Tip #1: How to avoid last-minute bookings

Tip #1: How to avoid last-minute bookings

Dear Zoho Bookings users,

We are glad to launch Tips and Tricks, a biweekly series to help you explore Zoho Bookings features and learn how to use them for your various business needs. Follow this space, and let us know about any topics you'd like us to cover. Let's start with the first tip of the series on how to avoid last-minute bookings. 



Tip #1: How to avoid last-minute bookings

While getting booked is usually seen as a positive, it's not always that way with last-minute appointments. The definition of last-minute appointments varies from business to business. Some businesses don't need any preparation time and are always ready for appointments, but others need time to prepare resources, learn about the customer, and look at the appointment history. The more you prepare, the more confidence you will have and the more satisfied the customer will be.

That's why we give you the option to set limits through the Minimum Booking Notice feature. The slots that appear on your booking page are those that occur after this specific duration, so customers can't book with you immediately before an appointment.

 

For example, if you have set the minimum booking notice to one hour, a customer can only schedule an appointment if it is at least one hour out from the desired appointment time. This gives you enough notice to get ready. Your minimum booking notice can be set in minutes, hours, or days.

Follow the below steps to set a minimum booking notice:

  1. Click Services in the menu bar and choose the desired service from the left sidebar. Select Service Preferences.

  2. On the right-side panel, scroll down to Booking Notice.

  3. Next to Minimum Booking Notice, set the duration according to your requirement. Changes are auto-saved. 



To learn more, please refer to this help article. We hope this tip was useful. Follow this space to get notified about this Tips and Tricks series, and let us know your feedback in the comments.

 

We'll see you soon with the next tip.


      • Sticky Posts

      • Tip #13: Identify where your bookings come from with Source Tracking

        Source tracking is the practice of identifying where your bookings originated. This is important, because online bookings come from a wide variety of sources like social media platforms, your website, email and ad campaigns, partner websites, organic

      • Tip #17: How to mandate partial payment for your appointments

        When you require partial payments during the booking process, customers can only schedule with you after paying a certain amount in advance. This deposit acts as a commitment between both parties. Apart from that, it has many more advantages. Benefits

      • Tip #18: Organize a group workshop in a few steps

        It's the season for workshops—they're everywhere, catering to diverse interests and needs. Whether for more professional goals like leadership development or creative endeavors like painting, there's an abundance of workshops offered every day. A scheduler

      • Tip #16: Custom labels for staff, service, and resources

        Every industry uses its own jargon. Take healthcare, for example; when you visit a doctor, it's not just an appointment, it's a consultation. The people who provide consultations are the providers. Similarly, in the tranquil world of a spa, a massage

      • Tip #15: Customize service prices for each staff member

        It's common practice for a service to be priced differently based on the staff member providing it. For example, an experienced hair stylist may charge more for a haircut compared to the other stylists. This pricing strategy allows businesses to charge

        • Recent Topics

        • Add Webhook Response Module to Zoho Flow

          Hi Zoho Flow Team, We’d like to request a Webhook Response capability for Zoho Flow that can return a dynamic, computed reply to the original webhook caller after / during the flow runs. What exists today Zoho Flow’s webhook trigger can send custom acknowledgements

        • Bidirectional sync between Zoho Bookings and Zoho CRM - Part 1

          Hey, community members! The default integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Bookings is unidirectional, which means that any appointments booked, rescheduled, or deleted in Zoho Bookings will be reflected in Zoho CRM. However, any modifications made to

        • Is it possible to edit placeholder text?

          In the master slides I want to make sure my templates have more meaning for the users and want to replace the standard placeholder text with something more instructional. Instead of "Click to edit Mast subtitle styles" I want to have "Click to enter reporting

        • Delay function execute

          I've got a workflow which uses a webhook to send information to Flow, which in return updates a record in Creator. Problem is, by the time this has executed, the rest of my script has run and can't find the (yet to be) updated info in the record. Is there

        • How to allow download of a file AFTER information is collected?

          I can't find this anywhere. Can someone help with what seems to be a pretty basic web function today? - File is stored in Workdrive - Prospect goes to a URL where the file is located - System requests prospect to enter "Name" and "Email" - An email is

        • Add Baseline methods to API

          There are no API methods for creating or querying baselines,  Use case: Customer is notified of the current project start date according to plan via another product/integration. We would like to auto create a baseline (Automated via API) at the point

        • Bulk Fill In & Edit PO/Bill/SO/Invoice

          Hello, I am adding stock in bulk on a PO, the system is automatically populating the Rate (price) and Tax from the item data. Problem is that the bill rate is different from the rate on the item data, so I have to manually erase each and enter the price.

        • 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,

        • Template modifiactions

          Hello, I am struggling with the templates in ZOHO Books. Especially with the placement of some items, like company address, ship to, bill to etc.  For example: One item I like from template X (placement of ship to and bill to next to each other in the

        • 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 Mail SMTP IP addresses

          We are using Zoho Mail and needs to whitelist IP for some redirections from your service to another e-mails. You can provide IP address list for Zohomail SMTP servers?

        • 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

        • Next Page