How approval works
What happens between a customer asking for a time and a booking being confirmed, and who has to act at each point.
A booking request moves through a fixed set of states. Which state can follow which is defined once and enforced both in the application and in the database, so a request cannot reach a state by an unexpected route.
The states
| Status | What it means | Who acts next |
|---|---|---|
| New | Submitted by the customer and not yet opened by the business. | The business |
| With the business | Opened by the business, or returned to it by the customer or by a clash. | The business |
| With the customer | The business offered alternative times. | The customer |
| Confirmed | The business approved it. A confirmation number exists and the calendar event is written. | Nobody |
| Declined | The business declined it. | Nobody |
| Cancelled | Cancelled after confirmation, within the cutoff you set. | Nobody |
| Expired | Nobody answered in time, so it lapsed. | Nobody |
What holds your availability
A new or open request holds the slot while it is live, so two customers cannot quietly be promised the same time. A confirmed booking holds it firmly. Declined, cancelled and expired requests hold nothing.
Offering another time
Rather than declining, you can offer alternatives. The customer accepts one, declines, or proposes a different time back to you — and in that last case the request returns to you. Availability is checked again at the moment of confirmation, so an alternative that has since been taken cannot be confirmed.
Confirmation
- You approve the request, directly or by offering the slot the customer accepted.
- A confirmation number is issued.
- The customer is emailed, and texted if they opted in.
- A calendar event is written, if a calendar is connected.
Before that point there is no confirmation number, no calendar event, and nothing a customer can treat as booked.