Booking Rules & Settings
Overview
Booking Rules is where you configure the ground rules for how your garage handles bookings. These settings control everything from whether customers can book same-day appointments, to how many bookings your garage accepts per day, to which vehicle types you service.
Think of this page as your booking policy headquarters -- the decisions you make here shape the booking experience for both your team and your customers across all channels (online widget, manual bookings, and walk-ins).
Why it matters:
- Controls whether new bookings require manual review or are confirmed automatically
- Prevents overbooking by setting a daily capacity limit
- Defines which vehicle types your garage accepts
- Configures which booking status changes trigger email notifications to customers
- Helps you tailor the booking workflow to match how your garage actually operates
How to Access
- Log in to your autoGMS dashboard.
- From the sidebar, select the garage you want to manage.
- Click Bookings in the sidebar navigation to open the Bookings page.
- Click the Settings button (the gear icon) in the page header.
You will land on the Booking Settings page, which is divided into two sections: Booking Settings and Email Notification Settings. Each section has its own Save button, so you can update one without affecting the other.
Good to know: You can also navigate directly to this page by going to
/dashboard/garages/{your-garage-id}/bookings/settingsin your browser's address bar.
Booking Settings
The first section on the page is the Booking Settings card. This is where you define the core rules that govern how bookings are created and managed in your garage.
Same-Day Bookings
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Allow Same-Day Bookings | Toggle (on/off) | Off |
When enabled, customers can book appointments for the current day. When disabled, the earliest available date shown to customers will be tomorrow.
This applies to bookings made through the online booking widget and the booking portal. If your garage can accommodate walk-ins and last-minute requests, turn this on. If you need advance notice to prepare for every job, leave it off.
Good to know: Even with same-day bookings turned off, your team can still manually create bookings for today from the dashboard. This setting only affects customer-facing booking channels.
Auto-Confirm Bookings
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-Confirm Bookings | Toggle (on/off) | Off |
By default, every new booking arrives with a Pending status and waits for your team to review and confirm it. When you enable auto-confirm, new bookings skip the Pending stage and are immediately set to Confirmed.
This is useful for garages that want to reduce response time and minimize manual work. However, if you prefer to review every booking before committing to it, leave this off.
Auto-Confirm Sub-Settings
When auto-confirm is enabled, two additional options appear:
| Sub-Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Restrict to Business Hours | Only auto-confirms bookings that are submitted during your garage's operating hours. Bookings submitted outside of business hours will remain Pending for manual review. |
| Local Customers Only | Only auto-confirms bookings from returning customers who have previously booked with your garage. New customers will still go through the Pending stage for manual review. |
You can enable one, both, or neither of these sub-settings. When both are enabled, a booking must satisfy both conditions to be auto-confirmed -- it must be submitted during business hours and by a returning customer.
Good to know: Auto-confirm works across all booking channels. Whether a customer books through your online widget, your booking page, or a receptionist creates the booking manually, the same rules apply.
Daily Booking Limit
| Setting | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Booking Limit | Toggle + number input | Off (10 when first enabled) |
When enabled, this setting caps the number of bookings your garage accepts per day. Once the limit is reached, new bookings are blocked across all channels for that day.
How to set it up:
- Toggle the Daily Booking Limit switch to on.
- A number input appears. Enter your desired maximum (between 1 and 999).
- Click Save Changes.
The default value when you first enable this setting is 10 bookings per day. Adjust it to match your garage's actual capacity based on the number of bays, technicians, and average job duration.
Good to know: The daily booking limit is reflected in the Calendar View on your Bookings page. Each day shows a capacity indicator (for example, "5/10") so your team can see at a glance how much room is left. Days at full capacity are highlighted to prevent overbooking.
Fleet Mode
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Fleet Mode | Toggle (on/off) | Off |
Fleet Mode extends the vehicle types available in your garage beyond the standard options. When enabled, three additional vehicle types become available: Bus, Van, and Motorcycle.
This is designed for garages that service fleet customers with service plans -- businesses that operate delivery vans, shuttle buses, courier motorcycles, and other commercial vehicles.
Good to know: Enabling Fleet Mode does not automatically add these vehicle types to your accepted list. You still need to check them in the Supported Vehicle Types section below.
Supported Vehicle Types
This section displays a grid of checkboxes for every vehicle type your garage can service.
Standard vehicle types:
- Sedan
- SUV
- Truck
- Sports
- Other
Fleet vehicle types (only visible when Fleet Mode is enabled):
- Bus
- Van
- Motorcycle
Check the types you service and uncheck the ones you do not. Only checked vehicle types will be available for customers to select when making a booking.
If you leave all types unchecked, your garage will accept all vehicle types. This is the default behavior and works well for general-service garages.
Good to know: If you select only one vehicle type, the vehicle selection step will be skipped entirely in the booking form. The system assumes all bookings are for that single type, which speeds up the booking process. This can be useful for specialist garages that only work on one category of vehicle.
Project Mode
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Project Mode | Toggle (on/off) | Off |
Project Mode transforms bookings into multi-stage projects. When enabled at the garage level, individual bookings can be switched into project mode, allowing you to break work into stages, invoice per stage, and track progress through a structured lifecycle.
What Project Mode Enables
- Job Stages -- Each booking can have multiple stages (e.g., "Disassembly", "Bodywork", "Paint", "Reassembly").
- Stage Lifecycle -- Each stage has its own status flow: Draft → Open → In Progress → Completed → Invoiced → Closed.
- Stage Invoicing -- Generate a separate invoice for each stage, so you can bill as work progresses rather than waiting until the entire job is done.
- External Services -- Track outsourced vendor work linked to specific stages with cost and charge tracking.
- Deposits & Credit Notes -- Collect advance payments and manage credits through the Project Finance page.
How to Enable
- Toggle Project Mode to on in Booking Settings.
- Click Save Changes.
- On individual bookings, toggle the "Project Mode" switch in the booking detail header to activate project mode for that specific job.
Good to know: Enabling Project Mode at the garage level does not automatically convert existing bookings. Each booking must be individually switched to project mode. This lets you use project mode only for complex, multi-stage jobs while keeping simple service bookings lightweight. See Project Mode for the full guide.
Saving Your Booking Settings
After making changes to any of the settings above, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Booking Settings card. A success message confirms that your changes have been applied.
Your changes take effect immediately across all booking channels.
Email Notification Settings
The second section on the page is the Email Notification Settings card. This controls whether your garage sends email notifications to customers when their booking status changes.
Master Toggle
| Setting | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Email Notifications | Toggle (on/off) | Off |
This is the master switch for all booking-related email notifications. When turned off, no email notifications are sent for any booking status change. When turned on, you can configure exactly which status changes trigger an email.
Individual Status Notifications
When email notifications are enabled, a list of booking statuses appears. Each status has its own toggle:
| Status | What the customer is notified about |
|---|---|
| Created | A new booking has been created on their behalf |
| Confirmed | Their booking has been reviewed and confirmed by your team |
| In-Service | Work has started on their vehicle |
| Cancelled | Their booking has been cancelled |
| Completed | The service is finished and their vehicle is ready |
Toggle each status on or off depending on which updates you want your customers to receive. For example, you might want to notify customers when their booking is confirmed and completed, but skip the in-service notification.
Good to know: The "Created" notification is especially useful when combined with Auto-Confirm. If a customer books online and the booking is auto-confirmed, they will receive both the "Created" and "Confirmed" emails in quick succession. You may want to disable one of the two to avoid sending duplicate-feeling messages.
Saving Your Email Notification Settings
After configuring your notification preferences, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Email Notification Settings card. Your changes are saved independently from the Booking Settings card above.
Tips and Best Practices
-
Start with manual confirmation. If you are new to autoGMS, leave auto-confirm off until you are comfortable with the booking flow. Reviewing each booking manually helps you understand the process and catch any issues early.
-
Turn on auto-confirm once you are confident. When your service menu and pricing are dialed in and you are ready to move faster, enable auto-confirm to reduce the back-and-forth. Use the sub-settings to add guardrails -- restricting to business hours and returning customers is a safe middle ground.
-
Set a realistic daily limit. Think about how many jobs your team can actually handle in a day. A limit that is too high does not protect you from overbooking, and a limit that is too low turns away business. Start with your number of bays multiplied by two as a rough starting point, then adjust based on experience.
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Match your vehicle types to your services. If you only have pricing set up for sedans and SUVs, there is no point accepting truck or bus bookings. Keep your supported vehicle types aligned with the services and pricing you have configured.
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Enable Fleet Mode only if you need it. If your garage does not service buses, vans, or motorcycles, leave Fleet Mode off to keep the booking form simple for your customers.
-
Be selective with email notifications. Sending too many emails can annoy customers. At a minimum, enable notifications for Confirmed and Completed -- these are the two updates customers care about most. Add others as needed based on your customer feedback.
-
Review your settings periodically. As your garage grows -- more bays, more technicians, more services -- your booking rules should evolve too. Revisit this page when you make operational changes.
-
Coordinate with your operating hours. If you enable the "Restrict to Business Hours" sub-setting for auto-confirm, make sure your operating hours on the Garage Settings page are accurate. The system uses those hours to decide whether a booking qualifies for auto-confirmation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Booking Settings and Garage Settings?
Garage Settings covers your garage's identity, contact details, operating hours, team, and billing. Booking Settings specifically controls the rules around how bookings are created, confirmed, and limited. Think of Garage Settings as "who you are" and Booking Settings as "how you take bookings."
If I enable auto-confirm, can I still manually review bookings?
Yes. Auto-confirm changes the initial status of new bookings from Pending to Confirmed, but you can still view and manage every booking from your Bookings page. If you need to cancel or adjust an auto-confirmed booking, you can do so at any time before the job is completed.
What happens when the daily booking limit is reached?
New bookings are blocked for that day across all channels. Customers using the online booking widget or booking page will see that the day is fully booked and will be prompted to choose a different date. Your team will also see the day as full on the calendar.
Does the daily booking limit include cancelled bookings?
Cancelled bookings do not count toward the daily limit. If a booking is cancelled, that slot opens back up and a new booking can take its place.
I turned on Fleet Mode but I do not see the new vehicle types in my booking form.
Enabling Fleet Mode makes the fleet vehicle types (Bus, Van, Motorcycle) available in the Supported Vehicle Types grid on this page. You still need to check the ones you want to accept. After checking them and saving, they will appear in the booking form for customers.
Can I set different booking rules for different days of the week?
Not currently. The daily booking limit and other settings apply uniformly across all days. If your capacity varies by day, set the limit based on your busiest day and manage exceptions manually, or adjust the limit as needed before heavy or light days.
Do email notifications go to the customer's email address?
Yes. Notifications are sent to the email address on file for the customer associated with the booking. If a customer does not have an email address in their profile, no email is sent for that booking.
Will changing these settings affect existing bookings?
No. Changes to booking rules only apply to new bookings created after you save. Existing bookings keep their current status and are not retroactively auto-confirmed, limited, or modified.
I only service one vehicle type. Should I check just that one type?
You can, and it will streamline the booking process -- customers will skip the vehicle type selection step entirely. However, make sure your services and pricing are all configured for that single vehicle type, since every booking will default to it.
What does "Local Customers Only" mean exactly?
In the context of auto-confirm, "local customers" refers to returning customers -- people who have previously booked with your garage and already exist in your customer database. First-time customers will not be auto-confirmed; their bookings will remain Pending for your team to review.
Can I enable email notifications for some statuses and not others?
Yes. The master toggle enables the notification system as a whole, and then each individual status (Created, Confirmed, In-Service, Cancelled, Completed) has its own toggle. You have full control over which status changes trigger an email to the customer.
My garage supports Arabic. Does this page work in Arabic?
Yes. The Booking Settings page fully supports Arabic. When your dashboard language is set to Arabic, the interface switches to right-to-left layout and all labels, descriptions, and controls are displayed in Arabic.