Every appointment can have its own private customer link. The customer opens it on their phone, with no login, to see their appointment and reschedule or cancel it themselves. Your booking rules still apply, so a last-minute change sends them to call you instead.
What the customer sees
The page is titled Your appointment and shows:
- Your shop name and a status badge
- The date and start time, and when it runs until
- The service, if one is set
- Your shop phone number as a tap-to-call link
While the appointment is still upcoming, two buttons show: Reschedule and Cancel. They're gone once the appointment is Completed, Canceled, or a No-show. After a completed job, the page shows a Your photos are ready card that opens their before/after gallery.
How a customer cancels
- Tap Cancel.
- Optionally type a reason in "Optional reason for the shop."
- Tap Confirm cancel.
The cancel is refused, with a message telling them to call the shop, if:
- The appointment starts within your minimum lead time (for example, "Inside the 24-hour cancellation window — please call the shop directly").
- The job has already started, is ready, or is completed.
How a customer reschedules
- Tap Reschedule.
- Pick a new date and time under Pick a new time.
- Tap Save new time.
The new time has to pass the same checks as a new online booking: your minimum lead time, how far ahead people can book, your business hours, and any blocked-out dates. If the appointment has an installer assigned, that installer must be on shift and free at the new time, and any helper techs or bay on the job must be free too. If anything fails, the customer sees why and can try another time.
A few more rules:
- The appointment keeps its booked length. A job too long to fit in any single open stretch of your hours gets "This appointment is too long to be moved online. Please call the shop to reschedule."
- They can't move it once it's within your lead-time window either.
- If you've turned online booking off, they can still view and cancel, but they're told the appointment can't be moved online.
A rescheduled appointment goes back to Scheduled status, and its reminders are set up again for the new time.
What your shop sees
- Cancels set the appointment to Canceled with the customer's reason (or "Customer self-service cancel"). The activity log records "Customer canceled via self-service link," the shop's owners get a cancellation alert (based on your notification preferences), and the next person on your waitlist for that service is notified that a slot opened.
- Reschedules move the appointment on your calendar and alert the shop's owners about the change (based on your notification preferences).
Setting the cancellation window
The cutoff comes from Settings → Online Booking → Minimum lead time (Same hour, 2, 4, 12, 24, or 48 hours). If it's never been set, 24 hours applies. See Customizing your public booking page.
How the link gets to the customer
- Copy it yourself: on the appointment's page, the Customer Link card has Copy Link. Paste it into a text or email. See Working an appointment: status, photos, film, inspections, linked quote/invoice.
- "We just started" text: when you move a job to In Progress, the automatic text telling the customer you've started includes this link.
- Booking confirmation: you can add the link to your Booking Confirmed template in Settings → Notifications by typing {{manage_url}} into the message. The default Booking Confirmed text doesn't include it, and it isn't one of the merge-field buttons, so you have to type it in.
- Customer portal: upcoming appointments in the portal have a reschedule-or-cancel link. See Customer portal — what customers can self-serve.
Replacing a link
If a link went to the wrong person, open the appointment and click Regenerate Link in the Customer Link card, then confirm. The old link stops working right away and the new one is copied to your clipboard. Appointments without a link show Generate Link instead. Only people who can manage appointments (owners and admins by default) see these buttons.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How long does a customer link keep working?
A: Until about 400 days after the appointment's start time, so customers can still get to their photos well after the job. Regenerating the link ends the old one immediately.
Q: Why did my customer get told to call the shop?
A: Either the appointment starts within your minimum lead time, the job has already started, the new time didn't fit your booking rules, or the job is too long to move online.
Q: Do the 24-hour reminders include this link?
A: Not by default. The link goes out automatically in the text sent when a job moves to In Progress, and you can add it to your Booking Confirmed template by typing {{manage_url}}.
Q: Does the customer need an account or password?
A: No. The link itself opens the page. Anyone holding it can view and change the appointment, which is why you can regenerate it.
Q: Will I know when a customer cancels?
A: Yes. The appointment changes to Canceled with their reason, the activity log notes it was a self-service cancel, and the shop's owners get an alert if that notification is turned on.