Every appointment has one status. The status tells your team what to do next and decides whether the appointment still holds its time slot.
The statuses
Why does Awaiting Payment only hold the slot for 15 minutes? So that a client who abandons checkout doesn't block the time for everyone else. After 15 minutes, the slot can be booked again, even though the appointment stays in your list with this status.
When the online payment arrives, the appointment moves to your salon's default status from Settings › Booking: Confirmed if it's set to Approved, or Awaiting Confirmation if it's set to Pending Confirmation.
Allowed changes
You can only move an appointment forward. The status menu only lists the changes that are allowed.
Why can't a final status be changed? Final statuses feed your reports, invoices and client history, so they're locked. When you pick one in the Update Appointment form, it warns you that the status can't be changed afterwards. If you need the visit back, book a new appointment.
A few rules to know:
- To cancel a request that's still awaiting confirmation, Decline it.
- Before an appointment becomes Confirmed, Softalon checks that the time is still free.
- Clients can cancel any appointment that isn't final through a cancel or manage link, or their account, when your salon allows online canceling. See Let clients cancel or reschedule online.
Cancellation reasons
Every canceled appointment stores a reason:
Prefer Not to Say, Schedule Conflict, Change of Plans, Found Alternative, Health Reasons, Financial Reasons, Transportation Issues, Weather Conditions, Personal Emergency, Not Needed Anymore and Other.
- In the Update Appointment form, choosing Canceled asks for a Cancellation Reason.
- Clients pick a reason when they cancel online.
- If you cancel from the status badge, no reason is asked, and Prefer Not to Say is saved.
Where to change the status
- Click the status badge on the Appointments page or in an appointment's details.
- Use Approve and Decline for requests. See Approve or decline booking requests.
- Open Update from the appointment's menu to change the status together with the reason, notes and custom fields.
Members with the User role can change the status of their own appointments. Administrators and above can change anyone's.
Common questions
No, Completed is final. If the invoice isn't finalized yet you can still edit it. For the booking itself, create a new appointment.