Someone covers
A short note about the new practitioner
Sent only if you tick the box when you confirm the cover. There's no button, because there's nothing for the patient to do.
Features
Everything BookingSimple does, and where it stops.
BookingSimple runs the front desk and the money for private clinics: booking, payments, reminders and the reception calendar. It leaves clinical notes to the tools built for them.
Every plan includes bookings, the schedule, payments, no-show protection and team roles. Plans differ by how many practitioners take bookings and how many locations you run.
Book a 15-minute demoAsk for a free trial
Both buttons open an email to [email protected]. We reply within one UK business day. We open your account and answer every email. The trial needs no card.
Closer looks: Email designerWebsite widget
At a glance
- Commission
- 0% on patient payments
- Patient account
- None needed
- Card details
- Collected by Stripe, never by us
- Reminders
- Email, 72, 24 and 2 hours before. Text messages not yet.
- Clinic size
- Plans for 1 to 25 practitioners
- Clinical notes
- Not included
01 · For patients
Online booking.
Patients choose a treatment, practitioner, location and time on your clinic's own page, on any device, with no account or password.
- Only genuinely free times are shown, in your clinic's time.
- Set a minimum notice for online booking at each location, and booking windows for each service by weekday and time.
- Services are offered only at the locations you tick.
- Double bookings are blocked by the database itself.
LimitsNo group or class bookings, waitlist or recurring bookings.
Figure A: Patient's phone
02 · For the owner
Payments and deposits.
Take a deposit, the full price or nothing up front. Every payment is made on your clinic's own Stripe account, so the money settles with you.
- Pay at the clinic, optional online payment, or online payment required.
- Deposits as a fixed amount (from £0.30) or a percentage, capped at the price.
- BookingSimple takes 0% commission on patient payments.
- For phone bookings, reception can email a payment link. The time is held for 24 hours by default (you can change it) and released if it is not paid.
- Full or partial refunds, by owners and admins.
LimitsCard payments, in pounds; we don't promise Apple Pay or Google Pay yet. The balance paid at the clinic is not collected online. Payment and no-show policies apply to the whole clinic, not per service. No card terminal and no invoices: patients get Stripe's receipt.
Stripe's own card fee is between you and Stripe. See Stripe's UK pricing
Figure C: Your Stripe account
03 · For the owner
No-show protection.
When someone doesn't turn up, your policy decides what happens, and the patient agreed to it before they booked.
- Choose no charge, keep the deposit, or charge the remaining balance.
- Charging needs the patient's tick on your wording and a card saved with Stripe, with the bank's 3-D Secure check if the bank asks for one. We record the wording, the time, the IP address and the browser.
- The charge happens only when your staff mark a no-show after the start time. It is capped at the balance and never retried.
- If the booking is moved, the saved card moves with it.
LimitsWe don't tell the patient about the charge. Your clinic does.
Figure B: Appointment drawer
Jo M. · Thu 15 Oct 10:30 · Sports massage
No-showPolicy: Charge the remaining balance
£40.00 charged to the saved card.
04 · For patients
Emails and reminders.
Patients hear from you at the right moments, in your words and your colours, without anyone pressing send.
- Confirmation, moved and cancellation emails, plus reminders 72, 24 and 2 hours before. You choose which reminders go; new clinics start with the 24-hour one on.
- Confirmation, moved and cancellation emails carry a calendar invite that adds, updates or removes the same event in most calendar apps.
- Emails that failed or were skipped show on the appointment.
- Sent as "Your Clinic via BookingSimple". Replies go to the support email you set in Branding.
LimitsText messages are not available yet, and emails are not sent from your own domain.
Change the wording and the look on the email itself. See the email designer
Figure D: Patient's inbox
05 · For patients
Patients changing their own booking.
The Manage link in their emails lets patients move or cancel online, within the notice you set, so fewer of them ring.
- No account needed: the link is enough.
- Separate rules for moving and for cancelling: any time, 2, 24, 48 or 72 hours before, or by phone only.
- When online changes are closed, patients see your phone number or email. They are never left at a dead end.
- Paid bookings can be moved, and the payment and saved card move too.
- Stricter rules never apply to bookings already made. Your staff are never bound by them.
LimitsPatients can't request refunds themselves, and a cancelled booking can't be rebooked from its link.
Notice rule: 24 hours
Manage booking
Sports massage · Thu 15 Oct at 10:30
Online changes closed 24 hours before. Can't make it? Call Your Clinic on 01632 960 123.
06 · For reception
Reception calendar on an iPad.
Reception runs the day from one screen: every practitioner side by side, with everything for an appointment in one drawer.
- Day and week views with practitioners side by side, plus a list view.
- Built for touch: large targets, no zooming on inputs, and drag or tap to move an appointment.
- Check in, mark a no-show, complete, cancel, move or send a payment link from one drawer.
- Refreshes every 30 seconds.
LimitsA web app in Safari or any browser. No native app, offline mode or check-in kiosk.
Figure B: Reception iPad
For clinics with 2 or more practitionersplans from £49 a monthNo VAT is charged.
07 · For owners and admins
Cover for a practitioner, with one confirm.
Someone off sick? Hand their list to colleagues who are free, in one go.
An owner or admin opens the absent practitioner's day in the schedule and picks a colleague for each appointment. Only colleagues who work at that location, offer that treatment and are free at that time can be chosen. One confirm moves them all.
The date, time, place, payment and saved card stay exactly as they were. New bookings for the absent practitioner close for that time unless you untick it, and patients get a short email about their new practitioner if you choose.
Figure B: Admin · Schedule
Figure D: Patient's inbox
- Pick a free, eligible colleague for each of an absent practitioner's appointments, and move them all with one confirm.
- New bookings for them close for that time by default.
- Optional patient email: same date, time and place, new practitioner.
- If nobody is free, block the time and email patients a Manage link so they can choose a new time themselves.
- Changing hours or adding a closure never moves or cancels existing appointments on its own.
LimitsOwners and admins only, not reception. One day and one location at a time. The patient's existing calendar entry keeps the original practitioner's name.
What patients receive
When the day changes, patients are told.
Three emails cover the awkward moments. Here is what each one says and what the patient can do next.
Nobody can cover
Block the time and let patients choose a new one
The time is closed to new bookings and the patients affected are marked for review. If you choose to email them, their email has a Manage appointment button, so they can pick a new time themselves, within your rules, with anyone who offers the treatment. Their reminders pause until it's sorted.
Nothing is moved or cancelled until someone acts.
A booking is cancelled
The patient is told straight away
Whether your team cancels or the patient does it online, the cancellation email goes out on its own and the calendar invite removes the appointment from their calendar (in most calendar apps).
Its button contacts your clinic. It has no rebooking button: patients book again on your booking page.
08 · For the owner
Schedule, locations and staff.
Plan who works where, and decide who sees what.
- A planner across all practitioners for 1, 2 or 4 weeks: hours, leave, closures and one-off extra sessions.
- Several locations, with practitioners working at more than one. How many depends on your plan.
- Five roles: owner, admin, reception, practitioner and read-only. Practitioners see only their own diary, and practitioners and read-only staff see no amounts.
- An activity log for owners and admins that leaves out patient details.
LimitsChanging hours or adding a closure never moves or cancels existing appointments on its own.
09 · Getting started
Setup.
We open your account and answer every email. The product tells you plainly what still needs doing.
- A six-step setup (branding, settings, location, practitioner, service, hours) that you can skip.
- Plain-English warnings when something can't be booked yet, and what to do about it.
- Guided setup and data import is an optional add-on if you'd rather we did it with you.
LimitsOwners can import patients and upcoming appointments from an export of their old system, checked before anything changes and undoable for 14 days. Clinical notes, past appointments and payments are not brought across.
Make it yours
10 · Not yet, or not at all
What BookingSimple doesn't do.
If you need one of these every day, keep the tool that does it. BookingSimple can sit alongside it for booking and payments.
- Text messages (not yet)
- Clinical notes or records
- Intake and consent forms
- Insurance billing
- Invoices
- Packages, memberships and vouchers
- Classes
- Waitlist
- Video consultations
- Google or Outlook calendar sync
- Card terminal
- Two-factor sign-in
See it working in 15 minutes.
A walkthrough on a working example clinic: a booking, the reception calendar and payments. The button opens an email, and we reply within one UK business day.