Set up bookings: services, hours and rules

Aiva Chat takes bookings on phone calls, in the website widget (voice and text chat), on a public booking page, on your Aiva Chat website and from your own dashboard. Every one of these follows the same rules and writes to the same appointment book, so a time can never be booked twice. This guide covers the basics: services, hours and the rules that decide which times are offered. You need at least one assistant.

Start with the Get started checklist

Booking setup opens on Get started, a checklist that ticks itself off from what you've actually set up:

1. Add a service
2. Set your opening hours
3. Publish a booking page
4. Connect your calendar (optional, you can skip it)
5. Choose reminders

Under it, Next steps link to the things you may want later: team and resources, locations, deposits, packages and memberships, and the waitlist. Until setup is done, an empty calendar shows how far you've got, for example "3 of 5 done", with a link back here.

Tell Aiva Chat what kind of business you are

Get started also asks What kind of business are you? You can answer there or later under Booking setup → Business details. Pick from the list (dentist, hair salon, consultant, tutoring, garage and more) or Other. It's optional and only changes words and suggestions, never which features you get.

Once it's set:

• Screens use your words, for example "Dentists" and "Chairs" instead of "Team" and "Rooms". Under Your words you can change each one, such as "Barber" instead of "Stylist".
• Services offers Add typical services for your kind of business. They're added as ordinary services you can edit, and never added twice.
• A new service starts with your kind's usual length, free time and ways it happens (for example video and phone for a consultant).
• Reminders and messages may show a reminder-time tip with Use these times. Nothing changes until you click it.
• Your booking page asks "Choose your dentist" instead of "Who would you like?". The built-in words come in all six booking-page languages; a word you typed yourself shows in English, and other languages keep the neutral question.
• The AI is told your words, so it talks about patients and dentists on calls, in chat and by text.

Confirmations and reminders still say "appointment" whatever your business calls it.

How Aiva Chat decides a time is free

A time is offered only when all of these are true:

• It's inside your opening hours (and the hours of the staff member, room or location it needs, if any).
• It doesn't clash with a confirmed or pending appointment in Aiva Chat.
• It isn't busy in your connected Google Calendar, if you've connected one. If the calendar can't be read at that moment, Aiva Chat refuses the booking rather than guess.

You don't need a calendar to take bookings. Without one, every channel, including phone calls, books on your opening hours and the appointments already in Aiva Chat. Connect one (see Connect Google Calendar) if you also keep appointments in Google Calendar, so those times aren't offered.

The AI and the booking page always keep to these rules. When your team books from the dashboard, a clash only shows a warning, so you can override it on purpose.

1. Set your opening hours

Booking times follow your business hours: the workspace hours, or an assistant's own hours if you've set them. See Set business hours and call routing for where to find them.

In the hours editor you can:

• Turn on Different hours each day, or a break to give each weekday its own hours. Click Add a break to split a day into up to three opening periods, for example 9 to 12 and 1 to 5.
• Use Copy Monday to Tuesday–Friday to fill the week quickly.
• Under Special dates, click Add a date to close for a holiday (tick Closed) or set different hours for one day.

If no business hours are set, booking pages use Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM.

2. Add your services

A service is something customers can book, with its own length and price. Booking pages, the AI and new appointments all use your services. Without any, everything books at the booking page's length.

1. Go to Booking setup → Services.
2. Click Add service.
3. Fill in:
   • Name, and a Description (optional) customers can see.
   • What customers book: Appointment (one customer at a time), Class (set session times with places) or Rental (items rented for days or nights). Classes and rentals have their own guide.
   • Length, plus Free time before and Free time after if you need setup or clean-up time between bookings.
   • Price (optional) and Currency.
   • How it happens: In person, Video call, Phone call, or more than one so customers choose. See Online appointments: video and phone.
   • Offered by: leave as All assistants, or limit the service to certain assistants.
4. Click Add service at the bottom of the page to save it.

Use the switch on a service's row to stop offering it for a while. Deleting a service stops new bookings; appointments already booked keep it.

The same form also holds Pricing and deposits, Needs (staff, rooms or equipment), Offered at (locations), approval and repeating bookings. Each is explained in its own guide below.

3. Choose the booking rules

1. Go to Booking setup → Availability rules.
2. Pick the Assistant the settings are for.
3. Under Times offered, set:
   • Free time before each and Free time after each: the default gap around appointments. A service's own free time wins over these.
   • Start times: how often a time can start, such as Every 15 minutes or Every hour, or Every appointment length.
   • Appointments a day: a daily limit, or No limit.
4. Click Save.

Two more rules are set on each booking page: Minimum notice (how soon a customer can book, from No minimum to 2 days) and Book up to (how many days ahead). See Booking pages and booking on your website.

4. Bookings that need your OK

For services where you want to check each booking first, turn on Needs your OK before it's booked on the service. Customers on the booking page and with the AI then send a request instead of booking. The request holds the time while you decide, and the AI tells the customer it's a request, not a confirmed booking.

• To also require approval for bookings made without a service, open Booking setup → Availability rules and tick Bookings without a service need my OK under Bookings you approve.
• Hold a request for sets how long a request holds its time before it expires: from 2 hours to 6 days. The default is 24 hours.
• Requests show on the calendar, and Waiting for you at the top of the Calendar lists them with Accept and Decline. You can also open one and click Accept to book it, or Decline request. You can add a note under Tell the customer why (optional). The customer hears back either way.

Bookings your team makes in the dashboard never need approval.

5. Book an appointment yourself

1. Go to Bookings → Calendar and click New appointment, or click an empty time in the Week or Day view.
2. Fill in Customer name, Phone, Date, Time and the service. Who it's Handled by and Notes are under More options.
3. Leave Text and email the customer the booking ticked to send a confirmation, and Send this customer appointment reminders ticked for reminders.
4. Click Book appointment. If the time clashes with something, the button changes to Book anyway so you can confirm.

To change an appointment, click it on the calendar. From there you can move it, cancel it, or mark it Mark completed or No-show after the visit. You can also drag a confirmed appointment to a new time on the calendar.

6. Work from the calendar

Bookings → Calendar shows every booking, whichever channel it came from.

• Switch between Calendar (with Month, Week and Day), Agenda (a list) and Table. On a phone it opens in Agenda.
• The summary along the top shows Waiting for you, Today, This week, Upcoming and No-shows this month.
• Filters narrows the view by status, assistant, location, and team member or resource. Each filter shows as a chip you can remove.
• To add time off, filter to one person and click Add time off, or click an empty time in Week or Day view and choose Time off. (This choice appears once you've added team members or resources.)
• Export downloads the bookings that match your filters as a CSV or a calendar (.ics) file.

Troubleshooting

The AI won't offer booking on calls. Check the booking actions are on in the assistant's Actions tab. A calendar isn't required.

A time I expected isn't offered. Check the opening hours for that day (including Special dates), the Minimum notice and Book up to on the booking page, the daily limit, and whether the time is busy in your Google Calendar.

I take bookings outside Aiva Chat. Add them with New appointment so Aiva Chat knows those times are taken, or put them in your connected Google Calendar.

Next steps

• Staff, rooms and locations
• Online appointments: video and phone
• Booking pages and booking on your website
• Reminders and the customer's manage link