Booking rules: prerequisites, eligibility, notice and cancellations

A prerequisite you set up a year ago and forgot is still locking people out, and the calendar will never mention it. Every rule about who can book, how far ahead, and what a late cancellation costs lives on the service itself.

Make them do the assessment first

The Initial service type is the blunt version of this: new clients book it before anything else. Service Prerequisite is the precise one, and it sits on Who Can Book, under Advanced options.

1. Open Services, then Manage on the service you are gating and Manage Service.
2. On Who Can Book, switch on Advanced options.
3. Under Service Prerequisite, switch on Require Prerequisite Service and choose the service that has to come first.
4. Under What counts as met, choose Completed or Booked.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Any service type can carry a prerequisite, so a Regular service can gate another Regular service. Add a second service to the picker and How they combine appears, which is how two different assessments each unlock the same boarding stay. What counts as met decides whether the assessment has to have happened, or only to have been booked.

Pet sitting and concierge: the meet and greet is usually the Initial service rather than a prerequisite on one, because it is the first thing anybody books and nobody hands over a key without it.

Only small dogs, and only over 14 weeks

1. Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
2. On Who Can Book, set Weight Restrictions (kg).
3. For an age or breed rule, switch on Advanced options and use Age Restrictions or Included Breeds and Excluded Breeds.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Weight Restrictions (kg) sits at the top of Who Can Book because it is the rule most catalogues are built on. Age and breed are below it, behind Advanced options. Read the amber callout twice: these rules fail closed, so a pet with no birthday on file cannot book an age-restricted service at all, and a pet with no weight may be blocked the same way.

Puppy school: an age window needs both ends, so set Maximum Age beside Minimum Age. A minimum on its own lets a nine-month-old into a class built for twelve-week-olds.

Online only for clients who have prepaid

A service can stay on your booking page for everyone to see and still only be bookable online by clients holding a package credit or a membership that covers it.

1. Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
2. Choose Booking Settings and open Advanced options.
3. Under Who can book online, select Packages and memberships only, then tick Packages, Memberships or both.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

With only Memberships ticked, everyone else is told the service is for members only once they choose their pet, with See memberships when a published plan covers it. With Packages ticked, they see it inside its packages instead. Your team can still book it for anyone from the calendar, and All customers lifts the rule.

How far ahead, and how late

1. Open Services, then Manage on the service and Manage Service.
2. On Policies & Paperwork, under Change & Cancellation Policy, switch on Allow changes & cancellations.
3. Under Fee type, choose Percentage and set Percentage of booking, or choose Fixed amount and enter the fee, charged once per booking. Then set Notice Period.
4. For the advance notice a booking needs, open Duration & Timing and set Booking Notice Period.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

The fee fields and Notice Period only appear while Allow changes & cancellations is on. Turn that switch off and the client is told the booking cannot be changed or cancelled without contacting you. An untouched service shows one radio, Set Custom Duration, carrying a blue Override business default badge, because until you choose, the service is taking the account setting.

A closed weekend uses up notice too, unless you switch on Count only days you are open under Booking Notice Period on Duration & Timing in Settings: each day your Business Hours have closed, public holidays included, then adds a day, so a Friday booking with a day's notice reaches Monday. It applies to online bookings only, and every service keeps its own notice period.

Choose which times customers see

Customers see every time that fits until you change Which times customers see online. It sits on Booking Engine and it only shapes online booking.

On a day with bookings 10:00 to 11:00 and 1:00 to 2:00, working 9:00 to 3:00, a 60-minute service on a 30-minute interval offers 9:00, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00 and 2:00 on All times. Reduce gaps drops 11:30 only if your shortest online service is longer than 30 minutes, because a 30-minute gap can still be sold. That is why adding a short service online can quietly weaken it.

Once you choose an option other than All times, Smallest gap you can sell lets you set how long a gap must be to count, and shows what you really sell to guide you. Blank uses your shortest online service. Services on a resource with its own hours and room for one are judged the same way; a shared space such as daycare keeps every time.

Your team can still book any time. On the staff booking form a Best match badge marks the times a customer would be offered and says why. To cap a whole day instead, use Daily pet limit on Booking Engine. To cap one session, set Session pet limit on the session in Schedules & Sessions.

Decide who gets an Anyone booking, and what a new client must do

The rest of Booking Engine answers four more questions, each in its own row. Every row shows its current answer, so you can read the whole page without opening one.

1. Open When a customer picks Anyone and switch on Prefer their previous team member, Balance the day across the team, or both.
2. Open Multi-Pet Scheduling and, under Which times we suggest first, choose Tightest booking or Soonest start.
3. Open Booking window, switch on Limit how far ahead clients can book online and choose Days ahead or Until a date, then set the days or the last date.
4. Open New clients and switch on any of Approve new clients' bookings, Deposit and card from new clients only and Limit how far ahead new clients can book, then set the days.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

With neither Anyone switch on, the row reads No preference. Which times we suggest first only matters for a booking with more than one service, and every time stays bookable either way: it changes the order, not the choice.

Days ahead moves forward each day on its own. Until a date stays fixed, so you move it on when your next season is set, and Notifications reminds you before it ends. A new client keeps to whichever limit ends sooner, theirs or the Booking window, and your team can still book further ahead.

The New clients rules apply to someone with no completed visit yet, and only to their online bookings. Your team's bookings never follow them, a customer's own settings on their profile win over them, and customers you imported count as returning.