Advanced Appointment Features - Linked Bookings and Multi-Service

15-20 minutes

Tutorial 12.2: Advanced Appointment Features - Linked Bookings and Multi-Service

Introduction

Some salon treatments require multiple services or multiple time blocks. A colour appointment might need an initial application, processing time, and then a blow dry. A bridal party might book several services back-to-back. Luminate handles these complex bookings through linked appointments - multiple appointments connected together that maintain timing relationships.

This guide covers creating multi-service bookings, understanding how linked appointments work, and managing complex colour treatments that need processing time between services.

Who this is for: Salon owners, managers, and staff who book complex treatments involving multiple services.

What you'll learn:

Creating multi-service bookings
Understanding linked appointments and booking groups
Managing processing time between services
Updating status for linked appointments
Moving and rescheduling linked bookings

Time to complete: 15-20 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Staff members set up in your salon
Services created with appropriate durations
Some services configured with processing time (for colour treatments)
The Appointments page accessible

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Understanding Multi-Service Bookings

In Luminate, each appointment handles one service. When a customer wants multiple services, the system creates linked appointments - separate appointments connected by a booking group ID.

For example, if a customer books "Root Touch-up + Full Colour + Blow Dry":

Three separate appointments are created
They share the same booking group ID
They're sequenced (1, 2, 3) to maintain order
Linked appointment indicators appear on the calendar

Why this approach?

Each service can be assigned to different staff if needed
Processing time (e.g., colour development) can be scheduled between services
Individual services can be billed separately if required
Flexibility to complete services at different times if circumstances change

Step 2: Create a Multi-Service Booking

To book multiple services for one customer:

Go to Appointments from the sidebar
Click New Appointment
Search for and select a Customer
Select the Staff Member who will perform the services
In the Services card ("Select one or more services for this appointment"), pick the first service from the searchable dropdown. The duration automatically populates from the service's default.
Pick additional services from the same dropdown — each one is added to the list. For every service:
- The duration is editable per appointment (override the default for this one booking if needed)
- Processing time (if configured on the service) is factored in between this service and the next one
Set the Start Date and Start Time for the first service in the Date & Time card
The system calculates subsequent appointment times based on:
- Service durations
- Processing time between services
Review the service timeline preview directly underneath the Start Time. It shows each service stacked in order with its start time, end time, and any processing gap before the next service begins.
Click Save to create all linked appointments

Example timeline for a colour appointment:

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Root Touch-up (60 min)
    35 min processing time (until 10:35 AM)
10:35 AM - 12:35 PM: Full Colour (120 min)
    35 min processing time (until 1:10 PM)
1:10 PM - 1:40 PM: Blow Dry (30 min)

Step 3: Identify Linked Appointments on the Calendar

Linked appointments display visual indicators on the calendar:

A link icon appears on appointment cards that are part of a group
Hovering over the link icon shows "Linked appointment (X in group)", where X is this appointment's position within the group (not the total number of appointments). So the first service shows "1 in group", the second shows "2 in group", and so on.
The appointments appear sequentially on the calendar for the assigned staff

In the Today or Week view:

Look for the small link icon on appointment cards
Cards from the same booking group share the same customer name

Step 4: View Linked Appointment Details

To see all appointments in a booking group:

Click on any linked appointment card on the calendar
The appointment detail page opens
A Linked Services section shows all other appointments in the booking group
You can click on any linked service to navigate to that appointment

The linked services section displays each service name with its start time, making it easy to see the full booking at a glance.

Step 5: Update Status for Linked Appointments

When changing the status of a linked appointment (e.g., marking as arrived, completed, or cancelled), you'll be asked whether to apply the change to all appointments in the group.

Click on a linked appointment to open it
Use the status buttons to change the status (e.g., click Arrived)
A dialog appears titled Linked Appointments explaining this appointment is part of a group
The dialog asks: "Would you like to change the status to [Status] for:"
Choose:
- All X Appointments - Updates all linked appointments in the group
- This Appointment Only - Updates only this specific appointment

Best practice: For arrivals and completions, update all linked appointments together to maintain consistency.

Step 6: Move a Linked Appointment

When you drag a linked appointment to reschedule it, the system validates that the move doesn't break processing time constraints:

Click and hold on a linked appointment card
Drag it to a new time slot
If the move would violate processing time requirements (e.g., moving the second service too close to the first), a warning dialog appears titled Linked Appointment Constraint
The dialog shows all appointments in the linked group with their times and processing requirements
You can:
- Cancel Move - Abort the move and keep the original time
- Move Anyway - Proceed with the move despite the constraint warning

Moving all linked appointments: To reschedule the entire booking group, you need to move each appointment individually. The system warns if you're creating conflicts.

Step 7: Cancel a Linked Appointment

To cancel a linked booking:

Open the appointment (click on it in the calendar)
Click the Cancel button
The Cancel Appointment confirmation dialog appears
Click Cancel Appointment to confirm, or Keep Appointment to back out

Important: Cancel always acts on the single appointment you opened — it does not cancel the rest of the linked group. If you want to cancel every service in a multi-service booking, you need to open each linked appointment in turn and cancel it. Tip: the Linked Services section on the appointment detail page (see Step 4) lets you jump straight between siblings, which makes this quick.

Be careful here — cancelling just one service from a group can leave orphaned appointments. Before you start, decide whether the remaining services still make sense without the cancelled one (e.g. a blow dry on its own after the colour is cancelled).

Step 8: Cut and Paste Linked Appointments

You can use the clipboard to move appointments:

On desktop: Hover over an appointment card — an action toolbar floats next to the card (it appears on the right by default, or flips to the left if there's no room). Click the Cut (scissors) icon in that toolbar. On mobile: Tap the appointment card and select Cut from the popup menu.
For linked appointments, a dialog appears titled Linked Appointment asking: "Would you like to cut all linked appointments or just this one?"
Choose:
- Cut All X Appointments - Cuts all linked appointments in the group
- Cut Only This One - Cuts just this single appointment
The cut appointment(s) appear in the Clipboard panel (in the left panel tabs, alongside Waitlist)
Navigate to the new date/time
Drag from the clipboard or click on an empty time slot to paste

Tip: The Clipboard panel is accessed via the tabs on the left side of the calendar view. Switch between "Waitlist" and "Clipboard" tabs to see cut appointments.

Clipboard persists across sessions. Cut, copy, and pending-paste items are now saved to your account. If you cut an appointment and then close your browser, log out, or refresh the page, your clipboard items will still be there when you return — scoped to the salon you cut them in. The original appointment also stays visually marked as "cut" (faded out) on the calendar until you paste it or cancel the cut.

Clearing the clipboard. Open the Clipboard tab — when there are items in the clipboard, a Clear all button appears at the top of the list. Clicking it opens a confirmation dialog (so you don't lose work by accident) and then removes every item from your clipboard in one go. Any appointments you'd cut go back to looking normal on the calendar — nothing is deleted, the cut is simply undone.

Pasting into a short slot — Shrink to fit. If the slot you click to paste into is shorter than the appointment's duration (because there's another appointment soon after on that staff column), Luminate opens a Slot is too short dialog. The dialog shows:

The available gap size (e.g. "15min")
The appointment's current length (e.g. "60min")
The shortfall (e.g. "45min")

You can either:

Shrink to {gap}min and paste — reduces the appointment's length to fit the gap exactly and pastes it. The shrunk appointment is marked as manually-resized, so it stays at that length even if you later move it to a different staff member.
Cancel — discards the paste; the clipboard item stays where it was.

Shrinking is disabled when the gap is below 5 minutes (too short to be a viable appointment). In that case only Cancel is available — pick a larger slot or move the blocking appointment out of the way first.

Paste preview snaps to neighbouring appointments. The calendar normally aligns to a 15-minute grid, but if the appointment you're hovering ends at, say, 1:20 PM, the next grid line is 1:15 PM (5 minutes too early) or 1:30 PM (10 minutes too late). To save you fighting the grid, Luminate now snaps the marching-ants preview to the end of the previous appointment (or the start of the next one) when your cursor is within about 7 minutes of that edge. So hovering near 1:15 PM in the example above lands the paste exactly on 1:20 PM, with no awkward stub of dead time before the next appointment.

When no nearby appointment edge is in range, the preview behaves as before and snaps to the 15-minute grid.

Trying to paste on top of an existing appointment. If the slot you click already has an appointment in it, the paste can't happen — the system shows a short toast like "Can't paste here — overlaps with Sarah Jones" and leaves the clipboard item where it was, ready for another attempt. No confirmation dialog or wasted clicks: just pick a different slot, or move the blocking appointment first.

Step 9: Group Existing Appointments Together (Retrospective Grouping)

Sometimes a customer has two or more separate bookings on the same day that should be treated as a single visit — for example, a colour with one stylist followed by a cut with another. Instead of cancelling and recreating them as a multi-service booking, you can group existing appointments together.

From an existing appointment:

Open any of the customer's same-day appointments (click the card, or open the detail page)
Click the Group button in the appointment header / sidebar
The Group with another appointment dialog lists every other non-cancelled appointment for that customer today — regardless of which stylist they're with
Tick the appointments you want to group with this one
Click Group together

All selected appointments now share one booking group and behave as linked appointments from that point forward (status changes prompt for "all or one", cut/copy treats them as a unit, deposits aggregate, and so on).

Automatic prompt after booking or rescheduling:

When you create a new appointment or reschedule one onto a different day, Luminate checks for other non-cancelled appointments that customer already has on that day. If any exist, the Group with another appointment dialog appears automatically with the new/rescheduled appointment as the source. Tick the relevant siblings and confirm to group, or click Cancel to dismiss.

This prompt fires regardless of which stylist the existing appointments are with — so cross-stylist visits get flagged the moment you create them. You can always ungroup later from the appointment's group dialog if you change your mind.

Step 10: Copy and Paste an Appointment

If you want to duplicate an existing appointment instead of moving it, use Copy:

Hover over the appointment card to reveal the floating action toolbar (right or left of the card), then click the Copy icon next to the Cut scissors icon.
For linked appointments, the same Linked Appointment dialog appears, with Copy Only This One and Copy All X Appointments buttons.
The clipboard item appears in the Clipboard panel with a small COPY label and a copy icon (still amber, like cut). The original appointment stays exactly where it was on the calendar.
Navigate to the new date/time and click an empty slot to paste — a brand-new appointment is created with the same customer, service, staff (overridden by the slot you paste into), notes, and any other details. The clipboard item is consumed once pasted.

When to use Copy vs Cut:

Cut moves the original — use when rescheduling.
Copy leaves the original in place — use when booking the same customer for the same service again (e.g. recurring blow-dry, follow-up appointment).

Common Pitfalls

"The processing time isn't being added"

Processing time is configured per service. Go to Services > Edit the service and check the Processing Time field. This is the gap added after this service before the next one begins.

"I can't move the appointment where I want"

If a linked appointment has processing time constraints, you can't move it into a time slot that would conflict with adjacent linked appointments. Either move the adjacent appointments first, or confirm you want to override the constraint.

"Only one appointment was cancelled"

Cancellation always applies to the single appointment you opened, never to the whole linked group. The other services in the group stay active. To cancel the whole booking, open each linked appointment in turn and cancel it — the Linked Services section on the detail page makes this quick.

"The linked icon isn't showing"

The link icon only appears for appointments that are part of a multi-appointment booking group. Single-service appointments don't display this icon, even if the customer has multiple separate appointments.

Tips and Best Practices

Configure processing times on services - Set up colour services with their required development times so the system automatically spaces appointments correctly
Use multi-service booking for same-day services - This keeps all appointments connected and easier to manage
Update status for all linked appointments - When a customer arrives or completes, update all linked appointments for consistency
Review the timeline before saving - The service timeline preview in the Date & Time card shows exactly when each service will start, end, and any processing gap in between — verify it makes sense before clicking Save
Book processing time realistically - Consider that customers might take breaks, so allow slightly more time than the minimum

Frequently Asked Questions

Can linked appointments have different staff members?

Yes. When creating a multi-service booking, you can assign different staff to different services. This is useful when specialists handle certain treatments.

What if the customer only wants some of the services?

You can cancel individual appointments from a linked group. However, consider whether the remaining services still make sense (e.g., a blow dry without the preceding colour might be unnecessary).

Can I add another service to an existing linked group?

Yes. Create the new appointment in the usual way. If the customer already has same-day appointments — with any stylist — the Group with another appointment dialog will appear automatically after you save, letting you fold the new appointment into the existing group in one click. You can also retrospectively group at any time by opening one of the appointments and using the Group button (see Step 9).

How does billing work for linked appointments?

Each appointment in a linked group can be billed separately or together. When you create a transaction, you can select which appointments to include. The system tracks billing status (unbilled, billed, partial) for each appointment individually.

Can I see all linked appointments in reports?

Reports show appointments individually. The booking group ID isn't displayed in standard reports, but you can see the same customer with multiple sequential appointments.

Is there a limit to how many services can be linked?

There's no hard limit, but practical considerations apply. Very long booking groups (5+ services) can become unwieldy. Consider whether services truly need to be linked or can be separate bookings.

Last Updated: May 2026