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

        • How To Save Data Into Zoho CRM Sandbox

          Hi Community, I want to save data into my zoho sandbox , for this I am using this api endpoint - https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Patients but I am getting this error - { "success": false, "message": "Zoho API request failed", "error": { "code": "INVALID_MODULE",

        • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

          Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They

        • Question about retrieving unsubscribed contacts (outside of lists) via API

          Hello, I am currently using Zoho Marketing Automation and would like to integrate it with our company’s core system. For this purpose, I am exploring the API options available to retrieve contact information. Specifically, I would like to know if there

        • Getting “mandatory field missing: Service_Line_Items” When Creating Work Order via Zoho Flow Deluge

          Hi Team, I’m trying to create a Work Order in Zoho FSM with only a Service Line Item (no Parts). However, I keep getting this error: Work Order Response: {"code":"MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND","details":{"api_name":"Service_Line_Items"},"message":"required field

        • How to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?

          As title, how to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?

        • Daily updates/fixes and how to see what was changed?

          When I receive the notification that zoho was updated and I need to refresh it. How can I see what was changed or fixed? Sometimes they change things that effect my books and I need to know what they did. For example over this past weekend something was

        • Upcoming Change: Snowflake Username/Password Authentication Deprecation – Action Required

          Hello Users, Snowflake has officially announced that username and password-based authentication will be deprecated by November 2025. You can find the official announcement [here]. If you're using a Snowflake connection in Zoho Analytics to import data,

        • Why should I choose Zoho Inventory vs Odoo?

          Hello there! I have used Zoho in different companies I've worked in, and I have a positive perception of it. I am starting a new import business for pipes, tubes, fittings, valves, elbows, etc., which all have serial numbers, cast numbers, etc., so I

        • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | July 2025

          Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this July. Zoho Mail Import bookmarks from Pocket Worried about losing your Pocket bookmarks? Don't worry we have got you.

        • PLEASE FIX YOR BUGS

          PICTURES ARE BEING REJECTED DESPITE THEM FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES ON DIMENTIONS.

        • Kaizen# 204 - Answering Your Questions | Perform Field Updates before Blueprint transition via Client Script

          Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. One of the questions we received through your Kaizen feedback was: “How can I update fields before Blueprint transition and how to prevent a transition based on a condition using Client Script?”

        • Create online meetings for Booking Pages with Zoho Meetings and Zoom

          Greetings, We hope you're all doing well. We're excited to share some recent enhancements to Bigin's Booking Pages. As you know, Booking Pages let you create public pages to share your availability so that your customers can easily book time slots with

        • Filters in audit logs

          Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail. Previously, there were no filters available to narrow down data in audit logs. Now, we've introduced

        • Enhanced help options in Bigin

          Greetings, We're excited to introduce a new enhancement to Bigin's Help section: a comprehensive Help Options panel that brings together all your support resources in a single, well-organized space. Previously, the Need Help? menu provided only a limited

        • Zoho FSM API Developer Needed

          Hi, I’m looking for a developer with experience using Zoho FSM APIs. Scope: Connect WordPress website booking form to Zoho FSM Check availability (date, time, region) Create Work Orders + Service Appointments automatically Notify both customer and scheduler

        • Revenue Management: #4 What if there are uncertainties in project or service delivery?

          Our previous post taught us how Zoho Billing makes life easy for businesses with its automated revenue recognition rule. However, certain businesses have more challenges that an automated system cannot handle, and there are certain situations where automated

        • This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com

          Bom dia, estou tentando colocar o número 11 94287-6695 e esta com erro "This mobile number has been marked spam. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com" pode me ajudar, por favor?

        • Feature Request: Ability to Set a Custom List View as Default for All Users

          Dear Zoho CRM Support Team, We would like to request a new feature in Zoho CRM regarding List Views. Currently, each user has to manually select or favorite a custom list view in order to make it their default. However, as administrators, we would like

        • Items Serial Tracking Issue

          We enabled Zoho Items inventory tracking then disabled it after some time now we want to enable it again When I check the missing serial number reports I see one item But I cant see any option to Add the serial numbers Where and how to add the serial

        • Composite Services and Account Tracking

          I am looking to garner support/request the ability to make composite services. A quick search in the forums brings up multiple requests for this feature. I fail to see why an item is mandatory while services are optional. I also would like to see the

        • Zoho Payroll integration with Zoho Books - unable to match multiple bank feeds to one wage payment

          For one employee's wage, I make two partial payments. Those bank feed transactions come into Zoho Books via bank integration. I make one pay-run for the month in Zoho Payroll and that comes into Zoho Books via the Zoho integration. Zoho Books doesn't let me match multiple bank feed transactions against a single wage item. Please fix urgently. I can't complete my books because of this.

        • Add Checkbox Selection & Bulk Actions to Delivery Challans Module

          Hi Zoho Team, I’ve noticed that in the Sales Orders module, there are checkboxes beside each entry that allow users to select multiple records for bulk actions such as print, email, or delete. However, in the Delivery Challans module, this option appears

        • Can't be able to check-in in laptop

          even after giving location access still i can't be able to check-in in laptop.

        • Compensation Cess on Coal ₹400 per tonne. ?????

          The compensation cess rate varies by the type of product. And the cess is calculated based on the value of the product without GST. Coal, for example, comes with a cess of ₹400 per tonne. That means that if you sell 2 tonnes of coal that have a value

        • 7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive

          7 month over zoho book purchase but still not immpliments Golive one problems zoho team short out then other problems come still very poor mangments and immliments team . struggling with the templates in ZOHO Books. Especially with the placement of some

        • Average Costing / Weighted Average Costing

          Hello fellow maadirs. I understand Zoho Books uses FIFO method of dealing with inventory costing, but do you guys have any plans to introduce average costing? We indians need average costing. It's part of our culture. Please. I beg thee. Thanks.

        • SMS to customers from within Bigin

          Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receive

        • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

          Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

        • Parent & Member Accounts (batch updating / inheritance)

          Hello, I find the Parent Account functionality very useful for creating custom views and reports, but was wondering if I can also carry out batch editing on all members (aka children) of a Parent Account at the same time. Alternatively, can I set members to automatically inherit the values of the parent? For example: We have a chain of supermarkets that buy our products. These supermarkets are all members of a Parent Account in our CRM. We release a new product and all of the member stores wish to

        • Edit Legend of Chart

          I would like to edit the legend of the chart. Every time I enable the legend, I get a very unhelpful (1), and when I try to type to change to what I would desire, nothing happens, which is very frustrating. I've gone through your online tutorials and nowhere can I find a legend settings button. This seems a simple fix, where can edit the legend? Thanks.

        • Extended timeouts for APIs beyond 40secs for to accomodate LLMs

          A 40 second max response time for API calls is fine when connecting to most services, however is unsuitable when dealing with LLMs (ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini) where the response timing is very uncertain. Is there any way to increase this? It would be great

        • Deletion of Zoho Account

          To whom it may concern, Good day, My account has been created incorrectly in Zoho and I am not able to join my Company's Zoho account - attached screenshot for your kind reference Alphatronmarine - Portal Kindly advise procedure to delete this current

        • Workflow for deposit to bank account

          Hello, Is it possible to make a workflow when a deposit is made to your bank account which is coupled to Zoho books? I want Zoho to sent an email each time a deposit is made to our bank account via a workflow. Regards, Steven

        • Marking Retainer invoice paid through Deluge

          Hey Everyone, We have a scenario where we are collecting deposit payments on our website. Now, in zoho books, we need to create a retainer invoice and mark it as paid automatically using deluge just like we can mark normal invoices as paid. I have tried

        • Export Invoices to XML file

          Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities

        • Create a new record in custom module vi custom button

          I have zoho books premium plan . I have 2 custom modules in zoho books. 1. Goods Receipt 2. Delivery Order, I need to select multiple records from Goods Receipt and create a new Delivery order from these multiple records. (like multilple sales order into

        • Profile date settings

          At present I have "EEE, MMMM dd, yyyy" but this takes an exessive amount of column space, we should be able to input our own format. I would like to use "EEE, MMM dd, yy" - a much shorter version of the above but with the same abbreviated info, requiring

        • Delivery Method Field in Sales Order Module

          In Books and in Sales orders, the "Delivery Method" field seems to allow for anything to be entered and it seems to store those entries for future use.  When you chose to convert a sales order to a purchase order, the related field is now called "Shipment

        • Editing / Removing stages for pipeline

          Hello, I'm trying to create a new pipeline. I created a new stage and made an error when entering the probability. How can I edit fields in stages that I created? Can I delete these stages from "Add Stages" list?

        • Dynamically Filter User Lookup in CRM Subform

          We have a subform called Pricing Calculator in the Zoho CRM Opportunity module and need some assistance. Current Setup: First column: Picklist (Level) Second column: User Lookup field When a Level is selected, we want the User lookup to display only users

        • Next Page