How to define your booking rules
This is one workflow of a simple application, not a link to an external calendar and not online payments. Choosing an appointment still involves several decisions: what is being booked, how long it takes, who needs to be available and how many people can attend at once. Clear rules make an understandable flow possible. The starting price of this application is from 19,000 CZK.
Define what uses time and capacity
For each bookable service, note its duration, the person required and any space or equipment needed. Include preparation and finishing time. A one-hour appointment may occupy a longer slot if it is followed by cleaning or travel.
For a group service, set the number of places. For an individual service, check whether different offerings share the same room or staff member. A slot is available only when every required resource is available at the same time.
Describe a typical week and its exceptions
Write down normal working hours, breaks and days when bookings are not accepted. List the exceptions as well: holidays, closures or a one-off extension of availability. Decide who will enter these changes.
Set the booking window too. How close to the start can someone book, and how far ahead should availability be shown? Customers need to see slots that can actually be accepted. The brief should therefore also cover manually blocked times and bookings made through other channels.
Decide how confirmation and changes work
Clarify whether customers create a confirmed booking immediately or submit a request for your approval. Name the individual statuses and the information they should see after making their choice. The same status must also be clear in the operational overview.
Describe rescheduling and cancellation separately: who can make changes, by when and whether further confirmation is required. Clarify what happens to the released slot and who is notified. The operator should set the specific conditions to suit the way they work.
Run through a sample day
Sketch a sample day on paper. Include a short and a long service, a break, an occupied room and a change in working hours. Then try to add another appointment. In each case, it should be clear why it can or cannot be accepted.
Also test two people trying to book the same place at once, or a cancellation shortly before the start. These cases help refine the rules before they become part of the interface. The result is a short list of services, availability, capacities, statuses and responsibilities that the design can build on.
Have your own booking rules? Describe the usual process and the situations you need to handle.