Bookings and the schedule

Online booking

Your booking page is /book on your Balm's address. A new client:

1. Chooses a service and a practitioner, and selects Show available times.
2. Picks a time. Times start every 15 minutes inside the practitioner's weekly hours, at least two hours ahead and up to 60 days out, shown in the clinic's time zone. Show the next week moves on.
3. Enters their name, date of birth, email and, if they like, their mobile number, agrees that the clinic keeps their details and health information, and selects Book this appointment.

They land on their private intake link, which is also emailed to them when mail is set up. If someone else took the same time a moment earlier, the booking is refused and they choose another.

A client whose name, date of birth and email exactly match an existing file continues that file. One email address can hold at most three upcoming online bookings. Set Online booking to Closed on the Clinic page to stop taking bookings.

The schedule

Schedule is the clinic's calendar, in the clinic's time zone: everyone's for the owner and reception, and their own for a practitioner.

• Day shows one column per practitioner; Week shows the seven days, Sunday to Saturday, for the practitioner you choose under Practitioner. Previous, Today and Next move by a day or a week.
• With rooms set up (see Set up your clinic), the owner and reception can switch to Rooms: one column per room, plus No room for visits without one.
• Each visit shows its time, the client, the service, the room or practitioner, and its status: Booked, Attended or Did not attend, with Series for a recurring visit and Waitlist for one booked from an offer. Canceled visits leave the calendar and stay in the list under it. Shaded times are outside the practitioner's hours.
• Under the calendar, the same day or week as a list.

Move or cancel a visit

Select a visit to open it under the calendar.

• Move this visit: choose a new date, start time, practitioner (owner and reception) or room, and select Move visit. On a computer you can also drag the visit onto a free time instead.
• Mark attended or Did not attend, from one hour before the start time.
• Cancel this visit at any time before then. When the visit is at least two hours ahead, its time is offered to the waitlist.

A move is checked exactly like a booking: it must sit inside the practitioner's hours, and Balm refuses it when it would overlap another visit of that practitioner, or another visit in the same room. Nothing changes when a move is refused.

Book from the schedule or a client file

Select an empty time in the calendar, or use Book a visit under it, or open Clients, then the file, then Book an appointment. Choose the client, the practitioner, the service, a room if you use them, the date and the start time in the clinic's time zone. Reception and the owner book for anyone; a practitioner books their own diary. The time must sit inside the practitioner's hours and must not overlap another booking of that practitioner or that room.

After booking, Balm shows the client's private intake link once, and emails it when the client has an email address and mail is set up.

To add someone first, use Add a client on the Clients page.

Recurring visits

For a plan of care such as twice a week for six weeks, open Book recurring visits (in a client's file, or under the calendar):

1. Choose the practitioner, the service and, if you like, a room.
2. Tick each weekday under Every, set the Start time, For how many weeks and the Starting date, and select Check the dates.
3. Balm lists every date with Free or the reason it can't be booked: it overlaps another visit (shown with that visit's time), the room is booked, or it is outside the practitioner's hours. Nothing is saved yet.
4. For each date that can't be booked, change its time or tick Skip, then select Check again. Book stays unavailable until every date is free or skipped; Balm never drops a date on its own.
5. Select Book N visits. All of them are booked at once, or none if someone took one of the times a moment earlier. The intake link goes with the first visit, and skipped dates are recorded with the series.

Select a visit of a series to change one visit or the rest:

• Move this visit or Cancel this visit changes that visit only.
• Move this and the later visits in the series gives each remaining visit a new start time (and, if you like, practitioner or room) on its own date. If any of them would overlap or fall outside hours, nothing moves and those dates are listed.
• Cancel this and the rest of the series cancels that visit and every later one.

An attended visit is ready for its invoice: see Invoices and payments.