Receive and confirm your first booking

You’ve shared your link. At some point over the next few hours or days, someone will make their first booking. This guide explains what to expect, how you find out, where to see it, and how to confirm it.

What exactly happens when a customer books

1. The customer visits your public link (citauno.com/your-business).
2. They choose a service, professional, location, day, and time.
3. They fill in their details: name, email, and phone.
4. They tap “Confirm booking”.
5. Citauno creates the booking in your system.

From there, you and the customer receive automatic notifications.

Three booking modes

What happens depends on the confirmation mode you chose in Set up your business:

Automatic mode

• The booking comes in as Confirmed right away.
• The slot is blocked so no one else can book it.
• You receive a “New booking confirmed” email.
• The customer receives a “Your booking is confirmed” email with all the details.

You don’t need to do anything. The booking is already active.

Manual mode

• The booking comes in as Pending.
• The slot is provisionally blocked (no one else can book it while you decide).
• You receive a “New booking awaiting confirmation” email and it appears on your Dashboard as pending.
• The customer receives a “Your booking is pending confirmation” email explaining that you’ll confirm within a few hours.

You have to confirm or reject it from the dashboard.

Deposit required mode

• The booking stays Pending payment.
• The customer receives an email with the deposit payment link.
• If they pay within 24 hours: it’s confirmed automatically.
• If they don’t pay: it expires and the slot is freed up.

How you find out

You have three parallel ways to receive the alert. You don’t depend on just one:

1. Email

If you turned on “New booking notifications” in Settings (we did this in Set up your business), you get an email every time a booking comes in.

The email includes:

• The customer’s name.
• The booked service.
• The day and time.
• The assigned professional.
• The status (Pending or Confirmed).
• A “View in Citauno” button that takes you straight to the dashboard.

2. Dashboard

In the dashboard, go to Dashboard (the first option in the menu). If you have pending bookings, you’ll see a “Pending confirmation” section on the right with Confirm and Reject buttons on each row.

3. Calendar

Go to Calendar and you’ll see the pending appointments in amber (confirmed ones are green). If you hover over or tap the appointment, it opens the details.

Confirm a booking (manual mode)

From the dashboard

1. Go to Home.
2. In the “Pending confirmation” section, find the booking.
3. Tap “Confirm” (green) if you want to accept it.
4. Tap “Reject” (red) if you can’t take it.

When you confirm:

• The appointment changes from amber to green on the calendar.
• The customer receives a “Your booking is confirmed!” email with all the details and an .ics file to add to their Google Calendar.

When you reject:

• The appointment disappears from the calendar.
• The slot is freed up.
• The customer receives a “Your booking couldn’t be confirmed” email with a link to choose another time.

From the calendar

1. Go to Calendar.
2. Tap the pending appointment.
3. The details panel opens with Confirm / Reject / Reschedule buttons.

From the booking list

1. Go to Bookings in the side menu.
2. Filter by Status: Pending.
3. Tap the booking to see details.
4. Same options: Confirm / Reject / Reschedule.

What to do before confirming

Before accepting a manual booking, we recommend reviewing:

1. Does the time work? Look at your calendar and confirm there’s no conflict with something you didn’t load into Citauno (a personal appointment, a commitment).
2. Do you have everything you need? If the service requires specific products, make sure you have them in stock.
3. Does the customer seem reliable? If it’s a new customer you have doubts about, you can send them a WhatsApp before confirming to verify.

What to do after confirming

Citauno does a lot for you automatically:

• Confirmation email to the customer: it goes out on its own, you do nothing.
• Reminder 24 hours before: if you enabled WhatsApp on your plan, it goes out automatically too.
• Blocking the slot on the calendar: already done.

But there are a few things worth doing manually the first time:

For the first customer, send a personal WhatsApp

Even though Citauno sent an email, a personal WhatsApp builds connection and reduces no-shows. Suggested template:

Hi María! This is Pilar from Estudio Pilar.
Thanks for booking! 🙌

I'm confirming your appointment for Saturday the 25th at 10:30
for the full manicure with gel polish.

Let me know if you need anything here.
See you soon!

This builds anticipation and greatly reduces the chance that the customer cancels at the last minute.

Save the contact

The customer is already in your Citauno database (you’ll see them under Customers in the side menu), but also save them in your WhatsApp contacts with the business name in front:

“Estudio Pilar - María Benítez”

That way, when they message you, you’ll know which context they know you from.

If you rejected by mistake

If you rejected a booking by accident:

1. Go to Bookings in the side menu.
2. In the Status filter, choose Rejected and tap Apply filters.
3. Tap the booking to open its details, and from there Restore if the slot is still available.

If the slot has already been taken by someone else, it can’t be restored. Contact the customer via WhatsApp to reschedule.

Stats you’ll want to check

At the end of the day / week / month, go to Dashboard and look at:

• Bookings for the day / week: how many you served.
• No-show rate: how many customers didn’t show up. If it goes above 10%, consider switching to “Deposit required” mode.
• Most-booked service: it tells you where your real demand is.

What you already have

• An understanding of the 3 confirmation modes.
• Three places to receive booking alerts: email, dashboard, and calendar.
• A clear flow to confirm or reject a pending booking.
• Best practices after confirming (personal WhatsApp, saving the contact).

Next step

As more bookings come in, you’ll spend more time in the calendar. Continue with Your daily calendar: where to see everything at a glance.