The essential settings you should not skip

The settings page is a labyrinth, and most of it can wait. These eight configurations should be locked in before you share a single booking link, because if any of them is wrong, your first clients find out before you do.

Work through them in this order. The whole list takes about half an hour, and it's the difference between a launch that feels professional and one where you spend the first week apologizing.

The essential eight

• Cancellation policy: how much notice do you need?
• Buffer time: the gap between appointments.
• Booking horizon: how far ahead clients can book.
• Confirmation email: turned on, with your business phone in the body.
• 24-hour reminder: turned on.
• Review request: turned on, sent after an appointment is completed.
• Time zone: set correctly before the first booking.
• Business address: shown on confirmations.

1. Time zone

Start here, because everything else depends on it. Your time zone decides when your opening hours begin, when reminders go out and what time a client sees on their confirmation. Set it before the first booking comes in.

In the United States this is easy to get wrong if you're anywhere near a time zone line, or if you set up your account while traveling. Check it against where your clients actually come to you, not where your laptop happens to be.

Daylight saving time catches people out too. In the United States it begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November, and it isn't observed in Hawaii or in Arizona, apart from the Navajo Indian Reservation. If you're in Arizona, your offset from neighboring states changes twice a year even though your own clock doesn't, which matters if you serve clients across a state line. Whatever your state, look over the week either side of each change to make sure your early and late appointments still sit where you expect.

2. Cancellation policy

Decide how much notice you need for a cancellation or reschedule, and write it down before anyone books. A day's notice is a common starting point for many service businesses; longer services and specialist appointments often ask for more. The point is that clients see the policy before they book, not after they've broken it. Our guide to handling cancellations and reschedules covers how to choose.

3. Buffer time

Buffer time is the gap between appointments: cleanup, reset, a few notes, a glass of water. Set it too short and you run late by mid-morning; set it too long and you're turning away bookings you had time for. Time yourself on a few real appointments and use that number, as described in how much buffer time to leave.

4. Booking horizon

The booking horizon is how far ahead clients can book. Too short and your regulars can't lock in their standing appointment; too long and you end up with bookings months out, before you've planned your vacation or changed your hours. Pick a horizon you're confident you can honor, and extend it once your schedule settles.

5. Confirmation email

Turn it on, and put your business phone number in the body. A confirmation is the first thing a new client receives from you, and it's what they'll look for when they're running late or can't find your door. If the only way to reach you is to reply to an email, you'll get the late-running message after the appointment has already started.

6. 24-hour reminder

Turn on the reminder email that goes out 24 hours before each appointment. It's one of the simplest ways to cut no-shows: a reminder the day before gives a client who has forgotten, or whose plans have changed, time to reschedule rather than simply not turning up.

7. Review request

Turn on review requests, which are sent after an appointment is completed. Reviews matter most when you're new and nobody has heard of you, and the best time to ask is right after a good appointment. This is also why marking appointments complete matters: a request is sent after completion, so an appointment left unfinished in the calendar is a review you never asked for. See review requests done the right way.

8. Business address

Your address shows on confirmations, so make it the address clients should actually come to. Use the full US format, including the suite or unit number, the city, the state and the ZIP code. If your entrance is hard to find, or parking is limited, add a line about it in your confirmation details. A client circling the block is a client arriving late and stressed.

If you're a mobile business that travels to clients, make sure your address doesn't suggest people should come to you.

Test it on yourself before you share the link

Once the eight are set, book an appointment as if you were a client. Use a personal email address and go through the whole thing:

• Does the time on the booking page match your time zone?
• Does the confirmation email arrive, and does it show your phone number and address correctly?
• Is the cancellation policy visible before you confirm?
• Does the gap before and after the appointment match your buffer?

Then cancel the test booking. Ten minutes spent being your own first client catches the mistakes a real client would otherwise find for you. Our first booking checklist walks through a fuller version.

Everything else can wait

Everything else can be adjusted after you have real clients using the platform. Branding, extra services, email campaigns and the finer points of your availability are all worth time, but none of them will hurt you on day one. The eight above, if wrong, will bite immediately.