Appointment Scheduler & Calendar
The intuitive calendar at the heart of your salon. Drag-and-drop appointments, multiple views, and smart scheduling that prevents conflicts.
What is scheduler?
A salon appointment scheduler is the interactive calendar at the heart of your booking software. Bella Booking's scheduler lets you view appointments by day, 3 days, week, month, or agenda, drag-and-drop to reschedule (or move an appointment to any week by picking the new time on the live calendar), and see your entire team's availability in colour-coded columns. It prevents double-bookings automatically, supports resource views for rooms and equipment, and includes keyboard shortcuts for power users who want to navigate without a mouse.
An appointment scheduler is the calendar tool at the centre of your salon software — where you create, view, and manage every client booking. The scheduler is where you manage your day-to-day appointments. View your calendar by day, 3 days, week, month, or agenda. Drag appointments to reschedule, move them to any week by tapping the new time directly on the calendar, resize to adjust duration, and see your entire team's availability at a glance. Colour-coded appointments make it easy to identify team members. Block out time for breaks, meetings, or personal tasks. The scheduler automatically prevents double-bookings and shows conflicts before they happen.
What's included
Key capabilities of scheduler
Multiple calendar views
Switch between Day, 3 days, Week, Month, and Agenda views. The 3 days view is the readable middle ground on a phone — three full-width columns instead of seven squeezed ones.
Drag-and-drop rescheduling
Move appointments by dragging them to a new time or team member. Resize appointments to adjust duration.
Reschedule to any week — pick the new time on your calendar
Move a client to any week without leaving your calendar: open the appointment, tap Reschedule, choose Pick on calendar, browse to the week you want, and tap the new time on the live grid. Suggested times ("Next free time", "Same time, a week later") answer the common phone calls in one tap, and a per-move toggle controls whether the client is told.
Readable week view on your phone
On a phone the week keeps full-width day columns and pans sideways — swipe across all seven days instead of squinting at compressed slivers.
Appointment check-in
Mark a client as arrived — and their service as in progress — straight from the scheduler or the appointments list, so the whole team can see who is waiting and who is being looked after. The assigned team member is notified the moment their client is checked in, the arrived and in-progress markers appear across the day, 3 days, week, month and agenda views, and a state-aware undo fixes a mis-tap. Check-in never changes the appointment's status, so your checkout flow works exactly as before. Who can check clients in follows your team permissions.
Colour-coded appointments
Each team member has their own colour. See at a glance who is working on what appointment.
Service colours on the timeline
Assign a colour to each service and see it on the scheduler timeline. Instantly distinguish haircuts from colour treatments, facials from massages — without reading the label.
Team member filtering
Show or hide team members to focus on specific schedules. Switch to resource view to see columns by room or equipment instead.
Resource view
Switch the scheduler to group columns by resources (rooms, chairs, equipment) instead of team members. Toggle individual resources on and off — just like team member columns. See which rooms or equipment are booked at any time.
Blocked time management
Block out time for breaks, meetings, training, or personal tasks. Set one-off or recurring blocked times. Blocked time is also visible on the Team schedule grid for roster planning.
Visual buffer blocks
Buffer time before and after appointments appears as hatched blocks on the scheduler. See at a glance where setup and cleanup time is reserved, keeping the calendar accurate without cluttering it.
Conflict prevention
The system warns you before creating overlapping appointments. Smart scheduling prevents double-bookings.
Quick appointment creation
Click any time slot to create a new appointment. Select client, services, and team member in seconds.
Find a time
Start with the client and services, then browse available time slots across multiple days. Ideal for phone bookings where the client requests a specific service without a preferred date. Select a slot and the appointment form is pre-filled automatically.
Intelligent gap-fill scheduling
Available time slots are ranked by how well they fill gaps in your schedule. Slots that fit perfectly between existing appointments are labelled "Best fit", "Great fit", or "Good fit" — helping you maximise your team's occupancy without manual effort.
Keyboard shortcuts
Press N for a new appointment, F to find a time, Escape to close panels, and Cmd+Enter to save. Power users can navigate the scheduler without touching the mouse.
Appointment search
Search appointments by client name, phone, email, team member, status, or date range. Find any appointment instantly.
Walk-in handling
Quickly add walk-in clients to your schedule. No booking required - just create the appointment on the spot.
Appointment series (recurring)
Create a series of recurring appointments in one step. Set a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly pattern, preview every planned date with conflict detection, skip clashes, and control client notifications. Each instance is independent and can be rescheduled or cancelled on its own.
Quick rebook
Rebook clients for their next appointment in one click. Suggest times based on their service history.
Multi-service grouping
Appointments with multiple services are grouped together on the calendar. Hover to see all services in a tooltip.
Activity logging
Every appointment action is logged — created, rescheduled, cancelled, confirmed, checked out. See a full audit trail of who did what and when.
Working hours enforcement
Enable working hours enforcement to block appointments outside team member schedules — cells are dimmed, clicks are blocked, and the submit button is disabled. When enforcement is off, a warning is shown but you can still proceed.
Client overlap warnings
The availability panel checks for client conflicts before booking. If the client already has an appointment at the same time, a warning is shown so you can avoid double-booking.
Time grid zoom
Set how finely the day is divided into rows — 60, 30, 15, 10, or 5 minutes. Zoom out to fit more of your day on screen, or zoom in to place short services precisely.
Client contact on events
See client phone number and email directly on scheduler events. Quickly contact clients without opening the appointment.
Manual deposit recording
Record deposits collected outside the system (cash, bank transfer, etc.). Deposit amounts and payment methods display on scheduler events.
Customisable scheduler colours
Choose a background colour for each appointment status (confirmed, pending, completed, cancelled), for clients who are waiting or in progress, for blocked time, and for hours you are closed. Personalise the scheduler to match your workflow and read your day at a glance.
Silent cancellation
Cancel an appointment without notifying the client. Useful when cancelling on behalf of the client or correcting mistakes — no unwanted messages sent.
Cancellation reasons and notes
Record a reason and optional notes when cancelling an appointment. Track why appointments are cancelled for reporting and follow-up.
Fortnightly recurring blocked times
Create blocked times that repeat every two weeks. Ideal for fortnightly team meetings, training sessions, or alternating schedules.
Refresh button
Manually refresh the scheduler with a single click in the header. Instantly pull the latest appointments and availability without reloading the page.
Deposit override
Override the default deposit amount on individual appointments. Set a custom deposit when the standard amount does not suit a particular booking.
Incomplete bookings
View online bookings that clients started but did not complete. The Follow-ups panel shows incomplete sessions alongside the waitlist, with options to dismiss or send a reminder.
Real-time notifications
New appointments, cancellations, and waitlist entries push to your dashboard instantly via live notifications — no page refresh needed.
How the scheduler works
Open the scheduler
The scheduler is your home screen. See today's appointments as soon as you log in.
Choose your view
Switch between Day, 3 days, Week, Month, or Agenda view depending on what you need to see.
Manage appointments
Click to create new appointments. Drag to reschedule. Click existing appointments to view or edit details.
Complete appointments
Mark appointments as complete, process payments, and rebook clients for their next visit.
Plan availability
Feature
Starter
Professional
Prices shown in your local currency at checkout.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see multiple team members at once?
Yes. The scheduler shows all team members side by side. You can filter to show specific team members or view everyone at once.
How do I reschedule an appointment?
For nearby moves, drag the appointment to a new time slot or team member column. To move it further out — including a different week — open the appointment and tap Change: take a suggested time ("Next free time", "Same time, a week later"), browse free slots by week, or choose Pick on calendar and tap the new time directly on the live calendar. A per-move toggle controls whether the client is notified.
Can I block out time for breaks?
Yes. Create blocked time for breaks, meetings, training, or any other non-appointment time. Blocked times can be one-off or recurring.
What calendar views are available?
Day view (single day, all team members), 3 days view (three consecutive days — the most readable multi-day view on a phone), Week view (7 days), Month view (calendar grid), and Agenda view (list format). Switch between views with one click.
Does the scheduler work on mobile?
Yes. The scheduler is fully responsive and works as a Progressive Web App (PWA). Install Bella Booking on your phone's home screen for app-like access. On a phone, the 3 days view gives you three readable columns and the week view keeps full-width columns that pan sideways, so multi-day views stay readable. Manage appointments from your phone or tablet with touch-friendly controls.
Can I view the schedule by room or equipment?
Yes. Switch to resource view in the filter dropdown. Each resource becomes its own column showing appointments assigned to it. Toggle individual resources on and off.
What is Find a time?
Find a time is an availability-first booking path. Instead of clicking a calendar slot first, you select the client and services, then browse available slots across multiple days. The system ranks slots that fill gaps in the schedule higher, so you can maximise occupancy. Open it from the + New dropdown or press F.
Are there keyboard shortcuts?
Yes. Press N for a new appointment, F to open Find a time, Escape to close open panels, and Cmd+Enter (or Ctrl+Enter) to save the current form.
Can I mark a client as arrived?
Yes. Check a client in from the scheduler or the appointments list and their appointment takes on your "Waiting" colour; start their service and it takes your "In progress" colour, so you can read the floor from across the room instead of hunting for a small icon. Both colours are yours to customise alongside your status colours. The assigned team member is notified when their client is checked in, an undo puts it back if someone taps too early, and your dashboard's Today snapshot shows how many clients are waiting or in progress right now. Check-in does not change the appointment's status, so checkout is unaffected. Who can check clients in is controlled by your team permissions.
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