Creating and editing appointment types

Enable visitors to choose a service that your business offers when booking time with you.

Appointment types are the services you offer in Acuity. You can use appointment types for one-client services and classes. Clients usually begin the scheduling process by choosing which appointment type they want to book.

This guide reviews how to create, edit, and customize appointment types. Learn how to create group classes.

If you get started and decide you want more hands-on help setting up Acuity Scheduling, you can hire a vetted expert. 

Tip: Depending on the services you offer, you may want to offer service products through Squarespace Commerce instead of appointment types in Acuity. Appointments work well for services scheduled for specific times. If clients don't have to book for specific times, use service products instead.

Add an appointment type

Note: The instructions below include links to Acuity settings separated by the kind of account you use to log into Acuity. Which kind of account do I have?

You can create as many appointment types as you like. To create a new appointment type:

1. Open the Appointment types panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account.
2. Click New Type of Service.
3. Enter the Name, Description, and Duration, of the service, and other details. Clients will see some of this information when they book. For information on each field, review Appointment type settings.
4. To make an appointment type private, switch the Private appointment type toggle on.

   Note: Clients can access private appointment types when they open a direct link to a private appointment type, a category of private appointment types, or a calendar that only offers private appointment types.

5. To include an image to display with the appointment type, click the + icon and select an image. Review the recommendations for formatting images.  
6. If you have more than one calendar in your account, in the Calendar section, check the boxes next to the calendars that offer this appointment type. 
7. To include an intake form, check the boxes next to the forms you want clients to fill out when booking this appointment type.
8. If the appointment type requires a resource, check the boxes next to the resources.

Tip: You can organize appointment types into groups with their own availability settings and scheduling limits. This is useful if some services are only offered at specific times. To learn more, visit Availability and scheduling limits by appointment type. 

9. Click Create.

Your appointment types appear in both your account and on your scheduling page in the order in which they were created. To rearrange them, drag and drop the appointment types. 

Edit an appointment type

To edit an existing appointment type:

1. Open the Appointment types panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account.
2. Scroll down to an appointment type.
3. Find the appointment type you want to update and click Edit.
4. Make your changes, then click Save.

Note: If you've created packages, gift certificates, or subscriptions that your clients can redeem to pay for your services, each time you create a new appointment type, you need to update the package, gift certificate, or subscription so it applies to that new appointment type. 

Duplicate an appointment type

To make a copy of an existing appointment type: 

1. Open the Appointment types panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account.
2. Next to the appointment type you want to duplicate, click Duplicate. 
3. The original appointment type settings will be copied over to the new appointment type. If you set up availability by appointment type, the new appointment type will also be assigned to the same availability group. You can update the Name, and any other settings, if needed.  
4. Click Create. 

Appointment type settings

When creating or editing an appointment type, use these fields to add details about the appointment type:

Note: If you edit an appointment type's duration field, the updates will apply to both new and existing appointments. However, changes to the price will only apply to new appointments booked moving forward. 

Delete an appointment type

To delete an appointment type:

1. Open the Appointment types panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account.
2. Scroll down to an appointment type.
3. Click Edit.
4. In the top-right, click Delete, then click Delete.

After you delete the appointment type, existing appointments will still appear on your calendar.