The scheduling software system sends out automatic e-mails to both customers and the organization when certain events occur:

	When a customer makes an appointment
	When a customer cancels an appointment
	When an appointment is changed for a customer
	When a customer registers
	When a customer purchases a gift certificate
	A specified number of days prior to an appointment (sent to the customer)
	When a customer places themselves on the waiting list

You can create custom text for these e-mails and control whether or not the schedule software system sends them.

Appointment-Plus online scheduling software provides numerous reports. You can run reports for a date range, a specific staff member, a specific customer, a specific service and more. With Appointment-Plus online appointment software you can export appointments to Excel or just run them as a standard HTML report. You can also save reports.

If you need to print a list of all of your customers and their data, you can do it any time.

Statistical, sales, loyalty, and many other reports are included.

With Appointment-Plus Scheduling Software you can control how far in advance you would like your customers to be able to book appointments (up to 2 years in advance). Also with Appointment-Plus Scheduling Software you can set how close to the appointment time they are allowed to cancel their appointments.

With Appointment-Plus Appointment Software you can set standing appointments for your regular customers. Once you create a recurring appointment for a customer, you can handle each appointment separately. So, if a customer needs to cancel or change one of their appointments, they can do so.

If your business sells packages to customers, such as a package of 15 sessions, Appointment-Plus schedule software lets both internal staff and your customers know the number of sessions they have left. The types of packages that can be set up are number of sessions, dollar amount, or flat monthly fee.

When an online appointment is made in the schedule software system, the staff member setting the appointment can export the appointment to their Outlook calendar. The staff member associated with the appointment will also receive an e-mail with a Outlook calendar attachment. They can then easily click on it and add it to their calendar. Also with this schedule software, your customers can export their appointments to Outlook. They will receive the calendar attachment, as well, in their appointment confirmation e-mail. They may also log in at any time to see their current appointments, print them, or export them to their Outlook calendar.

Most companies use a one appointment per time slot format when using Appointment-Plus appointment software. But, for some organizations, a multiple appointments per time slot arrangement is a better fit. An example would be a chiropractor who sees 6 patients between 8am and 9am. All of the patients can show up at 8am because the chiropractor can work with more than one patient at a time. Another example would be a tour company that sets up tours of 25 people at a time. If the tour started at 10am, the tour company would need the system to allow for 25 appointments at 10am. If you are unsure which is a better fit for your company, switching back and forth is simple and no data is lost.

The Point of Sale module allows you to enter sales transactions into the system. You can then run sales reports to track your sales (for the day, the week, or any time period you like). You can add both services and products (and tips) to a sales transaction. If you want to accept credit card payments directly through your POS system, there are various options. Of course, if you already have a credit card terminal, you can manually run the credit card and then just finalize the POS transaction once you obtain the authorization from your terminal. But, if you would prefer to process the credit card through the POS system, you can use PayPal (which is not recommended), or you can set up your own on-line merchant account through us. For more details on these options, please e-mail us at info@appointment-plus.com.

If your business requires that customers pay for their appointments upon setting the appointment, Appointment-Plus online appointment software provides this functionality. Similar to the POS system, there a couple options for accepting payment. In addition to the options listed above, an alternative is the "prompt but don't process" option. With this option, the customer is prompted to enter their credit card information, but it's not processed. The card number is validated and written to the customer's profile. An example of when this would be used is for a company that requires a credit card number be provided to "hold" an appointment. Many companies do this to help lower the number of no shows.

If your business has more staff than rooms (or other resources, such as equipment), Appointment-Plus scheduling software can allow for sharing. When this is enabled, the system will make sure both the resource and the staff member are available when an appointment is being booked.

There are predefined user access types in the scheduling software system. One of the types is a user that can only see their appointments when they log in. Another is a user whose primary purpose is to make, change, and cancel appointments. They have limited access to other parts of the scheduling software system. This would be a receptionist or answering service person. Another type is the headquarters administrator. This user has access to everything in the scheduling software system. If you have multiple locations, another access type would be for the manager of a location. They would be able to perform all scheduling software system functions for their location, such as adding a staff member, adding services, and making appointments. But, they would not be able to access other locations.

Appointment-Plus appointment software works great whether you have one location or multiple locations. Some Appointment-Plus appointment software clients have hundreds of locations, while many others have one location. You only have to log in once and you can access all locations (if you are set up as a user type that can access all the locations). You can set your locations up to share values (such as your services) or function as stand-alone operations.

If you have multiple locations and have staff that work at more than one location, you only have to set them up as a staff member once in the scheduling software system. You tell the scheduling software system at what locations a staff member can accept appointments. They can have a different work schedule at each location.

Many Appointment-Plus schedule software clients use the system for their internal appointment scheduling only; they don't open it up to their customers. All that is needed is an Internet connection to use the system internally. Other clients allow their customers to schedule their own appointments online.

There are a couple ways to configure the part of the appointment software system that your customers see. You can require them to register before they log in. When they register, they assign themselves a login and password. They can then log in immediately and make appointments. You can also set it so that after they register, they must be activated by the company before they can log in and set appointments. The company is notified via an e-mail when someone has registered. The other option is to not require your customers to log in. You can allow them to view your open times and select an open time. Once they have done that, then they would be prompted for their contact information.

The scheduling software system allows you to set up one-time events or classes. These events occur on a specific date or dates. You can define the number of attendees allowed (or set it to not have a maximum number of attendees).

The appointment software system comes with some default statuses for appointments (scheduled, confirmed, completed, no show). You can add as many additional statuses as you like. Each status is color-coded, so you can quickly tell the status of an appointment when looking at your appointment schedule.