Create a Booking on Behalf of a Guest

Q: Does this confirm the booking immediately?

Only with Book now. With Send invite, your client has to open the emailed link and confirm. Until they do, the time is held and shown as Pending confirmation on the Invited tab.

Click Book a client on the Bookings page to book someone yourself: pick the time, then book them right away or send an invite they confirm. Available on all plans.

Overview

Book a client lets you start a booking for someone instead of waiting for them to find your booking page. You choose the booking type, date and time, then enter your client's name and email. After that you pick one of two options:

Send invite (the default): TidyCal emails your client a secure link and holds the time. The booking is confirmed once your client opens the link and completes it.
Book now: switch on Book now, without client confirmation and the booking is confirmed straight away, with no confirmation step for your client.

The feature is available on all plans (Free Plan, Individual Lifetime, Pro, and Agency Lifetime). Booking types that take payment or use credits always go out as an invite, so your client can pay or use a credit; Book now is for free and approval-required booking types.

Before you start

You need at least one eligible booking type. A booking type is eligible when it is:

Enabled (not disabled). Private booking types are fine.
Not a date poll or a recurring booking type
One of your personal booking types: booking types that belong to a team (Collective, Round Robin or Team Managed) can't be used

Priced booking types and package or subscription booking types (the ones that use credits) are listed too, but they can only be sent as an invite.

Book a client works from your own Bookings page. It isn't available on a team's Bookings page.

If none of your booking types qualify, you'll see "You don’t have any eligible booking types yet." in the panel. Create a standard booking type first—see How to Create and Manage Booking Types in TidyCal.

How to book a client

Bookings page with the Book a client button next to search and Export, and the Invited tab among the filter tabs

In the sidebar, open Bookings.
Click Book a client.
Choose a Booking type.
Set the Timezone. Times are shown and sent to your client in this timezone.
Pick a Date: days in bold have open times, and any future date can be selected. Then choose a Time from the slots marked In your hours.
Optional: under Use a past client (optional), search by name or email and pick someone from Past clients to fill in their details, or choose New client. If TidyCal knows their time zone from an earlier booking with you, it shows Client’s time zone: … as a hint (and, if you have not picked a date yet, switches Timezone to theirs), so you can check the time you chose.
Enter the Client email and Client name if they are not filled in.
Choose how to book them:
- Send invite: set Invite expires in (days) (the default is 2, and you can choose any value from 1 to 30) and click Send invite.
- Book now: switch on Book now, without client confirmation and click Book now.

Book a client panel in invite mode: a time chosen, a past client filled in, the expiry in days and the Send invite button

With Send invite, TidyCal emails your client right away and adds the invite to the Invited tab on your Bookings page with a Pending confirmation status.

Book now

With Book now, without client confirmation on, the panel says The booking will be confirmed right away. The booking is created at once, and TidyCal sends your client a confirmation email (subject "Your booking is confirmed", unless the booking type has a custom confirmation email) with a calendar invitation. If you untick Send a confirmation to the client, your client gets no confirmation email or calendar invitation, although scheduled reminders still apply.

A booking made this way skips payment, coupons and your booking questions. A booking type that requires approval is approved automatically, so there is no request for you to approve.

Book a client panel with Book now, without client confirmation on, Send a confirmation to the client ticked, and Book now

Choose a time outside your availability

By default the panel offers only your open times, including times that Look busy hides from bookers. Switch on Allow any time (Choose outside your availability or over a conflict for this booking.) to see every 15-minute start, each labelled In your hours, Outside availability or Conflict, or type your own time under Or enter a time. To book a time that conflicts with another booking or a calendar event, tick I understand this time conflicts with another booking or calendar event. Past times can't be chosen.

Allow any time on: time slots labelled Outside availability, In your hours and Conflict, plus an Or enter a time field

What your client receives

With Send invite, your client gets an email with the subject "[Your name] invited you to book [booking type]". It explains that you've set up an appointment for them to confirm and includes a Confirm booking button. The link is also shown as copy-and-paste text in case the button doesn't work, and the email notes the date the invitation expires. The email comes from your name, replies go to your email address, and it's written in your account language.

When your client opens the link, TidyCal shows your booking page locked to the invite—the booking type, time, name, and email are already filled in from the invitation. Your client reviews the details and confirms. If the booking type collects payment or asks custom questions, your client completes those steps before the booking is confirmed.

Once confirmed, it becomes a normal booking for both of you, the held time is released into that booking, and you both receive the usual confirmation email and calendar invite. If the booking type requires approval, it arrives as a request for you to approve, just like any other booking (see How to Enable and Use Booking Approval Workflow).

Managing pending invites

Open the Invited tab on the Bookings page to see every invite that's waiting on a client; for a tour of the page, see How do I find, filter and open my bookings?. Each row shows the guest, booking type, proposed time, status, and when the invite expires. From here you can:

Copy link — copy the confirmation link so you can share it yourself, for example in a chat or your own email.
Cancel invite (trash icon) — confirm to cancel a pending invite. This releases the held time slot right away. Your client is not emailed; their link shows Invitation expired.

A pending invite holds the proposed time, so the slot won't show as available to anyone else until the invite is confirmed, canceled, or expired. If you later use Book now for the same client and the same booking type, their pending invite for that booking type is completed.

Things to know

The slot is reserved while pending. The proposed time is blocked for other bookers on all of your booking types until your client confirms, you cancel, or the invite expires.
Invites expire. After the expiry window you set, the link stops working and the time is freed. Your client will see "Invitation expired" if they open it too late.
The link is tied to the invite. Your client can't change the time, name, or email from the link—those come from the invitation, so the booking matches what you set up.
This is different from booking approval. Booking approval lets you approve or decline requests that bookers submit themselves. Book a client starts a booking you chose to make. See How to Enable and Use Booking Approval Workflow.

Troubleshooting

I don't see a booking type to choose

Only your enabled personal booking types appear. Date polls, recurring booking types, and booking types that belong to a team are not eligible.
Create or enable a personal booking type, then try again.

"That time is unavailable or has a conflict"

Someone booked the slot, a connected calendar shows a conflict, or another pending invite already holds it. Pick a different time, or switch on Allow any time and tick the conflict box if you mean to book over it.
"This client is already booked for that time" means that client already has a booking of this type at that time.

My client says the link shows "Invitation expired"

The invite passed its expiry window, you canceled it, the proposed time has already passed, or the booking type was disabled. Book your client again and, if needed, set a longer Invite expires in (days) value.

I don't see Book now

Priced booking types and credit (package or subscription) booking types always go out as an invite. The panel says This client will receive an invite to confirm and pay. No payment is collected here. or This client will receive an invite to confirm using a credit.

Still stuck? Email support@tidycal.com.

Frequently asked questions

Does this confirm the booking immediately?

Only with Book now. With Send invite, your client has to open the emailed link and confirm. Until they do, the time is held and shown as Pending confirmation on the Invited tab.

Which plans include this?

All plans, including the Free Plan. If the booking type you pick collects payment, your client pays when confirming.

Can I book a client on a paid booking type?

Yes, as an invite. Your client is asked to pay when they open the link and confirm, just like a normal paid booking, and no payment is collected in the panel. See How to Charge for Appointments with Paid Bookings.

How is this different from inviting additional guests?

Additional guests are extra attendees a booker adds to their own booking on the booking form. Book a client starts a brand-new booking for one client. Learn more in How to Create and Manage Booking Types in TidyCal.