user guide

BookFlow — User Guide

This guide is for people who book appointments with businesses that use BookFlow. If you run a service business and want to learn how to set up BookFlow, read the Business Guide instead. If you're a developer integrating with the BookFlow API, read the Developer API Guide.

1. What BookFlow is

BookFlow is a booking system used by service businesses — hair salons, dental clinics, fitness studios, tutors, photographers, and similar. When a business uses BookFlow, you can book, reschedule, or cancel appointments online through their public booking page or an embedded widget on their website. You do not need a BookFlow account to book an appointment; the business sends you a one-time manage link after each booking that lets you control it.

BookFlow does the following for you:

Shows the business's real-time availability
Reserves your chosen time slot while you fill in your details
Charges your card (only if the business requires a deposit or prepayment)
Sends you a confirmation email, an optional SMS reminder, and a manage

link you can use to change or cancel the booking

2. Finding a business

A BookFlow business lives at a stable URL of the form:

for example https://book.bookflow.app/book/bramble-and-co. The business will usually link to this page from their own site, embed a **BookFlow widget** directly in their site, or send you a link in an email or text message.

If you only know the business's name, search the public marketing site at <https://bookflow.app> and pick the result that matches.

Tip — if the URL says https://book.bookflow.app/book/ with nothing
after it, you've landed on the directory root. The business list will
load once you finish the form on the marketing site.

3. Choosing a service

Once the booking page loads, you'll see a list of services offered by the business. Each service card shows:

the service name (e.g. "Women's Cut & Color")
a short description
duration in minutes
price in the business's local currency

Click the card for the service you want. The list is sorted by display order, which the business controls — most-recommended services are usually at the top.

Some services may be inactive and hidden; only bookable services appear.

4. Selecting a staff member

After picking a service, the page asks whether you want to choose a specific staff member, or let the business assign one ("any available").

Any available — the system will pick the next free staff member who

is qualified for the service. This is the fastest path if you don't have a preference.

Specific staff member — choose from the dropdown. Each member shows

their name, optional avatar, and short bio.

If a business has only one staff member or assigns the same person to every service, the page skips this step.

5. Picking a time

The booking page shows a calendar. Pick a date; the page queries availability for that date and displays open slots in your local timezone (derived from your browser). Each slot shows the start time; the system already accounts for the service duration when computing conflicts.

Slots that are taken, blocked by the business, or outside of working hours are not shown. If you don't see any open slots, try a different date or switch to any available staff.

The picker also handles:

Working hours — a salon that opens at 9 AM and closes at 7 PM will

only ever show slots between those times, even if a service is short enough to start later.

Buffer time — many businesses add 5–15 minutes of buffer between

appointments; this is built into the availability computation.

Timezone — the business has a configured timezone; slots you see are

in your local timezone, and the booking is stored in UTC internally.

6. Entering your details

The next step collects:

Field	Required	Notes
Full name	yes	Shown to the business and on the receipt.
Email	yes	Confirmation and manage link are sent here.
Phone	optional	Required only if the business sends SMS reminders.
Notes	optional	Anything the business should know (e.g. "I have a latex allergy").

The page validates your email format and phone format client-side. When you click Continue, the page also re-validates the slot you picked to make sure nobody else grabbed it in the meantime. If the slot is gone, you go back to the calendar and pick another one.

7. Payment

Some businesses require a deposit or full prepayment, others do not. The booking page tells you clearly which case applies before payment:

No payment required — the page skips this step entirely and you land

on the confirmation screen.

Payment required — you see a secure Stripe card form on the same

page. Card details never touch BookFlow's servers; the form posts directly to Stripe.

The price shown is exactly the price the business will charge, in the business's currency. If you need an invoice, ask the business — BookFlow emails you a payment receipt but does not issue tax invoices by default.

If your card is declined, the booking is not created and your slot is released. Try a different card or contact your bank.

8. Confirmation

Once the booking is created, the confirmation screen shows:

the booking id (a short code, e.g. BF-3K9P)
service, staff, date, and time in your local timezone
total charged (or "no charge" if payment wasn't required)
a Manage booking link

The same information is sent to you by email. If you opted in to SMS, you also get a text message with the same details. The email contains a manage link that works without logging in; treat it like a password.

Note — the manage link embeds a one-time, random manage code that
the system uses to identify your booking. Anyone who has the link can
see and modify the booking, so do not forward it to people you don't
trust.

9. Managing your booking

To make changes to a booking you have already made, open the manage link from your confirmation email, or go to:

and enter the manage code. The manage page shows the same booking details as the confirmation screen and gives you three actions: reschedule, cancel, or download the calendar invite.

9.1 Reschedule

Click Reschedule. The page shows the same calendar and slot picker you saw during the original booking. Pick a new time and confirm.

The new time is reserved for you the moment you click a slot.
If you close the page before confirming, the reservation is released

after 5 minutes.

The business may have a cutoff (for example, you cannot reschedule a

massage less than 24 hours before the appointment). If you are inside the cutoff, the page tells you and asks you to cancel instead.

The confirmation email is re-sent with the new time.

9.2 Cancel

Click Cancel booking. The page asks you to confirm. On confirmation:

The slot is released back to the business.
The business is notified.
If you paid, the refund is queued (see Cancellations and refunds).
A cancellation email is sent to you.

9.3 Add to your calendar

On the manage page, click Add to calendar for an .ics download. The file works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and most other calendar apps. It includes the service, staff name, location, and a note linking back to the manage page.

For one-click Google Calendar add, the page also offers a Google link that pre-fills the event in your Google account.

10. Cancellations and refunds

Refund policy depends on the business, not on BookFlow. The manage page shows the policy that the business has configured — usually something like "free cancellation up to 24 hours before the appointment, 50% refund inside that window, no refund for no-shows". When you cancel, the page tells you the refund amount you'll receive before asking you to confirm.

Refunds are issued through the same payment method you used:

Card refunds go back to the original card and typically appear in

5–10 business days, depending on your bank.

Cash or offline payments are refunded by the business directly.

BookFlow tracks that the refund is owed but does not move money.

If you cancel outside the business's configured window, the page may offer a partial refund or store credit (if the business allows it). You choose which you prefer.

11. Your account

You do not need a BookFlow account to book. BookFlow does, however, keep a record of every booking you've made at any BookFlow business, indexed by your email address. If you'd like a unified view of all of them:

Go to <https://book.bookflow.app/account>.
Enter the email address you used to book.
We email you a one-time sign-in link. Click it.
The account page lists every past and upcoming booking at any

BookFlow business using that email.

From the account page you can:

view all upcoming bookings across all businesses
reschedule or cancel from one place (using each booking's manage

code, which is stored in your account)

update your name, phone, and notification preferences
delete the account, which removes your customer record and the

manage codes for all your bookings; existing bookings remain visible to the businesses you've booked with

The account uses a passwordless sign-in (a one-time link by email), so there is no password to forget. Sessions last 30 days, after which you'll be asked to sign in again.

12. FAQ

I never got the confirmation email. What now? Check spam first. If it's not there, go to the manage page using the booking id and your email — we'll resend the confirmation. If you booked through a business's widget, ask the business to resend from their dashboard.

**I need to change the time but I'm inside the cutoff. Can I still reschedule?** No. The business's cutoff is enforced server-side. You can cancel (receiving whatever refund the policy allows) and rebook, or contact the business directly to ask them to override.

Can I book more than one appointment at the same time? Yes — there's no limit on concurrent bookings, but a single booking is always one service, one staff member, one time slot. If you need back-to- back appointments, book them as two separate bookings.

Can I book for someone else? Yes. Put the other person's name in the Your name field and their email in the email field; the confirmation and manage link go to them, not to you. If they need to make further changes, they use the manage link in the email.

What happens to my card details? BookFlow never sees or stores your card number. The card form on the booking page posts directly to Stripe under BookFlow's PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance. BookFlow only receives a tokenized reference to the charge.

Can I get an invoice / receipt? Every successful payment emails you a Stripe receipt. The receipt is a basic payment confirmation, not a tax invoice; if the business is registered for VAT or sales tax, ask them directly for a proper invoice with their tax id.

Why was my card charged but I don't see the booking? This is rare and usually caused by a network blip. Refresh the page; the booking is there. If it's not, contact the business with the charge amount and your card statement so they can look it up by Stripe payment id.

Is my data sold or shared? No. BookFlow does not sell customer data. Your data is shared only with the businesses you book with, and only the data they need to perform the service. See Privacy and data.

13. Privacy and data

BookFlow stores:

your name, email, optional phone
booking history (services, times, staff)
payment receipts (the card number never reaches us)
aggregated, non-identifying analytics (page views, time to book)

The data is stored in EU/US Cloudflare data centers, encrypted at rest and in transit (TLS 1.2+). You can request a copy of your data or deletion at any time from the account page, or by emailing <[email protected]>. Deletion removes your customer record and manage codes; businesses keep their own records of past appointments as required by their local regulations.

For more, see the full privacy policy at <https://bookflow.app/privacy>.

14. Getting help

Booking problems — first, contact the business directly. They have

full access to your booking and can reschedule, refund, or override the cutoff.

Account / sign-in issues — email <[email protected]>. Include

the email address on your account and a description of the problem.

Privacy / data requests — email <[email protected]>.
Bug reports — open an issue at <https://github.com/bookflow/bookflow/issues>

with steps to reproduce.

The BookFlow team does not have access to your card details and cannot see your password (there is no password). For security incidents, email <[email protected]> with PGP key <https://bookflow.app/pgp.txt>.