Which options are available in appointment settings

Appointment settings define how new appointments behave by default. Here you choose the default status for incoming bookings, how capacity is handled, how time slots are shown, how people are counted, and how Amelia picks an employee. You’ll find them in Amelia → Settings → Bookings → Appointments.

What is the default appointment status?

The Default appointment status option sets the status that will be assigned to every new appointment created on the front end or in the back end. You can choose between Approved (default) and Pending.

If you choose Approved, new bookings are confirmed immediately.
If you choose Pending, new bookings will wait for manual approval before they become active.

Regardless of the default status, group appointments for services with a capacity greater than 1 will always come in as Pending until the minimum capacity is reached.

How do capacity rules work for group appointments?

Capacity rules control how Amelia treats minimum and maximum capacity for services that allow more than one person per time slot. These rules are managed through two sliders that are both enabled by default.

What does “Allow booking above maximum capacity” do?

The Allow booking above maximum capacity slider controls whether customers can book appointments with Pending status above the maximum capacity of a service.

If disabled, customers on the front end cannot create a new Pending booking once the maximum capacity has been reached. The appointment closes and the time slot becomes unavailable.
If enabled, Amelia can accept Pending bookings above the maximum capacity, which is useful if you want to overbook while you manually confirm or decline requests.

What does “Allow booking below minimum capacity” do?

The Allow booking below minimum capacity slider controls how strictly Amelia enforces the minimum capacity for services.

If disabled, customers must meet the minimum service capacity in a single booking. As soon as one customer books at or above that minimum, the time slot closes for everyone else. This creates a private group appointment.
If enabled, customers can book the same time slot even if they do not meet the minimum capacity on their own. Multiple customers can join that time slot until the maximum capacity is reached. This behaves more like a public group appointment where seats remain open until the slot is full.

If you want group appointments to stay open so multiple customers can join over time, keep Allow booking below minimum capacity enabled.

How does service duration affect time slots?

Time slot display can follow either the global time slot step from General settings or the exact service duration. This is controlled with two sliders: Use service duration for booking a time slot and Include service buffer time in time slots.

What does “Use service duration for booking a time slot” do?

The Use service duration for booking a time slot slider defines how Amelia builds the grid of available time slots.

If disabled, Amelia uses the Default time slot step from Settings → General. For example, with a 30-minute step and a 1-hour service, customers might see time slots like 09:00 – 10:00 and 09:30 – 10:30.
If enabled, Amelia uses the service duration (plus any extras duration) to define time slots. A 1-hour service will then appear as 09:00 – 10:00, 10:00 – 11:00, 11:00 – 12:00, and so on.

This setting is useful when you want clean, back-to-back appointment slots aligned exactly with service durations.

What does “Include service buffer time in time slots” do?

The Include service buffer time in time slots slider controls whether buffer times are visually included in the displayed time range.

If enabled, the time slot will include the buffer in the label. For example, a 1-hour service with a 30-minute buffer after the appointment will appear as 09:00 – 10:30.

If disabled, the time slot will only show the service duration, such as 09:00 – 10:00, but Amelia will still apply the buffer when calculating availability. In this example, the next available appointment will still be at 10:30 even though the label shows 09:00 – 10:00.

Disabling this slider does not remove the buffer. It only hides the buffer from the visible label of the time slot.
The Include service buffer time in time slots slider is only available when Use service duration for booking a time slot is enabled. If the service duration setting is disabled, this slider will not appear.

How are people counted in group bookings?

The Logic for counting people setting defines how Amelia counts participants when customers add additional people to a booking. You can choose between two radio button options:

Customer plus additional people
Total number of people

With Customer plus additional people, Amelia automatically counts the customer who is making the booking. If they are bringing two more people, they select 2, and Amelia records a total of 3 participants.

With Total number of people, the customer must enter the full number of participants including themselves. If they are bringing two more people, they select 3.

Choose the option that best matches how your customers naturally think about group size to avoid confusion on the booking form.

How does employee selection logic work?

The Employee selection logic dropdown defines how Amelia chooses an employee when the customer does not pick a specific person or when the employee selection is hidden in Customize.

Available options are:

Random (default)
Round robin
Highest price
Lowest price

Random assigns the appointment to a random available employee for that service and time.

Round robin distributes bookings as evenly as possible by rotating through available employees so everyone gets a fair share of appointments.

The Highest price and Lowest price options are useful when employees have different prices for the same service. Prices are configured in Employees → Edit employee → Services tab, and Amelia uses those values to decide which employee is chosen.

All sliders in Appointment settings are enabled by default, so if you are unsure where to start, you can keep the default configuration and then refine it once you see how your customers use the booking form.