected Services with its start and end time.
Add more services the same way.
Click OK to save.
If you opened the window by clicking in a stylist's column, the first service goes straight to that stylist, at their first free time that day, without the Stylist Selection window.
Example — a haircut and a hair spa. Riya wants a 45-minute haircut and then a hair spa. You double-click Anita's column at 12:00 PM. Pick Haircut › Add Service: it goes to Anita, 12:00–12:45. Pick Hair Spa › Add Service: the Stylist Selection shows Anita and Meera free from 12:46 PM — Riya cannot be in two places at once, so nobody is offered before her haircut is over. Pick Anita: the spa runs 12:46–1:31. Click OK, and both appear in Anita's column.
Times that touch count as a clash, so a service that follows another starts a minute after it ends.
If no stylist is free before the branch closes that day, you are told "No stylist is free … to the end of the branch shift".
The client's sex
Service times and rates can differ for men and women. If the client's sex is not recorded and Default Customer Sex in Configuration is Prompt For Customer Sex, you are asked once — Male or Female — for that client.
Packages while booking
When the client has a package, the Packages list shows each package service with its Count and how many are Pending. Pick a package line and click Add Service to use one of them.
A package with nothing left — "No more service left for assign."
An expired package — "Package is expired!"
A package not paid up enough to cover this service (unless Allow Package Use Without Balance is ticked) — "Insufficient package payment amount!". On an appointment you are asked whether to book anyway; on a walk-in job slip you are offered the payment window. After paying, pick the service again to add it. See Customer Packages.
If the client has a value package (an amount to spend rather than a number of services) with money left, adding an ordinary service asks "Pending Value Based Packages exist.. Add Service to existing Package...". Choose Yes, pick the stylist, then in Add Service to Value Package pick the package and click Add Service. The service is added to that package and the Packages list opens — pick it there and click Add Service to book it. See Value Packages and Discount Coupons.
Remove from Package takes an unused service back out of a value package.
Example. Kavya has a 10 Hair Spa package with 6 pending. Click Packages, pick the Hair Spa line and Add Service: the spa is booked against her package rather than charged separately, and after you save, her package shows one service fewer pending.
Extra stylists and removing a service
Other Agents — adds further stylists to the selected line, each with a COMMISSION. Only stylists free at that time are offered. A stylist with 0 commission is refused unless Allow Other Agent With Nil Commission is ticked in Configuration.
Delete Service — removes the selected line, after asking. On an appointment a line can be removed while it is Unconfirmed, Confirmed or in the Lobby; on a walk-in job slip, while it is CheckedIn.
Saving
Click OK. Before saving, the time of every service you added is checked again: if someone else has booked that stylist at that time while you were working, you are told which service and stylist clashed — "Time slot conflicts! … is no longer free." — and nothing is saved. Pick another time and try again.
A new appointment starts as Unconfirmed (light green in the diary).
Cancel, or closing the window, asks "Are you sure you want to cancel?" before throwing away your changes.
Changing an appointment
Open it from the diary. You can add and remove services and add extra stylists. To give a service to another stylist, drag it to their column in the diary. The number, date, time and customer cannot be changed once an appointment is saved — to move it, drag it in the diary or use Move to Date.
On a new appointment you can still switch to a different client with Select / Change Customer; if services are already added you are warned "Proceeding will erase all currently selected appointments! Continue?".
Two services at the same time
A client normally cannot be booked twice at the same time — the next free time is offered instead, as in the example above. If your salon does two services at once (a manicure and a pedicure, say), tick Allow Parallel Client Appointment in Configuration.
On the web
The same window opens full screen over the diary. On a phone it shows the appointment details as a card at the top, with two tabs beneath — Services to choose from and Selected (n) for what has been added — and the buttons in each section's heading. If you close the page by mistake while it is open, reopening Setup Appointments brings it back.