How to set up a complete online booking system for your business

Account, services, providers, public page and a simple daily routine, set up one step at a time.

Special questions

A complete online booking system covers the whole path: the client finds a free time and asks for it, you confirm, and the appointment goes ahead. With 4appointments that takes a handful of steps. Be clear from the start about what it doesn’t do: it sends no emails or messages to clients and takes no online payments, so those parts stay with you.

Step 1 – Create your account. The first 12 months are free, no card needed, on all plans, which run from €1 to €8 a month. Then fill in your business identity under Branding: the name, a logo (given as a web address) and a primary colour.

Step 2 – Add your services (name, duration and price) and your providers with weekly schedules, then use “Availability” for exceptions, days off and blocks. Choose notice rules for the whole page and, if needed, for single services.

Step 3 – Share the booking link. Copy the link for the business, or the separate link for each provider, and use it on your website, in your Instagram bio and in messages. Clients book without an account, any hour of the day. Check the page’s language before you share it, as it depends on the link.

Step 4 – Work the pending requests. Every public booking starts as pending and holds the slot. Confirm or reject it in the Bookings section and tell the client yourself. Then follow the results in the reports, which show confirmed, cancelled and pending bookings and estimated revenue from list prices.

Key points

  • ✓The first 12 months are free, with no card, then plans from €1 to €8 a month
  • ✓Public page, calendar, team permissions and reports in one tool
  • ✓You confirm each request and inform clients yourself

Common questions

What does an online booking system cost?+

With 4appointments the first 12 months are free on all plans, with no card. After that the plans are €1, €2, €4 and €8 a month, and their limits are panel users, companies, storage and emails. There’s no permanent free plan.

Can I move across from another booking system?+

You can import a one-off .ics file: events starting within the next 60 days, up to 2 MB, arrive as confirmed bookings with the client’s name as the title. Add your client list by hand.

More guides to read

Ready to get your booking system live?

Create your account, add your services and share the link. The first 12 months are free, no card needed.

Give 4appointments a go