Fine-tune your scheduler with settings that control booking limits, buffer time between appointments, required payments, automated reminders, and more. This guide covers each scheduler setting, where to find it, and how to configure it.
Scheduler settings overview
Scheduler settings are spread across two tabs in the scheduler builder. To open the builder, navigate to Events ➔ Scheduler Templates and select a template.
Inside the builder, you'll find two tabs: Basic and Advanced. Settings that shape how your booking page looks and what time slots clients see live in the Basic tab under the Booking Page card. Settings that control booking limits, forms, payment, reminders, emails, and redirects live in the Advanced tab across several cards: Limits, Form, Payment, Reminders, Invitation & Confirmation Emails, and Redirect to URL.
For general scheduler creation and availability setup, see Creating a scheduler template.
Booking page settings
The Booking Page card in the Basic tab controls how the public booking page looks and what time slots clients see. The settings below let you adjust the booking window, time slot intervals, calendar view, and welcome message.
Minimum notice
Minimum notice sets the earliest time before an appointment that a client can book. If you set minimum notice to 24 hours, any appointment time less than 24 hours away is blocked — even if you're otherwise available.
You can set minimum notice in hours, days, weeks, or months. The default is 1 hour.
Time slot increment
Time slot increment controls the interval between available appointment start times on the booking page. With a 30-minute increment and availability from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, clients see start times at 9:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, and so on.
The default increment is 15 minutes. You can set the increment in minutes or hours, up to a maximum of 720 minutes (12 hours).
Schedule display
Schedule display controls whether the client sees available dates one week at a time or as a monthly calendar. Select Week to show availability week by week, or Month to show a full monthly calendar view.
The default is week view.
Welcome banner
The Welcome banner is a text area for a message displayed at the top of the booking page. Use it to greet clients, set expectations, or provide any information you'd like them to see before they book.
The welcome banner does not display when your scheduler is embedded on a website. It only appears when clients view the scheduler via a direct link.
Limits
The Limits card in the Advanced tab controls booking density and how appointments appear on your calendar. Navigate to Events ➔ Scheduler Templates, select a template, and click the Advanced tab to find it.
The settings below cover how booked time blocks affect other schedulers, how to add buffer time around appointments, and how to cap the number of bookings.
Show booked events as
Show booked events as: determines whether appointments booked through this scheduler block or allow overlapping bookings on your other schedulers.
Busy (default): booked time slots are marked as unavailable and blocked from other schedulers.
Available: booked time slots remain open, so other schedulers can accept bookings at the same time.
Buffer time before event and buffer time after event
Buffer time before event and Buffer time after event add required gaps before and/or after each appointment. A 15-minute buffer after an event means no one can book another appointment within 15 minutes of that appointment ending.
Choose from preset options — 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes — or select Custom to enter a specific value. Both settings support minutes or hours, up to a maximum of 720 minutes (12 hours).
Max bookings per day
Max bookings per day limits the number of appointments that can be booked through this scheduler template on any given day. Leave the field blank or set it to 0 for unlimited bookings.
The daily booking limit only applies to the scheduler template it is set on. Other schedulers can still accept bookings on the same day.
Total max bookings
Total max bookings limits the total number of appointments that can ever be booked through this scheduler. Once the limit is reached, the scheduler stops accepting new bookings entirely. Leave the field blank or leave it set to 0 for unlimited bookings.
This setting is useful for limited promotions — for example, setting a total max of 10 for a free consultation offer.
Prevent clients from rescheduling
The Prevent clients from rescheduling toggle lets you control whether clients can reschedule an appointment after booking it. When the toggle is on, clients cannot reschedule. For full details on how rescheduling works and what clients see, see the dedicated article on preventing clients from rescheduling appointments.
Payment
The Payment card in the Advanced tab lets you require payment to confirm a booking. Clients must pay 100% of the scheduler invoice before their appointment is confirmed.
To configure payment:
In the Advanced tab, open the Payment card.
Enter a Price and an Item name (for example, "Consultation Fee").
To add more detail, click Detailed view to expand the line item and add quantity, tax, a description, and an income category.
Toggle Allow discounts on to let clients apply discount codes from your discount library during checkout.
Reminders
The Reminders card in the Advanced tab lets you set up automated email reminders sent to clients before a booked appointment. You can add as many reminders as you need.
To add a reminder:
In the Advanced tab, open the Reminders card.
Click Add a reminder (or Add reminder if reminders already exist).
Set a number and time unit — minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months before the appointment.
Select an email template to send at that time.
To remove a reminder, hover over it and click the trash icon.
Invitation and confirmation emails
The Invitation & Confirmation Emails card in the Advanced tab is where you configure the two emails tied to the booking process.
Invitation email: the template used when you send the scheduler link to a client. You can customize the subject and body directly from this card without changing the original template in your library.
Confirmation email: automatically sent to the client after they book an appointment. If no template is selected, Dubsado sends the default confirmation template. You can find and edit that template at Messages ➔ Default templates ➔ Appointment Confirmed.
The confirmation email cannot be turned off — it always sends after a booking is completed.
Form
The Form card in the Advanced tab lets you require clients to complete a form before their booking is finalized. For full details on form types, configuration, and how the form appears during the booking flow, see the article on adding a form to a scheduler.
Redirect to URL
The Redirect to URL card in the Advanced tab lets you send clients to an external page after they complete a booking — for example, a custom thank-you page.
To set a redirect, open the Redirect to URL card in the Advanced tab and enter the destination URL.
The redirect URL is for external pages only. To require a form during booking, use the Form card in the Advanced tab instead.
FAQ
How do buffer times work with back-to-back appointments?
Buffer times create mandatory gaps around appointments. A 15-minute buffer after an event blocks the 15 minutes following the appointment, so no one can book during that window. A buffer before an event blocks time before it starts. If both are set, clients see reduced availability between consecutive appointments.
Can I set different settings for different scheduler templates?
Yes. Every setting in this article is configured per scheduler template. You can have one scheduler with a 24-hour minimum notice and another with a 1-hour minimum notice, and they operate independently.
What happens if I set both a daily max and a total max?
Both limits apply. The scheduler stops accepting bookings on a given day when the daily limit is reached, and stops accepting bookings entirely once the total limit is reached — whichever comes first.
Does the welcome banner appear when the scheduler is embedded?
No. The welcome banner only displays when clients view the scheduler via a direct link. It does not appear when the scheduler is embedded on a website.
Can I require both a form and payment?
Yes. You can attach both a required form and a payment to any scheduler template. Clients must complete both to finalize the booking.
Where do I find the default confirmation email template?
Navigate to Messages ➔ Default templates and select Appointment Confirmed. You can edit this template to customize the default confirmation message sent after a booking.