Edit your emails and texts

Change the wording, subject and branding of anything Booked sends, see what it adds for you, and keep emails of your own to send from a booking.

Every email and text Booked sends comes from a template you can rewrite in your own words. Booked messages a customer at a set list of moments — seven when something happens, one for each reminder you switch on, a chase for unanswered questions, and a few for the waiting list and packages — most with an email version and a text version. Five more are alerts to your own team. You can also keep emails of your own, which Booked never sends by itself: you send them by hand from a booking. They all live on one screen.

Find the message you want to change

Open Booked and choose Messages in the Set up group. The screen opens on Email templates; the texts are on Text messages. Pick the moment you want to edit from the list on the left. Each moment and channel is one saved template. At the foot of the email list, Your own templates holds the emails you write for yourself.

• 1Messages — everything customers are emailed or texted, and the alerts to your team, in the Set up group.
• 2Email templates and Text messages — the two tabs that hold the wording. Design is the logo and colour around every email; Sent is the log.
• 3The events — the moments in six groups, from When they book down to To your team. You cannot add a moment of your own, except reminders, which you add on the Reminders tab. A green dot means that message is switched on.
• 4Email goes out — turns one message off without losing your wording. The emails arrive switched on, except the 3-hours-before reminder’s; the texts arrive off, except the reminder texts, the questions chase and A time has come up.
• 5Your own templates — emails you write yourself and send by hand from a booking. New template makes one. Nothing sends them automatically, so they have no switch and no dot. See Your own templates, below.

Write the subject and the body

The Subject field is email only and saves as plain text. Booking details show in it as named tags, just as in the email: the shipped confirmation’s subject reads “Your appointment is confirmed — Business name”. The subject has no menu, so to add a detail there, type its code in curly brackets — {customer_first_name}, say — and it turns into a tag when you click away. Keep it short and name your business, as the shipped wording does.

Below it, Email is a visual editor with a small toolbar: B, I and U, a bullet-list button, Link, and </> on the right. Booking details appear in it as named tags rather than codes, ready-made sections as grey one-line cards, and conditions as amber groups around the words they govern. Under the box sit two buttons — + Add a detail for booking details and sections, and Show only when… for conditions — each opening a menu, with a How to build emails → link to this article on the right. When you are done, press Save.

</> swaps the visual editor for the HTML behind the email, with every tag, card and group written out as its code, and the toolbar reads Showing the HTML and codes. Use it after pasting from Word or a web page, which brings hidden formatting with it, or to see exactly what a template says. Press </> again to go back.

• 1Subject — plain text, with details shown as tags here too. It has no menu: type a code such as {company_name} and it becomes a tag when you click away. A text message has no subject.
• 2</> — swaps the editor for the HTML behind the email, with every tag and condition written out as its code. The toolbar then reads Showing the HTML and codes. Press it again to go back.
• 3A detail — a blue tag names the detail, such as First name. It is filled in when the email is sent. Hover over it to see its code, {customer_first_name}.
• 4A condition — an amber group. Its header says when the words inside it go out — if a video call — and the × at the top right takes the condition away and keeps the words. The shipped design keeps the whole video call section in one, so only video appointments get it. Reword the words inside like any other sentence.
• 5A ready-made section — a grey one-line card: its name, then what Booked fills it with. Payment summary is a whole block, drawn when the email is sent and left out when it does not apply. See below.
• 6+ Add a detail — opens a menu of everything this message can fill in, from Ready-made sections down to Your business. Pick one and it lands at your cursor as a tag, or under your paragraph as a card.
• 7Show only when… — opens the list of conditions. Select some words first, pick one, and they become a group; Otherwise… adds the alternative. See below. Beside it, How to build emails → opens this article.
• 8The line underneath — what Booked adds when the template leaves it out, and where to place it yourself. See below.
• 9Save — saves this one event and channel. Nothing else on the screen saves with it.
• 10Preview — the email as it will arrive, filled with made-up details. Unsaved changes are included.
• 11Email me a test — sends the version picked beside it to the address you type, saved or not. See below.

Working with tags

A tag stands in for one piece of the template. It looks like a word, but it behaves as a single block:

• Click a tag and the cursor lands just after it. Carry on typing from there, or press Backspace to take the tag out. You cannot type inside one: to change it, delete it and add the one you want from the menu.
• Hover over a tag to see its code. First name shows “Filled in when it is sent · {customer_first_name}”, and a section card shows “Booked fills this in when it is sent” and its code. In the menu, hovering over a line shows the code it adds.
• Codes you type become tags when you click away. Type {service_name} by hand and it turns into Service as soon as you click outside the box. A code that stays as you typed it, curly brackets and all, is one Booked does not recognise — usually a typo — and your customer will read it word for word. A few rare codes with no line in the menu, listed in merge tags, also stay as typed but still work.
• Copying a tag copies its code. Paste it into the Subject, a text, another template or anywhere else and it keeps working: it shows as the code while you type, and becomes a tag when you click away.

Put booking details in

Press + Add a detail and a menu opens, grouped the way you would look for things: Ready-made sections first, then Customer, Appointment, Links, Money and Your business. Click a line and its tag lands at your cursor; the real detail replaces it when the message goes out. A section goes in as a card under the paragraph your cursor is in, never in the middle of a line. The menu lists only what this message can fill in, so a receipt offers ▤ Receipt and a waiting-list message ▤ Waiting-list details, while neither offers the other. Every tag and its code is listed in merge tags.

• 1Ready-made sections — first in the menu: each is a whole block Booked draws, with one line saying what goes in it. Nine are offered on a booking email; the alerts to your team, receipts, the waiting list and packages each add their own.
• 2Single details — the rest of the menu, in groups — Customer, Appointment, Links, Money, Your business. Only the details this message can fill in are listed. Hover over any line to see its code.
• 3The reminder at the foot — a section only appears in the sent email when it applies to that booking, so a card you add never leaves a stray heading behind.

A few details do not behave as people expect:

Show something only for video calls (and other conditions)

One template covers every booking, but some sentences only suit some of them. A video call needs its join link and no directions to a branch; a customer who has paid in full does not need to hear about the balance. Put those words inside a condition and Booked keeps them for the bookings they fit and leaves them out of the rest. The shipped designs already do this: the Where row of every appointment email is a group headed if a video call that reads “Video call”, then otherwise Branch.

In the editor a condition is an amber group around the words it governs. A group that holds a whole paragraph or a block — the video call section, the Where rows, the sign-off — is a box: a header strip saying when the words show, the words, then an otherwise strip and the alternative when there is one. A group that sits in the middle of a sentence, such as Booking pending’s “Your video call link comes with the confirmation.”, is drawn in the line with the same labels, so the sentence still reads. Every group has a small ×: hover over it and it says Remove this condition and keep the words. It comes in three forms:

The conditions you can use

Nine work in every message about a booking, including receipts and the alerts to your team. The menu lists each by what it means; hover over a line to see its code.

The waiting-list messages — Joined the waiting list, A time has come up and New on the waiting list — know only A video call, In person and More than one person, and list only those. Package bought and Package sold have no Show only when… button at all: nothing in them is about an appointment. Any other condition typed into those messages counts as not true.

Making one

1. Select the wordsHighlight the sentence that only suits some bookings, in the email or the text.
2. Open Show only when… and pick a conditionClick A video call, say. The words you selected become a group headed if a video call, with your formatting left alone. With nothing selected, Booked makes an empty group with dots inside, already selected for you to type over — in a text the dots are three full stops.
3. Add the alternative, if there is oneClick inside the words of the group — at their end, usually — then open Show only when… again and press Otherwise…. The group splits at your cursor: anything after it becomes the otherwise part, and you type what everyone else should read. The item is greyed out, reading Click inside an “if” group first, whenever your cursor is anywhere else, and again once the group has its otherwise: a group can have only one.
4. Preview it both waysChoose A video call beside Preview and look, then choose A normal booking and look again. Press Save when both read right.

Say your day-before reminder should ask video customers to have their medicines to hand, and everyone else to bring them. Open Reminder · the day before, type the video sentence, select it and pick A video call; then add Otherwise… and the in-person sentence:

• 1The words you selected — the video sentence, highlighted in the email.
• 2A video call — turns the selection into a group headed if a video call. The menu opens above its button when the button is near the foot of the window.
• 3Otherwise… — greyed out here, reading Click inside an “if” group first, because there is no group yet. Once there is, click inside its words and open the menu again: it reads What to say instead, when it is not true — from the caret on, and splits the group at your cursor so you can type what other customers read.
• 4The result — a group drawn in the line, since it sits mid-sentence: a video customer reads the first sentence and everyone else the second. The rest of the line is the same for both. In the code it reads {if video}…{else}…{/if}.

To take a condition away again, press its ×. The words stay — both parts, one after the other, if it had an otherwise — and only the condition goes. Deleting every word inside a group instead leaves the group in place, empty: it sends nothing, and its × removes it.

In a text every character is paid for, so conditions earn their keep there too. The shipped day-before reminder text uses three:

• 1The template — three groups, drawn in the line. if a video call swaps the branch for “by video call” and puts the join link last; if something left to pay mentions Left to pay only when there is something left to pay.
• 2The count — leaves the condition labels out but counts both sides of an otherwise, and every tag at the length of its code, so it errs long. This template shows two texts though an in-person reminder is often one.
• 3In person — the branch name and the balance, in one text.
• 4A video call — no branch and no balance, but the join link is long, so this one runs to two texts.

Rules worth knowing

• They work wherever you write. In the subject line, the email, the text, and the email and text steps of a follow-up, which have the same two menus. In a follow-up with no booking behind it, every condition counts as not true.
• They can sit inside each other. A group headed if more than one person holding a group headed if something left to pay shows its words only on a group booking with something left to pay.
• Capitals do not matter. Typed as {if Video}, a condition works the same as {if video}.
• A misspelt name counts as not true. Typed as {if vidoe}, it shows in the editor as a group headed if vidoe — a name the menu never offered, which is the clue — and hides its words from everyone; {if not vidoe} shows them to everyone. Use the menu.
• A start and end in different paragraphs show as pills. Select words across two paragraphs and Booked cannot draw one group, so you see three small amber pills instead: if a video call where the words start, otherwise if there is one, and end where they stop. Hover over a pill for what it does. They work exactly like a group when the message is sent, and a pill on a line of its own takes that line with it, so nobody sees a blank gap where the words were.
• A missing end shows the words to everyone. An if pill with no end, or an otherwise on its own, is ignored: the markers are dropped and the words stay in.
• In a text, put the space inside. Write the group as if something left to pay Left to pay to pay on the day.×, with the space just inside the label, as the shipped reminder does. The sentence then joins up whether it shows or not.

What Booked adds for you

Some details only matter on some bookings, so Booked has a ready-made section for each, at the top of the + Add a detail menu. In the editor each is a grey one-line card you can put anywhere — its name, then a few words on what it holds — and each is empty when it does not apply, so it never leaves a stray heading behind.

Other messages have sections of their own: ▤ Receipt in Payment receipt and Booking refunded, ▤ The customer in the alerts to your team, ▤ Waiting-list details in the waiting-list messages and ▤ Package details in the package messages. They are listed in merge tags.

The shipped designs place these themselves: Questions to answer, Everyone coming, Course or visit details and Payment summary just under the appointment details, and Account link near the end. The video call is the exception: they write it out in full inside an if a video call group, so you can reword it. In the alerts to your team, the questions panel and the account line stay empty.

If a built-in template leaves a piece out — you rewrote it, or deleted the card — Booked still adds it on the messages it belongs on, at the end, or where you put ▤ Anything else the booking needs. That is what the line under the editor means:

• The video call on Booking approved, Booking changed, Booking rescheduled, every reminder, and the team’s New booking and Customer rescheduled. Not on Booking pending: the booking may yet be turned down.
• Everybody in a group on every message about a booking for two or more, except a receipt or refund.
• Questions still to answer on the Booking pending and Booking approved emails.
• Everything in the visit on every message about the booking except cancellations, receipts and refunds.
• What has been paid on Booking pending, Booking approved, Booking changed, Booking rescheduled and the reminders, and the account line on the first four. Emails only.

A piece steps aside when the template already has its card, or a tag it is built from: Video call link for the video call; List of everyone, Everyone’s names or Number of people for the group; Questions link for the questions; Manage-booking link for the account line; and Paid so far, Left to pay or ▤ Receipt for the payment. To a text, Booked only ever adds the short video line, the names in a group and a course’s visits. The line under the editor shows on the booking messages and the alerts to your team. Payment receipt and Booking refunded have no line and get nothing added: a receipt says what it has to say. Nor do the waiting-list and package messages, or your own templates.

Test it on yourself first

Press Preview under the editor to see the email as it will arrive: filled in with made-up details, the extras above included, and wrapped in your design. It includes changes you have not saved yet, and nothing is sent. The choice beside it picks the kind of booking to pretend — A normal booking, A video call or A group of three — so you can check the video panel and the group list without waiting for a real one. Only the package messages have no such choice.

To see it in your own inbox, type your address and press Email me a test. It sends the same version, saved or not, with “[Test]” at the start of the subject and a made-up customer called Grace Whitfield. You will see Test email sent., or Could not send. Check the site can send mail. Tests are not listed under Sent. For a text, Preview and Text me a test sit in the same places on the Text messages tab.

To check the delivery itself, go to Settings › Emails & texts and use Send yourself a test. It uses the settings as saved, so if it arrives, your customers’ confirmations will go out the same way.

• "Sent to … via …" — it left the site. If it does not turn up within a minute or two, check the spam folder; the send itself worked.
• "It did not send." — the site could not hand it over. That is a delivery problem, not a template problem: change how mail leaves under Emails & texts. See email delivery.

Afterwards, Messages › Sent lists every real email and text Booked sent, to customers and to your team, with the subject of each email, the opening of each text and whether it went.

The branding around your words

You write the middle of the message; Booked wraps it in a shell that survives every email app, set on the Design tab: your logo, your business name or nothing at the top, a thin line in your Brand colour, a white card holding your text and, underneath, your own footer line if you wrote one — plus a small “Powered by trybooked.co” line unless you are on the Business plan. The preview on that tab shows the confirmation dressed exactly as a customer will see it.

• 1Your logo, or your name — set on the Design tab: At the top shows your logo, your business name in your colour, or nothing. Upload a PNG or JPG on a white or transparent background; it is shown 150 pixels wide.
• 2The footer — only the line you type into A line at the foot (optional) on the Design tab, plus “Powered by trybooked.co” unless you are on Business. Booked adds no address, copyright or unsubscribe wording of its own; the name and phone number above it are the signature written into the template.
• 3The text version — no header, no footer, no formatting, from your sender name of up to 11 characters. Everything the customer needs must fit in a sentence or two.

Replies go to From email under Settings Emails & texts — there is no separate reply-to, so make it a mailbox somebody reads. Alerts to your team are the exception: a reply to one goes to the customer. Templates are global too: one Booking approved email covers every service, branch and member of staff, so keep the wording general enough for all of them.

Keeping texts short

On the Text messages tab the editor changes: there is no Subject, the field is called Message, and the toolbar keeps only </>, which shows the codes. Details still show as tags and conditions as groups in a plain box, with the same + Add a detail and Show only when… buttons underneath and How to write texts → on the right, and a count below the box of how long the text is and how many it will cost.

Texts are charged by length: up to 160 characters counts as one message, and a single emoji or curly quote drops that to 70. The count under the box is a guide. It counts each tag at the length of its code, leaves out the condition labels themselves, and counts the words on both sides of an otherwise, so for a template with conditions it errs long. The tags are filled in before the text is sent and charged, though, so wording that looks short can still tip into two messages for a customer with a long name or service — or a video join link. Booked may also add a line at the end — the video link, the names in a group, a course’s visits — which the count does not see. Lead with your business name, keep to the service, date and time, and leave the address out.

Your own templates

Some emails are not tied to a moment: the results are back, the clinic is closing early, bring your travel documents. Save those as your own templates and send them from any booking, filled in with that booking’s details. Booked never sends them by itself.

1. Press New templateUnder Your own templates, at the foot of the list on Email templates. Booked makes it straight away and opens it: called “New template”, with the subject “New template — Business name” and a starter email that says “Hi First name,” and “Write your message here.” above your business name and phone.
2. Name itTemplate name is for your team only — it is how you find the template on a booking, so call it what it is for, such as “Results are ready”.
3. Write the subject and the emailThe same editor, menus and conditions as every other message. Conditions are judged against the booking you send it from.
4. Save, then check itSave keeps the name, subject and email. Preview and Email me a test fill it in with made-up details, as for any other email.

• 1Your own templates — at the foot of the list, under To your team, A to Z by name, each with an envelope instead of a dot. New template adds another.
• 2Delete — where a built-in message has its Email goes out switch. Booked asks Delete “Results are ready”? This cannot be undone. first. Emails already sent from it stay in the log.
• 3Template name — for your team only. It is how you pick the template when you email a customer from a booking. Up to 120 characters.
• 4Save — saves the name, subject and email together. Preview and Email me a test work as for any other email.

• Nothing sends them automatically. There is no Email goes out switch. The only way one goes out is Email customer in a booking’s Quick actions, where you pick it under Start from and can change the words for that one email. See emailing a customer from a booking.
• Nothing is added to them. Booked puts in no video link, group list or payment summary of its own, and there is no line under the editor: what you write is what goes. To include one, add it from Ready-made sections; each is still empty on a booking it does not apply to. Anything else the booking needs, What changed, Old date and Old time are not offered here.
• Emails only. Your own templates have no text version, and the Text messages tab does not list them.
• Up to 100. After that, Booked asks you to delete one you no longer use before you make another. Deleting one leaves the emails already sent from it in the log.
• Only your own can be deleted. The built-in messages have no Delete: switch one off instead.

Putting a template back the way it was

There is no undo and no reset button here. Before you rewrite an email, open </>, select everything in the box and paste it somewhere safe — that copy, with its codes, is how you restore the original.