Check clients in, edit bookings and block time off from your calendar

Most of a working day happens on the calendar. A client walks in. A trim turns into a cut and colour. Someone needs next week off. This update is about those moments.

Check clients in from the calendar

When a client arrives, tap their booking on the Calendar and press Check in. The panel then shows Checked in and the time. Undo check-in clears a wrong tap.

The calendar now shows who is in. The Day view puts a small tick in front of the time and name, and the Week view shows Checked in on the booking. The same buttons are in the Actions card when you open the booking with Full details.

Checking in only notes the time. It does not change the status, email the client or touch a deposit. If two people tap it, the first time stands. It works on pending, confirmed and completed bookings, but not on cancelled ones or no-shows.

Change a booking after it is made

Plans change once the client is in the chair. A massage runs long, or you agree a new price on the day. Open the booking with Full details and press Edit booking in the Actions card. You can change:

• Service. It brings its own length and price, the same price a new booking would get.
• Length (minutes). The form shows the new end time.
• Service price. The price before any discount, without extras.

The start time, the person and the client stay put. To move a booking, use Reschedule.

Extras stay on the bill. A percentage discount is worked out again on the new price, and a fixed amount off stays the same. You see the new total before you save, and it can never drop below what the client has already paid.

If the change runs into the person's next booking, blocked time, a break or closing time, you get a warning first. Press Save anyway if that is fine. A room or table is different. If another booking already holds it at that time, the change is refused.

Each edit adds a line to the booking's Internal notes saying what changed and who did it. A connected Google Calendar updates too. The client is not emailed, so tell them if the price changed.

Edit booking is offered on pending and confirmed bookings, but not while a deposit is still being paid online. To type a price of your own, a role also needs the Refund orders permission.

Block a whole stretch of time off in one go

The Blocked times card under the calendar now has a First day and a Last day. Pick Who (one person or Everyone) and press Block time.

• Tick All day to block whole days, midnight to midnight, in your business's time zone.
• Or set From and To. The block runs from the From time on the first day to the To time on the last, nights included.
• One entry can cover up to a year.

However long it is, it is one entry, and one Remove gives every day back. Clients can't book that time online. The calendar shows each day blocked in the Day and Week views. Those days can't be dragged, so to change the dates, remove the entry and add it again.

Restaurants: party size and a table on phone bookings

When a guest rings, book them from New booking, or drag across the calendar and choose Book a reservation. For restaurants, the form now asks for the Party size. It starts at 2, as on your booking page. Other kinds of business see the same form as before.

If the service needs a table, the times on offer follow the party. Say every table big enough for four is taken at seven, but a table for two is free. Then seven is offered to a couple, but not to a group of four.

A Table list appears too. It shows only the tables that service uses, and a table too small for the party can't be picked. Leave it on Any table that fits and the party gets the smallest free table that seats them. If the one you pick is taken at that time, they get the smallest free table that fits instead.

Front-desk logins that can book

Someone on your front desk may take bookings all day but not need the rest of the admin. Here is how to set that up.

Go to Team. Under Who can sign in, fill in Give someone a login, choose the Staff role and press Add login. Then open Role permissions, turn on Edit the calendar for Staff, and press Save changes. Staff see only their own appointments by default, so you will usually want See everyone's calendar on too. Only the owner can change these, and each switch applies to everyone with that role.

A Staff login with Edit the calendar can book phone clients, move and reschedule bookings, block time, check clients in and edit bookings. It works the other way too. Turn it off for a role, Admin included, and that role can no longer change the calendar.

A login without it sees View only on the calendar, and the booking panel drops the buttons it can't use. The New booking page explains why it can't book, and who to ask.

Your calendar should show what is really happening in the room, not just what was planned last week.

Apart from those role switches, there is nothing new to set up. The next time a client walks in, tap their booking and press Check in.