Settings is the fourth and final section of the Online Booking settings page. Its subtitle reads "Set up and manage your online booking settings." Despite the generic name, this section is really about availability — the rules that control when clients can book.
There's a single sub-header called Booking Settings, and inside that, a sub-sub-header called Availability with three dropdowns.
In Teddy, go to Settings → Online Booking (/settings/online-booking) and scroll to the fourth collapsible section: Settings. Expand it.
This is the minimum lead time between when a client submits a booking and when the appointment can be. Options:
Same Day — clients can book for today (any remaining open slot today)
Next Day — earliest booking is tomorrow
2 Days Out — earliest is the day after tomorrow
3 Days Out — earliest is three days from today
5 Days Out — earliest is five days from today
Why this matters: a client who lives near you and wants to book "right now" will be frustrated by a 5-day lead time. But if you're a busy shop where every walk-in disrupts the schedule, same-day booking can be chaos. Pick based on how much buffer you actually need.
Common choices:
Busy, established shops: 2 Days Out or 3 Days Out
New shops trying to fill the calendar: Same Day or Next Day
Mobile grooming / solo groomers: 3 Days Out (you need time to plan the route)
This is the maximum lead time — how far into the future clients can book. Options:
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
Shorter windows force clients to book at the last minute (which is bad for planning). Longer windows let loyal clients lock in their slots far in advance (which is great) but also mean your calendar gets crowded with bookings you'll have to reschedule if something changes.
Common choices:
2 Months or 3 Months — the sweet spot for most grooming shops. Long enough to accommodate the "I always come every 4 weeks" clients, short enough to keep the far-future calendar clean.
1 Month — if your business model is "first come, first served" and you don't want long-horizon commitments.
6 Months or 1 Year — if you serve a client base that plans way ahead (e.g., VIP clients with recurring schedules).
This is how time slots are sliced on the public booking portal. Options:
10 Minutes
15 Minutes
20 Minutes
30 Minutes
60 Minutes
A shorter interval means clients see more specific time options (e.g., 9:00, 9:10, 9:20…). A longer interval means fewer, coarser options (e.g., 9:00, 10:00).
How to pick:
30 Minutes is the default most shops should use. It's coarse enough to look clean on the portal but fine enough to accommodate most clients.
15 Minutes works if your services have variable durations and you want tighter scheduling.
60 Minutes works if you only book by the hour (e.g., hour-long grooming slots only) and want to keep the portal dead simple.
10 or 20 Minutes — niche; use only if you have specific reasons.
Important: the slot interval is a display choice, not a booking constraint. The actual time a service takes is determined by the service's duration (set in Service settings). A 60-minute service booked at a 15-minute slot interval will still block 60 minutes on the staff's calendar — it just shows more granular starting-time options to the client.
Availability isn't just these three dropdowns. It's the whole web of rules Teddy uses to decide which slots are actually bookable:
Business Hours from Business settings set the outer window — clients can only book within your open hours.
Shift Management from Staff settings narrows it further — a slot is only bookable if at least one staff member is scheduled to work.
Existing appointments on the Calendar subtract the staff's already-booked time.
How soon trims the earliest time.
How far trims the latest time.
Slot interval slices the remaining time into client-facing options.
A slot has to pass all six checks to show up as bookable on the public portal. If a client says "I can't find any times next week," one of those six things is almost always the cause.
If clients report they can't find any times, walk through this checklist in order:
Is a staff member scheduled for that day? Check Shift Management. Missing shifts is the #1 cause.
Is your business open that day? Check Business Hours. A day marked "Not open this day" hides every slot.
Does "How soon" exclude the day? If it's set to "3 Days Out" and the client wants tomorrow, there won't be any slots.
Does "How far" exclude the day? If it's set to "1 Month" and the client wants 45 days out, they can't see it.
Are existing appointments filling the staff's calendar? Open the Calendar view for that day and see if there's visible empty time.
Is pet matching hiding all services? If no service matches the client's pet, the flow gets stuck before reaching slot selection. See Services and Addons.
There's a save button somewhere in this section — changes don't autosave. After adjusting any of the three dropdowns, hit save to persist.
Tip: The single most useful setting to tune after launching online booking is "How soon." Start more permissive (Same Day or Next Day) to drive early bookings; once your calendar is full enough that you're getting too many last-minute requests, tighten it to 2 or 3 Days Out. Don't over-engineer this on day one.
