Booking Requests

The Appointments Inbox receives appointment requests submitted by clients through your public request form. This is separate from the calendar, requests must be reviewed and manually approved or declined before they become appointments.

New in v4.2 (web): The share-link and embed-code controls for the appointment request form moved out of the old “Settings > Inbox” page and into the unified Settings > Sharing page (Appointment Requests accordion). Bookmarks to /settings/inbox redirect there automatically. The Inbox itself, where requests appear for review, is unchanged.

On mobile, the same share controls live in their own Settings > Inbox screen. Same functionality, just organized as a standalone screen instead of an accordion section.

How It Works

1. Share your request form link with clients (website, Instagram bio, Google Business Profile, email, etc.)
2. Clients fill out the form, they provide contact info, preferred date/time, notes, and can upload reference photos
3. Request appears in your Inbox with status “Pending”
4. You review and respond, Book it (converts to an appointment) or Decline it
5. If booked, attachments and notes from the request are automatically linked to the new appointment

The public form filters its date picker and time-of-day options based on your studio’s business hours and the selected artist’s availability, so clients only see slots when you’re actually open. Closed days are disabled in the picker with a friendly helper line (“We’re closed on Sunday and Monday”). When the request is converted to an appointment, the same off-hours and artist-availability soft-warn fires from the calendar’s Convert Request modal. See Business Hours for the full walkthrough on how hours flow into the public form.

Getting Your Request Form Link

Go to Settings > Sharing and expand the Appointment Requests accordion (it is open by default). You will find:

Copy Link, your unique form URL: https://app.tattoostudiopro.com/request/[your-studio-id]

Preview, see exactly how clients see your request form

Embed code, an iframe snippet to place the form directly on your site. Embed codes include ?embed=1 so the form renders without your studio header or logo for a clean fit on third-party sites.

Clients can submit requests 24/7 without logging in. The form works on all devices.

What the Form Looks Like to Clients

Clients see a streamlined request form with:

• Contact fields (name, email, phone)
• A date picker with closed days disabled and a helper line listing your closed days
• An artist selector that includes an “Any artist” option at the top. Picking Any artist falls back to studio hours only and submits with no artist preference; the studio assigns one when converting the request
• Morning, afternoon, and evening time-of-day buckets, filtered to the chosen artist’s working hours (an artist working noon to 6 PM disables the Morning bucket)
• An optional reference-image upload
• A notes field
• An SMS consent disclosure below the phone field, naming your studio and enumerating the message types clients may receive (booking confirmations, reminders, deposit links, check-in forms, receipts), message frequency, rates, STOP/HELP instructions, and links to the Privacy Policy and Terms. This block is required for the Twilio A2P 10DLC compliance carriers now enforce on every public SMS-triggering form. The same disclosure also appears on the walk-in check-in form and appointment-specific check-in forms.

Prefer walk-ins? If a client would rather skip the request form, you can also display a QR code at your front counter (see the Check-In Forms accordion on the same Sharing page). Clients scan the code, fill out their intake on their phone, and land in your queue instead of going through the request-and-review flow.

Viewing Requests (Inbox)

Navigate to Appointments > Inbox (web) or Inbox in the main menu (mobile).

Status Tabs

The Inbox badge count shows pending requests needing attention.

Request Information

Each request shows:

• Client name, email, phone
• Preferred date and time
• Notes (design ideas, placement, etc.)
• Reference images (if attached)

Tap/click any request to expand and see full details.

Searching

Type in the search bar to find requests by client name, email, or phone number.

Processing a Request

Book a Request

1. Open the pending request
2. Review client details, preferred date/time, and notes
3. Click/tap “Book” (web) or “Convert to Appointment” (mobile)
4. The appointment editor opens, pre-filled with the client’s information
5. Adjust date, time, artist assignment, and any other details
6. Save, appointment is created and request moves to “Booked” status
7. Reference photos and notes from the request are attached to the appointment

Decline a Request

1. Open the pending request
2. Click/tap “Decline”
3. Request is archived with status “Declined”
4. The record remains in your Inbox for reference

Badge Count

The badge on the Inbox link/icon shows the number of pending requests. It updates automatically when new requests arrive.

Best Practices

• Respond within 24 hours, clients may book elsewhere if they wait too long
• Share your link everywhere, website, social media bios, Google Business Profile, email signature
• Embed on your website, forms embedded directly on your site get more submissions
• Check Inbox regularly, pending requests are time-sensitive

Troubleshooting

Not receiving requests

• Confirm you’re sharing the correct link (check Settings > Sharing > Appointment Requests for your URL)
• Ask clients if they received a confirmation after submitting
• Check all status tabs, request may already be Booked or Declined
• Verify you’re looking at the right inbox view (not filtered)
• Refresh the page

Request form link not working

• Verify your studio has a valid Studio ID (check Settings > Studio Profile)
• Test the link in an incognito/private browser window
• Contact support if the form shows an error

Embed code not working on website

• Verify the code was pasted completely
• Some website builders restrict iframes, check your platform’s settings
• Test the form URL directly in a browser first

Copy button not working

• Check browser clipboard permissions
• Manually select the URL and copy with Ctrl+C / Cmd+C
• Try a different browser

Related Docs

• Appointments, Calendar and appointment management
• Business Hours, studio hours and per-artist availability that drive the public form’s date and time-of-day filtering
• Settings, Settings > Sharing for the link, embed code, and QR code
• Check In Links, Walk-in check-in links and QR code (separate from booking requests)