Walk-ins and quick sales

Book in somebody who has just walked through the door, or ring up a sale with nothing in the diary, and take the money from the same screen.

Not everybody books. Some people walk up to the counter and ask to be seen now, and some only want to buy something. Booked has a button for each. Walk-in books the person into the diary from this minute, with whoever is free, and opens their bill. Quick sale opens an empty bill with nothing in the diary, for sun cream, a travel pack or a service sold over the counter.

Both are part of Take payment, and both end the same way: you add what they are having, take the money, and the customer gets a receipt if you have their email address.

Before you start

• Take payment must be switched on. It is the Take payment card on the Features screen, under Taking money, and it is off until you turn it on.
• You need the Take payment permission at Edit. Staff with View can open the Payments screen and look at bills, but cannot change them or take payment, and do not see Walk-in or Quick sale. The Front desk and Manager presets include it at Edit; Practitioner does not. See Team access.
• Walk-ins need your staff in the diary. The dialog offers the active members of staff you are allowed to see.

Walk-in or quick sale?

Where the buttons are

• On the Payments screen. Quick sale and Walk-in sit at the top right, level with the All payments and Take payment tabs.
• In the diary. The toolbar has a Walk-in button between Quick edit and New booking. It opens the same dialog.
• On the Bookings list. The Walk-in button next to Add booking opens the same dialog too, then the bill.
• Inside the dialog. The switch at the top flips between Appointment now and Sale only, so you can change your mind without closing it.

Book in a walk-in

1. Press Walk-inThe dialog opens on Appointment now: "They are here now and want seeing. This books them into the diary from now, then opens their bill so you can take payment when they are done."
2. Choose what they are havingPick a service from Search services…. It is marked The appointment. Each one you add from Add another service… is marked Added to the bill and the time.
3. Choose who sees themBooked has already picked whoever is free for longest. Press another name to change it.
4. Check the branchBranch only appears when you can see more than one. It starts on a branch where the chosen person works, and moves when you choose somebody who does not work at the one showing.
5. Fill in who they are, if you likeName, Email and Phone are all optional.
6. Press Book in and open the billIt reads Starting… for a moment, then their bill opens.

• 1Appointment now / Sale only — flips the dialog between a walk-in and a quick sale. Whatever you typed under Who they are stays.
• 2Added to the bill and the time — every service after the first goes on the bill as its own line and makes the appointment longer by its minutes.
• 335 minutes from now — the length of everything picked added together, and the price of it all.
• 4Free until 10:30, in amber — Aisha is free now, but 35 minutes would run past her next appointment at 10:30.
• 5The person chosen — outlined in black. Booked picked Hannah because she is free with nothing else in the diary today.
• 6Who they are — all three boxes are optional. The line under them is the dialog’s own reminder of what an email address does.
• 7Book in and open the bill — stays greyed out until at least one service is picked.

Free and busy

Each name carries one of three labels, worked out from that person’s appointments today when the dialog opens:

• Free now: nothing on now or later today.
• Free until 10:30: free, with their next appointment at 10:30. It turns amber when what you have picked will not fit in the gap.
• Busy until 10:45: with somebody now, until 10:45.

Booked chooses whoever is free with nothing else today, or failing that, the longest gap. If everybody is busy, nobody is chosen and you pick. The check only looks at appointments, not working hours, breaks or time off, so somebody on their lunch break can show as free. It also does not check that the person offers the service: every active service is in the list.

Who they are

• No name. The booking is called Walk-in on the Take payment tab, the diary and the bill.
• An email address. They get a receipt each time you take money, and join your customers. If a customer already has that address, the walk-in goes on their record and their details are left alone; if not, Booked makes a new record.
• A phone number only. Kept on the booking, but no customer record and no receipt email.
• A card they saved before. If the email belongs to a customer with a card on file, you can charge it on the bill, which may ask for your payment PIN. See Cards on file and Payment protection.

What goes in the diary

• It starts now, rounded down to the five minutes. Press the button at 10:27 and it starts at 10:25.
• It lasts as long as the services. The first service (never less than five minutes) plus each extra one: 10:25 to 11:00 in the example.
• It is confirmed straight away, and unpaid until you take payment. Its price is the first service; the others are lines on its bill.
• It is marked as a walk-in. A Walk-in tag shows on the Take payment tab, the bill, the Bookings list, the booking and the diary pop-over, and the Dashboard counts it under Phone / walk-in. Its activity log starts "Walk-in: Ruth Adeyemi — Travel vaccination consultation".

Who hears about it. Nobody is sent a booking confirmation, and your team’s New booking alert does not go out. The walk-in does reach any calendar you have connected (see Calendar sync), and a follow-up that starts when Somebody books picks it up like an online booking, if they gave an email address or phone number.

When the person is busy

When you press Book in and open the bill, Booked checks the person’s diary from this minute to the end of the whole visit, every service included. If anything is there, nothing is booked. Instead you see "They are with Yusuf Lewis until 10:45. Book the walk-in anyway, or choose somebody else." when they are with somebody now, or "This would run into Tom Ahmed at 10:30. Book the walk-in anyway, or choose somebody else." when somebody is due before it would finish. An amber Free until warns you before you press anything.

• 1The busy person — you can choose somebody who is busy. Booked only stops you when you try to book.
• 2The warning — names who they are with, or who is due, and the time. It goes as soon as you choose another person, or add or remove a service.
• 3Book them in anyway — takes the place of Book in and open the bill while the warning shows.

Choose somebody else, or press Book them in anyway. That books the walk-in on top: the two appointments overlap in the person’s diary column, with every service on the bill and in the diary. Nobody is moved or told, so sort the clash out in the diary yourself.

A walk-in with nobody chosen

If everybody was busy and you did not pick anyone, or you have no staff, the walk-in is booked with nobody. There is no busy check and it holds nobody’s time. In the diary’s Day view it sits in an Unassigned column until you open the booking and give it to someone.

Staff with limits. Somebody set to Only their own appointments sees only themselves under Who sees them and must choose themselves. Somebody limited to certain Branches sees only those branches and their staff. Anything else is refused with "You cannot book for that branch or person." (for a sale, "You cannot sell for that branch.").

The walk-in’s bill

The bill opens as soon as the walk-in is booked, and works like any appointment’s bill (see Take payment).

• 1Walk-in — the tag every walk-in carries, after the bill’s pill and before the start time and who is seeing them. The first service is the first line of the bill.
• 2+15 min — this line also made the appointment longer. Take it off with its × and the 15 minutes come off the diary too. The first line is the appointment itself and has no ×.
• 3Cash and Card machine — the ways to pay. Card on file is only listed when the customer has a card saved with you, on Booked Payments with cards on file switched on. Ruth has never saved a card, so it is not offered.
• 4Record £92.00 in cash — records the cash. The amount box starts at everything owed; lower it to take part now and the rest later, and All of it puts the full figure back. With Card on file chosen the button reads Charge instead, and with the card machine Record £92.00 on the card machine.

Take the money now, or press Close and come back later: the walk-in waits on the Take payment tab with a Check out button. Paid in full, the bill says "£92.00 taken. Paid in full; their receipt is on its way." The receipt is your Payment receipt email, under Messages › Email templates, in the Money group (see Editing templates).

Ring up a quick sale

1. Press Quick saleOr switch the Walk-in dialog to Sale only: "They are buying something and nothing goes in the diary. This opens an empty bill: add what they are having and take the money."
2. Choose the branch, and who they areBranch only shows when you can see more than one. Name, Email and Phone are optional; an email address brings a receipt and a customer record.
3. Press Start the saleThe bill opens, headed Quick sale · S-00007, and reads "Nothing on the bill yet. Add a service or an item below."
4. Add what they are buying+ Custom item takes What it is, Qty and Price (£); there is no product list, so type them each time. + Service sells a service from your list at its usual price, which you can change; no time is added, because there is no appointment. + Discount takes a percentage or an amount off.
5. Take the moneyChoose Cash or Card machine and press the button, which names the amount and the way: Record £17.98 on the card machine.

• 1Quick sale · S-00007 — the sale’s own reference. Sales are numbered S-00001, S-00002 and so on, separately from your bookings. With no name given, the heading is just Quick sale.
• 2Nothing on the bill yet — a sale has no price of its own. Everything on it is something you add. Until then the panel on the right says "Add what they are buying and the amount to pay appears here."
• 3Throw this sale away — for a sale started by mistake. Shown only until money is taken.
• 4Cash and Card machine — the only two ways to pay for a sale. There is never a Card on file option here.
• 5Record £17.98 on the card machine — take the card payment on your own machine first, then record it here. Booked does not talk to the machine.

Paid in full, the bill says "£17.98 taken. Paid in full; their receipt is on its way." and Close becomes Done. Part payments work as on any bill.

Why no card on file? A card on file is kept with the customer’s agreement that you can charge what they owe for an appointment. A sale is not an appointment, so the agreement does not cover it. Booked never offers the card on a sale, and refuses one behind the scenes: "A card on file can only be charged for an appointment, with Booked Payments." Take card payments for a sale on your machine.

The receipt for a sale

With an email address, the customer gets "Your receipt from Meridian Pharmacy" each time you take money, part payments included. It opens "Hi Grace," (or "Hello,") and "Thank you for your payment. Here is your receipt:", then shows Amount paid, every line on the bill, For ("Your purchase" and the day), Reference (the S- number), Paid on with Cash or Card machine, and Total price, Paid so far (after an earlier payment) and Left to pay. It ends with your business name.

Unlike the walk-in’s receipt, it is not one of your templates under Messages, so you cannot change or switch it off.

Throwing a sale away

Throw this sale away sits at the bottom left of the bill once something is on it, until money is taken. It works at once, with no “are you sure”: the sale leaves the Take payment tab and cannot be opened again. Once any money has been taken the button goes for good, even after a full refund. If a colleague takes a payment while you have the bill open, Booked refuses: "Money has been taken on this sale, so it stays. Refund it from Payments instead."

A sale you close without adding anything is thrown away by itself, so nothing lingers: there is no empty bill to find on the Take payment tab or under All payments.

A walk-in has no such button. If you booked one by mistake, or they leave before being seen, set the booking to Cancelled. That frees the time, takes it off the Take payment tab and closes its bill. See Rescheduling and cancelling.

Where they show afterwards

• 1Quick sale and Walk-in — only shown to people with the Take payment permission at Edit.
• 2Today / Overdue / This week / All time — which bills to list. A walk-in or sale you have just started is owed today, so it is listed under Today.
• 3Walk-in — listed at its start time, with the service, who is seeing them and how many extras are on the bill (discounts are not counted). Without a name the row reads Walk-in.
• 4Sale — listed at the time it was started, with up to three of the things on it. Without a name the row reads Quick sale.
• 5Paid ones are under All payments — a bill leaves this tab the moment nothing is owed on it. Idris’s paid appointment and Grace’s paid sale are found under All payments by clicking the name.

• The Take payment tab. Every walk-in and sale that still owes money, for the range you choose. Once paid, it leaves the tab.
• The All payments tab. One line per payment, listing the services or items. A sale with no name reads Quick sale, here and in the refund dialog. Click the name to open the bill. See Every payment in one list.
• The diary and the Bookings list. A walk-in is in both, tagged Walk-in, with Take payment in its pop-over. A sale is never in either.
• Customer records. A walk-in with an email address is on that customer’s record. See Customer records.

Staff limited to their own appointments see only the walk-ins they are seeing and the sales they started. A sale belongs to whoever started it, if their login is linked to a member of staff.

Refunding a walk-in or a sale

Money goes back from the All payments tab, never the bill, as the bill reminds you: "To give money back, use Payments › All payments." It goes back the way it came in: cash over the counter, a card machine payment on your machine, a card on file through Booked Payments. It needs the separate Refunds permission. See Refunds.

• A walk-in with an email address gets your Booking refunded email. Its standard wording says the money goes back to the card they paid with. For a cash refund Booked swaps that sentence for "It has been given back to you in cash.", and for the card machine "It goes back to the card you paid with on our card machine and usually shows within a few working days." If you have rewritten that sentence in the template, yours is sent unchanged.
• A sale gets "Your refund from Meridian Pharmacy": "We have refunded £17.98 (Back on the card machine) for your purchase S-00007."
• The bill stays as it was. The refund is not put back on the bill as owed. Refunded in full, the bill reads Refunded, and as it owes nothing it is found under All payments rather than on the Take payment tab. A refunded walk-in stays in the diary. Cancel it if the appointment did not happen.

Common questions

• Can I book a walk-in for later today? No, a walk-in always starts now. Use New booking in the diary instead. See Adding a booking.
• What if they leave without paying? The walk-in stays unpaid on the Take payment tab, counted in Still to collect, and from the next day under Overdue. There is no write-off button; if you let it go, a 100% discount brings To pay to £0.00.
• Can I change the time afterwards? Yes. It is a normal booking, so move it or give it to someone else as usual. See Rescheduling and cancelling.
• Will it double-book? Only if you press Book them in anyway, or book with nobody chosen. Once in the diary, a walk-in holds that person’s time, and online booking will not offer it.
• Can I turn a sale into a walk-in? No. Throw the sale away, if no money has been taken, and start a walk-in.
• Something went wrong. "Could not load the till." means the dialog could not fetch your services and staff; close it and try again. "The walk-in could not be saved." or "The sale could not be started." means nothing was saved.