Sign in

A typical client & booking journey in Bookem

This article steps you through a typical journey, from beginning to end. Booking to billing, from a business and client's perspective. This walk-through should create a good idea of how things could work for you and your clients.

1. Making your first booking

To make a booking, go to your calendar and click on any time slot. You should see the following dialog box pop up:

Either type in a new client name in the search bar. Since this is a new client on your Bookem account, you'll have to create a new client by clicking on 'Create client name' in the drop down, or start with 'create new client' and add your client name.

A new "New Client" dialog box will appear, with some client details for you to populate. Use your own cell phone number and email for testing purposes (this is important for later). After completing the client profile fields, click 'Create' to create your first client:

Next, you'll have to choose the service you want to book the client for. Let's book Bruce for an "Initial Consultation". You can also change the time, who is providing the service, or even add another service to the booking.

Once you have filled in all that's necessary, click 'Book' to create the booking.

2. Check your confirmation notification

After creating your booking, an email or SMS notification with a form link should arrive in the inbox of the client: The "Initial Assessment" was created by default when you signed up for Bookem and is configured to send out an email or SMS with form link in it.

Now, fill out the form that appears after clicking the link:

3. View the form your client submitted

By default, Team Members in your business will receive a notification (via email and/or SMS and/or in-app) shortly after a form is submitted. You can click the link in this notification or find it in the client profile in the booking dialog box.

'Forms' shows a list of all forms completed by this client; forms can be viewed or turned into PDFs and printed.

4. Generate invoice

After a booking has taken place, you most likely want to issue an invoice. You can create invoices from Accounts | Invoices, or directly from a booking by clicking the 'New invoice' button

If a service has had one or more line items linked, the invoice will auto-populate with line items and amounts. You may want to fill in some extra columns like ICD-10 codes.

You can add more line items or associate extra bookings with this invoice. When done, click Finalise or then Finalise & Send to bring up the invoice email/SMS modal:

If the client has an email address, the toggle to send an email will be on by default. However, you can opt to send only an SMS, or both an email and SMS.

The body and subject of the email will auto-populate with default wording. This copy can be customised in Settings | Payments & Invoicing | Messages

After hitting Send, your client will be notified of an outstanding invoice on the channel(s) you selected.

5. Recording a payment

A payment can be recorded before or after sending an invoice. To record a payment first, instead of choosing to Finalise & send, rather choose to Finalise & pay.

Or edit the invoice and click Add payment.

Payments can also be initiated by navigating to Accounts | Payments and clicking New

Either way you choose to do this, the payment modal will pop up, where you can choose a payment method, add another invoice and the amount.

6. Create client notes

Create a note directly from the booking on the calendar:

On your blank note, enter some text, and try using '#' to quickly look up and add an ICD-10 code, or any other Data List. You can also add an image, annotate it with your finger, Magic Pencil, stylus, or mouse, or attach some files:

Click to insert a Note Form into your note:

When done click 'Update' in the bottom right to add it to your note. Now save your note.

Some more helpful information

Once you're comfortable with how it is that Bookem generally works, here's a checklist for getting your business set up optimally.

Also, our Help section is packed with info about topics & keywords you might need answers on.

Here are some useful areas to explore next:

  • Let your client make bookings themselves, online
  • Linking Snapscan and/or Payfast and/or Paypal is optional, but if clients pay this way your invoices will automatically be marked as paid on Bookem. See how to link Snapscan here
  • All about Forms
  • More on Notes
  • Customise your Line Item Groups, which is how Bookem makes it easy for businesses to create groups of procedure codes/line items for easier invoicing

  • Check out our Getting Started guide