Customer accounts
Give customers a page on your site where an emailed link signs them in to see their appointments and payments and, if you allow it, move or cancel them.
Customer accounts give the people who book with you a page on your website showing what they have booked and paid. There is no password: they type their email address and Booked emails them a link that signs them in. You decide how much they can do from there, from checking a time to moving or cancelling it without phoning you. “What time was my jab?” answers itself, and someone who can no longer come frees the slot instead of not turning up.
Switch it on
- Open Settings › Customer accountsUnder Taking bookings. The same switch is on the Features page too.
- Turn on Let customers have an accountThe rest of the screen appears.
- Choose what they can doViewing is on already. Moving and cancelling start off.
- Press SaveAt the top, or Save changes in the bar at the bottom.
- Put the account on a pagePaste
[get_booked_account]into a WordPress page, publish it, then open it once. That visit fills in Where the account lives.
Customers sign in with a link emailed to them, no password to invent or forget, and see what they have booked and paid. You choose what they can do from there.
Fills itself in from wherever you put the shortcode. Set it by hand only if you built your own account screen somewhere else, otherwise sign-in links go nowhere.
Switch off anything you would rather handle yourself. Each is enforced on our side too, so turning one off really does close it.
By default the account matches your booking form, so the two never drift apart.
Leave blank and it greets them by name once they are signed in.
Settings › Customer accounts, switched on, with moving and cancelling allowed.
- 1Customer accounts — under Taking bookings. The line beneath reads Customers can sign in when it is on.
- 2Let customers have an account — the master switch, off on a new site. Ignore the line underneath: Booked does not add a sign-in link to your confirmations by itself, and the booking form offers one only on services with passes on sale.
- 3Put this on any page — Copy puts
[get_booked_account]on your clipboard. - 4Where the account lives — where every sign-in email sends people. It fills itself the first time the page carrying the shortcode is opened, and only ever fills a blank.
- 5Move an appointment and Cancel an appointment — the two switches that change your diary. Both start off; turn either on and the amber warning appears.
- 6How it looks — the account borrows your booking form’s colours until you switch this off and pick an Accent. Heading replaces “Your appointments” on the sign-in screen, and their name once they are in.
Every sign-in email links to Where the account lives. While it is blank the link lands on your home page, where it does nothing. To move the account to a new page, clear the field, save, then open the new page.
What each switch does
The As a customer sees it card at the bottom of the screen previews the real account with sample details, following the switches as you change them.
| Switch | Starts | What the customer gets |
|---|---|---|
| See their appointments | On | The Appointments tab: Coming up and Earlier. Off hides the tab, but the Overview still shows their next appointment. |
| Book another appointment | On | Nothing at present: the account page has no booking button. |
| Move an appointment | Off | A Move button on each appointment still to come. |
| Cancel an appointment | Off | A Cancel link, which asks for a reason. |
| See receipts and what they have paid | On | The Payments tab, Total spent, and “Paid £25.00” or “£25.00 due” on each appointment. A list of amounts; there is no receipt to download. |
| See the passes they hold and what is left on them | On | The Passes tab and Left on passes. Used-up and expired passes stay under Finished. |
| Update their own contact details | On | The Your details tab: first name, last name and phone. The email is locked. |
| Answer outstanding questionnaires | On | A prompt to answer a booking’s questions, with an Answer them now link. |
Moving, cancelling and editing details are refused by Booked itself when switched off, not just hidden.
Where to put the account
A page called “My appointments”, linked from your menu, is the usual choice. [get_booked_account title="Your appointments"] sets that page’s heading, overriding Heading in Settings; demo="true" shows a sample account where clicks change nothing. With accounts switched off the page is blank to visitors, and administrators see a notice saying where to turn them on. Booked puts no link to the account in your emails by itself. To add one, put {manage_link} in a template under Messages: it becomes the Where the account lives address while accounts are switched on, and is left empty while they are off.
How a customer signs in
The page opens on one box. They enter their email, press Email me a sign-in link, then press Sign in in the email.
Enter the email address you booked with and we will send you a link to sign in. No password to remember.
🔒 The link works once and expires after fifteen minutes.
The sign-in screen after asking for a link, and the email that arrives.
- 1Email address — the one they booked with.
- 2The reply — word for word the same whether or not the address is on file, so nobody can use the box to find out who your customers are.
- 3Sign in — a button in your brand colour. It opens your account page and signs them in. The link works once, for 15 minutes; after that they stay signed in on that browser for 30 days.
- Once, within 15 minutes. A used or expired link says “That link has expired or has already been used. Please ask for a new one.”
- Only active customers. A record set to Inactive is never sent a link, though the screen replies as usual.
- Too many tries. More than eight in quick succession from one connection brings “Too many attempts. Please wait a few minutes and try again.”
- Fixed wording. The email uses your email design, but is not a template you can edit. Each one is listed under Messages as a Sign-in link.
If someone cannot get in, open them under Customers and press Email them a sign-in link in Appointments and spend (Customers and their records).
What they see once signed in
A signed-in account on the Overview tab, with every switch on.
- 1Sign out — ends the session on that device. Beside it: their name (or your Heading), email, and when their record was created.
- 2The tabs — after Overview, each appears only while its switch is on; Passes only for someone who holds, or held, a pass.
- 3The questionnaire prompt — on an appointment whose questions are unanswered. Answer them now opens the same page as the link in your emails.
- 4Move and Cancel — on appointments still to come, only when you have switched them on.
- 5The totals — Appointments includes cancelled ones; Attended counts those marked Completed; Total spent is what was paid online.
The account lists the appointments on that customer’s record, meaning everything booked with that email address. Coming up holds future appointments; Earlier holds past ones plus anything cancelled or missed. Statuses read Confirmed, Awaiting approval, Attended, Cancelled and Missed.
If you keep cards on file, their card sits on the Payments tab under Your card, with a Remove button that works instantly. Customers must sign in to spend prepaid credit online, so keep accounts on if you sell passes.
Moving and cancelling
Move opens a month calendar with empty days dimmed; they pick a day, a time, then confirm. The times are the ones your booking form offers for that service at that branch, and Booked re-checks the slot before moving anything. If it has just gone they see “Sorry — that time has just gone. Please pick another.” Cancel asks why, but lets them skip it.
You can skip the reason if you would rather not say.
Cancelling with a reason, and the last step of moving an appointment.
- 1The reasons — eight fixed choices, one tap each. You cannot change the list.
- 2Anything else? (optional) — free text, up to 500 characters.
- 3Cancel my appointment — cancels at once, reason or not. Keep it or the Esc key backs out.
- 4From and To — the old and new times side by side, dates written year first.
- 5Yes, move it — the only tap that moves anything. Pick another time goes back.
A move sends the Booking rescheduled email, restarts reminders, updates a connected calendar and offers the time they left to anyone waiting for it. A cancellation frees the slot, offers it to your waiting list if you use one, returns credit to their pass if they paid with one, removes it from a connected calendar and sends Booking cancelled.
No refund: cancelling leaves the payment untouched, so refund from the booking if they are owed. No notice period: they can cancel or move right up to the start. A move keeps the same member of staff, but the times offered are for anyone who does that service at that branch, so it can land when that person is not working; check the Diary. And a move resets any length you typed to the service’s own.
What you see
Booked emails your team as soon as a customer cancels or moves: Customer cancelled, with the reason they picked and any note they wrote, or Customer rescheduled, with the old time beside the new. Both go to whoever is ticked under Who gets these in Messages (your business email, unless you change it), and replying to one replies to the customer. See Team alerts. The change also appears where you already look:
- The booking’s Activity log. “Cancelled by the customer from their account — I am unwell”, or “Moved by the customer from 2026-10-06 at 10:15 to 2026-10-08 at 14:30”.
- The customer record. In Appointments and spend, a cancelled appointment shows its reason.
- Insights. Why people cancelled counts the reasons for the period. Your own cancellations show as Not given, because the admin asks for none (A tour of Insights).
The optional note appears in the Customer cancelled email, after the reason, but no admin screen shows it yet. New contact details update the customer record only: appointments already booked keep the old phone number, so their texts still go there.
Privacy and security
- No passwords. The emailed link is the only way in, and Booked stores only scrambled copies of links and sessions.
- No fishing. The sign-in box answers every address alike, and nobody can reach another customer’s appointments.
- The email is locked. It reads “This is how you sign in. Ask us if it needs changing.” Change it on their customer record.
- Shared devices. A sign-in lasts 30 days, so suggest Sign out on a family computer.
- Erasing a customer ends all their sign-ins.
Limits worth knowing
- References always start GB-. The account ignores any prefix or suffix you set under Booking rules, so a reference may not match the confirmation email.
- Shared documents do not show. Share with them on a document does not put it on this page.
- 200 appointments. Only the latest 200 are listed.
- One email, one record. Bookings under another address are not in this account.