Bookings

Your booking page is your own web address followed by /book. To open it, press Booking in the menu, then Your booking page.

A client picks a session, a date and a time, fills in their details and pays. The time is theirs once the payment goes through.

Setting it up

You need three things before anybody can book.

1. Your sessions

Booking → Sessions is the list of what clients can book.

1. Press Add a session.
2. Fill in the Name (what the client picks, such as "Family portrait"), a

Description, the Length (minutes) and the Price.

1. Fill in the Deposit if you take one. Leave it blank and the client pays the

full price when they book.

1. Under Scheduling, set:

- Gap after (minutes) — time kept free after each booking for packing up and travel; - Book at least (days ahead) — so nobody books you for tomorrow; - Book at most (days ahead) — so nobody books you for three years' time; - Photographs promised within (days) — only for you. The Bookings screen tells you when a gallery is late. Clients never see it.

1. Leave Show this on my booking page ticked, and press Add session.

Once a session is saved, open it again to add Extras somebody can add — a second photographer, an extra hour, an album. Give each one a price and **Most they can have, then press Add it**. Extras appear on the booking page under that session.

To stop offering a session, press Retire next to it. Bookings already made keep it; new clients no longer see it.

2. Your hours

Booking → Hours sets when you can be booked. All times are in your own timezone.

• Weekly hours — choose the Day, type From and To (for example 9am and 5pm), choose which session it Applies to (or All sessions), and press **Add hours**. Add more than one window for a day if you take a lunch break.
• Time off — choose the First day and Last day, add a Reason if you like, and press Block this time. Nothing can be booked in those days.

If you have a team, you can also choose Whose hours each window belongs to.

To stop your personal or family calendar being double-booked, see your other calendars.

3. Payments

Every booking is paid for when it is made, so you need a payment account.

1. Go to Settings → Settings.
2. Under Payments, press Connect payments and follow the steps with Stripe

(the card payment company Meridian uses).

1. If the panel says Stripe still needs something, press **Finish setting up

payments**.

Until this is done, nobody can book. Money goes straight to your own account; we never hold it, and we take no commission.

Your timezone

Times on your booking page are shown in your timezone. To check it, go to Settings → Settings and look at Timezone under Studio. Changes for daylight saving are handled for you.

Charging for travel

Under Settings → Settings → Charging for the drive you can set travel bands — "anything within an hour is included, the Peninsula is $150, past that let's talk".

1. Type What you would call it (for example "Mornington Peninsula").
2. Type the Charge. Type 0 for included.
3. In Places this covers, list the suburbs and towns, separated by commas.
4. Tick Too far to price — ask them to get in touch for places you would rather

discuss.

1. Press Add the band.

Your bands are listed on the booking page under Where is it, so a client sees what travel costs before they pay rather than finding it on an invoice later.

Holding a time while they pay

When a client goes to pay, their time is held for fifteen minutes. Two people cannot pay for the same Saturday, and somebody who gives up at the card form does not block the time all afternoon: the hold is released on its own.

Discount codes

The booking page has a Discount code (optional) box. See discount codes.

It also has a Gift voucher code (optional) box, so somebody given one of your gift vouchers can put it towards what is due when they book.

When somebody books

• The client gets an email confirming the booking, with a calendar attachment so the session goes straight into their own calendar. The email has a link to move the booking themselves (see below).
• The client gets a reminder email the day before.
• You get an email, New booking, with who, what, when and what was paid. Press Open the booking to see it, or reply to the email to write to the client.
• The booking appears under Home → Bookings, the client under Clients → Clients, and anything you have set up under automations starts.

The Bookings screen

Home → Bookings shows:

• Coming up — every future booking. Each one has Plan the day (see [the plan for the day](/run-sheet)), Shot list (see shoot-day tools) and Cancel.
• Photographs still owed — shoots that have happened and are not yet delivered, and how late they are against the promise you set on the session.
• Waiting on a date — people who asked to be told if a full time frees up. They are emailed automatically if it does.
• Past — shoots that have happened.
• Paying in instalments — choose a booking and How they pay, then press **Set up the plan**. The invoice and reminders follow. Nothing falls due in the last fortnight before the shoot.

Cancelling a booking

Press Cancel on the booking and confirm. The client is emailed to say it has been cancelled, with a link to book again. Any automations still waiting for that booking are stopped.

Cancelling does not refund a deposit automatically. If you owe one, refund it from your Stripe account.

You cannot move a booking to a new time from the panel. Ask the client to move it themselves from their confirmation email, or cancel it and have them book again.

What a client can change themselves

A client can move their own booking from the link in their confirmation email, within limits you set under Settings → Settings → Moving a booking:

Set Notice needed to 0 to let clients move a booking at any time. Press Save after changing either.

The deposit stays with the booking. It is not taken again.

When a client cannot move a booking, they are told why — too close to the shoot, already moved too many times, already happened, or not confirmed yet — and asked to get in touch instead. Mini session places always need a word with you.

Both you and the client are emailed when a booking is moved.

To turn self-service moving off entirely, go to **Settings → Settings → What your clients can do, untick Clients can move their own booking, and press Save**.

Mini sessions

A day of short sittings — Christmas minis, headshot afternoons — works differently and has its own screen. See mini sessions.