Quickstart guide
Find the perfect time with your customers
The fact that customer satisfaction is keystone to any business cannot be denied. With businesses increasingly becoming online, providing services to customer has only become more challenging. And also, with the customer base spread across various locations (time zones), the engagement needs to be seamless.
Zoho Bookings helps you find the perfect time with your customers by
Saving up on communication, back and forth
Managing staff availability for defined working hours
Syncing up data from multiple calendars across apps
Last-minute cancellations, no-shows, payment follow-ups, staff availability, appointment reminders – let nothing stand in your way of providing delightful service to your customers.
2.2 Add staff2.4 Add services2.9 Booking page2.10 Integrations4.3 Manage customers4.4 Create reports
Plan your requirements
If you are a service provider looking up to Zoho Bookings, you might want to consider the following about your business operations.
What kind of services do you offer? Can they be grouped as a department based on the offerings or location?
How many staff do you have? Do you want to assign them different roles to manage them better? Are you planning to assign them individual working hours?
Do you have customers in different time zones? Do you want interact with them in their local language?
What are your business hours? Would you like a flexible work schedule to take appointments?
Do you plan to take bookings or allow cancellations and reschedules within a specified period only?
Do you take payments for your services? If yes, do you need payment providers to aid with collecting payments upfront?
Do you maintain business events in Zoho Calendar or Google Calendar or Microsoft Calendar? Would you like all these events to be considered while allowing customers to book with you?
Do you have subscriptions with SMS providers? Do you want email and SMS notifications to be sent out your customers when appointments are booked, canceled or rescheduled?
Do you own a business domain for your business or would a booking page to reach out to customers and take appointments suffice?
Do you need a sophisticated booking page aligning with your brand? Do you need a booking page with customizable components? Do you want to collect more information with additional fields in your booking form?
Do you collaborate with a CRM regularly and would like to collate customer and appointment information with them?
Do your want to provide personalised logins to frequent customers so that they can view schedules and manage their bookings?
Are you keen on how your business is performing with in-built reporting based on revenue and appointments?
If your answers are in the affirmative to the questions above, then Zoho Bookings is a good fit for you. It would be easier to configure your business needs.
Based on your business style or mode of operation, Zoho Bookings offers three variants.
Free plan – For individuals/freelancers
Basic plan – For customer-facing teams which would like to increase customer engagement
Premium plan – For service industries who collect payments, operate out of multiple locations, and need advanced reporting.
With this in mind, let’s get started.
Appointment scheduling for an IT firm
To better illustrate Zoho Bookings’ features we will take the case of an IT firm - Zylker Technologies, that develops software products.
Zylker Technologies have the following requirements:
Multiple workspaces to group the various service offerings – Demos & Installations, Sales & Queries, Customer Support
Multiple services to cater to every solution offering
Multiple staff with different privileges to better manage appointments
Assign working hours for the business and staff alike with appropriate break/buffer times and unavailability
Sync multiple calendars to avoid overbooking
Style booking page and customise page elements suited for requirements
Map booking page with own domain and embed the booking page on the business website
Show staff availability to customers across various time zones (also handle daylight savings) automatically
Present booking page in customer’s local language automatically
Allow pre-booking and restrict cancellation/rescheduling windows
Send notifications/reminders when appointments are booked, canceled, or rescheduled
Receive payments for the services provided
Handle customers with personalised logins to allow managing appointments on their own
Collaborate customer and business information with third-party applications like CRM
Add new contacts to Zoho CRM on new appointments and allow booking from inside Zoho CRM
We will walk you through all these features and how to set them up in the following sections.
Let’s begin with setting up a Zoho Bookings account.
1. Set up a Zoho Bookings account
- Access Zoho Bookings' login page.
- If you already have a Zoho account (or if you have subscriptions with Zoho One or any other Zoho Products), you can enter the username and proceed with signing in. If you do not have a Zoho account, you can click on any of the IDPs (Identity Providers) listed below – Apple, Google, Office 365, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
Note: You need only one Zoho account to access all Zoho services.
Once you are authenticated, you will be ready to use Zoho Bookings. - You can also sign up for a Zoho account. Click Sign Up Now.
- Enter the required details. Click SIGN UP NOW to start using Zoho Bookings.
- A confirmation email will be sent to the specified email address for email verification. Click Confirm Account.Note: This is to keep your account active.
Post confirmation you will be navigated to Zoho Bookings.
When you sign up to Zoho Bookings, you'll be asked to provide details about your business, such as business timings and your availability, before you start. This is an initial setup process that gets your account up and running. This information can be edited, or further details can be added, anytime later.
2. Set up the booking process
Now that we have set up the account, we will now look at how we can get started quickly. We will also book the first ever appointment with Zoho Bookings.
- Business Details - Provide your business name, choose your time zone, and select the currency you'll be dealing with. Click Next, once done.
Note: The Currency and Time zone will be automatically selected based on your location. You can still change them based on your preferences. - Availability - Choose hours and days of the week when you are available to receive appointments. Click Next.
- Create Service - You can now create a one-on-one service. Provide a name for your service, choose a duration, and click Create.
- Setup complete - The basic setup for your account is complete. A one-on-one booking is good for consultations and face-face interactions. Get your hands dirty by booking a sample appointment.
- The booking page shows the service offering for the set date and time (daylight savings is also handled) with the available staff. It also picks the time zone of the customer automatically. Click the Book Appointment button to enter customer details to confirm the booking.
- Fill in the customer details and click Schedule Appointment to confirm the booking.
- You have successfully booked the first appointment for your business. Let's go to Zoho Bookings and view your appointment details on the calendar.
- When you use Zoho Bookings for the first time, a product tour will be shown. You can either take the product tour or explore it on your own..
- Click Calendar on the top left corner. The booked appointment shows up against the respective staff on the set date and time on the Zoho Bookings calendar.
2.1 General business settings
Let us visit the general settings for your business and see how to configure them.
- Custom labelling
- In-product notifications
- Business email for communications
- Working hours and time settings
- Special working hours and time off
- Custom domain mapping
- Zoho Bookings branding
Custom labelling
Zylker Technologies has been marked as a SaaS provider (in the setup) and so staff will be labeled "Consultants" and all the services "Consultations", by default. Now, they can choose to label their staff "Technicians", if they want to.
To access custom labels:
- Click the Manage Business icon
on the top right corner. Then choose General > Custom Labels.
- Click the edit icon against the respective label.
- Enter the required value and click Save.
The staff label is now customized and staff will be referenced as Technicians through out the product.
In-product Notifications
It is important to stay up-to-date with various business activities. Choose what matters to you most from a varied range of events. Be sure that nothing thats need tending to immediately like a payment failure, an appointment cancelation, or a technician's absence, misses your notice.
To customize notifications:
To customize notifications:
- Click the Manage Business icon
- Select the required events and you are all set to receive instant notifications.
Business email for communications
Zylker technologies have their Zoho account registered with, say) signupdemo@sample.com (the Super Admin email address for the Zoho Bookings account). Assume that they would like to send out notifications to customers from a business email, say business.online@zylker.com. This email can be modified.
To add a business email:
- Click the Manage Business icon
- Click the Add Email button against the Email field.
- Enter the business email address from which you want email notifications to be sent and click the Add button.
- Enter the 6-digit verification code that is sent to the email address and click the Verify button.
- The verified email is now the business email and will be used in place of the Super Admin email address for email communications.
Working hours & related settings
Set any day as the start of your business week.
Note: Sunday is the start of the week by default.
Click the Manage Business icon on the top right corner. Then choose General > Basic Information.
Also, choose between a 12-hour or a 24-hour Time Format. This will be used for displaying slot availability in booking pages. This will also be used to display appointment schedules in the Zoho Bookings Calendar.
Special working hours and time off
In addition to setting the general working hours, you can also define special working hours and time-off.
Click the Manage Business icon on the top right corner. Then choose General > Basic Information > Working Hours. You will see the working hours you chose during the setup.
a. Add Special Working Hours
Zylker Technologies chooses to remain open the day after New Year's day on account of a special sales drive, but just this one time. They can do so for the whole day or in blocks of time.
- Scroll down and click the Add button against Special Working Hours.
- Set the All-day Availability field to "Enabled" and special working hours appear as dates.
- Set the All-day Availability field to "Disabled" and special working hours appear as date and time slots.
- In either case, choose the required special working hours and click the Save button. The selection shows up under the Special Working Hours section.
- The special working hours will show up as additional time to book on the Zoho Bookings calendar (Saturday is not a working day in this instance, but the slots are open for booking after configuring).
The booking page also displays time slots inside the configured special working hours alone (between 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM in this case).
b. Add Time Off
Alternatively, Zylker Technologies chooses not to work two days prior to Christmas. This can be configured as follows:
- Scroll down and click the Add button against Time Off.
- Set the All-day Availability field to "Enabled" and time off appears as dates.
- Set the All-day Availability field to "Disabled" and time off appears as dates and time slots.
- In either case, choose the required special working hours and click the Save button. The selection shows up under the Time Off section.
- The time off will reflect in the Zoho Bookings Calendar as time not available for booking.
The booking page also displays time slots outside the time off window (after 1:00 PM in this case).
Custom domain mapping
Booking pages would have a default URL in the zohobookings.com domain. Zylker Technologies would like to have their booking pages in their own domain say, zylker.com. Let us see how booking pages can be mapped to the custom domain bookings.zylker.com.
To map a custom domain:
- Click the Manage Business icon
on the top-right corner and navigate to General > Booking Page URL. - In the Launch Custom Domain field, enter your domain name along with the subdomain. Here in 'bookings.zylker.com', 'zylker.com' is the domain owned by Zylker Technologies, and the term 'bookings' is considered the subdomain.
- Click Launch to create a new subdomain (say, 'bookings') on your existing domain (say, 'zylker.com') and verify your domain.
Verifying your domain: Before you can start using this subdomain, you’ll need to include the details of this subdomain in your domain manager. Once you include these details, your domain will recognize this subdomain.You can choose one of the following three ways to verify your domain name.
- Add a CNAME: We’ll generate a unique record or ID, called CNAME, that you can add to your DNS manager.
- Add TXT record: We’ll give you a unique TXT record and format that you can add to your DNS manager.
- Upload a HTML file: Use this method if you have permission to upload files directly to your website.
These values are generated automatically, and they can be viewed by clicking the Add CName, Add TEXT, or Add File sections respectively. After making the necessary changes in your domain, click Verify Now.
After successful verification, all booking page URLs will have the domain – bookings.zylker.com.
Zoho Bookings branding
Booking pages come with a default branding text – "Powered by Zoho Bookings". Zylker Technologies can choose to retain the branding or remove it from their booking pages.
To remove Zoho Bookings branding:
- Click the Manage Business icon on the top-right corner and navigate to General > Basic Information. The Zoho Bookings Branding toggle button would be "Enabled" by default.
- "Disable" the Zoho Bookings Branding toggle button. The branding text will now be removed from the booking pages.
2.2 Add staff
Now that the business settings for Zylker Technologies are set, let's add staff with specific roles and designations to handle the bookings.
Role: There are three different roles for Zoho Bookings staff – Admin, Manager and Staff. Only Admins can configure business information. Managers can view business information. While all staff roles can add, reschedule and cancel appointments.Designation: Designation is the classification within Zylker Technologies. Two employees with Manager roles can have designations akin to a Customer Success Lead or a Marketing Lead.To add a staff:
- Click the Quick Add control from the Menu Panel on the top right corner. Choose Staff.
- A pop-up comes up asking for staff details. Fill in the required details and click the Save button.
- The staff details are saved. The staff will be added as part of the account once they confirm using the email invite sent to them.
- An email invite is sent to the staff.
- When the staff confirms their account by clicking on Confirm Your Account they will added to the Zylker Technologies account of Zoho Bookings.
2.3 Sync other calendars with Zoho Bookings calendar
Zylker Technologies wants their customer support staff to be booked only when they available and want to avoid them being over-booked. Syncing their calendars can improve availability and make sure their customers are given the necessary engagement. Let's look at how Google Calendar can be enabled for integration by a Zoho Bookings admin.
Note: Once a calendar is enabled, each staff can authorize the respective calendars to sync with Zoho Bookings calendar from the My Profile section.
- Click the Manage Business
- Hover over Google Calendar and click Enable.
- A pop-up appears asking you to configure which staff can authorize their Google calendars to sync with your Zoho Booking calendar. Click Configure Now.
- You can sync booking events and calendar events in the Manage Calendars section under the My Profile tab.
You can enable multiple calendars at the same time. - You can allow only the required staff to sync their calendars with Zoho Bookings calendar.
Choose the required staff and click Save. - Once authorized, you can choose which events should be synced – bookings to Google calendar, or Google calendar events to Zoho Bookings calendar, or both.
- Once configured, all the linked calendars will be displayed.
2.4 Add services
With the staff in place, Zylker technologies will now need to create services so that customers can book with them. Let us see how and when they can create each of the service types – One-on-One, Group Booking and Resource Booking to cater to customer needs.
Add a one-on-one service
- Click the Quick Add control from the Menu Panel on the top right corner. Choose Service.
- A pop-up comes up. One-on-one service is selected by default.
- Select a workspace and enter a service name. Select the service duration and set a price or choose to go "Free". Choose staff (one or more) and add buffer time between appointments if the staff want preparation time before and after a service. Click the Save button once done.Buffer Time: Preparation or clean up time included before and after an appointment. This can be configured with respect to a service only.
- The "Troubleshooting 101" service is created under the "Customer Support" workspace.
Add a group service
- Click the Quick Add control and create a Group Booking service.
- Select a workspace and enter a service name. Select the service duration, number of attendants and set a price or choose to go "Free". Choose the required staff.
- Tick the Repeat check box to create a Series or a Drop-in Group Booking service. Choose the Group Booking Type, the repeat frequency and mode of recurrence (based on an end date or the number of classes).Drop-in: A recurring Group Booking service which can be used to provide the same service over and over for a set period.Series: A recurring Group Booking service which can be used to provide a service which spans over a set period.Assuming Zylker would need the same product demo for 50 participants until "Dec 17", they would need a Drop-in service to recur at the same time "daily". Once done, click the Save button.
- The Product Demo Drop-in Group Booking service is created under the Sales & Queries workspace.
Add a resource
Assume that Zylker technologies has a gymnasium to cater to its employees. To avail the facility on a request basis, the resource should first be added and a staff assigned to it. Then a resource service should be added and the resource be mapped to it.
To add a resource:
- Click the Quick Add control from the Menu Panel on the top right corner. Choose Resource.
- Enter a service name and an optional description. Click the Save button.
- The Gymnasium resource is created. A staff is mapped to it to service the facility.
Add a resource service
- Click the Quick Add control and create a Resource Booking service.
- Select a workspace and enter a service name. Select the resource, and the pricing per unit time. Also, set buffer time for the staff to prepare the facility before and after employee usage. Click the Save button once done.
- The Physical Fitness 101 resource service is created under the Internal – Employee workspace.
Once the required services are created, customers can book with the respective staff.
2.5 Add a payment gateway
We saw how services can be set a price. If Zylker Technologies offers paid professional consultations, they can get receive payments by setting up a payment gateway. This removes the hassles of payment reminders, delayed payments, cash handling, and also reduces no-shows.
To enable payments:
To enable payments:
Let us look at how to enable Authorize.NET as a payment provider for the offered services.
- Navigate to Manage Business > Payments (under the INTEGRATION section). All the payment gateways available for integration are listed.
- Hover over the required payment gateway and click the Configure button.
- A pop-up comes up asking for authorization. Enter the required information and click the Set up button.
- On successful authorization, the configured payment provider is displayed under the Payments Configured section.
- Turn the Online Payments toggle button to "Enabled" to start receiving payments.
- Once Online Payments is enabled, Zylker can choose from any of the available payment methods – Optional, Full Payment, Deposit.
Optional: Optional payment signifies that the payment can be made before booking the appointment or offline via any other means.Full Payment: Full payment signifies that appointments can only be booked after making the full payment.Deposit: Deposit signifies that a part of the payment (usually lesser than the full payment) has to be paid to book the appointment.2.6 Configure notifications and customize their content
Email and SMS notifications can be sent to Zylker Technologies employees and their customers so that they are all kept on the same page about business events like when an appointment is booked, rescheduled, cancelled, and so on.
To configure email notifications
Let us look at how Zylker can send out email notifications during various events to its staff.
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > Notifications. The check boxes against the required events can be checked to notify staff of events through emails. Reminders are set to notify staff a day before the event.
- Click Customize against the required event to set up the email content using variables. Click the Save button once done.Variables: Variables are placeholders for appointment information which help in populating dynamic values in the email template. For instance, the %meetinginfo% variable populates the meeting link and related information.
To configure SMS notifications
Let us look at how Zylker can send out SMS notifications during various events to its customers.
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > Notifications. Click Configure against SMS to enable an SMS gateway.Before checking the boxes against SMS, an SMS provider must be configured.
- The Other Integrations page opens up with the available SMS providers listed. We will look at how to configure ClockWorkSMS here.
- Hover over the provider and click the Configure button.
- A pop-up shows up asking for authentication. Enter the required information and click the Configure button.
- ClockWorkSMS is now set to send out SMS notifications to customers every time the configured events (booked, canceled, etc) occur. The configuration can be disabled or configured for a new provider as required.
- Now that the SMS gateway connection is configured, let's select the events at which we need the SMS notifications to be triggered. In the Notifications section, click Customize against the required event.
- Customize the content using Variables. Click the Save button once done.
2.7 Set scheduling/cancellation/rescheduling Windows
A booking window prior to the service start date (say, 24th December) would help Zylker Technologies estimate the demand and provide preparation time in advance.
To set the scheduling window
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Policies & Preferences. Scroll down to the Scheduling Window section.
- Assume that the booking window can only be between, say, 17th December and 23rd December. Then, setting the required values for the Pre-Booking and Last-minute Booking fields would allow customers to book only within the scheduling window.
Last minute changes are inevitable. Zylker Technologies understands that and needs to allow customers to reschedule or cancel their appointments. This would help them gain the customer's trust and goodwill. Also, the open slots will be released to other customers.
On the flip side, setting a cancellation or reschedule window prior to the service start date would discourage cancellations or no-shows.
To set the cancellation window
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Policies & Preferences. Scroll down to the Cancellations & Reschedules section.
- Set the toggle button to "Enabled". Assume that cancellations or reschedules would not be permitted two days prior (say, 22nd December) to the service start date (say, 24th December). Then setting the required values would not allow change in schedule for the booked appointment after 22nd December.
2.8 Enable customer portal
Zylker would like its customers to maintain individual accounts for themselves. This helps them to manage their appointments with Zylker staff on their own.
Customer Portal: A customer portal offers a personalized login for a customer. It captures all their appointment details in one place, and they can view, reschedule, or cancel their appointments.
To enable Customer Portal:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Registration Form. Select Registered Users. The fields are disabled by default.
- Check the Booking as a registered user option and the fields below will be enabled.
- The customer portal is now enabled. Customers will have the ability to Sign up or Sign in to the portal during the booking process.
Signing up for the Customer Portal - Click Sign Up and the registration page opens up. Fill in the required details and click Sign Up.
- A confirmation email is sent to the customer. The customer clicks Confirm your account and creates an account.
- Once the customer signs in, My Info tab will display the customer information.
- Customers can view, search and filter appointments from the appointment history. They can also book appointments.
2.9 Booking Page
The booking page is the gateway to receive customer appointments. The booking page is accessed using a booking page URL.
Zylker Technologies believes in providing a seamless booking experience to its customers. They are also keen on maintaining their brand consistent across all their applications.
Booking page customization: Zoho Bookings offers four pre-defined themes (Default, Modern Web Theme, and Fresh with along options to customize the color and text of various elements appearing on the booking page.
To customize a booking page theme:
- Navigate to Manage business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Booking Page Themes.
- Select the required theme and color option. You can also personalize and control visibility of the title, description, back ground image and booking button text. Changes are saved instantly.Note: Only few themes allow personalization of all elements while other themes allow only limited personalization.
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Booking Page Settings. Customize and control the visibility of Header and Footer elements of your booking page.
Booking Page URL
The Booking page URL it the URL to your booking page. This URL can be shared to customers or the booking page can be embedded as a widget on to a website. This URL can be customized as required. A typical booking page URL for Zylker's customer support workspace might look like this.
There are four types of Booking URLs:
- Workspace Booking URL – It is the URL to a workspace containing all the services that are available to book for a customer.
Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Workspace Booking URL. - Service Booking URL – It is the URL to a service that is available to book for a customer.
Navigate to Manage Business > Services > (Choose a service) > Service Booking URL. - Staff Booking URL – It is the URL to a staff that is available to book for a customer.Note: A staff may be assigned to more than one service.Navigate to Manage Business > Staff > (Choose a staff) > Staff Booking URL.
- Resource Booking URL – It is the URL to a resource that is available to book for a customer.
Navigate to Manage Business > Resources > (Choose a resource) > Resource Booking URL.
Embedding the booking page to a website
Embedding the booking page onto Zylker's website would give their services more visibility. The Embed As Widget section under Workspaces, Services, Staff, and the Resources tabs. We will take a look at how the embedding is done for a workspace booking URL below.
To embed a workspace booking page:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > (Choose a workspace) > Embed As Widget. The iframe snippet required to embed the booking page is displayed.
- Click the Copy Code button to copy the snippet. This code can be included as part of the website's code to display the booking page in the required style.
2.10 Integrations
Zylker benefits from Zoho Bookings' integrations with various Zoho products like Zoho Meeting, Zoho Assist, Zoho CRM and also with powerful integration platforms tools like Zapier and Zoho Flow. Zapier houses some indispensable integrations like Zoom Meetings, Google Meet and many more. Let's take a look at how integrations are configured.
Additionally, custom functions add more versatility by configuring actions during various booking events. Custom functions are constructed using Zoho's proprietary programming language – Deluge.
Meet Online with Zoho Meeting
It helps Zylker staff to meet customers online through online meeting. Once the integration is configured, an online meeting is created every time a one-on-one service is booked.
Note: This integration requires Zoho Bookings staff to be added as users in Zoho Meeting.To configure Zoho Meeting:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Video Conferencing. You will find Zoho Meeting listed under the Tools Available section.
- Hover over Zoho Meeting. Click the Enable button and authorize Zoho Bookings to create online meetings in Zoho Meeting.
- Once the integration is enabled, the Create Online Meeting toggle is made available for all one-on-one services.
- Turn the Create Online Meeting toggle to "Enabled". The one-on-one service is now ready to create online meetings in Zoho Meeting whenever appointments are booked.
Notification emails containing the meeting link can be sent to both the customer and the staff.
Remote Support with Zoho Assist
At times, troubleshooting requires remote support to be able to resolve user issues quickly. Zylker can make use of either screen sharing sessions or remote support sessions when customers book appointments with their one-on-one services.
Note: This integration requires Zoho Bookings staff to added as users in Zoho Assist.To configure Zoho Assist:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Others. You will find Zoho Assist listed under Connections Available section.
- Hover over Zoho Assist and click the card. The Overview page will show up. Click the Connect Zoho Assist button and authorize Zoho Bookings to create sessions in Zoho Assist.
- Once authorized, drag and drop the required one-on-one services against the respective sessions in the Configure section.
- Once the mapping is done, click the Save button.
- Once the configuration is complete, the Create Assist Session toggle is "Enabled" for the services which are mapped against a Zoho Assist session.
The mapped one-on-one services are now ready to create sessions in Zoho Assist whenever appointments are booked.
Notification emails containing the session link can be sent to both the customer and the staff.
Add customers as contacts automatically in Zoho CRM
Assume that Zylker Technologies would like to keep track of their customers to follow up on upcoming events or send promotional information. Zoho Bookings is integrated with Zoho CRM to help them convert customers who book with them into contacts automatically.
To integrate Zoho CRM:
To integrate Zoho CRM:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Others. You will find Zoho CRM Contact listed under the Connections Available section.
- Hover over Zoho CRM Contact and click the Enable button.
- Authorize Zoho Bookings to create contacts in Zoho CRM. Once authorization is complete, customers who book appointments will now be added as contacts in Zoho CRM automatically.Note: Customer duplicates are eliminated by checking for the uniqueness of the email address or the phone number entered by the customer.
Zapier Integration
Zylker can make use of Zapier's versatile integrations with a variety of apps. Zapier helps collaboration between apps using zaps. Zaps work based on a trigger event (like Appointment Booked, Appointment Rescheduled, Appointment Canceled) and execute one or more actions (like creating a meeting in Zoom and creating invoices in Zoho Books).
To create a zap:
To create a zap:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Others. Zapier will be listed under the Connections Available section.
- Hover over Zapier and click the card. The Overview page will show up. Click the Connect Zapier button.
- You will be directed to the Integrations section of Zapier where pre-defined zaps for Zoho Bookings are listed. You can click the Try it button against any of the listed zaps. If the required app is not listed, you can search it in the field provided to connect to the required app.
Custom Functions
Zylker Technologies might be interested in integrating third-party services outside Zoho as well. This can be achieved using Custom Functions. Custom Functions enables them to write scripts which are triggered during different events of an appointment. For example, you can write scripts, such as API calls, which get executed when an appointment is booked, canceled, rescheduled, marked as completed, or marked as no show.
To access custom functions:
- Navigate to Manage Business > Workspaces > Custom Functions.
- Check the event(s) during which the custom function should be triggered. Click Configure against the required event.
- The Deluge Editor opens up. Write the required script and click the Save button. You can also click the Execute button and test your script before actual execution. Your custom script is now ready to execute every time an appointment is booked.
Learn more about Deluge, Zoho's in-house scripting language, here.
3. Appointment booking by customers
In this section, we'll see how customers can book appointments with Zylker Technologies as guest users and registered users.
Guest Users – Guest users are customers who book appointments using the booking page but do not have a dedicated account with your business.
Customer Portal Users – Customer portal users are customers who have registered accounts with your business, to personalize their appointment activity.
3.1 Book a paid appointment as a guest
Let's see how guests users will book Zylker's paid One-on-one service, Troubleshooting 101.
- Customer opens up the booking page using the booking page URL (say, https://business-zylker.zohobookings.com/#/customer/customersupport )
- Customer chooses the service.
- Customer allows you to allocate a staff or picks a staff.
- Customer picks a convenient date.
- Customer chooses a time zone.
- Customer picks a convenient time.
- Customer clicks the Book Appointment button.
- Customer enters the required details and clicks the Pay and Schedule Appointment button.
- Customer enters the required details and clicks the Pay button.
- Appointment is booked.
Note: Guests are added as customers in Zoho Bookings. Duplicates are eliminated based on email address or phone number.
3.2 Book a free appointment as a customer portal user
Let's see how customer portal users will book Zylker's free Group Booking service, Email Marketing 101.
- Customer opens up the booking page and clicks Sign In.
- The sign in page shows up. Customer enters the required details and clicks Sign In.
- Customer logs into his account and clicks the Book another appointment button.
- Customer is directed to the booking page.
- Customer selects the required service.
- When the group booking service is selected, the staff and the Group Booking start time are selected by default.
- Customer selects the time zone & convenient time and clicks the Book Appointment button.
- Customer details are auto-populated (as customer is a registered user). Customer clicks the Schedule Appointment button.
- Appointment is booked.
4. Manage bookings
Zylker Technologies would like to view, filter, sort, cancel or reschedule appointments booked with them. Zoho Bookings offers two views – the List View and the Calendar View. It would also help them to view stats about appointments and the revenue generated.
Below are the various status of an appointment:
4.1 View bookings in Calendar
Navigate to Calendar to view appointments and related information on the Zoho Bookings calendar. The available views in the calendar are – Day, Week, and Month.
Day View
The Day view displays all appointments for a selected date. Here, appointments from all workspaces, for all staff and resources.
Also, the time interval for calendar entries can be customized ranging from 5-30 mins.
a. Filter appointments based on workspace
- Click the dropdown and select the required workspace.
- Now, appointments for the Customer Support workspace alone show up. Appointments from other workspaces are disabled.
b. Filter appointments based on staff and/or resource
Assume that the Admin does not want to view appointments for the Gymnasium resource. The resource (or a staff) can be taken off the view.
- Click the reorder icon.
- Click the visibility icon against the Gymnasium resource in the pop up that shows up. Click Save.
- Now, the appointments for the Gymnasium resource won't show up.
c. Set a time slot interval
Set a time interval for calendar entries to better manage time slots. Assume that the the current interval is 30 minutes and the Admin requires this to be 5 minutes. This can be performed as below.
- Click the gear icon.
- A pop-up shows up. Enter the required time-interval and click the Save button.
- You now have 12 slot intervals (5 minutes each) between every hour.
d. View appointment details
Zylker staff can click booked entries and view appointment details. They can also reschedule or cancel appointments; mark an appointment as complete or no-show. They can also click View Details to view appointment details on the List View.
e. Book Appointments
Zylker staff can book appointments on behalf of customers from the calendar view.
- Click the required time slot interval (12:00 PM, in this case).
- A New Appointment window slides in. Fill in the required details and click the Add Appointment button.
- An appointment is added.
Week View
The Week view displays all appointments for a selected week from all workspaces, for all staff and resources. Multiple appointments on the same day are grouped together. Zylker staff can filter appointments based on workspace, staff or resource, set time interval slots and view appointment details just like the Day view.
a. Add appointments or add a time-off or special working hours
Hover over the required day against a staff or resource. Click the three dots that appears and choose the required action.
b. View Staff or Resource Schedule for a day
The Week view allows the Admin to view a staff or resource's availability for the day.
- Click the expand icon against the required staff or resource.
- The staff's (or resource's) availability is shown for the week. This works similar to the Day view. Click the close icon to collapse the time slot intervals.
Month View
The Month view displays all appointments for a selected month from all workspaces, for all staff and resources. Multiple appointments on the same day are grouped together. Zylker staff can filter appointments based on workspace, staff or resource, view appointment details just like the Day view. Book appointments and add time-off or special working hours just like the Week view.
4.2 View bookings as a List
Navigate to List View to view appointments for a required Day, Week, or Month.
Filter, Search & Add Appointments
List View allows to filter and aggregate appointments based on Workspace, Service, Staff and Status. Perform a blanket search on the list using a customer name, workspace name or booking id, etc. Also, add appointments on the go.
View Details
Click an appointment to view more details on the Appointment Summary page.
Set a past appointment as Completed, No Show and an upcoming appointment as Canceled or reschedule it as required.
Appointment Stats
It helps Zylker Technologies to keep tabs on the appointments and their revenue they generate. The numbers auto-compute even when the list is sorted.
4.3 Manage customers
Zylker Technologies needs to keep track of customers to provide better service and shuffle their offerings to better suit customers.
Search Customers
Perform a blanket search on the list using a customer name, email address or phone number.
Add a new customer
- Click the plus icon.
- Fill in the required details and click the Save button.
Customer Stats
Get to know your customer base. Know how many of them are guests and how many of them are registered.
4.4 Create reports
Reports are instrumental to Zylker Technologies to monitor statistics about customers, staff, services, and revenue. This helps them understand the various aspects of the business, such as business efficiency, the most popular services, the staff most preferred (most booked), and so on.
To create reports:
Let us see how a report to know how Zylker's bookings are spread across its various services in 2020.
- Navigate to Reports. Provide a name for the report and click the Save button.
- Select a Report Type.
- Select a metric to generate the report on.
- All services and workspaces are selected by default (services and workspaces can be selected or left out as required).
- Select a Date Range and click the Apply button.
- The report is generated successfully. Click the Save button.
- Once the report is saved, click the Share button to share the report with other Admins and Managers.
- Choose members to share the report with.
- Click the Share Report button after making the required selection.
Note: Multiple reports can be created, which can then be shared among Admins and Managers.
This guide is a run through of the major functionalities in Zoho Bookings to help you gain a quick understanding of the product. For a more detailed explanation of each feature, please visit our product guide.
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