Lead time and booking limits give you control over when customers are allowed to book — not just which days and hours you're open. You can use them to prevent last-minute bookings, stop customers from scheduling months ahead, or require a minimum amount of notice before an appointment.
These settings live on each individual service. Go to the service you want to update, click Edit, and open the Availability tab. Scroll down to the Customer Booking Options section.
Minimum lead time (no same-day bookings)
Lead time is the minimum amount of notice a customer must give before booking a slot. If you set a lead time of 24 hours, a customer browsing your store at 10am on Monday won't be able to book anything before 10am on Tuesday.
To set lead time:
- In the Customer Booking Options card, find the question "Do you need lead time before a customer books with you?"
- Select Yes, I need time to prepare before a booking.
- Enter a number and choose a unit — minutes, hours, or days.
- Click Update Booking Options.
Example use cases:
- Photography session — require 48 hours so you have time to confirm location details
- Catering order — require 3 days to source ingredients and staff
- Consultation call — require 1 hour so you can review the customer's notes before joining
After you save, the app shows a confirmation like "Customers will be able to book up until 24 hours before the start of the event." Double-check that message to make sure the setting reads as expected.
Maximum booking window (how far ahead customers can book)
The booking window controls how many days into the future customers can see available slots. Once a date is beyond your window, it won't appear on the calendar at all.
To set a booking window:
- In the Customer Booking Options card, find "Continue accepting bookings until..."
- Select Until a specific number of days into the future.
- Enter the number of days customers can book ahead.
- Click Update Booking Options.
Example use cases:
- Hair salon — allow bookings up to 60 days ahead so customers can plan, but not so far that schedules become unpredictable
- Escape room — limit to 30 days to keep group availability manageable
- Dog grooming — allow 14 days so regulars can lock in their usual slot without the calendar filling up too far in advance
You can also set a hard stop date instead of a rolling window. Choose Until a specific date and pick the date you want to stop accepting bookings. This is useful for seasonal services or events with a fixed end date.
Cutoff time (deadline to book on the same day)
A cutoff time is a specific deadline — for example, "customers must book by 10:00am for any appointment that day." You can achieve this with lead time expressed in hours.
Example: You offer afternoon appointments starting at 1:00pm and want a 3-hour cutoff so bookings close by 10:00am. Set your lead time to 3 hours. A customer visiting at 9:45am will still see the 1:00pm slot; someone visiting at 10:05am won't.
For more precise cutoffs, set lead time in minutes — for example, 150 minutes (2.5 hours) if you need the window to close at a specific point before each slot individually rather than for the whole day.
Lead time applies relative to each individual slot's start time, not the start of the day. A 3-hour lead time means no slot can be booked within 3 hours of when it begins — so the cutoff shifts throughout the day as time passes.
Combining lead time and booking window
You can set both at the same time. For example:
- Lead time: 24 hours (no same-day or next-day bookings)
- Booking window: 30 days (calendar shows only the next 30 days)
A customer visiting today would see slots starting from tomorrow through 30 days out. Anything before the 24-hour window or beyond 30 days is hidden.
Next steps
- Blocking off time and days — close specific dates, holidays, or time windows
- Buffer time — add setup or cleanup gaps between bookings
- Setting your availability — configure your regular weekly schedule