Help Center

The Guided Editor

Click "New booking page" (or Edit on an existing page). The editor opens in place of the list, with five steps across the top — Details, Look, Services, Hours & rules, Share & publish — and a live preview of your public page underneath. The preview is the real page exactly as visitors will see it; it updates every time you save a step (and instantly while you try a look), and nothing can be booked from it. Every field has a short note underneath explaining what it does. Step 1 saves the page as a draft, so the other steps and the preview open up straight away. The page stays private until you switch on Published in the last step.

Step 1 — Details

Give the page a name (the heading visitors see), choose its web address (rostermates.com/book/your-name — lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens; the editor tells you if it's taken), pick the page type from two cards, and add an optional intro. "Take bookings" pages have services and hours; "Show what's on" pages list your published events instead and skip the Services and Hours steps.

Step 2 — Look

Choose how the page looks. Pick a ready-made theme — Match device (light or dark to suit each visitor), Clean, Ocean, Forest, Sand, Rose, Lavender, Mono, Midnight or Charcoal — then adjust the six colours underneath: accent (buttons, the selected date and time, the coloured edge on cards), page background, cards, text, secondary text and borders. Each is used in one place, so you can see exactly what you are changing in the preview below, which updates as you click without saving. The accent can be changed on any theme; changing any other colour turns the theme into Custom. Under Match device only the accent applies. You can also pick how rounded corners are and one of four built-in fonts — nothing extra loads on your website. The paste-in widget picks the theme up automatically, so changing it never means re-pasting. The "Bookings by RosterMate" credit line is here too; plans that include branding removal can switch it off.

Step 3 — Services

The top of this step is Where things happen: three cards, one per service type — your venue address for in-person visits, how video links are made (your own link, or connect Google for a unique Meet link per booking), and a note for phone-call customers. Set them once; every service of that type uses them.

Main services are what people can book: "Women's cut — 45 min", "Intro call — 15 min", "Yoga class — 10 places". Each has its own length, so the times offered fit it, plus an optional price to display, a colour, a description, how many places share one time (1 for an appointment, more for a class), and optionally its own form of questions. Drag services to change the order they're shown in. Removing a service that already has bookings switches it off instead, so existing bookings are untouched.

Add-ons

The Add-ons section below the main services holds extras like "Toner +20 min" or "Beard trim +15 min". Add-ons are never offered on their own. Create them first, then open a main service and tick the add-ons that can go with it — a cut might offer toner and a fringe trim while a video consultation offers none. After a visitor picks a main service they see only that service's add-ons as checkboxes, and the total time and price add up: a 45-minute cut with a 20-minute toner books a 65-minute slot. The confirmation lists everything they chose.

Service Types

When you add a main service you choose how it's done from three cards. In person — the customer comes to you; their confirmation, calendar invite and reminder show the venue address (or an address you set on that service). Video demo / call — a link is attached to the booking: either your own meeting link or a unique Google Meet link per booking. Phone call — you call them; the phone number becomes required when they book and the confirmation says "we'll call you on …" with any note you add. A page can mix types, for example an in-person cut and a video demo.

Step 4 — Hours & Rules

Set the times people can book. The quick-set row opens Mon–Fri or every day at the start and end you pick in one click; tick or untick individual days, and use the arrow on a day to copy its times down to the rest of the week. Booking rules control the least notice you need (any number of minutes, hours or days — the note underneath shows what it means for a 3 pm slot), a gap between bookings, how far ahead people can book, and whether start times run back to back or on a fixed grid such as every 30 minutes. List the email addresses that should hear about new bookings, and pick one of your forms to ask questions at checkout.

Who Can Be Booked

Under Who can be booked, tick the staff visitors may choose from. Each ticked person is booked separately, so two customers can have the same time with different people, and visitors are asked who they'd like — or "No preference", which gives them the free person with the lightest day. Leave everyone unticked and the page runs as one diary with no choice of person. Staff on leave are not offered that day.

Step 5 — Share & Publish

A short checklist at the top says whether the page is ready — a name and address, at least one bookable service, at least one open day, and a notification email — with a Fix button that jumps to the right step. Switch on Published when the page is ready. Then either link to the page from your website's menu, or paste the provided snippet into a page on your site so the booking form appears inline. The snippet includes a small "Bookings by RosterMate" credit; plans that include branding removal can switch it off in the Look step. This step also shows which websites are sending you visitors.

The Booking Flow

Visitors choose a service (and any add-ons), pick a person if you offer a choice, then pick a day on the calendar — only days with free times are highlighted — and a time, with a summary of their choices beside the calendar, and enter their name, email, phone and any questions you set. They get a confirmation email with a calendar invite, a link to cancel or move the booking, and a Where line: the address, the video link, or the number you'll call. A reminder email goes out before the appointment.

Double-Booking Protection

Times are worked out from every booking on the page, whatever service it was made as, so a 45-minute cut at 9:00 and a two-hour cut-and-colour at 9:30 can never both be taken by one chair. With staff selected, each person is their own chair. Classes with several places fill up seat by seat.

Where Bookings Go

Every booking is recorded against the customer in your Events clients list, so repeat customers build a history. On plans that include it, each confirmed booking is also placed as a shift on an unpublished "Bookings" event so it appears on the roster.