FAQs

Why should I use online booking?

We understand that your business serves your customers well already but when you don’t offer online booking then you inconvenience your customers by forcing them to wait until your business is open to book their appointment. Some customers are also very reluctant to phone a business and prefer the ease of use of online booking.

Timeline Booking offers your customers the flexibility to book their appointments how, and when they choose. After an appointment is booked the customer will receive an email which they can use to automatically add the appointment to their calendar. They will receive a text reminder of the appointment also which may reduce no-shows.

How will I need to change the way I run my business?

Timeline Booking was made to fit right into the way you already run your business. We know you have your own routines, so we worked hard to make sure using our app won’t change much about how you do things.

The only thing we need is for all bookings—whether online, in person, or over the phone—to be added to the app. This helps us keep track of your schedule and available time slots. Don’t worry, we’ve made it quick and easy. You can use a computer, tablet, or phone, and it only takes a few clicks. When you do this your customer will get an email with the details and a text reminder before their appointment.

If you already use a calendar like Google Calendar, Timeline Booking can sync with it so all your appointments are in one place.

Why should I choose Timeline Booking instead of any other online booking service.

Timeline Booking is a service which offers calendar management for you and your team. It doesn’t work in other areas of your business by offering services like inventory or payroll. This allows Timeline Booking to be optimized for simplicity offering a clear intuitive interface for you and your customers. And did we mention, it is super-fast too.

Because Timeline Booking focuses on a single area this means we can run as a very efficient operation and keep prices low for you. The monthly charge of $30 covers as many team members as you need and there are no additional charges for sending texts to customers.

If you need a tool to manage more than just your calendar there are many products out there which can support your business, and if you outgrow Timeline Booking you can export your data for no charge.

How can I import my existing appointments?

If you use Google Calendar or Apple Calendar to manage your existing appointments then importing your existing appointments is easy. If you use another computer program to manage your appointments then it may be possible also, contact support by using the “Contact” link above and we can investigate what steps may be necessary. We can import any calendar exported as an ical file.

Using Google Calendar

• In the “My calendars” section of Google Calendar right click on the calendar you store your appontments in and choose “Settings and sharing”

• On the Settings page select “Import & export”

• On the Import and Export page click “Export”

• This will download a file to your computer or phone. You can use this in the “Import Appointments” section of Timeline Booking which you can access in the Welcome steps, or by choosing “Appointment List” from the Timeline Booking application.

Using Apple Calendar

• In Apple Calendar select “File” then “Export” then “Export…”

• Choose a filename and directory to store the exported calendar

• This will download a file to your computer or phone. You can use this in the “Import Appointments” section of Timeline Booking which you can access in the Welcome steps, or by choosing “Appointment List” from the Timeline Booking application.

How can I block my calendar so my customers can’t book my time

Your Timeline Booking calendar will automatically sync with the booking page so that any time you block off in your, or your team’s calendar is unavailable for your customers to book.

You can book time in your Timeline Booking calendar by simply clicking on the time period you wan to book and selecting the appointment type “Other” that way you will be able to block off as much time as you need. If you wish to block off time for absence due to vacation or sick time you just need to block off the time covered by working hours.

Your customers will never be able to book time in your calendar that is outside of your configured working hours.

How can I import my existing customers?

If you have your customers stored in a spreadsheet like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel you can import them into Timeline by uploading a CSV File. This is best done using a laptop, but it will work on a phone too.

Steps

1. Export your data as a CSV file. In Google Sheets you can do this by selecting File->Download->Comma Separated Values (.csv)

2. Add to Timeline Booking by navigating to the ‘Customers’ page and selecting “Import Existing Customers”

3. When importing a customer file you will need to tell Timeline Booking which column stores which data. You must specify which column stores the First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number and notes. If you do not have columns that store this data then you can add an empty column to the spread sheet

   If you need any help with this, or any other process feel free to get in touch using the “Contact Us” form.