The Online Scheduling tool (OS) will allow your contacts to easily schedule an appointment, consultation, event, session, etc. all with a few clicks of a button.
Contacts will be able to book an appointment using the link provided through an email, or you can embed your schedule to your website. Once your client selects their preferred date, they’ll get a confirmation email and you can even trigger a workflow to further automate your client experience.
Please note that settings for Online Scheduling are only available for Users with Owner or Admin-level permissions.
Keep reading to learn how to set up your first schedule!
Getting Started
The Online Schedule is created from two components: a Service and an Availability Schedule. The Service controls how long that specific appointment would last, the location, any messaging or description you would like your client to see, and other approval and booking settings.
The Availability Schedule sets the days and hours that service, and others assigned to it, can be booked. You'll then have the Availability Schedule check any 17hats type and/or Google-type calendar(s) of your choice to ensure you're not double-booked.
Prior to setting up your Online Schedule within 17hats, we suggest updating your current calendars, or creating the following calendars:
Workflow Tasks and To-do Calendar - Create two different calendars for these tasks, so they do not create unnecessary conflicts.
Create Tentative and Confirmed Calendars for each Service (examples below): If you choose to confirm each scheduled event, consider making two separate calendars for organizational ease.
> Tentative Consults and Confirmed Consults
> Tentative Project and Confirmed Projects
For more on the calendars we recommend creating, please click the button below
Setting Up Online Scheduling
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Navigate to your Account Settings
Click on Online Scheduling within Settings:
3. Turn on "Online Scheduling" for the Brand
Take a Look at Your Bookings Tab
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This is where you will see your full list of Pending Bookings needing to be confirmed, a list of your Upcoming Bookings, and have quick access to your Online Scheduling Settings.
You can Cancel, Confirm, and Reschedule your Bookings in this tab.
View Your Bookings by Projects
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Within your Contact's Project page, you will see a Bookings tab between Events and Phone Log. There you can view, confirm, reschedule, and/or cancel your Bookings related to this specific Project.
View Your Booking Activity
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Booking Activity will now show on the Activity tab of your Project, as well as Recent Client Activity located on your Dashboard.
Templates & Scheduling Tokens
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Setup your Email Templates for your Online Scheduling bookings. Booked Service information can then be automatically brought into your Confirmation, Reminder, and Cancellation emails, as well as email templates saved to Workflows assigned to your Online Scheduling Services.
To use an email template in your Online Scheduling Settings it must be saved as the email type: Scheduling
Within these templates, you can use tokens to insert the specific information from the Scheduled Service:
To use [Scheduling] tokens, the email must be assigned to your Online Scheduling Service settings as the Waiting for Approval Email, Confirmed Email, Cancellation Email -OR- added to your Workflow that is assigned to your Online Scheduling > Service settings.
Please Note:
Workflows added to projects outside of Online Scheduling bookings will not be able to pull in the [Scheduling] token data.
Emails sent outside of Online Scheduling bookings will not be able to pull in the [Scheduling] token data.
[Scheduling] time tokens will only show in the account timezone, not the client's timezone. It may be helpful to add your timezone abbreviation after the token if you have clients in other timezones to avoid any mix-up!
Events marked as "Free" in Google will still block appointment availability on your Online Scheduling Availability Calendar. 17hats is only able to see the event itself, not the Free vs. Busy status, so Online Scheduling Availability will not show for during "Free" Google Events.
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Ready for the next step?
Online Scheduling - Part 1: Create your Services
Learn the steps to set up your Services within the Online Scheduling feature in 17hats
Additional Resources
Online Scheduling: FAQs
Learn answers to common questions related to Online Scheduling here!
Online Scheduling: Workflows
Learn how to set up Workflows to enhance our Online Scheduling Feature!
Online Scheduling - Part 2: Availability Settings
Learn the steps to setting up your Availability Settings, and get your Booking URL within the Online Scheduling feature in 17hats!
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Other questions? Reach out to our Business Support Team via Live Chat or Email Monday through Friday 7 am - 4 pm PST.
You can also check out other articles in our Help Center as needed.