Online booking and status pages

The booking page comes with the Booking page add-on, and status pages with Status pages (the Booking page includes them). Your logo and colour on both, and your own address for them, are Custom branding, which the Booking page also includes.

How a customer books

On your booking page a customer chooses a location, the services they want, their bike, a drop-off day and their details, then presses Book. Along the way:

• Services come from your menu, with the "from" price and a description if you wrote one. They can also describe the problem instead and get suggested services and a price range from your own menu (instant quotes).
• Their bike is typed in or picked from Bike Archive (make, model and year), which gives your mechanic its specs ahead of time.
• The calendar shows which days are open and marks the quieter days soon. Full days can't be chosen.
• Their details need an email or a mobile number.

Right after booking they land on their status page, and a confirmation is emailed to them if they gave an email.

What is created in Lightspeed

A booking is turned into Lightspeed records in the background, a few seconds after it's made:

1. The customer is found by phone or email, or created.
2. The bike is added as a Serialized item on that customer.
3. The workorder is created in the location's booking status, with the drop-off day and time and an ETA from your turnaround. When the customer picked their bike from Bike Archive, its Bike Archive link and torque specs go in the internal note.
4. Each booked service adds its lines: the service's Lightspeed labor and parts, or one labor line with the service's name, price and minutes.

Who goes on the workorder is your choice under Settings → Employees → Workorders bike.tools creates: the service writer with the mechanic on the labor lines, or the mechanic on both. The mechanic is the one on shift that day with the most time free.

If Lightspeed is unreachable the booking shows as pending on the Bookings page and is retried; if it keeps failing it shows as failed with a Retry sending to Lightspeed button. Nothing is duplicated on a retry: each step's ID is saved as soon as it exists.

Daily limits

Each location has two optional limits: bookings per day and booked minutes per day (the sum of the booked services' estimated minutes). A day is full when either is reached, and workorders made directly in Lightspeed that day count too, so the online calendar reflects the real workload. Leave a limit blank for no limit.

A location can instead book by schedule: a day stays open while a mechanic on shift still has time for the services asked for. Set hours on the Schedule page and roles under Settings → Employees. The two limits still apply on top.

When customers can book

• Lead time: how far ahead of drop-off a booking must be made.
• Days ahead: how far into the future the calendar goes.
• Closed weekdays and closed dates: never bookable. Add holidays as dates, one per line.
• Drop-off time: the time of day you expect bikes, which becomes the workorder's time in.
• Time zone: an IANA name such as America/Denver, so "today" is right.

Turnaround and the ready date

Tell customers how long jobs take right now: "about 3 days". It's shown on the booking page, and the status page uses it for an estimated ready date until a mechanic sets a real ETA on the workorder in Lightspeed. Update it when you get busy. The location page suggests a figure from your last 90 days, and the Reports page shows how it's trending.

The status page

With Status pages, every workorder can have a private link with a long random secret: bookings get one when they're made, and workorders you create directly in Lightspeed the first time someone needs one (the Status button on the workorder in Lightspeed, the Workorders page, or printing the customer's copy). The page shows the customer-friendly status from your mapping, the estimated or set ready date, and a timeline of what's happened. Anyone with the link can read it, so it goes only to the customer.

The customer's printed copy carries a QR code and a short link (bike.tools/ and ten letters and numbers) to the same page; see QR codes on printed tags. Status links expire after a number of months you set per location (1 to 36).

What the status page shows

Under Settings → Status page, choose which parts of the workorder customers can see: the estimated total, the labor and parts, the price of each line, the bike's serial number, the mechanic's name. Anyone with the link sees them, so the serial, the mechanic, the labor and parts and their prices start hidden. The estimated total includes tax, worked out from your Lightspeed tax settings (each line's tax setting and the customer's or shop's tax category); when it can't be, the page shows it before tax and says so. Lines and the estimate are read-only: customers can't pay from the status page. They pay at the shop when they pick up.

Labor and parts lists each line by name and quantity, with Price of each line adding prices. Those lines identify the items and services you sell, which Lightspeed's API terms let an app use only with your consent, so an admin turns them on by ticking the agreement under the setting. bike.tools keeps who agreed and when, and shows it there.

Workorder photos taken with the extension's Photos stay private unless you tick Show photos marked for the customer on their status page under Settings → Lightspeed extension → Modules; then the ones you mark with the globe show on the status page too.

The link itself is the customer's key: with it they can add photos, update their contact details and cancel before drop-off. Tick Let customers approve estimates from their status link to let them approve an estimate there too; anyone with the link can then press Approve, so only turn it on if you send each link to the customer alone.

Contact changes

A customer can propose a new name, phone or email from their status page. Nothing changes in Lightspeed until someone on your team approves it under Change requests; until then it shows as a notice on the booking.

Cancellations

Customers can cancel their own booking before drop-off, from the status page, if the location allows it (Let customers cancel online before drop-off, under Turnaround and reminders). The workorder moves to your cancelled status, the day's capacity is freed, and a cancellation email goes out. Staff cancel from the booking's page in bike.tools.

Photos

With the Booking page, customers attach photos of the problem on their status page, and staff see them on the booking. Photos your team takes with the extension are separate: see Photos from your phone.

Confirmations and reminders

bike.tools emails the customer a confirmation when they book, with their status link, and a note if the booking is cancelled. It doesn't text customers or send reminders; the status page is where they follow along, and you can copy its link for them from the workorder at any time.