Bookings · How-to
Set up your services, prices and categories
Add the services you sell with a length, a price and who does them, group them into categories, vary prices by place or person, and choose what clients can book online.
Make categories
Open Bookings › Services. Under “Categories”, press “Category”, give it a “Name” and a “Color”, and press “Create”; the colour marks that category's visits in the diary. Click a category to see only its services, or its pencil to rename or delete it.
Add a service
Press “Add service”. On “Basics”, fill in the “Name”, “Duration (min)”, “Price” and “Category”. “Buffer (min)” keeps time free after the visit for cleaning up, and the next visit is placed after it. “Booked for” says whom the service is for: “The client”, or “A child”, “A pet” or “A vehicle”, and every booking of it then asks which one.
Do it at the client’s address, or price it by size
“Where it is done” sets a service to be performed at the client’s address, and “Priced by size” makes its price and length follow a size: square metres, rooms, windows or hours. The article on visits at the client’s address goes through both.
Say who does it
Under “Staff”, tick the people who perform it. Nobody ticked means anyone can. Only these people are offered for the service, online and at the desk.
Choose online, desk only or off
Leave “Online booking (visible in the client app)” on for clients to book the service from your booking page; switched off, only staff can book it. The same switch sits in the list of services.
To stop offering a service for a while, switch off “Active” in it. It then leaves your booking page and the services you can pick for a new visit, standing appointments with it book no more visits, and the list marks it “Off”. If standing appointments book it, “Save” first asks whether to switch it off, saying how many book it and that the visits already booked stay; press “Switch off and save” to go ahead. Its history is kept; switching it back on brings it back, and its standing appointments book again.
Set the reminders
“First reminder (h)” and “Second reminder (h)” set how many hours before the visit the client is reminded. Empty uses 24 and 2; 0 switches that reminder off for this service.
Suggest when clients come back
“Clients usually come back after (weeks)” takes 1 to 104. When a visit with this service is checked out at the till, the “Checkout” window suggests the next visit that many weeks later, with a button to book it. Empty means no suggestion; the field starts empty on every service, so nothing is suggested until you fill it in. A group class has no such field.
Vary the price by place or person
On “Prices”, “Per place” lets you untick “Offered” where a place does not do the service, or set that place's own price and length; “Per person” does the same for each person under “Staff”. An empty field uses the catalogue value, and 0 is a real price for a service you give free.
Save and order the list
Press “Create”, or “Save” when editing. Drag a service by its handle to change the order; clients see your services in the same order.
Common questions
- Why does the list say “varies by place or person”?
At least one place or person has their own price for that service. The client pays the price for the place and person they book.
- What happens to past visits if I delete a service?
They keep the service's name and the price they were booked at. The service leaves the catalogue, your booking page and any package it was part of, for good. “Delete” in the service's window asks you to confirm first and says how many standing appointments book the service; they book no more visits. To stop offering it for a while instead, switch off “Active” in the service.
- Where does the list of services in the setup come from?
Setvos keeps a short list for each kind of business — for beauty, one for each niche — with a suggested length and no price. A row is added only once you type its price, and 0 counts. The names are written in the “Client language” set in Settings › General, because that is what your clients read. Rename, reprice or delete any of them here afterwards.
- How do I manage services on the phone?
In Setvos Business, open More → Bookings → Services. Category chips sit over the list; each row shows the length, the price in the workspace’s currency, badges for online booking, a class or a package, and the Active switch. Switching off a service that standing appointments book asks first. “Edit order” lets you drag the handles, or use “Move up” and “Move down” with VoiceOver. The categories sheet adds, renames, recolours and deletes categories; a deleted category’s services stay, without a category. On an iPad the list sits beside the service.
- What is in a service on the phone?
The form has Basics, Prices, Package, Consent and Recipe. Prices sets a price and a length per place and per person: an empty field takes the catalogue’s, and 0 is a price. It also says whether each place offers the service. Package holds a package’s parts, and Consent the consent forms the service asks for. Recipe needs access to the inventory and is there once the service is saved. Delete asks first.
Read next
Offer group classes, packages and services that need more
Set up a group class with seats, a package of several services, a service that needs two people, a room or a waiting stage, and a service that must follow another.
Visits at the client’s address, and prices by size
Do a service at the client’s address, price a cleaning by the square metre or a job by the hour, keep to the area you visit, and take each person’s day with its addresses along.
Cut no-shows with deposits and cards on file
Ask for a deposit on new bookings, ask clients who book online for a card on file, charge a fee when someone does not come, and know when a deposit is kept or refunded.
Ask clients to agree to a consent form
Write the forms clients agree to before a service, such as a patch test or a health questionnaire, attach them to services, and record a form signed at the desk.
Plan the staff rota and publish it
Set who works when at each place, a week or a month at a time, and publish it. Only published shifts can be booked, online or at the desk.
Reminders go out by themselves — time them per service
Every booking gets two reminders, 24 hours and 2 hours before, unless a service says otherwise. A long treatment may deserve an earlier one.
More in Bookings
- Bookings: your diary, staff rota and online booking page
- Find your way around the appointments diary
- Book an appointment for a client
- Check in, finish, move or cancel an appointment
- Take payment for a visit at the till
- Keep a waitlist and offer freed slots
- Book standing appointments and recalls
- Run classes: a timetable, enrolment and the register
- Read and answer client reviews
- Review rules, and reporting a review
- Create promo codes for online booking and the till
- Add and manage your places
Open in Setvos
Signed in? This article is also in the Help menu of the app.
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