Self-Serve Booking

Overview

Organizations can optionally enable self-serve booking so patients schedule certain visits themselves — without calling the front desk or waiting for staff to find an open slot.

Self-serve booking is powered by a dedicated public booking page for your organization. Link it from your website, email campaigns, or patient outreach so inbound patients book directly on your calendar with the rules and pricing you define. That lowers friction for new and returning patients and alleviates operational burden on schedulers and front-office staff who would otherwise handle every request by phone or portal message.

Everything patients see on the public page flows from appointment types you configure under Operations — you choose which services are offered online and how each one behaves at checkout.

Your Public Booking Page

Each organization can configure a custom booking URL in Settings under Organization configuration — a branded, patient-facing page that lists the appointment types you expose for self-schedule.

View example booking pages: avarasoftware.com/booking

Examples show how practices present services, availability, and checkout. Your live page uses your organization’s name, branding context, and the appointment types you enable for public booking.

Embed or link the URL anywhere patients discover your practice — homepage “Book now” buttons, specialty landing pages, Google Business Profile, and post-visit follow-up emails.

What You Can Configure

Self-serve booking inherits the full appointment type configuration model. For each type you show on the public page, you control:

Which Appointments Are Bookable

Mark an appointment type as publicly bookable to include it on your self-serve page. Types that are staff-only or Connect referral-only stay off the public list — patients only see what you intentionally open for direct online scheduling.

Attach rooms, providers, and availability windows so the calendar reflects real capacity. The scheduling engine prevents double-booking across types that share the same room or provider.

Payments and Refunds

• Payment required — Collect payment at booking time when you want upfront commitment (requires Stripe Connect setup)
• Price — Default charge shown at checkout for the visit
• Refund policy — How cancellations and reschedules are handled when patients book online
• Promo codes — Create any number of promo codes for public booking to run promotions, partner offers, or seasonal pricing adjustments at checkout

Booking Rules and Timing

Fine-tune when and how slots appear to patients:

• Future booking window — How far in advance patients can schedule
• Minimum advance booking — How close to appointment start time a booking is allowed (for example no same-day bookings within two hours)
• Buffer time between appointments — Padding after each slot for turnover, prep, or cleaning
• Cancellation notice — Required notice period when patients cancel online

These rules keep self-serve scheduling aligned with how your clinic actually operates — not just “open calendar.”

Patient Communication

After a patient books themselves, automated workflows keep them informed:

• Booking confirmation emails — Customizable rich text templates per appointment type
• Appointment reminders — Scheduled reminders (for example 24 hours and 2 hours before the visit)
• Intake forms — Attach patient forms so patients complete paperwork after booking, before arrival, or at check-in on office tablets

Staff scheduling notifications can alert the right team members when a new self-serve booking lands — so front desk and clinical leads stay in the loop without watching the calendar all day.

Benefits for Your Practice

Self-serve booking is optional — many practices mix online and staff-scheduled appointments. When you enable it, you gain:

• Less phone and email volume — Patients who prefer self-service book without tying up front desk staff
• Lower friction for inbound patients — Prospective patients convert faster when they can reserve a slot immediately from your site
• Consistent rules — Payment, cancellation, buffers, and promos apply automatically
• Digital intake from day one — Forms and confirmations start as soon as the appointment is booked, reducing day-of paperwork

Self-serve booking works alongside staff scheduling, Connect partner booking, and in-office workflows — each channel can have different appointment types, payment rules, and promo codes configured independently.

Incomplete Bookings and CRM

Not every visitor who starts your public booking flow completes an appointment — and that is still valuable information.

When someone enters contact information on your public booking page but does not finish booking, Avara captures what they provided and automatically surfaces it on your CRM page as a lead. Your team can see who showed intent — browsed services, checked availability, or reached checkout — without converting, and follow up directly to help them schedule.

That turns abandoned booking sessions into actionable outreach instead of silent drop-offs. No separate lead form or external marketing tool required: incomplete public bookings feed the same CRM your staff uses to nurture inbound interest alongside completed appointments.

Getting Started

1. Complete Stripe Connect onboarding if you plan to require payment at public booking.
2. Configure appointment types — availability, publicly bookable, booking rules, forms, emails, and promo codes.
3. In Settings → Organization configuration, set your organization’s public booking URL, then link it from your website.

Appointment type and operations configuration requires Can Manage Operations. Staff who book on behalf of patients use Can Manage Appointments. See Inviting Users for permission details.