Booking & Payment Messages

TL;DR

• Booking & payment controls automatic email and SMS for booking updates, reminders, attendance checks, and receipts.
• Owners and managers use the grouped workspace for delivery channels and follow Edit timing & wording to the relevant automation detail.
• New Zealand venues are email-only, and attendance checks require PRO to turn on.
• Turning off automatic delivery does not remove manual sending options.

The Booking & payment workspace gives each venue one grouped channel matrix for automatic customer messages. It controls which channels send and identifies whether an automation or OpenChair owns the content. Automation details contain timing, safeguards, outcomes, supported wording, publish controls, and preview.

How do you open Booking & payment messages?

Owners and managers open the settings from Automations.

1. Open Automations from the web sidebar or More on mobile.
2. Select the Booking & payment tab or summary row.
3. Find the booking or payment event you want to change.
4. Turn Email or SMS on or off.

How do you edit and preview message wording?

Edit booking-message wording from the relevant automation card, not from the delivery matrix.

1. Open Automations.
2. Open Booking & payment and select Edit timing & wording beside the relevant event.
3. Edit the available fields in Message. Booking confirmation, appointment reminder, and rescheduled update let you edit the email subject and SMS message. Cancelled appointment also lets you edit the email body.
4. Check Live preview on desktop, or select Preview on a smaller screen.
5. Select Publish changes.

When Attendance check is combined with the appointment reminder SMS, your reminder wording remains editable. OpenChair shows the required Reply Y if you are coming, C to cancel, R to reschedule. prompt as an Added automatically section and includes it in the composed preview and SMS segment estimate. The prompt itself is system-owned so clients always receive the recognised reply instructions.

OpenChair assembles the email body for confirmations, reminders, and rescheduled updates from live booking details, links, and actions. Rows labelled OpenChair wording use system-owned content and do not have an automation wording editor.

Select Booking & payment from an automation detail when you need to change which automatic Email or SMS events are active. Message wording and delivery preferences are saved separately.

What messages can you control?

The Booking and Payments sections separate automatic delivery by event and source.

Group	Automatic message events
Booking confirmations	Online booking confirmation; Team booking confirmation
Booking requests	Booking request received; Booking request approved; Alternative time offered; Booking request declined; Booking request expired
Booking changes	Customer reschedule; Team reschedule; Customer cancellation; Team cancellation
Before appointment	Appointment reminder; Attendance check
Payments	Checkout receipt; Fee charge receipt

Each row shows recent delivery activity and provides separate Email and SMS switches. No automatic email or SMS means both automatic channels are off for that event.

How do appointment reminder options work?

Appointment reminder timing and SMS reply actions live only in the Appointment reminder detail, not in the matrix.

Setting	Options	Behaviour
Send before appointment	1h, 2h, 4h, 12h, 24h, 48h	Sets when the automatic appointment reminder is due.
Include reply actions	On or off	Lets SMS clients confirm or request a change. Appointment reminder SMS must be on.
Attendance check	Email, SMS, both, or neither	Adds an automatic attendance request. A PRO plan is required to turn a channel on.

New Zealand venues cannot turn on SMS client messages. Email remains available.

What booking content can you include?

Booking message content applies venue-wide to supported booking messages.

Setting	On	Off
Show service price	Includes service prices and booking totals.	Omits those price details.
Show payment details	Includes deposits, balances, card details, refunds, and payment links.	Omits those payment details.

What happens when you turn off receipts?

Turning off the final automatic channel for Checkout receipt or Fee charge receipt opens Stop automatic receipt delivery?. To continue, select I understand, turn off and acknowledge that the business remains responsible for providing proof of purchase when required.

Select Keep automatic receipts to leave the current setting unchanged. Australian venues can also open the linked ACCC guidance before deciding.

Who can use this

Role	Access
Owner	Can manage delivery preferences and edit booking-message wording.
Manager	Can manage delivery preferences and edit booking-message wording.
Team	Cannot manage the venue-wide Booking & payment matrix. Manual booking actions remain subject to normal booking access.

Common mistakes

Turning off an automatic channel does not disable every way to contact a client. Manual sends remain available, and browser push is managed separately.

Attendance check and Appointment reminder are separate rows. Turn on the channels needed for each one rather than assuming the reminder setting automatically enables attendance checks.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
I want to change message wording	Return to Automations and select Configure on the relevant automation card.
I want to change Email or SMS delivery	Open Automations > Booking & payment, or follow the delivery link from an automation detail.
An email body cannot be edited	Confirmation, reminder, and rescheduled email bodies are assembled by OpenChair from live booking details. Their subject and SMS message remain editable.
Appointment reminder SMS text appears locked	Reload Automations, then select Configure on Appointment reminder. The reminder text is editable; only the Added automatically attendance prompt is fixed.
The SMS switch is unavailable	New Zealand venues are email-only. Elsewhere, check the venue's SMS setup in Settings > Communications.
Attendance check cannot be turned on	Confirm the venue has an active PRO plan. Existing enabled channels can still be turned off after a downgrade.
Reply actions cannot be turned on	Turn on SMS for Appointment reminder first.
Both receipt channels cannot be turned off immediately	Read the responsibility notice, then select I understand, turn off if the business will provide proof of purchase another way.

Related Articles

• Automated Notifications
• Customer Communication Preferences
• Attendance Check Requests
• Communications Settings