Website Booking Plugin

Looking for an online booking solution for your teaching business? Our Website Booking Plugin allows you to add a button to your website to let clients:

1. Book a lesson
2. Join a class
3. Join a course

To enable this add-on, go to Account & Settings > Integrations & Add-Ons > Website Booking Plugin > Settings

Usage

There are 5 steps involved in setting up the add-on:

Step 1: General Settings
Step 2: Booking Options (for Book a Lesson option only)
Step 3: Form Fields
Step 4: Confirmation Emails
Step 5: Adding the code to your website

Step 1: General Settings

1. Booking Modes: Here you can select which options you want to make available to your clients. You can choose between “Lesson Booking”, “Join Open Classes” or “Both”.

2. Booking Settings:

• Location: Here you can set the default location for booked lessons. For the “Join a Class” option, lessons need to be scheduled beforehand, so the location would be determined by the location assigned to the lesson.
• Minimum Notice Hours: The minimum number of hours prior to a lesson that a client can book a lesson or join a class.
• Maximum Booking Limit: This setting limits how far in advance clients can book or join lessons.
• Booking Completion Message: The message that appears after a client has booked a lesson or joined an open class/course.
• Maximum Lessons per Booking: Allows you to set the maximum number of dates/times that can be booked at once.  Please note, this applies to only bookings; not joining open classes.
• Open Class Teacher Filter: Enable this setting to display a teacher filter for the Join Open Classes booking mode.
• Redirect URL: If you would like to redirect the user to a page after a booking is completed, enter the URL above. Include http:// or https:// at the start of the URL.
• Cancellation & Reschedule Instructions: This message will appear when a client views their booking details from the link in their booking confirmation email. You can include instructions for contacting you for rescheduling or cancellations.

3. Teacher List Settings

• Name Format: Set how you would like teacher names to display (first and last, first name only, etc)
• Display Options: If you would like to include a photo of the teacher, you can select the checkbox (for booking a class only). You can also include the teacher bio and subjects that are captured on their profile.

4. Student Types

You can choose which types of students to accept for bookings.  The options are:

• Both Family and Independent Students
• Only Family Students
• Only Independent Students

Find out more about student types here: Student Types

5. Button Appearance & Action

In this section, you can customize the color and text of the booking button. A preview is included to make it easier for you to style the button according to your company’s branding.

Button Action: You can choose to open the booking form on the same page or on a separate page when people click on the booking button on your website.

6. Book or Join Text

If you chose “Both” under “Booking Modes”, you’ll be able to customize the “Book Lesson Text” and “Join Class Text” to make it easy for website visitors to distinguish between these options when making a selection.

7. Payment Settings

This section allows you to enable payments and choose the options to configure credit card payments for booking or joining lessons.  The options are:

• Sales Tax Treatment - Select the tax treatment option to apply to the cost of booked lessons. Default is tax exempt which will apply no sales tax.
• Sales Tax Rate - Set the sales tax rate
• Declined Payment Instructions - Customize and display the message after a payment declined message is returned by Stripe.
• Apply Invoice Surcharge - Select and add surcharges to the booking option costs with fixed and/or percentage amounts.  For more information, please see this article: Invoice Surcharge Add-on.

8. Teacher Permissions

This section allows you to enable the "Show Booking Details" box to display the Lesson Bookings page in teacher accounts which will allow them to view their bookings, including details collected on the booking form.

Step 2: Booking Options (for “Book a Lesson” option only)

Here you’ll add the various booking options available to your clients. To add a new bookable lesson click on “Add” and then complete the following fields:

• Display Name: The booking option name that will appear on the booking form
• Service: The service that will be used when the lesson is added to the calendar (this will be used to set the price for the session)
• Description: A description of what the lesson will cover (optional)
• Duration: The duration of the lesson
• Bookable Teachers: This field determines which teacher names are displayed after a client selects a booking option. You can display all teachers, or you can display only select teachers
• Status: Enable or disable the booking option on the booking form

Note: Employee Availability needs to be set on employee profiles for their available times to appear as bookable options on the plugin.

Step 3: Form Fields

If you would like to add additional fields to the booking form, you can do so here. The first name, last name and email address are required fields. To add a new field, click the “Add Field” button. You can then specify the display mode the field will be used for (Lesson Booking, Join Open Classes or Both), add a “Field Label”, choose an input type and mark the field as “Required”.

Step 4: Confirmation Emails

In this section, you can manage the email templates that are sent to clients and teachers. To edit a template, click the “Edit” link.

• Client Confirmation Email: The client confirmation email will be sent to the person that booked/joined a lesson. If it’s a family making the booking, the email will be sent to the family and the child if an email address is entered for both.
• Teacher Confirmation Email: This is sent to the teacher who was selected by the client when they submitted their booking.

Step 5: Adding the code to your website

After you’ve made your changes, you can embed the button on your website.

• Booking Page URL: Access the booking page by copying this link in your browser. It can also be used in marketing efforts to drive customers directly to the booking page, or you can use the link for adding a custom button to your website.
• Inline Button Code: Paste this code on your web page to display the button inline. It will appear where you paste the code on your website.
• Edge Button Code: Add this code before the closing body tag on your website. The button will be displayed along the bottom edge of the visitor's browser.

How Booking a Lesson Appears to a Client

Here’s an example of how the booking process will work from a client's perspective:

Receiving a new booking

When a client books a lesson the following will occur:

When booking a lesson:

• The booking details are saved to your Teachworks account and a lesson is scheduled on the calendar.
• Notifications will automatically be emailed to the client, teacher and your company's email address with the booking details.
• If the client that booked the lesson is new, a profile is created for them in your Teachworks account.

When joining a lesson:

• The booking details are saved to your Teachworks Account.
• Students are added to the existing open class in the calendar.
• Notifications are sent to the client, teacher and company with the relevant information.
• If the client that booked the lesson is new, a profile is created for them in your Teachworks Account.

Viewing & Managing Bookings

You can view bookings in your Teachworks account by going to the Calendar tab and clicking the "Lesson Bookings" option. An action column is included to let you know if the client booked a lesson or joined a lesson.

You can also enable the Lesson Bookings widget on your dashboard to make it more convenient to view and manage bookings. You can find instructions for adding widgets to your dashboard here: Customizing the Dashboard.

New Client Profiles

When a client books a lesson they may be a new client, or they may be one of your existing clients. The following scenarios are handled as follows:

• Logged In - If one of your existing clients logs in and books or joins a lesson, their current details will be displayed on the booking form and the lesson will automatically be assigned to their existing profile in Teachworks. Families will have the option to select which student to book the lesson for.
• Not Logged In - If a client is not logged in when they book or join a lesson, Teachworks will check to see if their first name, last name and email address matches an client that already exists in your Teachworks account. The possible outcomes are handled as follows:
• Matching Profile - If a profile with the same first name, last name and email is found then the lesson will be booked using the matching profile.
• No Matching Profile - If the student and/or family details entered on the booking form do not match your existing profiles, a new profile will be created. These profiles will have the status "Pending" and in the Bookings table under the "Client Status," you will have the option to activate a new profile or merge the pending profile with an existing profile in your account.

Paying through the Website Booking Plugin

If you're using our Stripe Integration, you can add a payment section to the Website Booking Plugin to collect upfront payments.

View full instructions here: Paying through the Website Booking Plugin 

 

Customization Options

Jump Ahead to a Specific Date For Lesson Bookings & Joining Open Classes

You can add a “default_date” parameter at the end of the booking plugin URL with the date in YYYY-MM-DD format to make time slots jump to a specific date when booking lessons & joining open classes. 

Click here for more information about how to Jump Ahead to a Specific Date for Lesson Bookings & Joining Open Classes in the Booking Plugin. 

Setting Default Search Term for Open Classes

You can add a default “search” parameter at the end of the booking plugin URL for joining open classes in order to limit the results to the search term. 

Click here for more information about Setting Default Search Term for Open Classes in the Booking Plugin.

Adjust The Offset of the Edge Button

Click here to find more information about adjusting the offset of the edge button code to adjust the positioning of the widget on your website: Adjust the Offset of the Edge Button. 

Adding Multiple Buttons to the Same Page

If you'd like to add multiple buttons to the same page, you will need to assign a custom id to each additional button element that you add and then include that id at the end of the URL in the script tag.

Click here for more information about Adding Multiple Buttons to the Same Page.