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Set booking rules and reminders

Booking rules decide what happens when a customer asks for a time: confirm it, hold it for your approval, or offer other times. At the end your workspace will confirm or queue requests the way you want, send WhatsApp reminders before each appointment, and handle late cancellations and no-shows.

Before you start

  • You can see Appts in the left rail. If you cannot open the settings below, ask your admin for Appointments settings access.
  • You have set working hours. See Add providers and working hours.
  • To send reminders, you have at least 1 approved WhatsApp template. See Create a WhatsApp template.

Steps

Open the booking rules

  1. Click your initials in the bottom-left corner, then click Settings.
  2. Select Appointments, then Booking Rules. The Appointment Request Handling page opens.

The subtitle reads Working hours come from the WhatsApp Manage screen. These rules decide how a valid request is handled based on WHEN the customer sends it. Set the hours in WhatsApp → Manage → Live Chat Settings. See Set up Live Chat Settings.

Choose how requests are confirmed

Ohanvi uses the time the customer sends the request to pick a rule.

  1. Under During working hours, choose one:
    • Automatic confirmation — confirms only if the time passes every availability and booking rule.
    • Manual approval — creates a pending request for staff to approve.
  2. Under Outside working hours, choose Automatic confirmation or Manual approval.
  3. Under If requested appointment time is outside working hours, choose one:
    • Reject and show available slots — the customer is offered free times instead.
    • Allow request for manual approval — the request is kept as Requested for you to decide.

Set booking limits

Under Booking rules, type a number in each box:

Field What it does Default
Minimum booking notice (minutes) How soon from now a customer can book. 60
Maximum advance booking (days) How far ahead a customer can book. 30
Slot granularity (minutes) The step between offered start times, for example every 30 minutes. 30

Turn on reminders

Reminders are off by default. The switch explains: Off by default. Reminders are the single biggest lever on no-shows.

  1. Under Reminders, turn on Send appointment reminders.
  2. In Send before (minutes), type when to send, separated by commas. 1440,120 means 1 day before and 2 hours before.
  3. In Send as template, choose an approved WhatsApp template. This is required, because WhatsApp refuses free-text messages to customers who have not written in the last 24 hours.

Ohanvi fills the template's first variable with the service name and the second with the appointment date and time, in your business timezone. A reminder is not sent if the appointment was cancelled or moved in the meantime.

Set cancellation and no-show rules

  1. Under Cancellations and no-shows, in Cancellation notice (minutes, 0 = any time), type how long before the appointment customers can still cancel from the WhatsApp chat.
  2. In Mark as no-show after (minutes, 0 = never), type how long after a confirmed appointment ends Ohanvi marks it No-show. Leave 0 to mark no-shows by hand. The page explains: Marking somebody a no-show is a judgement about a customer, so it stays off until a time is set here.

Save

  1. Click Save. The button reads Saving… while it works. The message Saved appears at the top of the page.

Video walkthrough

[VIDEO]

Troubleshooting

Issue Cause Fix
Required — reminders cannot be sent as free text under Send as template Reminders are on but no template is chosen. Choose a template, or turn reminders off.
No approved templates found Your WhatsApp account has no approved templates. Create one and wait for approval. See Create a WhatsApp template.
Save failed The server refused a value, for example reminders on without a template. Check every field, then click Save again.
Every request stays Requested Both confirmation rules are Manual approval. Switch one or both to Automatic confirmation.
Customers cannot book tomorrow's early slots Minimum booking notice (minutes) is too high, or the day is outside Maximum advance booking (days). Lower the notice or raise the advance limit.