A service in ApptOnly is one thing a client can book. The 60-minute massage. The deep-tissue session. The lash fill. Each service has its own duration, price, payment rules, and presentation on your booking page.
This guide walks through creating one cleanly.
The basics
From the dashboard, go to Services and click New service. Fill in:
- Name — what the client sees on the booking page. Keep it short and concrete. "60-minute deep tissue" beats "Deep tissue therapeutic massage (60 minutes)" because the price and duration are already shown right next to it.
- Duration — how long the appointment runs. Buffer is configured separately (availability guide), so this is just the session itself.
- Price — in dollars. ApptOnly stores prices in cents internally; you enter dollars.
- Description — a few sentences that help the client decide. Optional but worth the few minutes.
Save. The service is now bookable.
Prices that aren't fixed
Not every service has one price. Each pricing option has a Pricing control next to its amount:
- Fixed — the default. The client sees the price and is charged against it exactly as before.
- Starting at — for work that depends on the client, like extensions priced by the amount of hair. The booking page shows "from $650", the client is told the final price is confirmed at the appointment, and any deposit or pay-in-full rule is applied to the starting price. Set the real price afterward from the appointment.
- Varies — for work you only quote in person, like a color correction. The booking page shows "Price varies" with no number. Nothing is charged online unless you use a flat deposit; the client's card is saved and you collect once the price is set.
A fixed option can be free: enter 0 and the booking page shows "Free". That is the usual way to offer a consultation.
Options can run up to 12 hours.
Categories and ordering
If you offer many services, the booking page groups them by category. Categories you might use:
- Massage modality (Swedish, deep tissue, sports, prenatal)
- Service area (face, body, hands and feet)
- Duration (60-minute, 90-minute, 120-minute)
- Tier (signature, express, premium)
You can drag services to reorder within a category and reorder the categories themselves. The order you set is the order clients see.
Add-ons
Add-ons are extras a client can tack onto a service at checkout: hot stones, aromatherapy, scalp massage, extra time. To set them up:
- Go to Services, Add-ons.
- Click New add-on. Set name, price, and optional duration.
- Attach it to one or more services from the add-on's detail screen.
At checkout, a client picking a service sees a checklist of attached add-ons with prices. Selected add-ons are added to the booking, and their durations stack with the base service.
Deposits and payment rules
Each service inherits your account-level payment rules (deposits explainer), but you can override them per service. For example, if you usually allow pay-at-appointment but you want full prepayment on your two-hour session because no-shows on those are expensive, set that on the service.
Intake form binding
If a service should send a client an intake form before their visit, attach the form on the service detail screen (intake forms explainer). Common patterns:
- Attach a first-visit intake to all services. ApptOnly only sends it when the client has not submitted it yet (within the form's lookback window).
- Attach a service-specific intake to a single service (a hot-stone safety check, for example).
Visibility
A service has two visibility states:
- Active — bookable on the public page.
- Hidden — exists in your dashboard but not on the public page. Useful for in-progress drafts or services you book manually for specific clients only.
You can also delete a service, but if you have past bookings for it, deletion is blocked to preserve your records. Hide it instead.
Recurring eligibility
Mark a service as eligible for recurring if it makes sense as a series booking. Most services should be eligible. Exceptions: one-time consultations, single-event sessions like a wedding-day touch-up, anything you would not normally repeat.