Approve or deny appointments based on criteria

Approve or deny appointments based on criteria

Hey, community members!

 

Have you ever wondered how to automatically approve or deny appointments?

 

While we're still working on building that feature, we've got an alternative method to cancel appointments if they don't meet your specific criteria.

Let me share a recent client request as an example: Our customer has two types of services that are similar: One is for grown-ups and the other is for children. However, often adults mistakenly book these services without realizing that they are not intended for them. This results in unnecessary confusion for our customers, as they have to contact those who accidentally booked appointments and reschedule them, causing a significant amount of administrative work.

Here's how we helped our customer: We added a criteria field to the booking page (e.g., "What is your age?") Then, we automatically cancel appointments where the input age is greater than 15 and we'll even notify the grown-up client that their appointment has been canceled and guide them to book the appropriate service.


To make this happen, you'll need Zoho Bookings and the Zoho Flow Standard Plan.


Here's a simplified breakdown of the process in three steps:  

  • Zoho Bookings will collect the criteria data and pass it to Zoho Flow.

  • In Zoho Flow, we'll configure a workflow to verify the validity of the data.

  • If the data is invalid, Zoho Flow will trigger a cancellation request to Zoho Bookings, resulting in the appointment being canceled.

 

Don't forget these additional steps: Edit the booking confirmation page and notification email to proactively inform customers that their booking maybe subject to cancellation.

Let's dive into the details together!!!

STEP 1: TO BE FOLLOWED IN ZOHO BOOKINGS APPLICATION:


1. Create a mandatory field in Zoho Bookings Forms.

     A. For service booking form: Add Field

     B. For workspace booking form: Add Field

 

NOTE: Workspace-level settings apply to group and resource bookings, while for One-on-One bookings, you will need to make the necessary changes within the specific One-on-One service settings.

At the end of step 1, let's say we have created a mandatory field called "What is your age?". Now the customers on the booking page will have to provide their age to book an appointment.

Additional Step:

Canceling an appointment without the customer's knowledge might affect the customer experience. Therefore, we should acknowledge the customers in every possible way.

 

Here are some tips:

 

A. We can use the 'Custom Redirection' feature to redirect customers to a custom page after they book an appointment, instead of the default booking confirmation page.

Here is how to change booking confirmation page: Booking Confirmation Page


Here is the sample custom page:



B. By using the "Terms and Conditions" check box, you can include the following message in the box: "This service is specifically designed for children under the age of 15. Bookings made by individuals above the age of 15 may be subject to cancellation". Customers will then need to check the box to confirm their agreement before completing their bookings, ensuring that they are aware of this policy.

More details: 

STEP 2: TO BE FOLLOWED IN ZOHO FLOW APPLICATION

A: Log in and search the template

  • Sign in to Zoho Flow application and create a new flow using the create flow option.

  • Select App > search for Zoho Bookings in the search bar.

  • Select the "Appointment Booked" trigger.

  • Select "Connection" and "Variable" > Done.


How to create a flow in Zoho Flow: Create a flow from scratch

How to create connection in Zoho Flow application: Create a Connection


At the end of step A, we have created a new flow including Zoho Bookings application.


B: Set Variable

  • In the Logic option > Flow Control > Set Variable > Edit the variable

  • Name the variable and in the value provide the input in following format "${trigger.customer_more_info.get("What is your age?")} " > Click on done.



 

NOTE: In Step 1, we created a multi-line field named "What is your age?" If you have instead created a single-line field without spaces (e.g., "Age?") on the booking page, the format for the field would be as follows:

  • Single line field format: ${trigger.customer_more_info.fieldname}

  • Multiple line field format: ${trigger.customer_more_info.get("fieldname")}

At the end of step B, we are fetching the output of the "Age" field from the Zoho Bookings form.


C: Create Condition

  • In the Logic option > Flow Control > Decision.

  • In the condition 1, configure as Set Variable(Age) > is not null. 


At the end of step C, we set up conditions to ensure that all bookings made through the Zoho Bookings application meet the requirements specified in the above conditions.


D: Custom Function

  • In the Logic option > Custom Functions > Create Function.

  • Configure function name, return type and input parameter.

  • Details on custom function: Custom Function

Reference below: 




Below is the sample code which you can have for reference. You can configure and modify the code according to your specific requirements.



Code Explanation:


Line 1: To pass the input data below to the code

  • Age: This is used to verify and analyze the customer's input.

  • Customer Email: This is required to send an email notification to the customer in the event of an appointment cancellation.

  • Booking ID: This serves the purpose of identifying the specific booking that needs to be canceled using its unique booking ID.

Line 3: We are implementing an "if condition" to verify the customer's input. In this case, we will check if the entered age is greater than 15. If it meets this condition, the following loop will be executed.

Line 5 - 8: To update appointments, we are utilizing the Zoho Bookings API. Within the update appointment API, there are two mandatory fields that need to be included: BookingID and action (completed/cancel/noshow). In cases where the criteria are not met and an appointment needs to be canceled, we will pass the action field as "cancel".

Line 9 - 14: We are using invokeURL task for API calls. To know more about invokeURL task please refer to the following document: InvokeURL task for API calls

Line 16 - 21: We utilize the sendmail task to send an email to the customer when their appointment is canceled. Additionally, the Zoho Bookings application automatically sends a cancellation email to the customer in such cases. Therefore, you have the option to either use the sendmail task or rely on the default notification system to inform the customer about the cancellation of their booking.


More details on send mail task: Send Mail Task

This is what the final flow will look like:



Here is the demo video:  In this demo video, we have showcased the behaviour of our setup configuration for different inputs from customers. One input satisfies the configured condition, while the other input does not meet the configured condition.




CONCLUSION:

In the preceding discussion, we have outlined a method for automatic appointment cancellation. You can use this document as a reference to explore the various possibilities that suit your needs.

In the upcoming posts, we will explore various scenarios and methods for updating the appointment status. Furthermore, we have covered the process of canceling an appointment after it has been booked.If you are wondering whether there is a way to verify customer inputs before booking an appointment, the answer is yes. We will delve into that topic in the next series.

As the above configuration may differ based on individual business requirements, we have provided a generic example for reference. If you have any questions or need assistance with configuration to align with your specific business needs, please email us at hello@zohobookings.com or support@zohobookings.com.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Approve or deny appointments based on criteria

      Hey, community members! Have you ever wondered how to automatically approve or deny appointments? While we're still working on building that feature, we've got an alternative method to cancel appointments if they don't meet your specific criteria. Let

    • Recent Topics

    • Manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin app (iOS and macOS)

      Hello everyone! We're happy to announce that you can manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin mobile app. The Users & Controls section has three subsections: Users, Profiles, and Roles. Users Employees who belong to your Bigin organization are called

    • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

    • Form to PDF template

      I am looking to create a Form and when information is inputted, it will merge it into a PDF template we already have. There could be multiple lines in the form and each line inputs information into a new page of a PDF template.

    • Please verify my account

      Hi, We have just launched our website and received media coverage in our country. Hundreds of users are signing up for our platform every day. We would like to send them a welcome email, but we are unable to do so because our ZeptoMail account has not

    • Subject character limit increase

      We have an occasional user case where subject lines exceed 500 characters which is the ZeptoMail imposed limit. While I understand long subject lines are not "best practice", these are particular notification emails with specific information for client

    • Account blocked

      Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites

    • Nested notebooks

      Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know if it is possible to nest notebooks. It would be very helpful when there are too many, as it would improve organization. Thank you for your response. Best regards.

    • Cannot see correct DNS config for mail after moving domain to another provider

      I have moved my domain from one provider to another and after that zoho mail stopped working (expected). Problem is, zoho mail admin panel still shows (10 hours after move) that all records are correct while I haven't changed anything in my domain DNS

    • Proactive Alert for Existing Open Tickets per Contact / Account

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, Greetings, and hope you’re doing well. We would like to submit a feature request aimed at improving agent awareness and efficiency when handling tickets in Zoho Desk. Use case When an agent opens a ticket (new or existing), it is

    • Ticket resolution field - can you add links, video, and images?

      Seems like the ticket resolution fields is just a text field. Any plans to add the ability to add links, images...the same functionality in the problem description box? I would like to send the customer a link to a KB article, a link to our Wiki, embed

    • Ticket Resolution - Add rich formatting, screenshots and attachments

      The resolution field only allows plain text at the moment. Many of our resolutions involve posting screenshots as evidence, it would be great for us to be able to have rich text formatting, be able to paste screenshots and add attachments in the solution

    • Kaizen #140 - Integrating Blog feed scraping service into Zoho CRM Dashboard

      Howdy Tech Wizards! Welcome to a fresh week of kaizen. This week, we will look at how to create a dashboard widget that displays the most recent blog post of your preferred products/services, updated daily at a specific time. We will leverage the potential

    • Convert Lead Automation Trigger

      Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched

    • I'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.

      When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.

    • Zoho Sheet - Desktop App or Offline

      Since Zoho Docs is now available as a desktop app and offline, when is a realistic ETA for Sheet to have the same functionality?I am surprised this was not laucned at the same time as Docs.

    • ZOHO add-in issue

      I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.

    • Marketing Automation

      L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026

      Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help you

    • Translation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all

      Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditional

    • The Social Playbook - January edition: Getting started with content creation

      Social media isn’t just about posting some random content. It’s about why certain content works, how brands stand out, and what makes people pause mid-scroll. The Social Playbook is a monthly community series where we break all of that down. Through real

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • Adding bank details to the contact through API

      How to add bank-related information to the contact while creating it using API? The account number needs to be encrypted before sending it through API but not sure how to encrypt and get those values. Please guide me in this.

    • Font breakage in Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac

      Dear Zoho Mail and Workplace Community, With the latest update of macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, there has been font breakages in the email preview of Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac. This breakage is due to the corruption of the System fonts

    • Feature request - image resizing on sales orders

      I need to be able to show the items on the sales orders, currently the item image shows really small and no way to resize it, need the ability to make the image larger to showcase the product on the pdfs

    • Nueva edición de "Ask The Expert" en Español Zoho Community

      ¡Hola Comunidad! ¿Te gustaría obtener respuestas en directo sobre Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk u otra solución dentro de nuestro paquete de CX (Experiencia del Cliente? Uno de nuestros expertos estará disponible para responder a todas tus preguntas durante nuestra

    • Automation Series: Auto-Notify External Users on Issue Closure

      Hello Folks! In Zoho Projects, you can notify external issue reporters via email when an issue is marked as Closed. This helps the users avoid manual follow-ups and keeps the reporter updated. In this post, we’ll walk through a simple setup using a Web

    • Turn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations

      When a Guided Conversation fails, it's usually not because the logic is wrong. They fail because the conversation stops moving. A customer starts a chat with a clear goal: report an issue, check a status, or confirm something. At first, the flow does

    • Basic Mass Update deluge schedule not working

      I'm trying to create a schedule that will 'reset' a single field to 0 every morning - so that another schedule can repopulate with the day's calculation. I thought this would be fairly simple but I can't work out why this is failing : 1) I'm based in

    • click to call feature

      I've Zoho CRM and in that i want click to call feature.

    • Can the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged

      Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! Thanks

    • Creating Parent Child relationship in Accounts

      We have customers with multiple locations, I setup the HQ as an account, then I setup the different sites marking the HQ as the parent to that location. If I then do a Deal for one of the locations, is there a way to show by looking at the parent account

    • Learner transcript Challenges.

      Currently i am working on a Learner Transcript app for my employer using Zoho Creator. The app is expected to accept assessment inputs from tutors, go through an approval process and upon call up, displays all assessments associated with a learner in

    • Client and Vendor Portal

      Some clients like keeping tabs on the developments and hence would like to be notified of the progress. Continuous updates can be tedious and time-consuming. Zoho Sprints has now introduced a Client and Vendor Portal where you can add client users and

    • need a packing list feature

      In our business, goods listed on an invoice are packed in separate boxes and shipped off. for e.g. an invoice may have 10 items. each item could then be packed in different boxes depending on qty of each item. this packing list is as important as the invoice for purposes of shipping documents.  Request you to add this feature asap.

    • Recording the deducted TDS on advance received from Customer (Zoho Books India)

      Hi, How can we record the tds that has been deducted by my customer for the advance that he has paid to me. 1) My customer has paid Rs 10000 to me as advance (Rs 9800 as cash and deducted Rs 200 as TDS). I am not able to record the tds that has been deducted

    • #7 Tip of the week: Delegating approvals in Zoho People

      With Zoho People, absences need not keep employees waiting with their approval requests. When you are not available at work, you can delegate approvals that come your way to your fellow workmate and let them take care of your approvals temporarily. Learn more!

    • Admin Tip: Manage sub-domain emails using sub-domain stripping

      As an admin, you may need separate domains for different departments such as sales, support, and marketing. While this approach offers flexibility, creating and managing multiple domains can quickly become overwhelming, especially since each domain requires

    • Quick Copy Column Name

      Please add the ability to quickly copy the name of a column in a Table or Query View. When you right-click the column there should be an option to copy the name, or if you left-click the column and use the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut it should copy the

    • Ability to Edit YouTube Video Title, Description & Thumbnail After Publishing

      Hi Zoho Social Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Social that enables users to edit YouTube video details after the video has already been published. Your team confirmed that while Zoho Social currently allows editing the

    • How do I remove a data source from Zoho Analytics?

      I am unable to find a delte option on a datasource that i put in the system as an error. On teh web it refers to a setup icon but I do not see that on my interface?

    • Next Page