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How do I update my scheduling policies?
How do I update my scheduling policies?

Appointment, Class, Workshop, Email, Payment policies or settings, no openings, unbookable, tipping options

Malori avatar
Written by Malori
Updated over 7 months ago

At Schedulicity, we want to give you full control over when you want to allow clients to book with you online, so we've created several options, which are all available to customize πŸŽ‰

Jump to a section in this article:


General Policies

General Policies affect the entirety of your business with Schedulicity. To adjust these policies:

  1. Go to Settings and select Policies

  2. Choose General Policies

  3. Edit and Save!

What policies are available to update here? Check it out πŸ‘‡

All clients have a Reliability Rating and if they are marked as a no-show, this rating goes down. New clients start with a 5-star rating. This setting specifies the lowest rating a client may have and still be allowed to schedule with your business 🌟

This setting allows you to adjust how many hours before an appointment your clients will receive their reminder email βœ‰οΈ

This setting allows you to restrict bookings from clients who have never scheduled with you. Choose to allow new clients to book, require new clients to successfully show up for their first appointment before booking any other appointments, allow new clients to enter a credit card when booking online or disable online booking for new clients.

If your account has client text message reminders enabled, this setting adjusts how many hours before their appointment clients will receive their text reminder πŸ“±


Appointment Policies

These are policies specific to service appointment bookings. To update those:

  1. Go to Settings and select Policies

  2. Choose Appointment Policies

  3. Edit and Save!

The policies available to update in this area are:

Client Scheduling Policy

This setting specifies how far in advance a client can book. For example: A client may book no further in advance than 60 days from today.

Travel Time

πŸš— If you offer outcall (traveling or mobile) services, this specifies how much travel time will be added to the beginning of each out-call service.

Client Lead Time

This is the sister setting of the Client Scheduling Policy, letting you set how soon clients can book. In other words, how much notice do you need before an appointment? For example: A client may book no sooner than 3 hours before the start time of their appointment.

Calendar Interval

This allows you to specify whether you'd like to allow appointments on the 5/10 of the hour (10:00, 10:05, 10:10, 10:15, 10:20, etc.) or whether you'd like to allow appointments only on the 15 of the hour (10:00, 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, etc.) πŸ“†

Cancellation Policy

This specifies how close to an appointment time a client is able to cancel their appointment online. Clients will be informed of your policy on the final booking page when booking online as well as in the confirmation and reminders emails they receive.

Once your cancellation policy is set, if a client attempts to cancel online in violation of that policy, they will see a message stating your policy and will be prompted to call.

❗If you require prepayment on your offerings (deposit or prepay), a client will not be able to cancel online at any point. The system does not automatically refund any payments and we leave that up to our businesses. That said, your client would be prompted to call to cancel giving you the opportunity to decide to process a refund or keep the charge, depending on your policies.

Multiple Service Scheduling

Here, you can specify how many different services a single client can book for one visit to your business.

Service Waitlist

Enable or disable the service waitlist settings. Learn all about the service waitlist here!

Service Waivers

Create or edit a waiver that clients will need to view and acknowledge prior to booking. Check out more details here.


Class/Workshop Policies

These are policies specific to class or workshop bookings. To update:

  1. Go to Settings and select Policies

  2. Choose either Class Policies or Workshop Policies

  3. Edit and Save!

The policies available to update in this area are:

Client Scheduling Policy

This setting specifies how far in advance a client can book. For example: A client may book no further in advance than 60 days from today.

Client Lead Time

This is the sister setting of the Client Scheduling Policy, letting you set how soon clients can book. In other words, how much notice do you need before an appointment? For example: A client may book no sooner than 3 hours before the start time of their appointment. πŸ•

Cancellation Policy

This specifies how close to an appointment time a client is able to cancel their appointment online. Clients will be informed of your policy on the final booking page when booking online as well as in the confirmation and reminders emails they receive.

Once your cancellation policy is set, if a client attempts to cancel online in violation of that policy, they will see a message stating your policy and will be prompted to call.

❗If you require prepayment on your offerings (deposit or prepay), a client will not be able to cancel online at any point. The system does not automatically refund any payments and we leave that up to our businesses. That said, your client would be prompted to call to cancel giving you the opportunity to decide to process a refund or keep the charge, depending on your policies.

Group Booking for classes

Available for classes only, opt to have clients be able to book a class for themselves and others πŸ‘­

Class or Workshop Waivers

Create or edit a waiver that clients need to view and acknowledge prior to booking. Check out more details here.

Customize Label

This is located under Workshop Policies only and determines how you refer to these sessions for your business. This adjusts the title you use when referring to your workshops throughout your entire account. The options include workshop, event, series, bootcamp, seminar, day camp, session, clinic, course, training, tour, and support group.


Email Policies

Email policies determine some of the client notification email settings within the system. To update those:

  1. From Settings, click on Policies

  2. Select Email Policies

  3. Enter or update and Save!

Reply-To Email Address

This is the email address client messages are sent to when clients respond to an email marketing message or client notification πŸ“«

This defaults to the business admin email and must be a valid email address.

Custom Message for Email Notifications

You have the option of adding a customized message to your client confirmation and reminder messages.

_____________________________________________________________
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Payment Policies

  1. From Settings, click on Policies

  2. Select Payment Policies

  3. Enter or update and Save!

The policies available to customize are:

No-Show Policy

This displays to clients when you have the Hold with a Credit Card feature enabled. This alerts clients of the amount of your cancellation or no-show fee.

The default message is: By booking, you authorize this business to charge your credit card a no-show fee of up to 100% of the scheduled value should you miss your visit without proper notification.
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❗Clients are asked to acknowledge this when booking online and you can see the date and time when it was acknowledged under Payment Policies in the client's profile.

Refund and Return Policy

This displays to clients when you have payment requirements for your services. It will show online when they schedule and in the notification emails that go out to clients when they book online.

The default message is: All of our packages, auto-pays, and gift certificates are not transferable to other clients and cannot be combined with other discounted offers. Also, we do not offer cash refunds for our packages, auto-pays, or gift certificates. However, we will honor an equal exchange (credit) for other services within our facilities.


❗Clients are asked to acknowledge this when booking online and you can see the date and time when it was acknowledged under Payment Policies in the client's profile.

Gratuity

This displays the default and custom gratuity options. The default gratuity is set to 18%, 20% and 25%. To update your percentages tap the Custom Gratuity option and enter your amounts for the 3 options and Save!

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