Duration and buffer
Forty-five minutes for the appointment and fifteen for the notes. Appointments that touch each other look efficient in a diary and fall apart by eleven.
CENTILIO BOOK / SELL · EMBER
Salon, clinic, studio, tuition centre — the rules are what differ.
Appointment scheduling is not one problem. A salon books a stylist and a chair; a clinic books a clinician and a room; a tuition centre books a batch rather than a person; a garage books a bay and the drive across town. Book has services, buffers, resources and group bookings so that each of those is a setting rather than a different product — and it says plainly where a specialist system is the right answer instead.
9 business typesone product, different rulesno vertical upsell
Product design preview · Book has not shipped. All plans, integrations and screens are proposals.
Book has not shipped yet.
Book is not available yet. These are proposed screens, features and prices—not a beta or a live booking service. The interactive diary uses fictional data; no appointment, message, deposit or customer record leaves this page.
By business
Nine shapes of the same diary.
Salons, spas and barbers
salon booking software A stylist and a chair are two different bookings and Book needs both to be free. Colour takes two hours with a gap in the middle; the gap is bookable and most tools cannot express that.
Physiotherapy, chiropractic and massage
therapy scheduling software Forty-five minutes for an assessment, thirty for a follow-up, fifteen minutes afterwards to write it up. The buffer is not padding, it is the notes.
Dental and medical practices
dental appointment scheduling software Book handles the diary, the reminder and the deposit. It does not do charting, claims or clinical records, and a practice that needs those should keep the system that has them.
Counselling and talking therapy
counselling booking software Recurring weekly slots held for the same person, a quiet reminder, and a cancellation policy that is stated on the page rather than argued about afterwards.
Tutoring centres and classes
tutoring scheduling software A batch has places rather than a person: eight seats, a waiting list, and one message to every parent when the class moves.
Personal training and studios
personal trainer scheduling Class timetables, a cap per class, and the member who books six weeks ahead. The waiting list is the feature that fills a Tuesday morning.
Consultants, accountants and solicitors
consultant appointment scheduling A free fifteen-minute call, then paid time with a deposit. Routing forms send the enquiry to whoever actually handles it.
Garages, trades and mobile work
automotive service scheduling A bay is a resource and travel time is a buffer. A booking that ignores the drive across town is a booking that runs late all afternoon.
Photographers and studios
photography session booking Long sessions, a deposit that means it, and a studio that cannot be in two places at once.
Where a specialist system wins
And we would rather say it here than in a sales call.
A dental practice that needs charting, treatment plans and insurance claims needs a dental practice management system, and Book is not one — clinical records are not built and are not planned. A salon that wants the till, the terminal, the stock and the diary from a single vendor should look hard at Square Appointments, which does all four well. A gym running membership billing needs a membership system; Book takes bookings and deposits, not subscriptions.
What Book is for is the diary itself, in a business where several people share one: making sure the slot offered is really free, that a deposit is held where it should be, that the reminder goes out, and that the visit lands on a customer record somebody can read before the customer walks in.
The rules that actually differ
Six settings do most of the work.
Who can do it
Two of your three clinicians do sports massage. "Anyone" should offer the first genuinely free slot among those two, not all three.
Person, or person and thing
A chair, a room, a bay, a machine. On Business a booking needs both, and Book will not sell the room twice.
One place, or several
Each location with its own hours, staff and page, on one price rather than one subscription each.
Deposit, or none
Normal for a two-hour colour, strange for a fifteen-minute phone call. Set per service, and per customer where somebody has form.
One person, or a batch
Eight places in a class with a waiting list, and one message to everybody when it moves.
Questions
About your kind of business.
Is Book different for a salon and for a clinic?
The rules are. A salon books a stylist and a chair; a clinic books a clinician and a room; a tuition centre books a batch rather than a person. Book has services, resources and group bookings so that each of those is a setting rather than a different product.
Do you do medical records?
No. Not built, not planned. Book keeps the appointment, the intake form and the history of visits. Anything clinical belongs in a system built and certified for it.
Can a customer choose their stylist?
Yes, or choose "anyone", which is the setting that actually fills a diary. Book will offer the first genuinely free slot across everyone who can do that service.
What about a tuition centre with batches?
Group bookings: a batch has a number of places, a waiting list and one message to every parent if the class moves.
Does it handle two branches?
On Business: unlimited locations on one price, each with its own hours, staff and page, and one place to look at all of them.
Next for you
What people add after Book.
What the booking touches on its way through: the record, the deposit, the reminder and the room.
The proposed shared record connects these products as they launch. Follow each product page for its current stage.
Be told when Book opens.
Wave 2 is the next build after the live tools. Leave your name and you will hear before the announcement — and tell us what your no-show rate is today, because that is the number we intend to move.