This section "Dispatching and my Calendar Availabilities" controls how your Booking Page handles :

What time slots your customers see
How soon customers are allowed to book
Whether availability is based on your company schedule or individual service provider
How bookings are assigned to your service provider

If your Booking Page allows customers to select a date and time, these settings determine how that schedule is calculated.

Set up real-time availabilities on your Live Pricing & Real-Time Booking Page

Before You Start

In order to set up real-time availabilities for your booking page, please ensure that your Booking Page includes the Date Selection (Calendar) Section.
Without it, customers cannot choose a time.

Watch a Video:

Step by step process to set real-time availability for your Booking Page:

Go to Advanced Booking Pages. Select the Booking Page you would like to edit from the Booking Pages list.

Go to “Settings” and select “Availabilities and Dispatching Settings.”

Step 1: Configure Calendar Settings

The first option to choose from is whether or not you'd like to use the “Company Calendar” option. Choose this one if you do not have access to Service Providers (Startup Subscription). Otherwise, you have a choice between “Company Calendar” and “Service Providers (Grow Subscription).”

Company Calendar – Availabilities will be based on your Company Calendar (Operating hours). Note that all booking pages share the same Company Calendar, so this option may not be the best for companies with multiple service offerings.

Allow Bookings to Extend Past Operating Hours

If enabled, customers can book appointments that go beyond your business closing time.

Example:

Business closes at 5 PM
A customer wants to book 2-hour service starting at 4 PM
If enabled → booking allowed
If disabled → booking blocked

Most businesses choose No.

Earliest Booking Allowed (Lead Time)

You can also choose how soon you'd like Web bookings to booked from this booking page with you or your team, allowing for as much lead time as you'll need to make sure you're ready for this appointment.

Examples:

As Soon As Possible
In 1 hour
In 4 hours
Tomorrow
Next week

Use this to:

Allow preparation time
Avoid last-minute bookings
Control scheduling pressure

Step 2: Choose Your Availability Strategy

You have three options:

a) No Real-Time Availabilities

Customers submit a request without selecting a time.
You manually schedule afterward.

b) Company Calendar

Availability is based on your main company calendar.

Important: All booking pages share the same company calendar.

Best for:

Small teams
One shared schedule

c) Service Providers (Grow Plan Required)

Availability is based on each individual Service Provider’s working hours.

Best for: Multiple team members

If using Service Providers, ensure their working hours are correctly configured in their profiles.

Step 3: Choose Your Dispatching Strategy

This controls how bookings are assigned to staff. Manual or Automatic Bookings Dispatching to your Service Providers

For those with a Grow or ProMax Subscription that have Service providers, setting your booking page to either Manual Or Automatic dispatching means:

a) Manual Dispatching

Bookings enter your system as Unassigned.

You must:

Open the Dispatcher
Drag and drop bookings
Assign them to a service provider

Best for:

Businesses that review each booking
Teams with complex routing

See the below video of what it looks like to drag and drop bookings from "Unassigned" to "Assigned" in the Dispatcher:

b) Automatic Dispatching

If you choose Automatic dispatching, this means that the web bookings from this booking page will be assigned to your service providers automatically, in the order that you choose here, and will depend on their individual Service Provider Working Hours.

How it works:

System checks availability
Assigns based on priority order
Follows each provider’s working hours

You can drag and drop your Service Providers in order of which you'd like to get the booking first. AND, it's important to understand that if you choose to manage this booking page's availabilities by "Automatic", then these bookings will be set by the service provider's individual Working Hours set in their Service provider profiles.

Click here to learn more about how to make sure your Service Providers are set up with their correct hours.

Best for: