Approve bookings before they're confirmed

Turn on Approve bookings before they're confirmed and clients who book online send you a request instead of booking straight away. The time is held for them, nothing is charged, and you choose whether to take the booking.

Turn it on

• On the Mila website dashboard (dashboard.milabook.com): click Settings, then Booking rules, and switch on Approve bookings before they're confirmed.
• In the Mila app: tap Me, then Booking rules, under Approval.

Then choose:

• Who needs approval:
  • Everyone who books online
  • New clients only: a client who has been to you before books straight away, and anyone else sends a request. See Who counts as a new client below.
• Respond within: 4, 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours. 24 hours to start with.

Turning it off never touches requests already waiting. Answer them as usual.

Want approval for just one client, or to stop one client booking online at all? Set it on that client instead. See Choose who can book online.

What needs approval

Bookings from your booking page, from your client's account, and from a waitlist link all send a request.

These are never held for approval:

• bookings you make, on the dashboard or in the app
• bookings a team member makes with their own sign-in
• repeating appointments you set up, and imported appointments
• one-on-one sessions and classes

While a request waits

• The time is held. Nobody else can book it online.
• Your calendar shows it as a request, with a dashed outline and the word Request, so it never looks like a booking.
• Nothing is charged. If you take deposits, the deposit is held on the client's card and collected only when you approve. A gift card is used only when you approve.
• Your client sees "Request sent", by email and text, with the time you'll answer by. In their account the visit reads Waiting for approval, and they can withdraw it.

You get an email for each new request, plus a push and a text if you get those for new bookings. A request for a time less than two hours away says starts soon first.

Approve or decline

Open the request from Requests in the menu on the Mila website dashboard (dashboard.milabook.com), from See all under Needs attention on the Mila app's Home, or from your schedule.

• Approve: the booking is made and your client is told. The deposit is collected, and reminders, the intake form and calendar events start as for any booking.
• Decline: you can add a note for the client. They're told you weren't able to accept their request, with your note, that nothing was charged (and any hold on their card is released), and a link to book another time.

Until it's approved, a request can't be checked in, checked out, rescheduled or charged a fee.

When the deposit can't be collected

Sometimes the hold on the card has run out, a gift card no longer covers it, or the client hasn't paid a deposit link yet. Approve then offers:

• Confirm without a deposit
• Ask for the deposit again: your client gets a new link, and the request stays open until it's paid or the time runs out
• Decline

If something else has been booked over the time since the request came in, Approve tells you, and Approve anyway books it.

If you don't answer in time

The request is released when your Respond within time runs out, or one hour before the appointment, whichever comes first. A request made less than 90 minutes before the appointment gets 30 minutes for you to answer, or until it starts if that comes sooner. The time opens up again, any hold on the card is let go, and your client is told nothing was charged. You get a short note too.

A released or declined time is like a cancellation: you can tell your waitlist about it from the Waitlist page.

Team accounts

On a team account the setting covers the whole business. A request for a team member goes to you and to them, and either of you can approve or decline. Team members see Deposit held without the amount. When a deposit can't be collected, they're asked to check with you, and can only decline.

Who counts as a new client

A client is returning when they've had at least one appointment with you that was booked and has already started. Cancelled appointments, no-shows, declined or released requests, and unpaid deposit requests don't count. A client you added by hand or imported, with no visit yet, is new.

Mila recognises a returning client when they're signed in to their account, or when the email they book with matches a client of yours, or their mobile and first name match exactly one client of yours. If you require a card on file, a mobile match also needs that client to have a card saved.

The same rule decides who can book while you're taking Existing clients only (see The waitlist), and which appointments show the new client star, so they always agree.