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 they select their preferred date, they’ll get a confirmation email and you can even trigger a workflow to further automate your client experience. 

The first step to create your online schedule, is to create a service. Keep reading below to learn how.

Think of each of your "services" as the different items that you want your clients to see time-slots for, and have the ability to book with you.
​Examples include:

Service Title: We urge the title of the Service to be descriptive, so that your clients and leads know what they are booking. 

Service Description: The description is a good place to give your (potential) client everything they need to know prior to booking your service. Don't overwhelm with information that's important for after the booking. People don't read, so keep it as short and to the point as possible!

This is where you will save all the details about your service timeframe. 

Service Duration: The actual length of your service in minutes. Example: 50 minutes for a one hour massage. This can be used as a "token" later, so be sure it is accurately saved as the actual length of time your client or lead will be booked for the service. 

Time Buffer Before/After: This setting checks for conflicts before or after the appointment. For example, you might include 15 minutes buffer before to allow travel time between appointments, or 15 minutes after for uninterrupted time taking notes. If you don't want to book services back to back, add a minimum time between your service times. Please note that these are additive, so 15 minutes before and after will result in a 30 minute buffer between appointments.

Start Service: This is an important setting, especially if your service is not ending exactly on the hour. New appointments can start on the quarter hour, on the half hour, on the hour, or immediately after the previous appointment (buffer time included).
​

Terms of Service: This is where you want to outline your policies that your want your client to agree to prior to booking. Things such as ability to reschedule, and up until what time, should be outlined in your terms of service. If you do not select one, your clients will not have to agree to anything prior to booking:
​

When your Client goes to book you, they will be required to agree to Terms of Service, and view it:

Confirmation Message: This is the message that will show to your Client once they book a timeslot with you. This information should be anything they need to know after booking but before the appointment. This message will also be added to their calendar invite:

Once your Client Books their appointment, they will see this messaging here:

Contact & Project Tags: These are both optional settings, the tags will be automatically added to your contacts and projects when this service is booked:

Project Creation & Selection For Existing Contacts: 17hats will automatically create the contact and project when a new contact comes in. 

For an existing contact it can: 

Update Project Date to Booking Time (On/Off)

For new projects, this will set the project date to the same time as the booking when the booking is made. If the project already exists, it will automatically update it once it is confirmed.
​

Require Approval to Confirm (On/Off): Some services can go directly onto your booked calendar, but others you may want approve. If you set it to confirm, you will receive an email notification, and it will also display on your 17hats dashboard: 

Calendar: The calendar the booked event should be placed on, when it has not yet been confirmed
​
​Start Workflow Once Booked: Do you require an invoice to be paid before you will confirm a booking? Once a booking is made, 17hats can automatically start a workflow. Use this to send out a contract, or an invoice, etc.
​>>> Note: Emails saved within this workflow can use [Scheduling] tokens to automatically bring in booking information
​
You can also add an action item within the workflow that can automatically confirm the booking once previous items are completed: 

Calendar: This is the calendar the confirmed booking will be placed on. 

Start Workflow Once Confirmed: This is optional. Once a booking is confirmed, 17hats can automatically start a workflow. Use this to send out a questionnaire, booking reminder, or show To-Do reminders for you to complete prior to the booking.
​>>> Note: Emails saved within this workflow can use [Scheduling] tokens to automatically bring in booking information

Confirmation Email: This email will be sent to the contact after you confirm the booking. 

Cancellation Email: This email will be sent when you or your client cancels a booking. 

____________________________________________________________

​Online Scheduling: Setup Your Availability Settings
Learn the steps to setting up your Availability Settings, and get your Booking URL within the Online Scheduling feature in 17hats!
​

Online Scheduling: FAQs
Learn answers to common questions related to Online Scheduling here!

____________________________________________________________

Need more help? Contact our Support Team via Chat, or Email us at Support@17hats.com
​