Booking & Events

Booking & Events is where you manage appointments, classes, and events, along with the services, staff, and locations behind them. Book an appointment and it blocks the calendar, notifies the assigned team member, and sends the customer a confirmation — all in one flow.

What it is

Booking & Events covers everything from first setup to day-to-day scheduling:

• Bookings — appointments, service packages, and event tickets your customers reserve
• Catalog — the services, packages, and resources (rooms, equipment) you sell
• Team & locations — who works when, what they can do, and where
• Money — payments, invoices, coupons, and taxes tied to bookings
• Communication — automatic emails, SMS, and WhatsApp messages to customers
• Look & feel — the booking form and customer/team portals customers and staff actually use

Key screens

The sidebar has 14 sections:

• Dashboard — Appointment and event totals for a date range, at a glance
• Calendar — Month/week/day/list views of everything scheduled; add or reschedule directly here
• Bookings — Three tabs: Appointments, Packages, and Events. This is your list of who's booked what
• Events — Manage events themselves: attendee lists, tickets, and recurring event series
• Employees — Staff profiles: working hours, days off, and which services each person provides
• Catalog — Four tabs: Services (with categories), Packages (bundles of services), Resources (rooms/equipment with limited capacity), and Extras (optional add-ons)
• Locations — The sites or rooms where services happen
• Customers — Every customer's contact info and booking history; import customers in bulk
• Finance — Transactions, Invoices, Coupons, and Taxes
• Notifications — Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and custom message templates, plus when each one sends
• Customize — Appearance settings for the booking form (step-by-step and catalog layouts), the events list/calendar, and the customer and employee sign-in panels
• Custom Fields — Extra questions you add to the booking flow or customer profile
• Features & Integrations — Turn on optional capabilities (coupons, waiting lists, custom fields, calendar sync, video meetings, card payments) — some require WorkMate to finish setup since they touch outside accounts or billing
• Settings — Company profile, working hours, booking rules, payment display, notification defaults, and roles & permissions

Common tasks

Set up your business basics

1. Go to Settings → Company and enter your business name, address, and contact details
2. Set your working hours and days off in Settings
3. Add any Locations if you operate from more than one site or room

Create a service

1. Go to Catalog → Services
2. Add a service with its name, duration, price, and description; group it under a category if useful
3. Optionally bundle services together under Catalog → Packages
4. Add any Extras customers can attach to the service, or Resources (like a room) the service needs

Bring your team on board

1. Go to Employees and add each staff member
2. Set their working hours and days off
3. Assign the services they're allowed to provide — this is what the booking flow uses to offer the right person for the right slot

Take a booking

• Customers book through your booking form, which lands in Bookings under the matching tab (Appointments, Packages, or Events)
• You can also add a booking manually from Calendar by clicking Add, or from Bookings with the Book appointment / Book event / Book package buttons
• Open any booking to see customer details, notes, and status

Manage events

1. Go to Events to create an event with capacity, ticket types, and pricing
2. Set up recurring events if the same event repeats on a schedule
3. Check Events → attendee list to see who's registered, and use ticket check-in for event-day entry

Set up coupons and taxes

1. Go to Finance → Coupons to create fixed or percentage discount codes, with usage limits and which services/events/packages they apply to
2. Go to Finance → Taxes to add tax rules that apply to your services
3. Check Finance → Invoices and Transactions to track what's been paid and generate invoices

Set up notifications

1. Go to Notifications and choose Email, SMS, WhatsApp, or a custom message
2. Edit the wording and timing (e.g., a reminder one day or one hour before the appointment)
3. SMS/WhatsApp channels need WorkMate to provision the sending account before they'll go live

Customize your booking form

1. Go to Customize and pick the form you want to style: the step-by-step booking flow, the catalog layout, the events list/calendar, or the customer/employee sign-in panels
2. Adjust colors, buttons, and fonts to match your brand
3. Use Custom Fields to add intake questions (dietary needs, skill level, etc.) customers answer when booking
4. Click Publish to make your changes live

Tips

• Turn on reminders — In Notifications, enable a reminder an hour or a day ahead. Fewer no-shows.
• Assign services carefully — Only staff assigned to a service will be offered for it, so keep Employee service assignments current.
• Use coupons to drive bookings — Time-limited or percentage discounts in Finance → Coupons work well for slow periods.
• Ask for what you need, no more — Keep Custom Fields short; long intake forms lower completion.
• Block time deliberately — Use Calendar to block breaks, admin time, or anything that shouldn't be booked over.
• Some integrations need a request — Calendar sync, video meetings, and card payments involve outside accounts or credentials, so those go through a WorkMate setup request rather than a self-serve toggle.
• Review the Dashboard regularly — It's the fastest way to spot busy periods and adjust staffing.

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Need help? Each screen has contextual guidance built in. If a feature needs WorkMate to finish provisioning (payments, calendar sync, messaging channels), you'll see a setup request option instead of a raw configuration screen.