Switch from Google Calendar and a form
The MacGyver setup that works until it does not. When to graduate.
Plenty of shops start with a Google Form that emails a Google Calendar invite. It is a great zero-cost start. You graduate to a proper booking tool when any of these are true:
- You are double-booking, because the form does not know your real availability.
- You are chasing no-shows manually, because there are no automatic reminders.
- Customers are asking for a way to reschedule themselves.
- You have added a second chair and cannot express that in a form.
Moving the pieces
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Google Form intake | Booked's built-in booking flow |
| Google Calendar events | Booked's calendar (with real availability from services + hours + staff) |
| Manual confirmation email | Booked's automatic email + reminder |
| Google Sheets client list | CSV import to Booked's Customers (Pro) |
Export the sheet as CSV and import it at Dashboard → Import data. The importer recognises name, email and phone columns under most of the names a spreadsheet is likely to use, so a tidy sheet usually needs no editing.
The thing a form cannot do
A form collects a request. It does not know that the 2pm you are offering is already taken, that the service runs ninety minutes and would overrun your close, or that the stylist is off that Thursday. Every one of those is a phone call you make afterwards to undo a booking somebody thinks they have.
Booked decides availability before the slot is offered, which is the whole difference. A customer cannot pick a time that does not work.
Can I keep using Google Calendar?
You do not have to give it up. Booked can publish a calendar feed you subscribe to from your phone, so bookings appear alongside the rest of your life — see See your bookings in your phone calendar.
Do stop taking bookings through the form on the day you switch, though. Two systems both handing out the same 2pm is exactly the double-booking you left the form to escape.