Manage your bookings

Booking is live and appointments are rolling in. This guide covers the day-to-day: what arrives when a client books, marking visits complete, handling no-shows, cancelling and rescheduling, and setting your deposit and fee rules — about a five-minute read.

Everything here lives in your dashboard: tap Manage on your profile, open the booking page, and work from the Appointments and Calendar tabs.

Before you start

• Booking is switched on — if not, start with Turn on online booking.
• Payments are connected — deposits and no-show fees need Set up payments (Stripe) finished first.

When a client books

There's no accept step. The moment a client finishes checkout, the appointment is confirmed and on your calendar — you don't have to do anything. You get an email ("New booking" with the date) listing the service, time, salon, and confirmation code. The client gets their own confirmation with a cancel link, and their confirmation screen offers Add to calendar, which drops the appointment straight onto their phone.

The appointment shows under Appointments — flip between Upcoming and Past — and on the Calendar tab as a day timeline (‹ Prev, Next ›, Today). If a time truly doesn't work, don't wait for an approve button that isn't there: open the appointment and reschedule or cancel it.

Reminders are automatic: clients get an email 24 hours and 2 hours before their visit, and both cancel themselves if the booking moves.

If a client cancels from their emailed link, you get a "Booking cancelled" email and the slot frees on its own. Deposit refunds are automatic — full refund with enough notice, kept inside your cancellation window. For their side of all this, see What your clients see.

Run your day

1. Open Appointments. Each row shows the client's name, time, service, price, and tappable email and phone.
2. When a visit is done, tap Mark complete. The row moves to Past. (The button only appears once the start time has passed.)
3. If the client never showed, tap No-show, then confirm Mark no-show. If a card is on file and you've set a fee, the confirm step spells out the exact amount before you tap — nothing is ever charged without that warning. The slot frees and the client gets a "We missed you" email.
4. To cancel, add a note in Reason (optional) if you like, tap Cancel, then confirm Cancel booking. The client is emailed, and any deposit refunds in full — when you cancel, the client always gets their money back, whatever the timing.
5. To move an appointment, tap Reschedule, pick a new time from the open slots (the next three weeks are shown), and tap Confirm new time. The client gets a fresh confirmation with a new code, reminders reset to the new time, and their card or deposit carries over.

Deposits, fees, and your cancellation window

These live on the booking overview under Deposit & fees — the section appears only for the profile owner, and only after payments are connected.

1. Pick a deposit style: No deposit (the default — a card is saved but nothing is charged), Percentage, or Fixed amount.
2. If you stay with No deposit, you can set a No-show fee — charged to the saved card only when you press Mark no-show.
3. Set your Cancellation window — the hours of notice a client needs for a full deposit refund (24 by default).
4. Tap Save deposit policy.

Fees and deposits run through your own Stripe account: the money goes straight to you, Spokane Hairdressers takes 0%, and Stripe's standard processing rate applies. Clients see your exact policy spelled out before they book.

Good to know

The "New booking" email didn't arrive

The booking itself is never blocked by email trouble — check Appointments first; it will be there. Then check spam, and make sure the email on your account is one you actually read.

"Mark complete" and "No-show" aren't showing

They appear only after the appointment's start time, and only while the booking is still confirmed. If the page has been open a while, refresh — and if the client already cancelled, the buttons are correctly gone.

The fee came back "Fee declined"

A declined no-show charge doesn't retry — that's deliberate, to avoid double charges. Settle it with the client directly at their next visit. Fee processing usually resolves on its own; check back later.

You set a deposit and a no-show fee, but the fee never charges

It's either/or. With a deposit on, no card is saved — the deposit itself is your protection, kept on a late cancel or no-show. The no-show fee applies only to card-on-file bookings with no deposit.

You can't reschedule a booking that's still paying

Only confirmed appointments can move. If a client's deposit hasn't finished processing, wait for it to confirm — or let the unfinished checkout expire and rebook them.

Getting bookings onto your own phone calendar

The Calendar tab is your schedule view; there's no automatic sync to Apple or Google Calendar yet. Your "New booking" email has every detail if you want to add one by hand.

Reminders are email-only for now

Text reminders aren't live yet. Clients get email reminders at 24 hours and 2 hours out automatically — nothing for you to set up.

Stuck on something this guide didn't cover? Tell us — a real person reads every message.