Quick Start Guide

Get your booking system up and running. By the end of this guide, you'll have a working booking page ready to accept appointments.

Step 1: Company Profile

First, set up your business information. This appears on your booking page and in customer communications.

1. Go to Settings in the left sidebar
2. Select Company Profile
3. Fill in your details:

Personal Details:

• Full Name — Your name as the account owner
• Email — Your login email address

Company Information:

• Company Logo — Select from your media library (appears on your booking page)
• Company Name — How your business appears to customers on the booking page (optional)

Contact Information:

• Contact Email — The email address where you'll receive all booking notifications (required)
• Phone Number — For customer enquiries (optional)
• Mobile Number — Alternative contact number (optional)
• Additional Notification Recipients — Add extra email addresses that will also receive booking notifications (optional)

Address (optional):

• Address Line 1 & 2, City, State/Province, Postal Code, Country

4. Click Save Changes

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Step 2: Create Services

Now add the services you offer. You need at least one service before customers can book.

1. Go to Services in the left sidebar
2. Click Add Service
3. Fill in your service details:

Basic Info:

• Service Image — Select a photo from your media library to display on the booking page (optional)
• Service Name — What customers will see (e.g., "Haircut", "60 Min Massage", "Initial Consultation")
• Short Description — Describe what's included (optional)
• Duration — How long the appointment takes in minutes (default: 30)
• Price — What you charge for this service. Leave empty for free services
• Old Price — Show a crossed-out original price, useful for promotions or discounts (optional)
• Require Deposit — Toggle on to require customers to pay upfront when booking. Choose between a fixed amount or a percentage of the service price

Advanced Settings:

• Availability Template — Choose a specific schedule for this service, or leave as default to use your main availability
• Booking Form — Select a form customers must fill out when booking this service (e.g., consultation questionnaire, health form). Uses the default form if none is selected
• Assign Agents — Choose which staff members can perform this service. All toggled-on agents will show as available for booking
• Assign to Categories — Group this service under one or more categories to organise your booking page
• Calendar Colour — Pick a colour to identify this service on your calendar view
• Buffer Time — Add preparation or cleanup time before or after appointments (None, 5, 10, 15, 30 min, or 1 hour). This blocks the extra time on your calendar without the customer seeing it
• Active Status — Toggle off to hide this service from your booking page without deleting it

4. Click Create Service

After creation, you can also configure:

• Duration & Price Variants — Offer the same service at different durations and price points (e.g., "30 Min — £40" and "60 Min — £65"). Customers choose their preferred option when booking. Variants can be reordered by dragging
• Cancellation & No-Show Policy — Set rules for late cancellations and no-shows on a per-service basis:
  • Cancellation window — How far in advance customers must cancel (e.g., 24 hours before)
  • Late cancellation fee — Charge a percentage or fixed amount if customers cancel within the window
  • No-show fee — Charge a percentage or fixed amount when customers don't show up
  • Fee calculation base — Calculate fees based on the service price only, or include any extras
  • Card validation message — Custom message shown to customers explaining the policy
  • Grace period — How long to wait after the appointment time before marking as a no-show (default: 120 minutes)

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Step 3: Set Availability

Tell Syntra when you're available to take bookings. This prevents customers from booking during your off-hours.

1. Go to Availability in the left sidebar
2. You'll see the Weekly Schedule tab with days Monday through Sunday
3. Click Add Hours to set your working hours for each day:
   • Select the day of the week
   • Set your start time and end time (in 30-minute intervals)
4. To add breaks within a day, toggle Block Time on:
   • Set your block start and block end times (must be within your working hours)
   • Click Add More Block Periods if you have multiple breaks
5. Click Save

Example schedule:

Day	Hours	Break
Monday	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM	12:00 – 1:00 PM
Tuesday	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM	12:00 – 1:00 PM
Wednesday	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM	12:00 – 1:00 PM
Thursday	9:00 AM – 7:00 PM	12:00 – 1:00 PM
Friday	9:00 AM – 5:00 PM	12:00 – 1:00 PM
Saturday	10:00 AM – 2:00 PM	—
Sunday	Closed	—

Beyond the basics:

The Availability section also includes Date Exceptions (for holidays, special hours, or days off) and Templates (reusable schedules you can assign to specific services). These are covered in the full availability guide.

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Step 4: Your Booking Page

Your booking page is where customers go to book appointments online. Syntra creates this automatically based on your services and availability.

To find and preview your booking page:

1. Go to Widgets in the left sidebar
2. Select Booking Page
3. Click Preview to see your live booking page in a new tab

Key customisation options:

From the Booking Page settings, you can configure:

• Styling — Set your primary brand colour, choose a font (System Default, Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, or Poppins), and add custom CSS if needed
• General — Adjust logo height, show/hide your phone number, enable WhatsApp contact, and customise labels (e.g., "Therapist", "Doctor", "Stylist")
• Services — Choose single or two-column layout, show/hide images, durations, and descriptions, and enable category filtering (as tabs, pills, or a dropdown)
• Agents — Show a "Meet Our Team" section on the booking page with team member photos and job titles
• Reviews — Display customer reviews in a carousel or list format

Direct booking links:

The Direct Links tab provides shareable URLs for each service, variant, category, and bundle. Use these in emails, social media, or QR codes to send customers straight to a specific service.

Embedding on your website:

If you want to embed booking on an external website, go to Widgets and create a new widget. Two types are available:

• Page Embed — Embeds the full booking interface directly on your page
• Booking Button — Adds a button that opens the booking interface in a popup

Each widget provides a code snippet you can copy and paste into your website.

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Step 5: Test a Booking

Before going live, test the booking process yourself to make sure everything works.

1. Go to Widgets > Booking Page and click Preview to open your booking page
2. Select a service
3. Choose a date and time (you should only see slots within your availability)
4. Fill in customer details (use your own email)
5. Complete the booking

Check that you received:

• A booking confirmation email at your Contact Email
• The booking appears in your Bookings section in the dashboard

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Going Live Checklist

Before you start accepting real bookings, make sure you've completed these steps:

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What's Next?

Now that your booking system is set up, explore these features to get the most out of Syntra: