The online booking portal lets clients request appointments from your practice's public booking page. Lupa uses your appointment types, staff qualifications, rota, rooms, calendar blocks and online booking settings to decide which services, team members, dates and times clients can choose.

💡 In short: Configure online booking in Settings -> Online Booking, make the right appointment types public, order them for clients, then share the booking link from the settings page.

Availability Callout

📍 Online booking must be enabled for your practice. Some options, such as payments, referrals and minimum booking windows, only appear when the relevant feature or configuration is enabled.

What Clients See

The booking portal guides clients through a short journey:

Step	What the client does	What controls it
Details or sign in	Existing clients sign in, or new clients register where allowed.	Store booking and client registration settings.
Pet selection	The client chooses one or more pets.	Client account and pet records.
Service	The client chooses a public appointment type.	Public appointment types, species targeting and online booking order.
Date and time	The client chooses an available slot, and sometimes a team member.	Rota, staff qualifications, rooms, calendar blocks, appointment duration and booking settings.
Questionnaire	The client answers any required booking questions.	Booking question configuration.
Confirm	The client reviews notes, attachments, price where shown and the booking action.	Payment, price visibility, booking policy and privacy policy settings.

Enable Online Booking

Open Settings.
In the Calendar section, choose Online Booking.
Turn on Enable Online Booking.
Use the booking form link shown under the switch to open or share the portal.

When online booking is disabled, clients who visit your booking link see a dedicated page — "Online bookings unavailable at [your practice name]" — explaining that online booking is not available and showing your practice's phone number, email address and website so they can contact you directly. Staff can still create appointments from inside Lupa regardless of this setting.

Configure Team Member Selection

In Settings -> Online Booking -> General, choose how clients are assigned to staff.

Option	Client experience	Use it when
Allow	Clients can choose a team member or no preference.	You want clients to choose a preferred vet or nurse.
Auto Assign	Lupa finds availability from eligible employees without asking the client to choose.	You want maximum availability and less client decision-making.
Auto Assign Room	Lupa books against room availability rather than asking for a team member.	Room capacity matters more than client staff preference.
Specific	The portal routes every online booking to one staff member. Choose who using the Default Staff Member field that appears on the same settings page. Lupa will not save the Specific setting until you have selected a staff member — you will see a prompt reminding you to do this first.	You want all online bookings routed through one person.

💡 Auto Assign and Auto Assign Room keep date selection enabled because Lupa needs a slot to assign behind the scenes.

Configure Date Selection

Use Date Selection to control whether clients choose a date and time in the portal.

Turn date selection on when clients should pick from available slots.
Set Date Selection Days to limit how far ahead clients can book.
The days-in-advance value accepts a range from 7 to 180 days. If date selection is off and the staff assignment option allows it, the client can submit a request without picking a precise time.

Choose Which Appointment Types Appear

Online booking only shows appointment types that are public and active.

Open Settings -> Appointment Types.
Edit the relevant type.
Turn on Is Public?.
Choose whether to turn on Show Price in Online Booking.
Use Targeted Species if the service should only appear for certain pets.
Open Settings -> Online Booking -> Appointment Types.
Drag public types into the order clients should see.

✅ Put high-volume services such as consultations and vaccinations near the top. Keep emergency, admin or internal-only types private unless clients should genuinely request them online.

How Lupa Calculates Available Slots

Lupa builds online booking availability from multiple parts of your setup.

Input	How it affects slots
Appointment type duration	Determines how long each slot needs to be.
Team qualifications	Limits slots to staff who can perform the selected type.
Rota	Provides working availability for employees and rooms.
Calendar blocks	Removes protected busy time from availability.
Existing appointments	Prevents clients from booking slots already taken online.
Rooms	Controls availability when room assignment or room auto-assignment is in use.
Days in advance and minimum booking window	Limits how soon and how far ahead clients can book.

When a client confirms, Lupa checks that the selected slot is still available. If another booking has taken the same slot, the client is asked to choose a new time.

💡 If your practice has no rota set up, online booking will show no available slots. Add rota coverage for your team before opening the portal to clients.

Booking Questions, Notes and Attachments

If booking questions are configured, clients answer them before confirmation. On the confirm step, clients can add extra notes and upload appointment files.

Those responses appear with the appointment for your team to review.

Payments and Confirmation

If online payment is configured, the confirm button can ask the client to pay to book. Otherwise, the portal submits the booking request.

The confirm step also links to your booking policy and privacy policy.

💡 By default, client-booked appointments appear in the calendar with Requested status and need a team member to confirm them. If your practice wants to skip that step, turn on Auto-confirm bookings in Settings -> Online Booking -> General — when it is on, appointments booked through the portal go straight into the calendar as confirmed and the client receives a confirmation message rather than a "request received" message. Appointments your team creates inside Lupa are not affected by this setting.

Allow Online Appointment Cancellation

You can let clients cancel their own online appointments directly from the booking confirmation, without needing to contact you.

Open Settings -> Online Booking -> General.
Turn on Allow online appointment cancellation.

When this is on, clients can cancel from their booking confirmation up until 24 hours before the appointment. If the appointment is within 24 hours, the cancel button is disabled and clients see the message "Appointments within 24 hours cannot be cancelled online. Please call the clinic." When this setting is off, clients must contact your practice to cancel.

Pre-registration Mode

Before you open online booking to clients, you can use Pre-registration mode to collect client and pet details through the portal without accepting real appointments. When it is on, the portal gathers registrations instead of creating bookings — useful while you are still setting up your rota, appointment types or payment configuration.

Open Settings -> Online Booking -> General.
Turn on Pre-registration mode.

The description shown to clients on the portal reads: "Let clients register with your clinic before you go live, without booking an appointment. The portal collects their details instead of creating a booking."

When you are ready to accept bookings, turn Pre-registration mode off. The portal will then behave as normal and clients can book appointments.

💡 Pre-registration mode only appears in settings when online booking is enabled. Turn on Enable Online Booking first if you do not see it.

Tips

✅

Test the booking portal after changing appointment types, rota or room rules.
Keep appointment type descriptions client-friendly and short.
Use species targeting to stop clients choosing the wrong service.
Add calendar blocks before opening high-demand dates online.
Check requested appointments throughout the day so online requests do not sit unnoticed. If your practice prefers not to review each request manually, consider turning on Auto-confirm bookings in Settings -> Online Booking -> General.
Review booking questions regularly and remove anything the team no longer uses.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
The booking link is not visible	Turn on Enable Online Booking in Settings -> Online Booking.
Clients see an "Online bookings unavailable" page instead of the booking form	Online booking is turned off for your practice. Turn on Enable Online Booking in Settings -> Online Booking. While it is off, clients are shown your practice's contact details so they can reach you directly. Make sure your phone number, email and website are filled in on your store profile so clients see accurate contact information on that page.
An appointment type is missing	Check Is Public?, archive status, species targeting and the online booking order.
No dates or times are available	Check that your team has rota coverage for the dates you expect to be bookable — if no rota is set up, no slots will appear. Also check team qualifications, rooms, calendar blocks, existing bookings, days in advance and minimum booking window.
A client cannot choose a staff member	Team member selection may be set to Auto Assign, Auto Assign Room or Specific.
The Specific assignment setting will not save	You must choose a Default Staff Member before Lupa will save the Specific option. Select a staff member from the Default Staff Member field and then your settings will save automatically.
The price is not shown	Turn on Show Price in Online Booking for the appointment type.
Online bookings are arriving as Requested instead of going straight into the calendar	Turn on Auto-confirm bookings in Settings -> Online Booking -> General. Once on, new bookings made through the portal go straight into the calendar as confirmed. Appointments your team creates inside Lupa are not affected by this setting.
The slot disappeared at confirmation	Another booking may have taken it. Ask the client to choose a new time.
The portal is collecting registrations but not creating bookings	Pre-registration mode is turned on. Open Settings -> Online Booking -> General and turn it off when you are ready to accept real appointments.
Clients cannot cancel their own appointments online	Turn on Allow online appointment cancellation in Settings -> Online Booking -> General. When it is off, clients must contact your practice to cancel. Note that even when this setting is on, clients cannot cancel within 24 hours of their appointment — they will be prompted to call the clinic instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find the booking portal link? Open Settings -> Online Booking. When online booking is enabled, the settings page shows a link to the booking form.
Can clients book multiple pets? The portal supports a pet selection step, and each selected pet gets its own appointment details in the booking journey.
Can clients choose a vet? Yes, when Team Member Selection is set to Allow. Other assignment modes hide staff choice and let Lupa assign availability automatically.
Why are some dates marked unavailable? They have no available slots after rota, existing appointments, blocks, qualifications, rooms and booking limits are applied.
Can online bookings be confirmed automatically without a team member reviewing them first? Yes. Turn on Auto-confirm bookings in Settings -> Online Booking -> General. When it is on, appointments booked through the portal are confirmed immediately and the client gets a confirmation message straight away. Appointments your team creates inside Lupa are not affected by this setting.
What is Pre-registration mode? It lets you collect client and pet details through the portal before you go live, without creating real bookings. Turn it on in Settings -> Online Booking -> General while you are still setting up, then turn it off when you are ready to accept appointments.
Can online booking collect payment? Yes, when online payments are configured. The confirm step changes from a request action to a pay-to-book action when payment is required.
Can clients cancel their own online appointments? Yes, when Allow online appointment cancellation is turned on in Settings -> Online Booking -> General. Clients can cancel from their booking confirmation up until 24 hours before the appointment. Inside that 24-hour window, the option is disabled and clients are asked to call the clinic. When this setting is off, clients need to contact your practice to cancel.

Online Booking Portal