How to set up and use the AI Booking Assistant

The AI Booking Assistant adds Book now to your Annuvell Local profile so customers can request an appointment at a time you actually have free. It is available on the Premium plan and above. Unlike the other apps it needs some setup first, because it can only offer times that exist in your schedule.

What you need to set up first

The app card shows Setup required until all three of these exist. Open Set up booking on the card to add them:

1. At least one service customers can book, with a name and a duration in minutes.
2. A staff member or resource (a person, a room, a chair) assigned to that service, with the time zone it works in.
3. Recurring availability for that staff member: the weekdays and hours when bookings may start.

Until these exist, Activate is not offered, and the card lists exactly which item is missing.

Services

For each service you can set:

• name and a short description;
• duration in minutes;
• a price in pence, optional: if you enter one it is shown next to the service name when customers book, so leave it blank if prices vary;
• a buffer before and after, in minutes, for preparation and clean-up;
• minimum notice: how far ahead a customer must book;
• maximum horizon in days: how far into the future bookings are accepted;
• cancellation notice: how many minutes before the start a customer must give;
• whether rescheduling is allowed.

Staff, resources and availability

Add each person or resource once, in its own time zone. Assign it to the services it can provide. Then add recurring availability: a weekday, a start time and an end time. Add one line per working block; split days (morning and afternoon) are two lines.

For holidays, closures or a one-off change, add an exception with a start and end. Exceptions can apply to one staff member, one service, or the whole business.

How customers see availability

A customer chooses a service and a date and is shown the start times that fit your services, buffers, notice period, horizon, recurring availability and exceptions, less any time already booked. If nothing fits they are told to try another day. Times are shown in the staff member's time zone.

To book, the customer enters a name, an email address, an optional phone number and optional notes. The request is saved immediately and the customer sees "Booking requested" with the chosen time.

The confirmation process

A new booking is a request, not a confirmed appointment. It arrives in Manage bookings on the app card with the status Pending. You can:

• Confirm it;
• Cancel it;
• after it has happened, mark it Complete or a No-show.

The customer receives an email when the booking is requested, and again when you confirm or cancel it. If your business has an approved recipient address for enquiries, a copy of each booking notice is also sent to you. Moving a booking to a different time is not offered in the dashboard today: cancel it and ask the customer to book again.

What the assistant does not do

To avoid surprises, these are not part of the product today:

• it does not take payments or deposits;
• it does not sync with an external calendar;
• it does not move a booking to a new time from the dashboard;
• it does not send reminder messages before the appointment;
• it does not confirm bookings automatically; you confirm each request.

If you rely on any of these, keep using your existing tools alongside the assistant.

Test before you activate

1. Add a test service, a staff member and one availability block.
2. Open your profile as a customer, choose the service and a date, and check the times offered match what you set.
3. Check that a date outside your availability, or inside an exception, offers no times.
4. Make a booking with your own email address, then confirm and cancel it from Manage bookings and check the emails you receive.
5. Delete the test rows if you do not want them, then activate.

Security and privacy

• Customers give a name, email address and optionally a phone number and notes; do not ask for card details or passwords in the notes field, and do not add them yourself.
• Booking details follow Annuvell Local's Privacy Policy.
• Keep your availability accurate; a customer who books a time you cannot honour is a customer you then have to cancel.

Updating or deactivating

Change services, staff, availability and exceptions at any time under Manage bookings; new requests use the new rules. Press Deactivate on the app card to remove Book now from your profile. Existing bookings stay in your dashboard so you can still confirm, cancel or complete them.