Create walk-ins and appointments from the desk, then change, cancel and check out

This article covers everything you do at the desk with a single booking: creating it, giving it a client, moving it, cancelling it and checking it out with a tip.

There are two kinds of desk booking, and you choose between them on the same sheet:

• Walk-in. Someone is standing in front of you. You can attach an existing client, create a new one, or leave the client blank. A walk-in with no client still takes the slot and shows on the diary as a walk-in, not as an empty hole.
• Appointment. A booking for someone who is not there yet. It always needs a client, either an existing one or a new one you create on the spot.

Both are marked as booked at the desk. You cannot change that later, and you cannot turn a walk-in into an appointment or the other way round. Each booking has one service and one team member. For several people arriving together, see the group booking article.

1. A team member with working hours and a service they perform. Without them the diary has no column to book into. See the appointment book article.
2. For an appointment, the client's name, and ideally a phone number. Clients are searched by name or phone. A phone number is optional, but it lets you find the person again quickly.
3. The phone with its country code if it is not a number from the United States. A number typed without a country code is read as a number from the United States (+1). For a Mexican number, type it starting with +52.
4. Permission to change the diary. Staff without permission to delete cannot remove an appointment. They cancel it instead, as described below.

Create a booking

1. Open the diary for the location. Click a free cell in the column of the person you want. You can also press Book in the quick booking line while it is empty, or, on a tablet or phone, press Book in the header. The booking sheet opens, titled Book at with the location name. Starting it from a button opens it on Walk-in, with a team member and a start time already chosen.
2. At the top of the sheet choose Walk-in or Appointment. The third choice, Block time, makes that time unavailable instead of booking it; the block time article explains it.
3. Under Client, type a name or a phone number to search. Pick the person from the list. Each match shows the phone, how many visits they have had ("no visits yet" or "6 visits") and the date of the last one. Cancelled appointments do not count as visits.
4. If the person is new, type the name and press Create “name” as new client. You can fill in Phone (optional). The sheet then says the client will be added when you book. Tick WhatsApp appointment messages only if the client has agreed to receive them. Without a phone number the client is created with just the name.
5. If the phone number belongs to another client in your company, the sheet refuses it. Search for that person instead, because two clients cannot share a number.
6. Under Service, choose the service. Only services the chosen team member performs are listed, and the one you pick shows its length and price. Under Staff, choose or change the team member. When this client has been booked before for that service, their usual team member is suggested with the note Usual for this service. It is only a suggestion and you can choose anyone else.
7. On one row you see Day, Start and Check. Day shows the day you opened the sheet from and cannot be edited there. Set Start with the time control. It moves in five-minute steps in the location's time, so 7:15 is possible. A value that is not on a five-minute mark is rounded to the nearest one. A few nearby free start times appear as buttons of the same size, and only times inside working hours with nobody else booked are offered.
8. Optionally enter a Line discount as a Percent or Amount (MXN) with its Discount value, and a promo code in Promo code. The two sit side by side. A code that is not valid stops the booking.
9. Press Check if you want to know before booking. A green sentence says the slot fits (naming the person and the time window, with no conflicts). An amber sentence says why it does not, naming the constraint, such as the person's hours that day, a closure, a block or a room already taken, and gives the next free time when there is one. Checking creates nothing.
10. At the bottom, Due at checkout shows the amount. Press Confirm (or Cancel to close the sheet). The booking appears on the diary at once.

If you pick Walk-in and type a name but neither choose an existing client nor press Create “name” as new client, the sheet asks you to select or create a client and books nothing. To book a walk-in with no client, leave the name empty. In Appointment mode the client is always required.

Give an open booking a client, or change it

1. Click the block on the diary. The appointment opens.
2. In the Client section, search or type a name, choose the person or press Create “name” as new client, and press Save.
3. The booking now carries that client's name, on the block and on the record. Its staff, time and the fact that it was a walk-in or an appointment stay the same.
4. You can change to another client of the same company later in the same way. You cannot take the client off a booking that already has one.
5. The name saved on the booking is a copy taken when you save. If you rename the client afterwards, old bookings keep the name they had.

Move a booking to another time or person

1. Open the booking from the diary.
2. Change Start or Staff, then press Save. The Start field in this sheet is plain text showing the date and time in a technical format, so edit only the digits you need.
3. The new time is checked the same way as a new booking. If it overlaps another booking for that person, or falls outside working hours or time off, it is refused, the message tells you why, and the original booking stays exactly as it was.

Cancel a booking

1. Open the booking and, if you want, write a reason in Cancel reason.
2. Press Cancel visit. The appointment is not deleted. It stays in your records as cancelled, so you keep the history, and the slot becomes free again.
3. If waiting clients match the freed slot, the sheet lists them so you can offer it from the Fill panel below the diary.
4. If the client did not turn up, press Mark as no-show instead (offered only for a booking that is still booked). It records the no-show and applies the no-show fee configured for the location. If a fee is owed and could not be collected, the sheet shows Retry fee capture.

Check in, check out and add a tip

1. When the client arrives, open the booking and press Check in. The block then shows In chair.
2. At the end, enter the tip in Tip (MXN). The field uses your company currency, so 50 is 50 pesos.
3. If the client agreed to photos, the sheet has Visit photos with Add before and Add after. If there is no photo consent on file, the sheet instead says "No photo consent on file for this client — upload is blocked." with record consent now, and you cannot upload until you record it.
4. If the location has a Google review link set up, a tick box reads Include a Google review link in the thank-you message. It starts ticked. The thank-you is sent once, as part of checkout, and does not depend on the client having agreed to promotions. Untick it to send the thank-you without the link.
5. Press Checkout. The tip is saved with the checkout itself; there is no separate step afterwards. You can also add a retail product, a package or other items on the same sheet, and print a Receipt.
6. The sheet then confirms Checked out — with the client's name, the service, its length and who did it. It lists the Service line, a Package redeemed line with what is left afterwards when a package was used, and Due now. A line tells you whether the thank-you went out with or without the review link.
7. Press Rebook followed by the client's name and now to book the same service with the same person, or Done to close.

Several services in one visit

1. In the booking sheet, choose the first service and who does it. Press Add service to add another, with its own person. You can take up to 4 services.
2. Each service starts when the one before ends, plus its cleanup time. Below you see the total duration, the price and the visit's start and end.
3. Press Book. If one service does not fit, Zelun books none and tells you which one failed. Promo codes and line discounts are not used with several services.
4. On the diary, the services of one visit carry a link icon. If you move only one, the others stay where they are: the service before it shows N min gap or Overlaps N min so you can decide.
5. At checkout, open any of the services: you see them all and enter one tip for each person. It is one payment, one receipt and one invoice; the deposit is deducted once.

• A client you attach or create becomes a normal client record. It carries a phone number if you entered one, and clients you create from the desk can be found again by name or phone.
• If the booking has a client with the right messaging consent, they receive the usual confirmation and reminder messages. WhatsApp appointment messages is off unless you tick it.
• A client who books on your booking page uses their phone number, and if it matches a client you already have, the booking goes to that same record.
• A cancelled booking frees the slot, so it can be booked again from the desk or from the booking page.
• A client who is checked out receives one thank-you message. It carries the review link only if you left the tick box on.
• Tips and discounts you enter at the desk are part of the visit's checkout. If your business issues CFDI invoices, tips are not part of the invoice.

• Typing a name in Walk-in and pressing Confirm. The sheet will not book a free-text name. Pick or create the client, or clear the name.
• Choosing Appointment without a client. An appointment always needs one. Create the client right in the sheet.
• Typing a Mexican number without +52. It is read as a number from the United States, so the client will not be found by their real phone later.
• Expecting to delete a booking. Cancelling keeps the record. This is intentional, so the history and any fees stay on file.
• Looking for the photo upload and finding a warning. Without photo consent on file the upload is blocked. Record the consent first, from the warning or on the client's record.
• Multiplying the tip by 100. Tip (MXN) is typed in your company currency.
• Expecting a failed move to change something. A refused reschedule leaves the original exactly as it was.
• Trying to remove a client from a booking. You can attach or change a client, not remove one.
• Pressing Cancel visit for a no-show. Use Mark as no-show so the no-show fee rules apply.

The appointment book, clients and group booking articles go with this one.