Taking a booking

Taking a booking

Book someone in yourself, for phone calls and walk-ins.

Quicker for a regular: if the caller has been in before, do not start here. Click the magnifier in the toolbar on the bookings list, the calendar, or the day sheet, type two letters of their name, and click Book on their row. The form opens with their details already in.

Before you start

• The sidebar link is New Appointment, or New Booking once you also sell classes, events, or resources. The page heading always reads New Booking.
• Nothing on the form is compulsory. A name, phone number or email is worth having if you can get it, but the booking goes through without them.
• Nothing saves until you finish. Clicking the sidebar link again part way through clears the form and starts you over.

Step 1: Pick what they are booking

If you sell more than one kind of thing, choose a tab first: Appointment, Classes, Events, or Resources.

Each tab has its own web address, so you can bookmark the one you use most: /dashboard/bookings/new?tab=appointment, and the same with class, event, or resource.

If your venue books as part of a collective, a line under the heading names it, and the form offers every member venue's calendars and the combined services. One visit can include services from more than one member venue, as long as the venues share an address: see One visit across businesses below.

In a collective, the Classes and Events tabs list all of your own classes and events, whether or not they are on the combined page, plus the ones other member venues list there. Each shows the venue that runs it and is booked with that venue. The Resources tab shows your own rooms and equipment only.

If you have swapped the order: with Staff-first booking on, this form asks Who is this appointment with? before the services, and then lists only that person's services at that person's prices. See Let clients choose their person first.

Step 2: Choose the services

1. Under Select a service, tick what they want. Tick one service, or several for the same visit.
2. The bar under the list shows how many services are ticked, how long the visit runs, and what it starts from. Clear unticks them all. Click Continue when the list is right.
3. If a service has options, choose one under Choose an option. If it offers extras, pick those under Add extras to this booking. ResNeo asks about each ticked service in turn.

Give one service longer than usual

A service with no options shows its length in a small pill with a pencil on its row. A service that has options shows the pill on each option instead, on the Choose an option step. Click the pill to open Custom duration, then pick one of the preset lengths or type into Other minutes. Done applies it, Reset puts the normal length back. It applies only to this booking, never to the service itself.

Step 3: Choose the person and the time

1. Under Who is this appointment with?, pick a calendar. This list shows the people who offer every ticked service. If your venue uses Any available practitioner, an Any available card sits at the top and takes the first available time across the team.
2. Want a different person for some of the services? Click Choose someone different for each service under the list. Who is each service with? then lists, for each service in turn, the people who offer it. Pick one for each and click Continue. If nobody offers every ticked service, the form goes straight to this list.
3. Under Date and time, pick a day on the month view (green days have at least one bookable time), then a slot. Slots are grouped into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. With several services, every time shown fits the whole visit. With a different person for each service, ResNeo plans each one around both people's diaries, with no more than a 30 minute wait between them.
4. If nothing is free that day, See someone else offers the same service with another person.

Step 4: Check the visit

Every booking passes through Review the services, whether it holds one service or four.

1. Each service is listed with its own start time, length, person, and price, with the total duration and combined price underneath. With one person, ResNeo works the later start times out from the end of the one before, so the chair time is protected end to end. With several people, each service shows who it is with, and any wait between two people's services is shown on its own line.
2. Remove takes a service back out, Add extras or Edit extras changes the extras on a line, and Change services returns you to the list with the same services still ticked.
3. You can put up to four services in one visit.
4. Click Continue to details.

Step 5: Add their details

Every field here is optional, so a caller who is in a hurry can still be booked in. They are worth filling when you can: without an email the client gets no confirmation, and without a phone number they get no text reminder.

Above the fields, Find an existing contact (optional) searches everyone you have by name, email or phone. Start typing, then click a result and the whole form fills from their record. The same lookup still runs as you type into any of the four boxes underneath, so either way works.

Add anything they mention under Comments or requests.

If the service asks for money online, two controls appear above the button:

• Require deposit (or Require payment) with the amount. It is off to start with: leave it off to confirm the booking now and take the money in person, or tick it to send a payment link and hold the booking until it is paid.
• Card hold, which sends the client a link to add their card details so a no-show fee can be charged later. It is off to start with: a booking you are taking yourself more often waives the hold than asks for it. The line under the switch says what each position does. Turned on it reads "the guest gets a link to add their card, charged only if they do not show. The booking is cancelled if no card is added within 24 hours." Left off it reads "no card is taken, so a no-show cannot be charged."

On a visit with more than one business, each business gets its own box with its own name, deposit and card hold, so you can ask for one business's deposit and not another's.

Step 6: Finish

Click Confirm Booking, or Continue to payment if you asked for money up front. You will see Booking Confirmed!, and Done takes you back to the bookings list.

One visit across businesses

In a collective, one client can have services from two or three member venues in the same visit, for example a cut at one salon and then nails next door. ResNeo allows this only when the venues share an address.

1. Tick the services as usual. If one person cannot do them all, Who is each service with? lists everyone who offers each one. Each person shows their venue under their name.
2. Once you have chosen someone, people at a venue with a different address drop out of the later lists, with a note such as "Demi works at a different address, so please book Demi separately." If nobody at this address offers a service, the note says "Nobody at this address offers Facial. Please book it separately."
3. Review the services lists each venue's services under its name.
4. Each venue's deposit and card hold are chosen separately on the details step.
5. If you ask for money from any of them, the confirmation shows one link that pays every venue in one go. ResNeo sends it to the client when they have an email or phone, and Copy lets you send it yourself. It works for 24 hours.

Each venue keeps its own part of the visit: its own services in its own diary, its own money and its own cancellation policy. The client gets one confirmation, one set of reminders and one thank-you for the whole visit.

Taking a walk-in

Walk-in on the bookings list, the calendar, or the day sheet opens the same form with two differences: no contact details are required (a booking with no name is saved as Walk In), and a deposit is never collected, though a card hold can still be asked for. On the time step, Start appointment now fills in today's date and the current time in one click.

Squeezing a booking in

Tick Override availability at the top of the first step when you need to book something ResNeo would not normally offer: a service with a person who does not usually do it, a time outside their hours, or a slot that is already taken. With it ticked:

1. Every active team member is listed, and every active service. A person who does not usually offer the chosen service is marked Does not usually offer this service, and the booking is made at the catalogue price.
2. Instead of a slot list you type a Date (today or later) and a Start time.
3. The review step shows What this overrides: outside working hours, over a break, on leave, over another booking, and so on. Nothing in that list stops the booking.

The booking then appears on the calendar like any other, and its timeline shows Booked with availability override with the same list. The box is off every time you open the form. It works the same way for a linked venue's calendars when you have full permissions through a collective.

Rebooking a regular

For "the usual, please", this is the fastest route in ResNeo.

1. Open Contacts and find the client.
2. Open the Guest bookings section on their record.
3. Click Rebook on the visit you want to repeat, under Upcoming or Previous.

A Rebook window opens with their details, the same service, the same person, and the same length already chosen. You only pick a date and a time. New booking at the top of their record does the same thing with their details but no service chosen.

The same Rebook button sits on every booking in the Guest bookings section of an open booking on the bookings list.

Note: anything they asked for last time under Comments or requests starts blank on purpose, so an old note never follows them by mistake.

Common problems & fixes

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
The tab I want is missing	That booking type is not turned on	An admin can turn it on under Settings → Booking Settings, in the Booking models card
No times are offered	Nobody with that service is working then	Try another day or person, use See someone else, or book it from the calendar by clicking the slot you want
I cannot finish the booking	A phone number or email was typed but is not valid	Correct it, or clear the box and confirm
I cannot tick a fifth service	Four services in one visit is the limit	Take the rest as a second booking
The pencil for a longer appointment is missing	That service has options, so the length belongs to the option	Choose the option first, then use its own length pill
The client got no confirmation	They have no email address on the booking	Add one, then use Resend confirmation from the bookings list
They want several people booked together	Group bookings are offered on your public booking page, not on this form	Send them your booking link, or book each person separately
They want a slot that is full	The waitlist is joined by clients themselves	Send them your booking link and ask them to join the waitlist from there

Next steps

• Using the bookings list
• Using the calendar
• Your contacts (CRM)