Full Slate offers a number of different ways to get help when you need it.
We've tried our best to explain everything in our online manual. It's organized by topic and there's a table of contents (at left) so you can quickly find what you need. It's a good place to check first if you want to find out how something works. Just click the "Help" link in top right corner of the screen.
If you can't find what you're looking for in the manual or something isn't working the way it's supposed to, send us an email at support@fullslate.com or use our online support. We answer every email and will get back to you within 24 hours.
If it's urgent, you can call us toll-free at 1-888-489-6543. We try to make sure someone is available to take your call between 8am - 5:30pm PST, Monday through Friday. If no one answers, please leave a message with your number and the best time to reach you. We'll call back as soon as possible.
You can also schedule an interactive support session at http://fssupport.fullslate.com. We'll send you a link to share your computer screen so we can see what's going on. Then we'll work through the problem together.
This section will familiarize you with the general layout of the application - where to find what and how to get around.
To log into your schedule, enter the email address and password you used when registering. The login form is available in the upper right hand corner of every page on Full Slate's website.
If you are using your personal computer, check 'Remember me on this computer' and you won't have to enter your email and password every time. Don't use this option on a shared computer though, or other people using it will be able to access your account. Likewise, if you're using shared computer, be sure to click the 'log out' link at the end of your session.
If you forget your password, click 'Request reset' on the login screen, fill in your email address, and type the funky text you see. Then check your email and click the link inside; now choose a new password.
If you've registered more than one company with Full Slate or have multiple franchise locations, you can choose which one to view from the drop down in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Anytime you need help with Full Slate, just click the link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You'll get help content directly related to the screen you're on. And if that doesn't solve the problem, we're only a phone call away.
Full Slate has six main tabs along the left side of the screen:
Each of these tabs is discussed in more detail on the following pages.
The 'Home' tab is where you land when you first log into Full Slate.
The day planner provides a quick overview of your schedule for today and tomorrow. The client's name links to the 'Schedule' tab where you can see appointment details. To see appointments for other providers (if you are an Administrator or Schedule Manager), go to the 'Schedule' tab.
If you've elected to accept or decline appointments on a case-by-case basis, the number of requests pending approval per provider appears under Alerts. Click on the number of requests to see appointment details and accept or decline.
If you've chosen to automatically accept new appointments, you will not see Alerts. To change this setting, go to Booking Rules.
You don't have to log in to find out about new appointment requests - you also can get them in an email or text message on your cell phone; see Notification Options.
This gives you a summary of recent activity for your company, such as new appointments and new clients. The fist date in gray tells you when the activity took place (like when an appointment was booked), while dates of recently scheduled (or requested) appointments are in blue. Click that date see the appointment details on the 'Schedule' tab. Or, click the client's name to see details on the 'Clients' tab.
The 'Schedule' tab is like a digital appointment book. You can view a single day, weekdays (Monday through Friday) or a whole week at a time. You can quickly jump to a particular date by clicking in the mini-month or by using the forward and back arrows above the calendar.
White shows when a staff member works, and time off is shaded gray. You can select which staff schedules are shown using the check boxes and links on the left. To see each staff member in it's own column, click 'More' above the right hand corner of the schedule and then check 'Separate Columns'. .
Appointments are colored in and labeled with the client's name and service to be performed. You can hover over them to expand the label and click to see full details. Personal time is shaded too, and makes that block unavailable to clients.
To create a new appointment, simply click and drag on the calendar. You can move or reschedule appointments this way too. To cancel an existing appointment, make changes or see more details, click on it.
Every appointment is associated with a date and time, one or more service, a provider, and a client. When you click to create a new appointment or edit an existing one, you'll see these details at the top of the screen.
You can change the date and time of an appointment by dragging it on the calendar or using the dropdowns. Likewise, you can select one or more services from the list and specify which provider the appointment is with. Note that when you select a service, the end time of the appointment is automatically adjusted to accommodate the length of the services selected; you can override this if you wish. Also, once you've selected a service, staff members who don't normally perform that particular service are grayed out, but you can still select them.
If you want to make a standing appointment, simply change 'Recurs' from once to however often you like: every week, every other week, etc. Recurring appointments can go on indefinitely, or you check 'through' and set an end date.
You can even make an exception to a recurring appointment - like canceling or rescheduling one week - without disrupting the rest of the series. Just go to date and time you want to change (or cancel) and click to edit that appointment. When you save changes (or cancel) a recurring appointment, you'll be prompted to choose whether the change applies to all future occurrences, or just this one instance.
When you make an appointment over the phone or in person, you can quickly search for a client by name, phone number or email address. Pause for a moment while you're typing in the 'Client' field and a list of all the matching records appears below. Select the client from the list, or click 'New' if you don't see the right one.
Clicking 'New' takes you to the 'Client' tab, where you can add contact information and other details for a new client. When you're done, click 'Save' to return to the 'Schedule' tab and finish booking the appointment. Tip: You can also add a new client without the round-trip to the 'Clients' tab by entering their name, phone number and email address separated by commas right in the Client field in the appointment details.
Clicking 'Details' on an existing client takes you to the 'Client' tab so you can verify or update contact information. If you make changes, click 'Save;' otherwise click back to the 'Schedule' tab to finish booking the appointment.
If you need to collect additional information when booking an appointment, you can add notes. This field is for internal use only and is not seen by clients. Note: Full Slate automatically tracks who entered the appointment and when, so there's no need to record that in the notes.
When you save an appointment, you have the opportunity to send the client a confirmation email. If you don't want to save your changes, click 'Close' instead. Note that 'Save' is grayed out if you haven't made any changes).
To remove an appointment from the calendar, click to see its details and then hit 'Cancel Appointment.' Don't worry if you hit cancel by accident; we'll double check before deleting an appointment from your schedule.
If you like, Full Slate can notify your client that their appointment has been canceled - just check the box that says 'Email client.' You can edit the template text and suggest alternative dates and times to reschedule.
If you've elected to review each appointment request, a list of the days and times pending approval appears on the left under 'Accept/Decline.' Click to highlight one of these on the calendar and see details of the request.
You can check who requested an appointment - even contact them if you want to screen new clients. Once you've decided what to do, click 'Accept' or 'Decline.'
Full Slate can send an email letting the client know. When you confirm your decision, just check 'Email client' and the appropriate message template pops up. If you elect not to 'Email client,' please be sure to get in touch some other way. Otherwise, the client might not show up when you want them to or vice versa.
Appointments you accept stay on your calendar; ones you decline disappear.
You can change the days and times when your business is available to take appointments right on the Schedule tab. You can adjust your hours from week to week, or create different shifts for individual staff members.
To control the days and times when clients can make appointments, go to the 'Schedule' tab and click 'Change hours' in the top right. Now click and drag on the calendar to select the days and times you want to change, and select either 'Available for clients' or 'Unavailable.' Note: Times marked as available still can't be booked by clients if they are blocked by another appointment or personal event.
Use 'Recurs' to specify whether the change is temporary or permanent. To make a one-time exception to your regular hours - like leaving early or working late - set 'Recurs' to once.
You can choose other intervals for 'Recurs' too, from every other week to every 8 weeks. This is particularly useful if your hours vary from week to week but follow a regular pattern, such as working every other Friday. To apply the change to future weeks, set 'Recurs' to every week.
You can also set seasonal hours. Just mark the extended (or shortened) hours, set 'Recurs' to every week, check 'through' and fill in an end date after which your hours will go back to normal.
You can even mark holiday hours for all employees at once. Just use the mini calendar in the upper left to quickly navigate to the right date. Make sure all staff schedules are showing, click 'Change hours', then click and drag across all employees on the calendar. Choose 'Unavailable to clients' and 'Recurs' once, then save your changes.
Full Slate lets you synchronize your schedule with other calendars like Google Calendar, Apple’s iCal and Microsoft Office Outlook. Which option is right for you depends on the type of software you’re using and whether you want the data to flow to or from Full Slate:
All of these options are available under ‘More’ right above the calendar on the Schedule tab.
Full Slate integrates with Google Calendar so you can make or change appointments in either application, and the other stays up-to-date with real-time, two-way sync. Or you can keep your personal and professional calendars separate but still see everything in one place.
To setup and manage synchronization with Google Calendar:
You can view appointments in another calendar program like iCal or Outlook by subscribing to a feed from Full Slate. This is especially useful if you want to be able to see your schedule in the native calendar app on an iPhone/iPad or a device running Android. Here’s how:
Most programs periodically update calendar subscriptions automatically. However, you may need to refresh manually in order to see very recent changes.
Note that calendar subscriptions are read-only, meaning you will be able to view appointments but not make changes in the other program. Similarly, subscriptions are one-way only, meaning the feed is from Full Slate to the other calendar. To setup an inbound feed to Full Slate, subscribe to an external calendar.
You can overlay meetings or events on your schedule from any external calendar that publishes a webcal. Webcal is a standard protocol for accessing an iCalendar feed, and is supported by most web-enabled calendars. When you show as busy in the other calendar, Full Slate automatically makes these times unavailable to clients. (Note that any events which show you as free in an external calendar will not block time out on your Full Slate schedule.)
To setup and manage a subscription to an external calendar in Full Slate:
Full Slate periodically refreshes external calendars automatically. If a recent change isn’t reflected on your schedule yet, you can manually refresh by clicking ‘More > Sync Now.’
You can review or make changes to your synchronization settings by going to the ‘Schedule’ tab, clicking ‘More > ‘Sync, import & export…’ and choosing ‘Synchronize Full Slate with an external calendar. The next screen summarizes your current calendar connections, and you can remove a connection by clicking the red icon.
Note that removing 2-way sync with a Google Calendar will not remove appointments that have already been copied from one to the other. However, removing a one-way, inbound connection from Google or another external calendar will erase those blocks from your schedule in Full Slate.
You can download appointments from Full Slate into file of comma separated values (CSV) for analysis in spreadsheet like Excel, or and iCalendar file (ICS) for import into another calendar.
The ‘Clients’ tab helps you keep track of important information about your clients and communicate with them via e-mail.
To look up contact details for a particular client, type the first few letters of either their first or last name, phone number, or e-mail address in the ‘Find Client’ box. Once you've typed at least 2 character, pause to see a list of all the clients who match what you've typed so far. You can keep typing to narrow it down further, or scroll through the list and click one to see full details. If you don't see a match, click 'New Client' to add a record.
Click the ‘New Client’ button to create a new record. First and last name are the only required fields ('Save' will be grayed out until you fill these in), but we recommend entering as much information as you have. When you're finished, click ‘Save’ (or click ‘Cancel’ to discard your changes).
Once you've pulled up a client's details, you can quickly schedule an appointment for them by clicking the ‘Book Now’ button at the top. It defaults to the next available time slot, but you can change the date and time using the dropdowns or by clicking or dragging on the calendar. You may want to select the provider and service first to make sure it fits in the schedule. Then click ‘Save’ to finish booking the appointment.
You can send a client email right from Full Slate - just click 'Send Message.' (You have to pull up a client's details first; otherwise the 'Send Message' button is grayed out.) You can choose an existing template - like an invitation to book online - or write your own. Then click ‘Send' and your message is on its way.
Note that Full Slate (no-reply@fullslate.com) is the actual sender, but you can make it appear as though emails sent through Full Slate are from your business by providing an email address in Company Details under 'Setup.' That way, if your client replies, it goes to your email address instead of a mailbox that isn't monitored.
To delete a duplicate, erroneous or inactive client record, click ‘Remove Client.’ But be careful - this erases all of the client’s information, including any future appointments, and can't be undone.
The ‘Details’ tab under 'Clients' is like a rolodex or address book - each client has a card showing all their contact information including:
Full Slate automatically saves any contact information the client provides when making an appointment online. If you want to be sure to capture a particular piece of information (such as phone number or mailing address), make it required in Booking Details.
We use phone number and email address to figure out if you've seen a client before. If it's already on file, we match up the appointment with the existing client details. If not, we create a new client record for you.
Full Slate keeps track of your appointment history with each client. You can see the date of their first appointment in Full Slate, plus any upcoming or recent appointments. Just click the date of an appointment to go to the'Schedule' tab for more details.
You can also see a summary of any emails sent to a client through Full Slate. This includes appointment related emails such as confirmations and reminders, other automated messages like thank you's and birthday greetings, and ones you send manually such as invitations to make an appointment online or requests to reschedule. To read a message, click the date & time link to go to Message History.
The ‘List’ tab under 'Clients' provides a complete listing of all your clients along with their email addresses and phone numbers. You can sort the list alphabetically by first or last or by phone number. To jump to 'Details', just click a client's name.
You can search for a client by name, phone or email just like on the Details tab. Type at least two letters or numbers in the 'Filter', then wait a moment and all the matching records appear below. For example, you could find all customers named ‘Sue’ or with a last name of ‘Jones’ or with an area code of ‘206’. To reset the Filter, just delete what's in it or type something else.
Clicking ‘Select All’ puts a check next to every client in a filtered list. This can be handy if you want to send a message to all your clients at once. Clicking ‘Unselect All’ removes the check marks (the button is grayed out if there are none).
You can send email to a group of clients - like a newsletter or special announcement - right from Full Slate. Just check off all the names you want to include in your mailing list, and click ‘Send Message.’ It's a good idea to get your clients' permission before sending them promotional emails; you can do that by adding an 'Email Opt-in' to your Booking Details. You can choose an email template or write your own message free form.
All the names you select appear on the To: line in Full Slate's email editor. But don't worry - when they get the message, each recipient only sees their own name, not your other clients.
Full Slate (no-reply@fullslate.com) is the actually sender, but you can make it appear as though emails sent through are from your business by providing an email address in Company Details under 'Setup.' That way, if your client replies, it goes to your personal email address instead of mailbox that isn't monitored.
You can easily import your client list from a CSV or Vcard file, Constant Contact or Gmail. When you choose a file, you just need to remember where it's saved on your computer. For Constant Contact and Gmail, you'll need to enter your username and password.
Once Full Slate accesses your contacts, you'll see a summary of how many the records will be imported. If it sounds right, go ahead and click 'OK.' Note that if you already have a record with the same email address or name and phone number, in Full Slate, importing will update it rather than create a duplicate.
You also can download a file with all your clients' contact information if you prefer to use another tool for email marketing, contact management or customer surveys. Click 'Download All' and follow your browser's prompts to save the file to your computer.
You can upload or open the file with any application that supports CSVs (Comma Separated Values), which is a commonly accepted file format. Tip: If you open your client list in Excel and see a phone number that looks like 5.556E+09, try widening the column.
Full Slate lets you quickly and easily communicate with your clients via email and keeps track of your correspondence. There are customizable templates for common communications, and many appointment-related emails (like reminders and follow-ups) can be triggered automatically. Plus you can manually send a message to a single client from the 'Details' tab or to a whole group from the ‘List’ tab under 'Clients.' And all the messages you send through Full Slate are automatically save in History.
Some messages are sent automatically when a client makes an appointment. We've created templates for these, along with other common correspondence:
You can customize any of these templates with your own wording. Just select the template you want to edit from the list on the left, revise it, and click 'Save' (or 'Cancel' to discard your changes).
You also can create your own templates for messages you anticipate sending often. For example, you might create a welcome mail or a holiday card for a personal touch.
To create a template, click ‘New’ and fill out the following information:
When you're done, click 'Save.' To send clients a templated email, just go to the 'Clients' tab, click 'Send Message,' and choose a template from the dropdown. You always have the opportunity to make edits after you choose a template; any edits you make at this point only apply to that particular mailing and don't modify the template. If you want to make permanent changes to a template, you have to make them on the 'Messages' tab.
You can delete a template that you no longer use by clicking 'Remove.' Note that the standard message templates described above cannot be deleted.
Placeholders let you personalize a templated message by inserting the client’s name, your name, your company name, etc. Full Slate automatically replaces the placeholder with the real text before sending the message.
For example, if a message template starts with "Dear {name}," Full Slate automatically fills in the client's name so it reads, "Dear John," (or whatever the recipient's name is).
Placeholders are surrounded by brackets in a message template. If you add one, it must be typed precisely as shown. Available placeholders include:
Additionally, some placeholders only apply to email regarding a specific appointment. These placeholders are:
Full Slate lets you automate a lot of routine communication with your clients. You can use appointment history and upcoming appointments to trigger timely, relevant messages that improve customer service and drive repeat business.
To setup an automatic message, go to 'Automatic Messages' under 'Messages' and click 'Add message.' Then choose the type of message to send, when to send it, and which template to use.
Email reminders about upcoming appointments have been shown to reduce no-shows by 35% on average. By default, Full Slate sends one reminder 24 hours before each appointment. You can change the timing to have reminders sent the day of instead, or add another reminder several days or weeks ahead of time.
The standard Appointment Reminder template just states the date and time of the appointment; you can include additional information like driving directions, information about parking or your cancellation policy, by making edits on the 'Templates' tab under 'Messages'.
Sending a quick note after each appointment is a good way to thank clients and encourage them to rate or review your business on sites like Yelp, Citysearch and Google Local. You can use the standard Thank You template, edit it to include links to your business on review sites, or create your own follow-up on the 'Templates' tab.
Just enter a birthday in 'Client Details,' and Full Slate can automatically send your client an e-card, right on time. If you like, you can include a special offer or discount by modifying the template.
Reaching out to clients who you haven't seen in a while can be an effective way to drive repeat business. Consider offering an incentive, like a coupon, to encourage lapsed clients to make another appointment.
Message History is like a sent folder - you can see all of the email messages Full Slate has sent to your clients here. This includes appointment related emails such as confirmations and reminders, other automated messages like thank you's and birthday greetings, and ones you send manually like invitations to make an appointment online or requests to reschedule. If your client includes a message when canceling an appointment online, you'll find that here too.
The 'Web' tab offers some do-it-yourself tools for promoting online scheduling and advertising openings you want to fill.
Your landing page is a unique web page on Full Slate for your business where clients can see a menu of services, check available times, and make appointments online. If you don't have a website of your own, you can use this page as a stand-in. You can upload a logo, add a description of your business, even enter an address to map on the 'Company' tab under 'Setup.'
If you do have a website, you can either add a button that links to your Full Slate landing page, or embed an appointment widget in your own webpage instead of sending clients to Full Slate.
You can change the style, color and font of your landing page (and the iframe widget) on the 'Look and Feel' tab. You can preview how it looks before saving changes, or click cancel to restore the previous settings.
This tool lets you create custom "Book Now" buttons for your website - or any other place that accepts HTML code (like Facebook, blogs, email, etc.). You can change the color, size, call-to-action - even pre-select the service or provider.
By default, the button links to your landing page on Full Slate so clients can select from the full list of services that you offer. If you want to bypass that list and jump straight to available times for a specific service or staff member, just change where it links to. For example, if you already have a menu or price list on your website, you could add buttons that link to openings for each service. Or say you have a new staff member who's offering a discount to help build clientele - you could put a button next to their bio that links to openings with that specific provider.
Once the button looks the way you want it, copy the code at the bottom of the page and paste it into your webpage wherever you want the button to appear. If someone manages your website for you, you can paste the code into an email and send it to them instead.
Widgets are little, stand-alone applications that can be embedded in your website. Full Slate's widget lets clients make appointment appointments right on your website instead of going to your Full Slate landing page. All you need to do is copy and paste the code provided into the webpage where you want the widget to appear - just like a slideshow, video or poll. There are types of code, but both widgets work the same.
If you're embedding the code yourself, try the iframe widget first. It's compatible with most website builders, blogs and social media sites. You can manually control its width and height, as well as the style, color and font set on the 'Look & Feel' tab.
If you're giving the code to a web designer or developer, they may prefer the Javascript version. It automatically adopts the style of your website by using CSS; that's why and adjusts size to fit the content (that's why there's no preview or height and width controls). But not all do-it-yourself website builders or third-party sites accept javascript, so it may not work everywhere.
Setup is where you configure your online appointment book. Note that only schedule administrators can change company-wide settings; Employees and Schedule Managers do not have access to the 'Setup' tab.
Your company details appear on your Full Slate landing page, where clients can go to make an appointment with your business.
You can upload your logo if you want it to appear on your landing page. Just click 'Choose' and then select an image on your computer. The image can be any size, but we recommend no more than 800 pixels wide by 200 pixel tall. Note that your logo will take the place of your business name at the top of your landing page.
You can include a brief description of your company, if you like, and format it just as you would in a Word document. You may want to say a word or two about your philosophy, the neighborhoods you serve, how long you've been in business, any accreditation you have, or your slogan. You'll describe each service that you offer on the next screen, so there's no need to do that here.
You can give the street address for your place of business or a mailing address if you perform services off site.
On the off chance that someone from out of town books an appointment with you, this let's them know your local time.
You can list a variety of different services that clients can choose from when booking an appointment. To add a service to the list, click 'New' and type its name. When you're finished making changes, click 'Save'
This is how long the appointment lasts. Enter the amount of time you actually spend with the client performing this service. You'll be able to add setup and cleanup time below, so you don't need to factor them in here.
If you want the price to show up in the menu of services that clients see, enter it here. You can leave it blank if you don't want the price listed, or type "0" if you want it to say "Free."
You can provide additional details about each service offered. If you didn't list a specific price, you may want to give a range or some parameters here.
If a service requires setup or cleanup, you can automatically block extra time before or after an appointment. That way, clients won't be able to book back-to-back appointments.
Say you have a service that takes an hour, plus 30 minutes to setup and 30 minutes to cleanup. If you're available starting at 9am, the first start time Full Slate would offer to clients is 9:30, so you have a half hour to setup. The next opening would be at 11 since the appointment lasts an hour and you need a half hour to cleanup afterward.
Note that setup and cleanup time don't appear on the 'Schedule' tab; they just leave a gap between appointments. You (or your schedule manager) can override these settings if you want and book back-to-back appointments, but Full Slate builds in the buffer when clients self-schedule online.
If you provide services on location, you can also use setup and cleanup to factor in drive time before and after an appointment.
If you have employees, you'll want to create a separate profile for each staff member. As an administrator, you'll be able to see everyone's schedule and information. To add a staff member, click 'New.' When you're finished making changes to a profile, click 'Save.'
Enter the email address where you want this staff member to get alerts and information about their schedule. They'll also use this email address to log into Full Slate.
Note: In order for staff members to be able to access their schedules, you'll need to send an invitation to each.
Check off all the services performed by this staff member. When clients book appointments online, they'll be able to choose from all the people that perform a given service or narrow it down to their favorite provider.
You'll be able to change the days and times that each staff member works on the 'Schedule' tab after setup.
If you want a staff member to be able to log into Full Slate and manage their schedule online, you can email them an invitation with a special link to log into your appointment book. Just click the 'Send Invitation' button. Note: You'll need to 'Save' new staff members first - otherwise 'Send Invitation' will be grayed out.
You can control what information and settings each staff member has access to when they log into Full Slate by defining their 'Role.' Each role has a different set of permissions.
Administrators have access to everything, including all staff schedules, clients, messages, web tools, business details, services, staff, booking options, and billing information. By default, the user who first registers and sets up an appointment book is an administrator, and your business always has to have at least one. You can make others administrators too if you want to share responsibility for maintaining your business's account.
Schedule managers can access everybody's calendar and schedule appointments for anyone. This role is appropriate for a receptionist or front office coordinator. Schedule managers are not able to create or change message templates or triggers, access web tools, setup info or billing information.
Employees can view their own schedule and make their own appointments. They cannot see other peoples' schedule or a full list of clients.
You can customize what information is collected at the time of booking. Generally speaking, the easier it is for clients to fill out the form, the more likely they are to make appointments online. So try to keep the details short and simple.
By default, Full Slate asks for either a phone number or email address when clients book online; as long as they fill in one or the other, they can go ahead and book. If you'd rather, you can require both a phone number and email address.
If you're worried about people providing fake contact info, you can have Full Slate verify their email addresses by sending a test message. Client will need to open their email and click a special link inside before they can finish booking their first appointment.
Full Slate asks for first and last name plus contact information when a client books online. If you want to get additional information, you can add other fields to the booking form that get saved in appointment details. Some common ones are predefined:
You can also create your own custom booking fields. Just click 'Add field' and then choose a check box, multiple choice drop down, or free from text field. You can specify how the field should be labeled on the booking form, and what the choices should be in a drop down.
For example, a health care provider might add a check box for insurance. A dog groomer could add a dropdown for breed. A home improvement contractor could add a text box to describe the project.
If you make a field required, the client has to fill it out in order to complete the booking process. That's a good idea if you really need certain information before the appointment - like address if you perform services on location. But you wouldn't want to require something like a promotion code, because not every client will have one.
To remove a field from your online booking form altogether, click the 'X' next to it.
If you like, you can add an optional message or special instructions on the booking form.
For example, a health care provider might tell first-time clients to arrive a few minutes early to fill out paperwork. Or a dog groomer may note that the pet will be ready 4-6 hours after drop-off. A home improvement contractor could assure clients that estimates are free.
The message can say whatever is appropriate for your business, or you can leave it blank.
Full Slate gives you full control over how and when clients are allowed to self-schedule online.
You can decide how many weeks or months ahead of time clients can book appointments. If you choose 1 week, clients only see openings in the next 7 days. If you choose 1 year, clients can pick a day 12 months in the future.
You can also decide how much advance notice to require for appointments scheduled online.
If you don't mind last-minute appointments, you can let clients book openings just an hour or two from now. This can be a great way to fill gaps in your schedule that would otherwise be unpaid downtime. You may want to turn on text message notifications to your cell phone in case someone books on short notice - you don't want to be surprised!
If you aren't onsite or like to plan your day ahead of time, you can bar clients from scheduling appointments the day of or the day before. In fact, you can require up to a week's advance notice for online booking. That's a good option if you don't get online or check email frequently, or if your calendar fills up quickly.
By default, Full Slate automatically accepts appointments as long as your booking rules are followed. Remember that the only appoinments offered to clients are days and times when a provider is available. So as long as you block out times that are unavailable, there shouldn't be any conflicts.
If you prefer, however, you can review requests on a case-by-case basis and decide whether to accept or decline each appointment. When you log in, you'll see the number of appointment requests received on the 'Home' tab, and a list of the specific dates/times pending approval on the 'Schedule' tab. Click to highlight one of these on the calendar and see details of the request.
You can check who requested an appointment, even contact them if you want to screen new clients. Once you've decided what to do, click 'Accept' or 'Decline.' Appointments you accept stay on your calendar; ones you decline disappear. Full Slate can take care of notifying the client on your behalf.
You can choose whether clients can view all available openings or just a few at a time. If you have a busy schedule, we recommend showing all openings week by week so clients can see at a glance when you can fit them in.
If you're just starting out, though, you may prefer showing a limited number openings. In search mode, only five results are displayed at a time. Clients can specify how soon they want to come in, which days of week they prefer, and what time of day works best. That way, clients can still find a convenient appointment without having to expose a blank slate.
By default, both new and existing clients are allowed to self-schedule appointments. However, if you wish, you can limit online booking to existing clients only or people who know a secret passphrase.
Existing clients must enter the same email address and/or phone phone number you have on file in order to book an appointment. Note that you can import a list of your existing clients along with their contact information under Clients > List.
Or, you can create a passphrase and only give it to people you want to be able to self-schedule online. You can change the passphrase anytime and email to select clients by clicking the 'Send Message' button on Clients > List.
You can use PayPal to collect payment for an appointment when someone schedules online. Simply enter the email address for your PayPal Business account. You can sign up for PayPal or upgrade from a Personal to a Business account here. Note that while Full Slate does not charge a transaction fee or take a percentage of your sales, standard PayPal charges apply.
You can make payment at the time of booking optional or required. When it's required, clients must pay in advance before they can complete the booking process. The appointment won't appear on your calendar nor will the client get confirmation until payment is received. If payment isn't received in five minutes, the hold on the requested time is released.
While advance payment can be an effective deterrent against no-shows and last minute cancellations, it can also be an obstacle to booking an appointment. Some people may not be comforable paying online, and may not schedule with you as a result.
When you offer online payment as an option, your clients see a link to PayPal on the confirmation page after scheduling an appointment.
If you make online payment optional, clients can schedule their appointment first and then decide whether to proceed to PayPal. You can tell which appointments were paid at the time of booking by the dollar sign ($) icon. When viewing appointment details, you can also click to see the corresponding transaction details in PayPal.
Each staff member can choose how and when to be notified about new appointments scheduled online. <= brand %> always summarizes new appointments on the 'Home' tab, but you can turn on other notification options as well that don't require you to log in.
You can be notified by email each time a client books an appointment online, or Full Slate can send you a digest once a day in the morning (around 6:00am) or evening (around 6:00pm). Tip: Make sure your local time zone is set properly under Company Details.
You also can get an SMS or text message on your cell phone right away.
Text message alerts are sent to whatever mobile number is associated with your account. Be sure to choose your wireless carrier from the dropdown menu so messages are routed correctly.
If you're concerned about getting a lot of text messages, you may choose to be alerted on your phone only when the appointment starts relatively soon. For example, say you tell Full Slate to send you a text message whenever a client schedules an appointment that starts in the next 4 hours. If a client goes online at 10am and books an appointment that starts at 2pm (or sooner), you'll find out on your cell phone right away. But if the appointment starts after 2pm (i.e. more than 4 hours later), Full Slate won't bother you with a text message. (Keep in mind that clients can only schedule appointments on this short notice if your booking rules allow it.
Chances are, you already have a way to find out when another staff member schedules an appointment for you. If that's the case, choose 'Clients Only' and will only alert you when clients self-schedule online. Note: We don't send you alerts when you schedule appointments for yourself either, since you already know about those.
Most people only want to know about their own appointments - for 'Just me.' If you're an administrator or schedule manager though, you might want to be alerted when new appointments are scheduled with 'Any employee'. Be forewarned though, that could lead to a lot of email or text messages. Note: Even if you limit alerts to 'Just me,' you'll still be able to see all new appointments for any staff members on the 'Home' tab.
The information associated with your profile doesn't appear on any landing page and isn't made available to clients. It's used by Full Slate to communicate with you about your schedule and your account.
Billing Info is only visible to account administrators. It shows the payment details and billing history of an account
Your account type shows the name and price of your current scheduling subscription. When your free trial ends, your account is automatically rolled over to the appropriate plan. Likewise, your account is automatically upgraded if you surpass the number of staff members included in a plan. If you would like to downgrade to a lower plan, please email support@fullslate.com
You can find printable invoices under billing history, as well as a record of all payments received and any credits.