Control When Customers Can Book

Three settings control when customers can book a service:

• Lead time — how much notice customers must give. Stops last-minute bookings.
• Booking window — how far into the future customers can book.
• Start date — the first day the calendar shows times.

All three are in the same place, and each service has its own.

Open the settings#

1. On the Dashboard, open the service.
2. Click the Availability tab.
3. Scroll to Customer Booking Options.

After you change anything, click Save in the bar at the top of the page.

Stop last-minute bookings (lead time)#

1. Under Do you need lead time before a customer books with you?, choose Yes, I need time to prepare before a booking.
2. Type a number and choose minutes, hours, or days.
3. Click Save.

The app then shows a sentence such as "Customers will be able to book up until 24 hours before the start of the event." Read it to check the setting is right.

Lead time counts back from each slot's start time. With 3 hours of lead time, a customer at 10:05 AM cannot book a 1:00 PM slot, but a customer at 9:45 AM can. You can use this as a same-day cut-off.

Limit how far ahead customers can book (booking window)#

Under Continue accepting bookings until..., choose one:

• Anytime, unless I remove availability or archive the event — no limit. This is the default.
• Until a specific time into the future — a rolling limit, such as 60 days. Type a number and choose a unit.
• Until a specific date — a fixed last day, for example for a seasonal service.

Then click Save.

Choose when the calendar opens (start date)#

Under Start the calendar on..., choose one:

• Today — customers can book from today. This is the default.
• On a specific date — no times show before that date. Use this for a service that launches later.

Then click Save.

Example#

With 24 hours of lead time and a 30-day booking window, a customer who visits at 2:00 PM today sees times from 2:00 PM tomorrow until 30 days from now.