How booking works

This page walks through exactly what happens between a visitor picking a time and everyone being notified. Nothing here is hand-waved: it is the real sequence the software runs.

Choosing a time

The widget shows real availability for the chosen staff member: their weekly hours, minus existing bookings, minus buffers, minus their calendar's busy times if a calendar is connected. Availability is worked out per date in the staff member's timezone and converted to exact moments in time, so daylight-saving shifts never move a slot by an hour, and impossible "spring forward" times are skipped rather than offered.

The slot is re-checked on the server

When the visitor submits, WhenTap does not trust what the widget sent. Bookings for one staff member are written one at a time; inside that turn WhenTap recomputes availability and confirms the exact start time is still open, and the database itself refuses two overlapping bookings for the same person. If someone else took the time in the meantime, the booking is refused, and the widget reloads the times and takes the visitor back to pick another. This is why WhenTap does not double-book, even under a rush.

Free bookings confirm immediately

If the service is free (or your Stripe is not connected), the booking is created as confirmed straight away and the fan-out below runs at once.

Paid bookings wait for payment

If the service takes payment, the booking is created as pending, which holds the slot for up to 35 minutes, and the visitor is sent to Stripe Checkout. The moment Stripe confirms the payment, the booking flips to confirmed and the same fan-out runs. If they back out, the slot is released at once; if they simply leave, the checkout expires and the booking is marked expired, freeing the slot. See Taking payments with Stripe.

What happens on confirmation

As soon as a booking is confirmed, WhenTap does all of this, and none of it can block the booking, each step is best-effort:

• Confirms to the customer. An email goes out with the service, the time in their timezone, the staff member, how to attend, and a private link to reschedule or cancel.
• Adds it to the calendar. If the staff member has a calendar connected, an event is created on their Google or Outlook calendar with the customer's details.
• Writes it to your CMS. If write-back is on, the booking is saved as a draft item in your chosen Webflow Collection. See Booking write-back to your CMS.
• Notifies you. The site owner (and the staff member, if they have an email) gets a "new booking" email, including any intake answers.
• Schedules reminders. An email reminder is queued for 24 hours before the appointment (a booking made less than 24 hours ahead gets no reminder email), and the confirmation screen offers add-to-calendar buttons so the customer's own device reminds them too. See Confirmations & reminders.

After the booking

If the booking is later rescheduled, its calendar event moves, its reminders are re-scheduled, and its CMS item's date is updated. If it is cancelled, the calendar event is removed, reminders stop, the CMS item's status changes to cancelled, and any payment is refunded. See Reschedule & cancel.