Article Summary
If you’re using another booking service and looking for a better solution, we’d love to have you join Acuity Scheduling. This guide explains Acuity’s key features and how to get started.
We recommend disabling your old scheduling program after your new scheduler is live. This ensures clients have a live option for booking and avoids you having new appointments coming from two sources.
If you get started and decide you want more hands-on help setting up Acuity Scheduling, you can hire a vetted expert.
Tip: Register for our Acuity Scheduling webinar series where we'll teach you how to use Acuity. The Fundamentals webinar is ideal if you’re new to Acuity. The Next Steps webinar includes topics like customizing a scheduler and appointment notifications, using multiple staff members, syncing third-party calendars, and more.
What is Acuity Scheduling?
Acuity Scheduling is an online booking tool. Use it to manage appointments, offer group classes, accept payment during booking, automatically remind clients of upcoming appointments, and more.
Acuity integrates seamlessly with Squarespace websites, but you don’t need any other Squarespace offerings to use Acuity. You can also use Acuity with nearly any other website, or use it without any website at all.
Set up Acuity
To start using Acuity, sign up for a free trial. Review the steps in this section to get up and running with your new scheduler.
Step 1 - Set your hours
Enter your availability to manage when clients can book appointments. If you have the same hours every week, set repeating hours.
Step 2 - Create appointment types
Create appointment types to represent the services you offer. When clients book, they’ll choose an appointment type, then review the times that you’re available.
Step 3 - Import clients and appointments
Import your clients and appointments from your current scheduler to get your business started. To learn more, visit Importing appointments and clients.
Step 4 - Start accepting payments
Scheduling integrates with Square, Stripe, and PayPal to accept payments online. Connect your payment processor account to start accepting payments when clients book.
Step 5 - Share your new scheduling link
Embed your scheduler on a Squarespace site or other website, or send clients a direct link to your scheduler. Either way, ensure they know where to find you to book online.
If you’re using a Squarespace site, consider integrating Squarespace Email Campaigns to let clients know about your new scheduling tool.
Step 6 - Upgrade to paid service
After you’ve set up your account and switched to Acuity, upgrade your free trial to one of our paid plans.
Step 7 - Explore optional features
After you've signed up for Acuity, you can create custom intake forms, connect Acuity to third-party integrations, or sync a third-party calendar to Acuity.
Step 8 - Cancel your other scheduler
With your scheduler set up and new bookings coming in, cancel your old scheduler or make it private. Avoid having two schedulers set up at the same time to avoid double bookings between them.
Learn more
The best way to learn about Acuity is to start a free trial and experience our product first hand. For more help, visit the Acuity Scheduling Help Center.