Limited review (/questions) for Bookings 2.0

Limited review (/questions) for Bookings 2.0

Hi all, I'm writing this review of Bookings 2.0 for two reasons: 1) it may be of interest to others, and 2) I'd like to be corrected if I'm wrong on any points.

It's a very limited review, i.e. the things that have stood out as relevant, and particularly the problematic things, for my own use case. I'm a sole trader in health, and I make/manage most bookings myself, i.e. clients rarely book directly via the software. Majority of my clients are recurring weekly/fortnightly, usually on the same day/time.

RECURRING BOOKINGS: I'd been hanging out for this, as I've been booking ~20-30 individual appointments every week. As far as I can tell, nothing's improved.
1-on-1 can't be recurring, only group bookings. Group bookings are treated as a "class", meaning that you can make the timeslot recur, but individuals still need to be booked into each week separately.
There's also still no copy/paste function to replicate an appointment, so every single appointment needs to be booked out in full.

CALENDAR VIEW: The calendar view is worse. Week/Month view is gone ("under development"),

APPOINTMENTS: Not much change. Once past their time, they still can't be cancelled or deleted (e.g. if you'd communicated with a client but hadn't been at your computer); you have to hack it by rescheduling to the future, then cancelling (in a different timeslot) or deleting.

INTEGRATIONS: The Bigin integration is meant to be able to differentiate first/last name from the existing single "customer name" field, but it's just mucked up my Bigin setup, with the full name now being pushed into the Last Name field.
The Bookings browser extension is kind of a nice start, except that for any actual interaction, it just loads the website anyway, so not as convenient as it looks.
The integration with Calendar still doesn't properly handle rescheduled appointments, leaving a copy in the calendar at the old time.

CUSTOMERS: A bug has been introduced where apostrophes aren't allowed, so good luck if you've got an O'Leary or a D'Artagnan.

WORKFLOWS: I believe these are new? They seem like a good addition, from limited testing.

BOOKING PAGES: Seem fine in my very limited view.

--
In summary, I would suggest that:

- If your use case is that you want an externally-facing booking solution, where other people are booking into your calendar, and you have minimal need to manage your bookings directly, this system could well be useful - it handles a number of those elements nicely.

- If your use case is like mine, where you're heavily managing your own calendar and the bookings in it, Zoho Bookings is frankly terrible. Extremely clunky, time and labour intensive, lacking features, and buggy at times.

The inclusion in Zoho One and the potential for smooth integration with other Zoho products has kept me here so far, but this major update has actually made things worse if anything for my situation. Given how long it's taken to see changes, and how under-resourced Bookings seems to be, I'm looking elsewhere and will check back in 12 months.

(As above, if I'm wrong on any points, very happy to be corrected here - I want this to be accurate)

      • Sticky Posts

      • Zoho Bookings know-how: A hands-on workshop series

        Hello! We’re conducting a hands-on workshop series to help simplify appointment scheduling for your business with Zoho Bookings. We’ll be covering various functionalities and showing how you can leverage them for your business across five different sessions.
      • Announcing: custom color palette + free workshop

        Hello everyone, We're excited to share new feature in Zoho Bookings—a color palette within booking page themes. You'll find this option under Manage Bookings > Workspaces > Booking Page Themes. You can customize the color of every element in your booking page and even alter the transparency of your background image. Please note that this is a paid feature included in the Basic and Premium plans. At the moment, it's available only under the Modern Web theme. This means you can create billions (7,
      • Complete walk-through of Zoho Bookings (video)

        Save time for both you and your customers. Use Zoho Bookings, the appointment scheduling app from Zoho, to free yourself from email and paper-based scheduling. Zoho Bookings can give you a common calendar by syncing multiple calendars, including yours and your staff's. Your customers can book a time convenient for them, and pay for services, through your website or the customizable webpage features available in Zoho Bookings. They'll also get emails reminding them about their appointments and any
      • New Features: Service Availability and staff booking page themes!

        Dear All,  Want a dedicated schedule for your one-on-one services? How would it feel to have one-on-one services open for consultations only during certain times? You need a superpower to make that happen and we give it to you - Service Availability is
      • Zoho Bookings has a new pricing - Pay per user

        Dear customers, Businesses around the world use Zoho Bookings. Customers have booked 1.5 million appointments and over 200K online meetings using Bookings. We are only set to cross more milestones, thanks to your support. We are excited to introduce to

        • Recent Topics

        • Fixed Assets beg balance

          Hello, I trust you are well I'm a new zoho books user and I find it difficult to plug in the fixed assets balance and here's what I have done: 1- I imported the fixed assets data into the fixed assets module as per the instructions 2- the import process
        • Syncing with Google calendar, Tasks and Events

          Is it possible to sync Zoho CRM calendar, task and events with Google Calendar's tasks and events. With the increasing adoption by many major tool suppliers to sync seamlessly with Google's offerings (for instance I use the excellent Any.do task planning
        • CRM Deluge how can link attach file with workdrive file.

          Hi, We have create file at workdrive and would like to link to attachment at crm module by deluge. Right now can only upload it to attachment but can not link the file from workdrive. Thank you
        • Feature announcement: AI-powered document generator in Zoho Sign

          Hi there! We recently announced manual document creation by offering an editor within Zoho Sign. Today, we are excited to announce AI-powered document generation to help you draft agreements, purchase orders, and other important business documents in
        • Permanently deleted files

          Is there a way to get back permanently deleted files from your account if they were accidentally deleted and no longer recoverable from the recycling bin? I know I am probably screwed but I just figured I would ask.
        • Shared Mailbox in iOS app

          Hi, On the desktop I am using a Shared mailbox for our company's general mailbox that somebody else should be able to view. In the iOS app however I can't find it? Old sources on the internet says this isn't possible but that can't be right? Somebody
        • Tip #41- Simplify Compliance and Efficiency with Zoho Assist’s Data Cleanup Feature- 'Insider Insights'

          Managing device data efficiently is just as important as securing remote access. With Zoho Assist’s Data Cleanup feature, admins can easily remove outdated or unnecessary device records, keeping the console organized and secure. This action is carried
        • Revenue Management: #6 Revenue Recognition in Professional Services Industry

          If you run a consulting firm, agency, or any service-based business, you have a situation where you have signed the contract, maybe even sent the invoice, and have received some initial payments. So, can you consider this as revenue? What if the project
        • Zoho fsm scheduled maintenance dispatch

          Hi, I'm reaching out regarding an issue I'm encountering with the Scheduled Maintenance feature in Zoho FSM. I’m trying to configure it so that it automatically dispatches all maintenance jobs scheduled within the next 150 days, starting from today. However,
        • zoho.inventory.getRecords returns no records

          I running a custom function (Deluge) in Zoho Flow with a connection to Zoho Inventory. To debug the problem, I created the test function below. It returns "Number of contacts fetched: 0". This confirms that there's no issue with the org ID or connection
        • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

          We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found
        • Feature announcement - Simplifying document creation with Zoho Sign

          Hi there, We are pleased to announce the release of our document creation feature, enabling you to create, edit, and finalize documents like agreements, purchase orders, and contracts without relying on external tools or applications. <br> This
        • Integrating File Attachments in Zoho Flow Email Notifications

          Hi, I would like to be able to send an email once an entry is made in a form, and in this email, I would like to attach a file that has been added to the form using the ImageUpload (or FileUpload) widget. So, I started by creating a flow that will trigger
        • Zoho project purchases

          Hi Folks, I think having a purchase module in projects will help in putting together a project p and L. Project wise purchases and expenses.  Do let me know your thoughts.
        • Create Tasklist with Tasklist Template using API v3

          In the old API, we could mention the parameter 'task_template_id' when creating a tasklist via API to apply a tasklist template: https://www.zoho.com/projects/help/rest-api/tasklists-api.html#create-tasklist In API v3 there does not seem to be a way to
        • How can I restore all the deleted Time entries of a Task in Zoho Projects

          How can I restore all the deleted Time entries of a Task in Zoho Projects? Query: In Zoho Projects, I cloned a task and deleted the time entries from the cloned task. However, this also deleted the time entries from the original task. How can I restore
        • Is there a way to make an account inactive in ZoHo Desk

          We have a few Clients "Accounts" that we no longer do business with. It would be beneficial for them to not show up in lists. However, we want to go back and view tickets, time, etc.
        • How to set the value of the Phone field importing contacts in Zoho Desk

          Hi everyone, i'm new in Zoho Desk, we're setting up the environment and i'm importing contacts from another CRM using a file CSV and i'm getting a problem with phone numbers (italian): the leading zero is cut away, also if the value is inside double quotes.
        • Set Custom Icon for Custom Modules in new Zoho CRM UI

        • Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

          I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,
        • How to center a field inside a section?

          I’ve been trying to center a field inside a section in Zoho Canvas. When I align it visually, it looks centered in the editor, but after clicking Save, the field appears misaligned on the actual canvas. I also tried setting the field to full width, but
        • Kaizen #192 - Implementing Custom Token Persistence in Python SDK

          Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! Last week, we discussed how to implement Login with Zoho using OAuth 2.0 and saw how to bring it to life in a real-world application with the Zoho CRM Python SDK. We also discussed how Zylker Academy built a custom
        • Showing the map along with mileage expense

          When you use the GPS to track mileage, it shows you the map of the actual path travelled. It would be very useful and practical to save that map with the mileage expense, so that when the report is created, it provides a map of each mileage expense associated
        • Enable Validation Rule for Multi-Select Picklist Field

          Zoho, Please allow validation rules for multi-select fields.
        • File Upload field not showing in workflow

          Hi, I have added a field on Zoho CRM. I want to use it in a workflow where that particular field is updated based on another field, however it is not showing up in the field list to select it in the workflow. Why is this please?
        • CRM Custom function updating a module record shows the Super Admin user as the record modifier

          Dear Zoho CRM Team, Is there any way to update this so that when a custom function has updated a record the Super Admin user doesn't become the modifier? This happens on the record as a modifier and shows up in the audit logs. It would be more useful
        • Best practice importing items and matching assemblies

          Hi, I was wondering what would be the best practice to import items and composite items (assemblies) From my backup, what should I import first? The items or the composite items? I am on Zoho one, using inventory and books. Kind regards, Sabine
        • Best way to fetch employee names from Zoho People into Zoho Creator Inventory Stock Form field Employee Name Lookup

          Hi Team, I have a requirement in my Zoho Creator application (Inventory Stock Adjustment) where I need to fetch employee names from Zoho People and use them as a lookup in a form. Currently, I am considering using an integration field to fetch this data
        • get file api is returning Junk data

          I am working on extension development where at one point I need to retrieve attachments on records I found out I can use only invokeconnection and not invokeurl in extension development The invoke connection returns the image in raw binary format. When
        • Need help with message box

          End user updates many records at once. Each have unique serial number. They want a confirmation box that says starting number, ending number and qty. Is there any way to do this? I been searching and asking support but seems like no great solution.
        • [Webinar] The Transformative Power of Gen BI

          Traditional decision-making tools are no longer enough. The integration of generative AI into business intelligence (BI) is proving to be a true game changer—enabling businesses to make faster, smarter, and better informed decisions. Early adopters of
        • Backorder process review - Automating Removal of Sales Order from "On Hold" When PO is Received

          Hello Zoho Inventory Team, Currently, sales orders in On Hold status are released only when the bill for the purchase order is created. In our workflow, it would be much more efficient if the sales order could automatically move out of On Hold as soon
        • How to access the saved Query using API?

          I have created a query in setting. Is it possible to access it from a API? What's the endpoint? I tried /v8/queries/important_deals but didnt' work.
        • création d'une base de données

          base de donnee d'un lycée
        • User Session variables to recall after form submit & redirect to menu

          Hey, Forgive me if this is a simple answer I have overlooked. I have built a big onboarding process for my SAAS platform which is built and managed by an external Dev team. I am hoping to embed my new creator app on the SAAS platform. I have a menu page
        • Zoho Writer Merge Template with data from Zoho Analytics Views

          Hello, Is there any way to pull information from Zoho Analytics and put it into a Merge Template? I am trying to create a bulk export of one report that filters on a field to create a single document for each of the filter fields.
        • Having to enter bill before stock shows as available.

          Hi, Am I right in thinking you must create a bill from the purchase order receipt before the goods are available for shipping?
        • Agent Availability Report

          From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports Businesses need to track when their support agents check in and check out from work. This report, titled Agent Availability, is one of the static reports that helps managers track the number
        • Writing by Hand in "Write" Notes

          Hi there! I just downloaded this app a few moments ago, and I was wondering if there was a way to write things by hand in "Write" mode instead of just typing in the keyboard. It would make things a bit more efficient for me in this moment. Thanks!
        • AI-driven construction analytics using Zoho Projects Plus

          Construction projects thrive on timelines; if a project is completed on or before the expected time, it makes headlines, but if it gets delayed, the company’s credibility will be at risk. Such projects require precise planning and constant monitoring,
        • Next Page