Managing Your Booking Calendar

Category: Shops Reading time: 6 min

Your booking calendar is the operational center of your Groomera dashboard. Every appointment — whether booked online by a client, added manually by you, or transferred from another specialist — lives here. This guide covers how to read the calendar, manage appointment statuses, add walk-ins, and stay on top of your day.

Finding Your Calendar

1. Log in as an owner
2. Click Bookings in the left sidebar
3. You'll land on your calendar view by default

You can switch between Calendar View (visual grid by day/week) and List View (scrollable table of all appointments) using the toggle in the top-right corner of the page. Both show the same data — use whichever fits how you prefer to work.

Understanding Booking Statuses

Every appointment in Groomera moves through a defined status lifecycle. Here's what each status means and when it changes:

The Status Flow

Client books online ↓ PENDING ↓ (You confirm) ↓ CONFIRMED ←── SMS and email reminders fire from here ↓ (Appointment done) ↓ COMPLETED ←── Google Review email fires here

Important: Reminders only go out for CONFIRMED bookings. If you leave a booking in PENDING, the client won't receive reminders. Make sure you're confirming bookings promptly.

Confirming a Booking

When a new booking comes in from your storefront, it appears as PENDING.

To confirm it:

1. Click the booking in your calendar or list view
2. In the booking detail panel, click Confirm
3. The status updates to CONFIRMED
4. The client's reminder schedule activates automatically

💡 Auto-confirmation: If you prefer not to manually confirm every booking, check your booking settings for an auto-confirm option. Enabling this moves all new online bookings directly to CONFIRMED status without your intervention.

Marking a Booking Complete

When an appointment is finished:

1. Open the booking from your calendar
2. Click Mark as Completed
3. Status changes to COMPLETED
4. If your Google Review link is configured, a review request email is sent to the client automatically

Make this part of your end-of-appointment routine. Completed status is what drives your revenue reports and triggers the review flow — leaving appointments stuck at CONFIRMED means your data will be inaccurate.

Cancelling a Booking

To cancel an appointment:

1. Open the booking
2. Click Cancel Booking
3. You'll be asked to confirm
4. The booking moves to CANCELLED and is removed from your active calendar

Cancelled bookings are not deleted — they stay in your booking history. You can filter your list view to show cancelled appointments if you need to reference them later.

⚠️ Client notification: Cancelling a booking in Groomera does not automatically notify the client. If you're cancelling an appointment, send the client a direct message or call them to let them know — especially for same-day cancellations.

Adding a Walk-In or Manual Booking

Not every booking comes through your online storefront. Walk-ins and phone bookings can be added directly from your dashboard.

1. In your Bookings view, click + New Booking or Add Appointment
2. Fill in the booking form:

1. Click Save — the booking is created as CONFIRMED by default for manual entries
2. A confirmation email is sent to the client if an email address was provided

Filtering and Searching Bookings

Use the filters at the top of your Bookings view to narrow down what you're seeing:

This is especially useful at the end of the month when you want to pull all COMPLETED bookings for reporting, or when a client calls about a past appointment.

Viewing Booking Details

Clicking any booking opens its detail panel. Here's what you'll see:

• Client name, email, and phone
• Pet name (if the client entered it during booking)
• Service booked and price
• Assigned specialist
• Appointment date and time
• Booking status with action buttons to change it
• Appointment notes — editable; visible to the assigned specialist in their portal
• Reminder status — whether SMS and email reminders have been sent

Appointment Notes

Every booking has a notes field. Use it to capture anything the specialist should know before the appointment:

• "Luna is nervous around other dogs — keep door closed"
• "Client requested same blueberry facial as last visit"
• "New client — first appointment, handle intake carefully"

These notes are visible to the assigned specialist in their portal. They carry context that makes every appointment feel personalized without requiring your team to memorize everything.

What Your Specialists See

Your specialists see their own bookings in their portal — not all shop bookings. From their view:

• They can see their upcoming appointments and client notes
• They can mark bookings as completed from their end
• They cannot see other specialists' calendars or your owner-level booking list

If a specialist needs to know about a booking that's assigned to them, it'll appear in their portal automatically.

Calendar Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Related articles:

• Setting Up SMS and Email Reminders →
• How to Invite Your First Specialist →
• Reading Your Reports →