Booking Appointments Online

In this article, you will walk through the steps taken by your clients to book an appointment online.

Things to know:

• Online booking must be enabled
• A staff member must be assigned to a service and work hours must be set
• A client must either sign in with their current MyTime account, Facebook, or Apple login, or create a new one.
• No Preference option on booking widget:
  • When a client books an appointment online and selects the "No Preference" option, we use a round-robin mechanism to assign a staff member to the service. Learn more here.
  • Once a client chooses a particular staff member, they will have access to the services offered by that staff member for selection
  • If the "Can customers book a specific staff member?" setting is disabled, the "Who Would You Like to Book?" section will be hidden. In this case, appointments will be booked as if "No Preference" was selected.

• When booking online, the error message "Time is no longer available" will be displayed if any of the following conditions are true:

  • There is a scheduling conflict with another booking made for the same time

  • The available hours for the selected staff member have changed, rendering the selected time unavailable

  • The selected time slot is no longer available for the chosen employee

• Add-On Services
  • When booking appointments with add-ons services, the selected staff member for the core service will be the same for the add-on service in the following cases:
    • If a staff member is selected for the core service and the "No Preference" option is chosen for the add-on service
    • If the "No Preference" option is selected for both the core and add-on services
    • If the staff member selected for the core service is different from the one chosen for the add-on service, but the staff member assigned to the add-on service is capable of performing both the core and add-on services.
• If the staff member selected for the core service is not assigned to perform the add-on service, a different staff member will be selected to handle the add-on service.
• You can configure your account to ensure consistency in the automatic selection of staff members for the core service and the add-on service when "No Preference"is selected. This feature is controlled by a hidden setting that can only be enabled by the MyTime team. To activate this hidden setting, please reach out to our Support Team at support@mytime.com. Once the hidden setting is enabled, the following will occur:
  • If the "No Preference" option is selected, the system will choose the same employee to perform both the core service and the add-on service.
  • For multi-staff accounts: If "No Preference" is selected, the system will assign an employee who can perform the add-on service, even if the same employee cannot complete the core service.
  • For non-multi-staff accounts: If "No Preference" is selected and no single employee can handle both the core and add-on services, clients will see an error message stating that no employee is available.
• By default, when clients use the "Book Again" button, appointments are prefilled with information from previous bookings. However, the option to disable this automatic prefilling is controlled by a hidden setting that can only be configured by the MyTime team. To enable this setting, please contact support at support@mytime.com.
• If the setting "Accept online payments through MyTime?" is configured to either "Yes, require online payment to book online" or "Let clients choose whether to pay online or in person," and the client opts to pay online, the following will occur:
  • When an appointment requiring a deposit is booked online, the client's card on file will be charged for the deposit, and a hold will be placed on the card for the remaining balance.
  • If the hold amount cannot be charged successfully, the location manager will be notified that the pre-authorization attempt failed and will need to collect the remaining balance from the client at the time of the appointment.

• During checkout, if a client is not signed into their account, they will be prompted to log in. If they do not have an account, they can click the "Sign Up" link to create one.

• When checking out on the booking widget, if the "Store Clients' Credit Cards?" setting is set to "Yes, but don't require them to schedule appointments," selecting the "how we use your payment information" hyperlink will display the following reasons:
  • Booking Appointments:

    • "We require a payment method on file to book appointments."

    • "Your payment method reserves and confirms your appointment."

    • "If you use a debit card, the funds will be held and deducted from your bank balance. The funds will be returned to your account if you cancel your appointment within the allowed cancellation window."

  • If deposits are required for services:
    • "If your appointment requires a deposit, your card will be charged the deposit amount immediately at the time of booking. This secures your spot and helps us manage scheduling effectively."

To book an appointment online:

1. Clients will go to your booking page using the booking URL or book button on your website
2. Select the desired location (if the account has multiple locations) 
3. Select the desired service, they can then use the Add another service link to add additional services to their cart
4. Proceed to the date and time picker. Choose a date and time and staff (if they are interested in seeing a specific staff). The time picker will show a monthly view, by default
5. Go to the checkout page where they can sign in if they already have an account with the "Sign In" link, sign in using their Facebook or Apple accounts, or create a new account
6. Clients can add notes and special requests and fill out the intake form before completing the booking and add card details (if applicable)
7. Click on the "Complete Booking" button

8. The booking confirmation page will appear

Once the appointment is booked, the client can:

• Use the Book Again button to navigate to the Time Picker to book another appointment for the same service
• Add the booked appointment to your personal Google, Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple calendar                                
• Cancel the appointment using the Cancel link
• Get Directions to the business using the Get Directions link
• Print a copy of the appointment confirmation using the Print link at the bottom left of the screen

Related Article

Booking Multi-Staff Appointments Online