Booking window, notice and gap settings explained

As the clinic owner, you can use the Online booking policy section of Settings > Clinic to set six numbers that shape exactly which slots patients can take, and how freely they can move them. Here is what each one does.

The six settings

• Booking window (days ahead). How far into the future patients can book. Beyond this, no dates are offered.
• Minimum notice (hours). Slots starting within this many hours from now disappear, so you cannot be ambushed by a booking minutes before it starts. Half hours are allowed, for example 1.5.
• Reschedule notice (days). How close to the appointment a patient can still move it themselves. Inside this window they must contact you instead.
• Cancellation notice (days). The same idea for cancelling.
• Changes allowed per booking. How many times a patient can move the same booking themselves. After this many, they are asked to call you instead.
• Minimal gap between appointments (minutes). Breathing room after a visit when offering online booking slots, for clean-down and notes. It does not prevent your team choosing a tighter time in the diary.

If your booking window is longer than three months

Booking windows of a year are normal for treatments patients plan around, and they now work properly on the booking page. This is worth knowing if you set a long window before September 2026, because it did not.

The page looks ahead about three months when it loads. Past that, rather than drawing days as closed when nobody has looked at them, it shows the month with We have not checked this far ahead yet and a link labelled Check [month], and each day in the grid is tappable to go and look. One tap loads that month's real availability.

Before this, a patient paging past month three saw a grid of closed days and a booking page that appeared full, on a clinic that had plenty of space. If you have a long window, page forward on your own booking page once and check it reads the way you expect.

Getting the balance right

Generous notice protects your day but pushes availability further out; the booking page will land patients on the next day that still has slots, so a long minimum notice can make you look booked up. If patients report there being no times available, check minimum notice and your shifts first.

Remember to press Save booking policy after changing anything. If you return the booking reservation fee on good notice, keep Notice needed to earn it back (days) in step with your cancellation notice so patients get one coherent message.