BukFast setup guide

Getting started

Sign in to BukFast with your business owner account. New accounts begin with a short onboarding flow, then the full setup is available from the dashboard.

The main areas are Dashboard for an overview, Schedule for bookings, Services for what customers can book, and Settings for business-wide configuration.

• Create your business profile first.
• Add one real service during onboarding, then finish its configuration from Services.
• Use a test booking before sharing the public booking link.

Business profile and booking URL

During onboarding, enter the Business Name, Booking URL, and optional Short Description. These are the first pieces of information customers see on the public booking page.

The Booking URL is the slug after bukfast.com/. Use a short lowercase name with hyphens. Changing it after publishing means updating every place where the link was shared.

• Business Name: the customer-facing name of your business.
• Booking URL: the unique public address for your booking page.
• Short Description: a brief explanation of what your business offers.
• After onboarding, these values can be edited in Settings → General.

Services: what customers can book

A service is the item customers select on your booking page. Create a separate service when the duration, price, capacity, schedule, or booking rules are different.

For example, a salon may create Haircut, Colour Treatment, and Consultation. A homestay may create one service for each room. A sports venue may create one service for each court or activity type.

• Open Dashboard → Services → Add Service to create another service.
• Use a clear customer-facing name rather than an internal code.
• Use the Description to explain what is included, who it is for, and what the customer should prepare.
• Set a service to Paused when you want to stop new bookings without deleting it.

Service Setup: basic fields

Open a service from Dashboard → Services to see Service Basics. The Appointment and Multi-day buttons determine how customers select dates and times.

Choose Appointment for a booking at a particular time, such as a consultation, treatment, class, court, or meeting room. Choose Multi-day for something reserved across dates, such as a room, vehicle, or rental item.

• Service Name: the name shown to customers.
• Description: the explanation shown with the service.
• Appointment → Duration (Minutes): how long each booking occupies the schedule.
• Appointment → Slot Interval (Minutes): the step between possible start times. A 30-minute interval can offer 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, and so on; it does not shorten the service duration.
• Appointment → Capacity / Slot: the maximum number of customers who can take the same slot.
• Multi-day → Capacity: the number of units available for the same dates.
• Multi-day → Min. Stay and Max. Stay: the allowed number of nights.
• Multi-day → Check-in Time and Check-out Time: the times shown for arrival and departure.
• Price per Slot or Price per Night: the amount used for the booking.
• Display price on booking page: controls whether customers see the price before booking.
• Service Status: Active makes the service bookable; Paused hides it from new booking activity.

Service Setup: payment and deposit

After the service is created, open Advanced Configuration → Payment & Deposit. Payment is configured per service, so different services can use different payment rules.

Choose No payment at booking when customers pay later or the service is free. Choose Require full payment when the booking must be paid before confirmation. Choose Require a deposit when you want a fixed amount or percentage paid in advance.

• Deposit Type: Fixed Amount or Percentage.
• Deposit Amount: the fixed currency amount or percentage to collect.
• Set the service price before configuring a deposit.
• A paid booking requires Stripe to be connected and able to accept charges.

Service Setup: multiple bookings

Advanced Configuration → Multiple Bookings is available for Appointment services. When enabled, customers can select several non-overlapping slots on the same date and submit them together.

This is useful for customers booking consecutive sessions, several court slots, or multiple appointments. It is not available for Multi-day services.

• Allow customers to select multiple time slots: turns the feature on or off.
• Maximum slots per booking: limits the number of slots from 1 to 10.
• Keep it disabled when each customer should make a separate booking.
• Keep the limit low when the business needs time between sessions or has limited capacity.

Service Setup: booking policies

Advanced Configuration → Booking Policies controls when customers can book and whether they can change a booking themselves.

Booking Window (Days) has a minimum and maximum. The minimum prevents bookings too close to today; the maximum controls how far into the future customers can book. Minimum Notice (Hours) is a separate cutoff measured before the appointment time.

• Allow Rescheduling: lets customers reschedule through the manage-booking link.
• Must reschedule prior to: the number of hours before the appointment when rescheduling closes.
• Max Reschedules: limits how many times the customer can reschedule.
• Allow Cancellations: lets customers cancel through the manage-booking link.
• Must cancel prior to: the number of hours before the appointment when cancellation closes.
• Explain refunds, deposits, late arrivals, and no-shows in the service description or Global Terms / Notes.

Service Setup: availability and date overrides

Advanced Configuration → Availability controls when a service creates bookable slots. For Appointment services, enable the working days and add Working Blocks such as 09:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00. Add Break Blocks for lunch, cleaning, travel, or staff downtime.

For Multi-day services, availability uses days rather than weekly hours because the service has check-in and check-out times. Use date overrides for holidays, maintenance, private events, owner stays, or special opening hours.

• No working block means no appointment slots.
• A day can have multiple working blocks.
• Break blocks pause booking inside a working day.
• Use overrides to close a date or provide a custom schedule for one date.
• After saving availability, check the public page for an early date, a late date, and a blocked date.

Settings: general information

Open Dashboard → Settings → General for information shared across the booking page. Business Info contains Name, Slug, Tagline, and Global Terms / Notes.

Global Terms / Notes appear at the bottom of the booking page. Use them for general arrival instructions, broad policies, contact instructions, or information that applies to every service.

• Timezone: choose the timezone where the business operates so booking times are shown correctly.
• Currency: choose the currency displayed for service prices.
• Tagline: a short sentence under the business name.
• WhatsApp Share: enables the WhatsApp button after a booking; save the business WhatsApp number when enabled.
• Email Notifications: enables email notifications for new bookings.

Settings: appearance and customer fields

Settings → Appearance controls the visual theme and Light or Dark mode for the dashboard and public booking page. Choose the style that keeps the service list and booking controls easy to read on mobile.

Settings → Fields adds questions customers answer after selecting a slot. Each field has a label, Short or Long type, and Required option. Add only information the business needs to prepare or fulfil the booking.

• Short: a brief answer such as a name, preference, reference number, or team name.
• Long: a longer request such as preparation details or accessibility information.
• Required: prevents checkout until the customer answers the question.
• Keep the number of fields small so customers do not abandon the booking.
• A service can also choose the business default WhatsApp number or use a service-specific number.

Payments with Stripe

To take payment through BukFast, open Dashboard → Settings → Payments and select Connect Stripe. Complete the Stripe account setup through BukFast. If setup was started but not completed, use Complete Stripe Setup.

Stripe payments require an active BukFast subscription. When setup is complete, confirm that the Payments screen shows Connected, Charges on, and Payouts on. Then return to a service and choose full payment or deposit.

Stripe controls account approval, verification, payment processing, payouts, refunds, disputes, fees, and its own terms. The business must review and comply with Stripe's current requirements; BukFast does not replace Stripe's agreement with the business.

• Set a service price and currency before enabling payment.
• Connect Stripe before testing a paid booking.
• Use the Stripe Dashboard for Stripe-managed account and payment operations.
• If Charges are off, customers cannot complete paid bookings successfully.

Test and share the booking page

Before sharing the link, open the public page on a phone and complete a booking as a customer. Confirm the service, date or date range, slot, capacity, price, payment step, custom fields, policy text, confirmation, calendar export, and WhatsApp option.

Then open Dashboard → Schedule and confirm that the booking appears with the correct customer, service, date, time, and payment state.

• Test the earliest and latest dates allowed by the booking window.
• Test a date inside the minimum-notice restriction.
• Test a blocked date and a date override.
• If enabled, test multiple slot selection, cancellation, and rescheduling.
• Share the final booking URL on the website, social profiles, WhatsApp, Google Business Profile, and QR codes.