Documentation
Navigate to JoomBook → Settings. The settings page is divided into six tabs. This article gives a complete overview of all tabs. Email configuration, pricing rules, integrations and the license each have their own dedicated article - you will find the relevant link here.
Tab "General Settings"
Main Settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Timezone | Timezone for all appointments when no location timezone is set. |
| Date Format | How dates are displayed in the wizard and emails. |
| Decimal separator | Separator for decimal places: comma (1.234,56) or period (1,234.56). |
| Thousands separator | Separator for thousands: period, comma, space, or none. |
| Currency | ISO 4217 currency code (e.g. EUR, USD, GBP). Used in the wizard and emails. |
| Currency symbol | Symbol shown next to prices, e.g. € or $. |
| Currency symbol position | Show the symbol before (€ 100.00) or after (100.00 €) the amount. |
The three currency settings deliberately sit directly below one another - they belong to a single decision and used to be pulled apart by the separators.
Booking Settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Minimum Booking Lead Time (hours) | How many hours in advance a customer must book. 0 = same-day bookings allowed. |
| Maximum Booking Window (days) | How far in advance bookings can be made. Default: 90 days. |
| Cancellation Policy (hours) | How many hours before the appointment the customer can cancel online. 0 = cancellable at any time. |
| Appointment Confirmation Mode | Whether bookings are confirmed immediately or require manual approval.
|
| Double opt-in (confirm booking by email) | After booking online the customer first receives an email with a confirmation link. Only once it is clicked does a valid appointment come into being. Described in full in the Double opt-in section below. |
| Time to confirm (minutes) | Only visible when double opt-in is switched on. How many minutes the customer has to click the link. After that the slot is released automatically. 60 minutes is recommended, the minimum is 5. |
| Default Slot Duration | Determines which time block length is used by default for availability validation. Same as service duration: uses each service own duration. Custom (own default): allows a global default to be specified. |
| Default Slot Duration (minutes) | Used as default for new services and as fallback when a service has no individual slot duration set. Can be overridden per service in the "Slot Duration" field. |
| Time Picker Granularity | Controls the increment between displayed start times in the admin appointment panel and the booking wizard. Default: every 15 minutes. |
| Overwrite Slot Duration of all existing Services | When set to Yes, the slot duration of all existing services is overwritten - depending on the mode, either to the specified default slot duration or back to each service own duration. Use with care. |
| Allow booking outside opening hours | Whether appointments may be created in the backend on closing days, during holiday periods, outside the opening hours or while a staff member is absent. Default: No - such times are rejected on the server and are not clickable in the calendar. The booking wizard on the website is never affected. |
Double opt-in
With double opt-in switched on, an online booking comes about in two steps. The customer fills in the booking form as usual and clicks "Book now". Instead of the confirmation page, a notice then tells them that an email is on its way and has to be confirmed within the deadline you set. Only clicking the link in that email turns the request into a valid appointment.
During that time the appointment carries the status Awaiting confirmation. The slot is already blocked so that nobody else can take it. If the customer does not confirm in time, the status changes to Not confirmed, the slot is released again and the appointment disappears from the calendar. It stays in the appointment list so the history remains traceable.
What it is good for: it prevents bookings made under someone else's email address and reveals typing errors in the address straight away - a mistyped address never receives the email, so the appointment never comes into being.
Waitlist Full
Available from the Full plan. When all slots are taken, customers can join a waitlist and are automatically notified as soon as a slot opens up. Here you enable the waitlist and define how many hours a notified customer has to confirm the freed slot.
Notifications (Internal)
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Staff Notification | When enabled, the assigned staff member receives an email for every new booking, change, or cancellation. |
| Admin Notification | When enabled, a notification is sent to the admin address for every new booking, change, or cancellation. |
| Admin Email (Global Fallback) | Email address for admin notifications when no location-specific email contact is configured. Individual locations can override this in their own settings. |
Data protection: anonymising old customer data
Personal data may only be kept as long as there is a reason to keep it. JoomBook can take care of that automatically: once a customer has not had an appointment for the period set here, their name, email address and phone number are replaced by placeholders. The appointments themselves stay, so your statistics and turnover figures remain intact - they simply no longer point to a person.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Anonymise old customer data | Off by default. Switch this on only once you have decided how long you need to keep customer data. |
| Retention period measured in | Whether the figure below counts years or months. |
| Retention period | Counted from the customer's last appointment, not from the day their record was created. Anyone with an appointment still ahead of them is never touched. |
Below the fields JoomBook shows a preview: how many of your customer records a run with the current setting would anonymise right now, and from which date onwards. If that would be most of your customer list, a clear warning says so.
The scheduled task needed for this is set up automatically by JoomBook when you save. What still has to be in place is something that triggers the Joomla task scheduler at all - see the article "Setting Up Web-Cron & Scheduled Tasks".
Staff Assignment & Selection Pro
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Staff Assignment Mode | How staff are assigned when the customer does not select a specific person.
|
| Show Staff Selection to Customers | Yes: customers can choose a staff member in the wizard. No: staff is always assigned automatically. |
The Round-Robin modes are described in detail in the "Round-Robin Assignment" article.
Export & Import Pro
Export booking and master data or import it from a backup. Details in the "Export & Import" article.
Tab "Frontend Settings"
Booking Mode
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Booking | Controls whether bookings can actually be made in the frontend. When set to No, the Booking Wizard stays visible and fully usable, but the final step - the actual booking - cannot be completed: the "Book now" and waitlist buttons are hidden and the booking endpoint rejects all requests. Useful for a demo or maintenance mode during setup. |
| Notice Text (when booking is disabled) | Individual text shown to visitors in place of the "Book now" and waitlist buttons while bookings are disabled. |
Privacy & GDPR
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Privacy Consent Checkbox | When enabled, a required privacy consent checkbox appears in the booking form. Customers must accept it before completing a booking. |
| Privacy Policy URL | Link to your privacy policy page. Required when the privacy consent checkbox is enabled. |
More on this topic in the "Privacy & GDPR" article.
Form Fields
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Salutation in the booking form | Controls the salutation field: Required, Optional or Hidden (default). The customer can choose between Ms, Mr and No salutation. |
| Phone Number Field | Control the phone field in the booking form: Required, Optional (default), or Hidden. |
The answer is stored with the customer record and is available to you in the backend. It changes nothing in the email texts - those keep the friendly, neutral form of address that works for every choice.
After Booking
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Redirect After Booking | Optional URL the customer is redirected to after a successful booking. When set, the built-in JoomBook confirmation page is skipped. Leave empty = show default confirmation. |
Global Display in Wizard
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Duration in Wizard | Sets globally whether the appointment duration is shown on service cards in the booking wizard. Can be overridden per service. |
| Show Price in Wizard | Sets globally whether the price is shown on service cards in the booking wizard. Can be overridden per service. |
Image Settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Category Images | Show the category image on category cards in the booking wizard. |
| Show Service Images | Show the service image on service cards in the booking wizard. |
| Show Staff Images | Show the staff profile photo on staff cards in the booking wizard. |
| Collapse long descriptions | When enabled, longer description texts for services, categories and locations in the booking wizard are limited to about three lines with a "Show more" button to expand and collapse them. This keeps the selection lists shorter and easier to scan. |
Design
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Color Scheme | Color of the sidebar in the booking wizard. Applies to all JoomBook Wizard modules on the site. A wide range of preset schemes (bold tones and pastel variants) plus a freely selectable custom color are available. |
| Custom Colour | Free choice of the sidebar background color. Only visible when "Custom Colour" is selected. JoomBook automatically generates a matching color scheme. |
Remove JoomBook Branding Pro
Available from the Pro plan. Removes the subtle JoomBook notice in the booking wizard.
Tab "E-Mail Notifications"
Here you configure the sender, reply-to address, subject and intro texts of all automatic emails as well as the email logo and footer. A detailed description of every field is in the "Email Configuration" article.
Tab "Pricing Rules" Full
Available from the Full plan. Create flexible pricing rules and discounts (e.g. by weekday or time window). Details in the "Configuring Pricing Rules" article.
Tab "Integrations" Full
Available from the Full plan. Connect JoomBook with external services - currently Google Calendar synchronisation. Details in the "Setting Up Google Calendar Sync" article.
Tab "License"
Enter your license key, validate it, and view your plan, status and expiry date. Details in the "Activating Your License Key" article.
