BookingBug Blog: News and updates from the BookingBug team

Jun 18

Announcing BookingBug’s Integration with Sage One Accounting

Sage One Accounting

Are you looking for an online accounting platform to suit your small or mid-sized business? Well look no further. BookingBug has integrated with Sage One Accounts, the online accounting service designed specifically for small business owners who want control of their finances but perhaps don’t have an accounting background or the time for software training. No jargon, no fuss, just a clear, simple way to get things done. Features of Sage One include:

  • Easily track money going in and out of your business
  • Quickly produce financial reports
  • Produce and submit your VAT return in minutes
  • Create great looking, personalised invoices
  • Produce customer and supplier statements
  • Integration with Sage One Payroll and Sage Pay
  • 30 day free trial

Sage One & BookingBug

BookingBug has integrated with Sage One to enable businesses to sync all of their bookings and payments taken online through BookingBug (made by customers and staff/admins) straight into their Sage One account. Each booking is created as a separate invoice and is tied to a unique customer record and booking reference. As a new booking is made online, or the payment status is updated (e.g. from unpaid > paid, or deposit paid > paid) the information will sync hourly with your Sage One account accordingly.

Just as BookingBug lets you manage your appointments and customers on the move, Sage One enables you to access your accounts anywhere and at any time, from any internet-enabled device, including PCs and Apple Mac laptops and desktop computers, smartphones, Apple iPad and other tablets.

Getting Set-Up

You will need to have both a BookingBug account and a Sage One account. You can head over to the Sage One website here where you will be able to sign up for an account. (And if you don’t yet have a BookingBug account you can find out more about our features here, and our pricing plans here.)

Once you have both accounts set up, you’re just a couple of clicks away from syncing the two. We have a step-by-step guide to that available here.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about Sage One Accounting, they have a great online help section full of useful resources to get you up and running with your Sage One account. And if you have any questions about BookingBug, or syncing your BookingBug account with SageOne you can visit our help centre, or contact our support team on support@bookingbug.com.

 

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Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
Jun 11

Using the web to manage and market your complementary healthcare practice

Is it the end of the pen & paper practice? Last week BookingBug’s CEO Glenn Shoosmith presented to a packed audience at London’s COPA Show, discussing the ways and means complementary healthcare practices can use the web to market their business, attract new patients, and retain existing ones – without having to break the bank.

In his presentation Glenn covered a series of tools that osteopaths, acupuncturists, chiropractors, physiotherapists and other complementary health professionals can utilise, at little or no cost, to make the most of the web. You can view his slides here:

 

Topics covered include

  • Easy to build (and find) websites
  • Social media
  • Google places
  • Online & mobile payments
  • Engaging online content
  • Realtime online availability
  • Online appointment scheduling
  • Automated email an SMS comms
  • Email marketing
  • Recommendations
  • Rewards & promotions
  • Online accounting

Whether you attended the seminar at the show, or have found us by other means (hi!), we hope you find these notes useful. If you have any questions about Glenn’s presentation, online appointment scheduling for your practice, or more generally about how you can make the most of the web, you can contact our support team via support@bookingbug.com who will be happy to help.

Good luck!

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Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
May 23

Announcing BookingBug’s Dropbox Integration

We’ve had lots of requests from the BookingBug Community for document upload functionality within BookingBug, so today we’re pleased to announce our integration with Dropbox to do just that.

Dropbox is a great tool for businesses wishing to store documents securely in the cloud and access them instantly from any mobile device. And best of all, it’s free!

This means you can now upload any documents saved in your Dropbox account and attached them to specific customer profiles. This could be useful for saving:

  • Payment confirmation
  • Contracts
  • Training schedules
  • Progress notes
  • Lesson plans
  • Certificates
  • Treatment history
  • Photos and images
  • And much more…

It’s quick and easy to upload documents to your customer profiles using Dropbox. Simply click on the customer profile you wish to add a document to and click the “Edit” button. At the bottom of the profile you will now see a new option “Upload files from Dropbox”:

BookingBug Dropbox integration

Clicking this button will open up your Dropbox folder, where you can choose the files you wish to upload. Once you have selected your files, click “Choose” at the bottom of the pop-up. (If you already have Dropbox account, the first time you upload a file you will be prompted for your Dropbox email address and password. If you don’t yet have a Dropbox account you can register for a free one at this stage.)

BookingBug Dropbox integration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have selected the files you wish to upload you will see them listed at the bottom of the customer profile. You then simply need to hit “Update” and the files will be attached to that profile.

BookingBug Dropbox integration

You will then be able to see all uploaded files listed as icons at the bottom of your customer profile. (If you need to remove files at any point, just click the grey cross you see next to each file icon in “Edit”, then “Update” on the customer profile to remove the attachment.)

BookingBug Dropbox integration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all there is to it.

As always, our support team are on hand if you have any questions, just drop them a line at support@bookingbug.com.

Best wishes,

The BookingBug Team.

 

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Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
Apr 17

Planned system maintenance this weekend

As you know our development team is tasked with continually improving the BookingBug platform to ensure it remains the best possible solution for online scheduling. Often this means small tweaks behind the scenes and occasionally it means much bigger system-wide technology upgrades.

This weekend our tech team will be be rolling out a major system upgrade to BookingBug that means we’ll be faster and slicker. It includes a series of refinements, and most importantly will form the foundation of a host of advanced new features that we’ll be rolling out throughout this year and beyond.

Due to the core nature of this system upgrade there may be a limited period of downtime as we roll out these changes. Depending on your timezone, we expect any potential downtime to last less than an hour between:

  • UK: 06:00-07:00 BST (Saturday 20th April)
  • US: 01:00-02:00 EDT (Saturday 20th April) / 22:00-23:00 PDT (Friday 19th April)
  • AUS: 16:00-17:00 AEST (Saturday 20th April)

Our tech team will be working hard to ensure this system upgrade will happen as quickly and smoothly as possible without any interruption to either your business or your customers, however if you have any specific questions you can contact our support team at support@bookingbug.com.

Best wishes – and thanks in advance for your patience,
The BookingBug Team

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Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
Mar 08

Take card payments on the move with BookingBug & iZettle

mobile payment with BookingBugWe are delighted to announce our partnership with European social payments provider iZettle to enable BookingBug users to securely take card payments on the move through an iPhone or iPad.

iZettle’s mobile card reader is a great way to take customer payments in person from wherever you are through your mobile device. It is particularly ideal for mobile or non-office-based businesses such as mobile therapists, driving instructors, plumbers, personal trainers etc. who want to be able to to accept card payment during an appointment.

All you need is an iZettle account (they’ll provide you with the card reading device to plug into your iPhone / iPad) and the latest version of the BookingBug iOS mobile app and you’re ready to go!

There’s more information explaining the step-by-step set-up process through BookingBug here, and an in-depth Q&A from iZettle answering any more in-depth questions you may have.

iZettle payments are currently available to BookingBug users Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, UK, Germany and Spain. More countries will be coming soon, as will iZettle’s integration into BookingBug’s Android application.

If you have any questions, or would like to talk about how your business can start taking mobile payments with iZettle, simply drop our support team a line at support@bookingbug.com.

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Friday, March 8th, 2013
Feb 25

More changes and updates to the BookingBug mobile app

BookingBug online scheduling apps

Since releasing our all-new beta mobile apps for iOS and Android earlier this month, our development team has been busy working through your feedback to continue making improvements and adding new features as suggested by our users. We’re pleased to announce that the first in a series of updates is now available for download from the App Store (iPhone / iPad) and Play Store (Android).

 

The update now available now includes:

  • Create a new client record while creating a new booking
  • Display your booking notes
  • Display blocked out days
  • Switch on the 24 Clock setting option
  • Sort client by either first name or last name
  • A specific fix for Galaxy S2 users
  • A number of other small fixes and improvements

If you’re already using BookingBug mobile you’ll simply need to update the app on your device to to benefit from these new features. If you don’t yet have the app and want to begin managing your bookings on the move you can download the iPhone and iPad version here, and the Android version here.

We’re continuing to improve and add new features to our mobile offering on a rolling basis so if there’s something you’d like to see that’s not currently available, please do let us know. And as always, if you have any questions, just give our support team a shout at support@bookingbug.com.

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Monday, February 25th, 2013
Feb 08

Announcing our new mobile apps for iPhone, iPad & Android devices

Online scheduling mobile app

Here at BookingBug HQ we’ve made it our mission to ensure we provide our users with the most advanced, easy-to-use booking, scheduling and appointment platform available. We know our users want to be able to use BookingBug on the move, from any mobile device, through your browser or via a dedicated app – so following lots of valuable feedback (thank you!) we’ve been working hard on a complete overhaul of our iOS and Android mobile apps.

So what’s new?

In essence, the whole entire application is new. We scrapped the old one and started again. So here goes – welcome to the completely new and improved BookingBug app with a host of new features, including:

  • New user friendly design
  • Ability to create new bookings
  • Ability to add new clients
  • View your client list and client information
  • Day calendar view
  • Email, phone and map links
  • Mark unpaid bookings as paid
  • Answers to booking questions included with booking details
  • Push notification for new bookings

We need your feedback!

This is the first version of our new iOS and Android app. We’ll be continuing to add new features and functionality on a rolling basis based on our users’ feedback and suggestions. It’s your feedback that will determine what our technical team will focus on building next so once you’ve had a play with the app please do head on over to our Community Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

We hope you like the new apps – and await your feedback!

 

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Friday, February 8th, 2013
Jan 29

Introducing the new BookingBug configure page

This week we’ve launched a brand new “configure” page – the place within your BookingBug account where you can set-up and make changes to your business’s settings – to make it easier than ever to navigate through the system and manage your bookings online.

Now, rather than using the (frankly quite long and sometimes confusing) sidebar of settings options, we have introduced a simple new settings page.

When you log into your account and click “configure” you’ll now see an option (on the bottom left of your screen) to take you through to the new look “settings” page. When you click “try it out” you see all the options for configuring your BookingBug account are now displayed in a series of at-a-glance boxes, with concise descriptions of what each setting does in your account.

Online scheduling software

And don’t worry if you’d like time to familiarize yourself with the new layout, all our existing users will have the option to switch between the old and new versions for the next few weeks.

The team here at BookingBug HQ is constantly listening to our user feedback and working on ways that we can improve the BookingBug experience for businesses and your customers or clients. These changes are part of an on-going project to make BookingBug as simple as possible to set-up and manage, so if you have any feedback on this, or any other parts of the system, then do head on over to our user feedback forum and tell us about it.

Keep the comments coming!

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Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Jan 03

It’s time to take the leap, entrepreneurship beckons!

Start your own business with BookingBugHappy New Year from the team here at BookingBug HQ!

So what’s your New Year’s resolution? Exercise more, drink less, spend more time with loved ones, cut out the carbs? Or, is 2013 the year you’re finally going to make that leap into entrepreneurship and start your own business?

If the answer is yes (to the last one at least..) then great – you’ve already done the hardest bit – making the exciting decision to finally do it.

So now let BookingBug help…

If you’re planning to start a service business (whether that be beauty, fitness, plumbing, tutoring, a B&B, bicycle repairs – or anything in between) two of the biggest challenges you will face in the early months are keeping costs down, and minimising the admin to ensure you can focus as much time as possible doing what you enjoy – the main reason you decided to go it alone in the first place, right?

Tools such as BookingBug can help support you on both these fronts. For example an online booking system can remove the need to hire extra admin support by letting your customers or clients view availability and schedule their own appointments. Automated email and SMS confirmations and reminders can remove lots of manual admin, and online payments can be a godsend when it comes to minimising no-shows.

Looking at the bigger picture customer acquisition and retention are key in the early months and beyond. BookingBug’s add-on marketing tools can help you develop and manage your online and mobile marketing campaigns, while our clever analysis tools can help you review your booking, client and business data to get a detailed feel for how your business is performing. Not to mention how a customised booking widget with slick user experience can help give your website a professional looking edge of course.

And it’s been built for your business. BookingBug has been developed from the ground-up to be light, flexible and simple to manage. Which means it is very reasonably priced for new businesses just starting out (from just $19.95 / £14.95 per month), easy to set-up and get to grips with, and built to scale with you as you business grows.

So happy New Year – start as you mean to go on and sign-up for a free BookingBug trial today!

One final thing – there’s lots of great advice out there on going it alone so first things first, do your research. To get you started, we like the broad range of helpful articles on Entrepreneur.com, this handy start-up guide from Sage and this round-up of tips from BBC Business… Let us know what other useful resources you come across out there and we’ll share them with the BookingBug community.

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Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Nov 26

Scheduled summary emails direct to your inbox

You may remember that we recently announced the launch of BookingBug Insights, our suite of powerful real-time data analysis tools to make it easier than ever for you to analyse and make the most of your customer data? Well today we’re launching an additional feature within Insights; the ability to choose to receive scheduled emails containing useful information about your business.

There are three types of scheduled summary email that you can choose to receive:

1)   All upcoming bookings for today: Great for businesses looking for a handy daily at-a-glance overview of all bookings and customer info for the day ahead.

A daily summary of your bookings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2)   All upcoming bookings for the week ahead: Great for businesses that would like an overview email summarizing all bookings and related information scheduled for the next seven days.

A weekly email update with the coming week's bookings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)   A summary of last week’s bookings including the number of bookings and revenue generated: Great if you’d like a weekly update on bookings and revenue to use as part of your regular business performance monitoring.

a weekly email summarising the past week's activity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To enable email summary reports within your BookingBug account you simply need to go to Calendar > Insights and then select Scheduled Reports and choose which you would like to receive.

They will be sent to the email address configured under Account > Settings > Notifications > Basic Settings. The emails will be sent overnight daily (or on Monday morning for the weekly reports).

Don’t forget, this is just the first iteration of BookingBug Insights features, so head on over to our Community Feedback Forum to let us know what else you’d like to see as our reporting and analysis tools continue to evolve.

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Monday, November 26th, 2012