# How to manually book an appointment on the calendar (walk-ins and phone bookings)
Not every appointment starts with an online booking form — plenty still start with a customer walking through your door or calling the shop. Here's how to get those on the calendar manually so nothing falls through the cracks.
Step 1: Open the Schedule Appointment page
From the Calendar, click New Appointment. That takes you to the Schedule Appointment page — "Book a new slot in the calendar."
Step 2: Find or add the customer
Under Customer & Vehicle, use the Customer field to search by name, phone, or email — matches show up as you type.
If the customer isn't in the system yet, click + New customer at the bottom of the search results. A dialog opens with:
- First name
- Last name
- Phone
- How did you hear about us? — required. Pick a source from the dropdown (Walk-in, Drive-by / saw the shop, Referral / word of mouth, Google, Instagram, and so on). If you pick Other, a "Where exactly?" text box appears — fill that in too.
The Add customer button stays greyed out until you've entered at least one of first name/last name/phone/email *and* picked a valid source (plus the write-in detail, if the source you picked needs one). Once it lights up, click it — or just hit Enter — and the customer is created and auto-selected.
Step 3: Add the vehicle (optional)
The Vehicle field is scoped to whichever customer you just picked. If that customer already has exactly one vehicle on file, it's auto-selected for you. Otherwise, search their existing vehicles or click + New vehicle to add one inline — Year, Make, and Model are enough to get started; Color is optional.
You can leave this blank and book the appointment without a vehicle attached — for example, if you don't have the details yet. Just know there's currently no way to attach a vehicle to the appointment after it's booked, so if you want the vehicle on record, add it now rather than planning to fill it in later.
Step 4: Set the time, installer/bay, and service
Under When & Where:
- Start and End — defaults to the next hour, one-hour block. Move the start time and the end time shifts with it automatically.
- Installer / Bay — required. If your shop only has one resource set up, it's pre-selected for you; otherwise pick one from the dropdown.
- Service — optional. Picking a service auto-adjusts the End time to match its duration.
- Title — optional, e.g. "Ceramic tint full car."
If the installer or bay you picked already has something booked in that window, you'll see an amber warning banner before you even submit. Save anyway and you'll get a Book anyway? confirmation — click Book anyway to double-book on purpose, or Cancel to go pick a different time or resource.
Step 5: Add notes (optional)
Under Notes, there are two separate boxes:
- Customer Notes — visible to the customer if you share the confirmation with them.
- Internal Notes — only visible to your team.
Step 6: Save it
Click Schedule Appointment. You'll land on the appointment's detail page, showing the Customer and Vehicle cards you just set up, plus a Warranty section that opens up once the job is marked Completed.
One thing worth knowing: clicking an appointment on the calendar grid opens a Quick View popup, and if that appointment already has a quote or invoice linked to it, Quick View shows a link straight to it. That's a display only, though — there's no way to attach a quote to the appointment from Quick View, or from the appointment detail page, after the booking is created.
Need help? Email info@roffik.com.