Smart booking, find the best slot in seconds

Smart booking is for that classic call: "Hi, I need a manicure, when's your earliest?" Instead of you scrolling through the calendar checking each staff column, you tell Bookinda the service, it tells you the best slot.

Opening smart booking

In the booking modal there are two tabs at the top: Calendar and Smart booking. Switch to Smart booking. You can also start it directly via the magic-wand icon next to the + New appointment button.

Two simple steps

Step 1: Pick the service

Search or browse to find the service. You can pick more than one if the customer wants a combo (e.g. mani + pedi). Click Next.

Step 2: Pick a time

Bookinda shows you the available slots, ranked by quality. Filter the list with:

• Date preset: Today, Tomorrow, or a specific day.
• Time of day: Anytime, Morning (6-12), Afternoon (12-18), Evening (18-23).
• Preferred staff: pick a colleague if the customer asked for someone specific. Otherwise leave blank for any-staff.
• Staff attributes: filter by "female stylist", "speaks English", "strong hands", whatever attributes you've set up under Team attributes.
• Load balancing: on by default. Bookinda biases toward the colleague with fewer bookings that day, so the workload spreads evenly. Turn it off if you want strict earliest-first.

The top results are marked with trophy/medal/award icons (gold = best match, silver = second, bronze = third). Click any slot to confirm and create the booking.

When smart booking is most useful

• Phone bookings: customer is on the line, you don't have time to check 6 staff calendars.
• First-time visits: customer doesn't know your team yet, just wants the soonest available.
• Group classes / fitness: pick a service, see who has space.
• Last-minute calls: "Are you open in 30 minutes?", smart booking gives an instant answer.

Tips

• Set up staff attributes in advance so you can filter precisely. Things like spoken languages, gender, stylist level (junior/senior), specialties.
• Smart booking respects all the same rules as manual booking: working hours, online booking blocks, resource conflicts, staff service assignments.
• If no slots show up, widen the date or remove a filter. The most common reason is filtering to a specific staff who has no openings.
• Smart booking creates a regular appointment, you can edit, reschedule, or cancel it the same way as any other.