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Set up your services

Your services are the offerings clients can book — a haircut, a manicure, a tutoring session. Each one carries a price, a duration, and a few optional rules that keep your calendar accurate. Setting these up is usually the first thing to do, because staff and the online booking page both build on them.

If you've renamed service, category, or staff under Terminology, you'll see your words in the menus — the steps are the same.

Open the Services page​

In the dashboard, go to Settings → Services. The page has two tabs at the top: Services (your list of offerings) and Categories (for grouping them). On the Services tab you'll see your current services with their Duration, Price, and a Status of Active or Inactive. If you haven't added any yet, you'll see "No services yet" with an Add Service button.

Add a service​

  1. On the Services tab, click Add Service (top-right).
  2. Fill in the required fields:
    • Name — the service's internal name. It must be unique among your active services (e.g. "Gel Manicure").
    • Duration (min) — how long the appointment takes, in minutes.
    • Price ($) — the price for the service.
  3. A few optional fields are worth knowing:
    • Public display name — what customers actually see on your booking page. Leave it blank to use the Name above.
    • Description — an optional description.
    • Category and add-on settings — see Group services into categories below.
  4. Click Add Service to save. The service appears in the list as Active and — unless you change the settings below — is immediately bookable online.

To change a service later, click Edit on its row, make your changes, and click Save Changes.

Control where and how it's bookable​

Under Booking settings in the form:

  • Bookable online — checked by default. Leave it checked to let clients book this service on your public booking page; uncheck it for services you only book yourself (e.g. internal or consultation-only).
  • Calendar color — an optional color for this service on your calendar.
  • Sort order — a number that controls the order services appear in.
Processing vs. active time

Processing (min) and Active (min) are optional advanced fields that split a service's duration into hands-on and processing time (like color developing). Leave them on auto unless you need that split.

Buffers and cancellation rules​

Under Buffer & cancellation:

  • Buffer before (min) / Buffer after (min) — setup or cleanup time reserved around the appointment. Clients never see it, but it blocks that time on your calendar so back-to-back bookings don't overlap your prep. Example: a 60-minute service with a 15-minute buffer after reserves 75 minutes of staff time.
  • Cancellation window (hours) — how far ahead a client must cancel. This field has three modes:
    • Leave it blank to use your business-wide default.
    • Enter 0 to allow free cancellation any time.
    • Enter a number (e.g. 24) to require canceling at least that many hours ahead.
Deposit and tax fields

The Deposit and Tax rate (%) fields are recorded for when online payments launch — nothing is charged today.

Group services into categories​

Categories let you group related services (for example, "Nails," "Hair," or "Add-ons"). Switch to the Categories tab at the top of the Services page.

  • Add a category. In the Add Category box, type a name and click Add. If you haven't added any yet, you'll see "No categories yet" with a prompt to add your first above.
  • Rename — click Edit on a category to change its name in place, then Save (or Cancel).
  • Reorder — the ▲ and ▼ arrows move a category up or down.
  • Delete — removes a category. If any service still uses it, you'll be blocked with a message naming those services; reassign them first.

To put a service in a category, open its Edit form and pick one under Category (or leave it Uncategorized).

Add-ons. In the service form, tick This is an add-on to mark a service that can only be booked alongside a service in a chosen Required parent category — for example a "Nail art" add-on offered only with a manicure. Add the parent category on the Categories tab first.

Choose who can perform a service​

Each service can be limited to the staff who perform it. On the service's row, click Staff to open the Manage Staff window — two lists, Assigned and Available Staff, with Assign and Remove buttons; click Done when you're finished. Only assigned staff who also have working hours can be booked for that service. You can manage the same thing from the staff side — see Add staff and schedules.

See a service's appointments​

To see everything booked for a service, click Appointments on its row. The window (titled "Appointments — <service name>") lists them under Upcoming, Past, and All tabs; each row shows the client (or Walk-in), the time, the staff member, the price, and a status.

Deactivating and reactivating a service​

To stop offering a service, click Deactivate on its row. It disappears from the booking page and your active list, but its history stays intact. If the service still has upcoming appointments, you'll be blocked with a message like "Cannot deactivate a service with 3 upcoming appointment(s). Cancel or reassign them first." — use the See the blocking appointments link to find them, then move or cancel them and try again.

Deactivated services move to an Archived section below your active list (it appears once you have at least one). From there you can:

  • Reactivate a service to make it bookable again. (If an active service already has the same name, you'll be asked to resolve that first.)
  • Open History to see an append-only trail of what happened to the service — when it was deactivated, reactivated, or had appointments reassigned.
  • Appointments — view the appointments tied to it.

What's next​