Booking a time-based practitioner

Step by step

1. 1

   Tap Book Now and pass the prerequisite gate

   There are two ways to open the booking form for a time-based practitioner:

   • Book Now on the practitioner's profile. The button sits in the action row near the top of their profile and is the primary entry point. You can reach the profile from the Map (tap the pin → tap the practitioner card on the venue sheet → tap their name), from search, from a feed post, or from anywhere their username is linked.
   • + menu inside an existing conversation with the practitioner. Tap the + button next to the message input → Booking Request. This opens the same form, pre-bound to the practitioner you're chatting with.

   Before the form actually opens, two checks run.

   First, the age check runs against the practitioner's policies (if they've set them). If you're younger than the practitioner's stated minimum, you'll see a blocking alert telling you so. If the practitioner accepts minors with parental consent and you're old enough to qualify, you'll see a "Parental Consent Required" notice and a Continue button to proceed anyway.

   Second, the prerequisite check runs against the practitioner's own setup. The form only opens if their Services & Pricing, Availability & Schedule, and Policies & Legal info cards are all in place and their booking calendar isn't temporarily closed. If any piece is missing, the form doesn't open — instead you see an explainer and a Notify Practitioner button. Tapping it records a booking interest card on both sides; the practitioner gets a heads-up that you wanted to book before they were ready, and the conversation can pick up later. If their calendar is temporarily closed specifically (rather than incomplete), you'll see a different explainer and the right move is to message them.

   The same gate runs whether you opened the form from Book Now or from the + menu, with one exception in the conversation path: if the practitioner hasn't subscribed to the Booking module at all, the + path doesn't create an interest card — it shows an alert telling you bookings aren't available right now. The interest-card path in that specific case only opens from Book Now on the profile.

2. 2

   Pick the service you want

   The form opens on a short introduction screen, then the Services step. Pick what you want from the practitioner's menu. For piercers the services are grouped by category (new piercing, universal services, other); for permanent makeup the grouping is by body area (eyebrows, lips, face, other); for laser the menu is flat.

   Each service has three pieces of info that drive the rest of the booking:

   • Price — what you'll pay the practitioner (the booking shows the total of every service you pick).
   • Duration — how long the slot needs to be. The agenda step in the next screen calculates available slots from this duration plus the practitioner's working hours and any break-between-clients buffer they've set.
   • Deposit (optional, per service) — if the practitioner asks for a deposit on this service, the amount is shown on the service card and added to the booking. Deposits are sticky to the service, not the booking — picking two services with deposits adds them both.

   You can pick more than one service. The total duration and total deposit update as you go. There's no validation against picking a combination that won't fit anywhere on the agenda — the slot calculator just won't show you any slots later if it can't fit.

3. 3

   Pick a date and a time slot

   The Agenda screen shows a month-by-month calendar of the practitioner's availability. The form starts you on the first month that has at least one bookable date — useful when their booking window pushes the earliest slot weeks out.

   Days the practitioner doesn't work, days outside their booking window, days fully booked, and days they've explicitly marked unavailable (vacations, conferences) all render greyed out. Tap a greyed date and a small alert tells you why it isn't available. Tap a bookable date and the time slots list below the calendar fills with the slots that fit your chosen service duration on that day.

   The slot list reflects everything the practitioner has set up:

   • The slots come from their weekly hours (and any lunch break) on their availability card, narrowed by their booking window (how far in advance and how close to the date they accept new bookings) and the slot calculation mode they picked (fixed-duration slots vs. dynamic slots that match your service duration exactly).
   • Slots already taken by other confirmed bookings are removed automatically. The practitioner's own off-platform commitments from their calendar (interview slots, events they're attending) are also blocked.
   • The break between clients the practitioner has configured shows up as gaps between slots — you'll see slots like 10:00, 10:30, 11:15 instead of a perfectly continuous strip if they've set a 15-minute buffer.

   Tap a slot to lock your selection. The form remembers it; if you go back to change the service or the date, your slot picks update accordingly.

4. 4

   Add references, notes, and read the practitioner's policies

   The next two or three screens are short:

   • Reference Images — only shown if you're booking a laser practitioner or a permanent makeup practitioner. Add photos of the tattoo to remove or the area you want PMU work on. Optional, but useful for the practitioner — it lets them confirm the brief before your appointment.
   • Additional Notes — a free-text field for anything the practitioner should know before you arrive: piercing jewellery preferences, allergies, prior sessions elsewhere, anything else. This screen is optional for time-based bookings and you can submit a blank one.
   • Policies & Legal — only shown if the practitioner has set up policies. You'll see expandable cards for age requirements, deposit refund rules, cancellation policy, aftercare expectations, and anything else they've added. Read them; agreement is a checkbox at the bottom and you can't submit without ticking it.

   The deposit refund rules in particular are worth reading before you submit, because they're snapshotted onto your booking at the moment you submit and apply for the rest of the booking's life — even if the practitioner changes their policies on their profile later.

5. 5

   Review and submit, or save as a draft

   The final screen lays out everything you picked: the service(s), the date, the slot, the total price and deposit, your notes and references, your policy agreement. Two buttons:

   • Save Draft — keeps everything editable and exits the form. Drafts live on your Bookings page under Requests → Draft; tap one to resume from where you left off. Drafts don't notify the practitioner and aren't reserved on their calendar.
   • Submit — sends the booking.

   When you submit, the booking is recorded against the practitioner and the practitioner gets a push notification. What status the booking lands in depends on whether you owe a deposit:

   • No deposit on any of the services — the booking is confirmed the moment you submit. The slot is locked on the practitioner's calendar instantly, no manual approval required.
   • Deposit on at least one service — the booking lands as pending. The slot is held for you, but it isn't fully locked until the deposit clears.

   The next screen is where the deposit story plays out.

6. 6

   Pay the deposit if there is one, and find your booking afterwards

   After you submit, you land on a success screen. Two shapes depending on whether you owe a deposit:

   • No deposit — the screen reads "Request Sent!" with a confirmation that the practitioner will receive your appointment, and a Done button. The booking is already confirmed; nothing else is required from you.
   • Deposit required — the screen still reads "Request Sent!" but it now shows the deposit amount and a Pay Deposit Now button on top of the Later button. Pay Deposit Now routes you to the booking detail page, where you trigger the payment flow.

   There are two payment paths from the booking detail page, depending on what the practitioner has set up:

   • Stripe Payment Sheet — if the practitioner has connected Stripe and accepts deposits via card, tapping Pay Deposit opens Apple Pay / Google Pay / saved cards / new card. When the payment succeeds, the deposit is auto-confirmed by InkMap's webhook and the booking flips from pending to confirmed within seconds. You don't need to do anything else.
   • Manual deposit — if the practitioner takes deposits in cash, by bank transfer, by Revolut, or any other off-platform method, the booking detail page shows you which methods they accept. The actual how — which method to use, what details to send to, what reference to use — is something you and the practitioner agree on directly through a DM on the booking; InkMap doesn't relay payment instructions for you. Once you've paid them outside the app, come back and tap I've paid outside the app. The practitioner gets a push notification that you've paid; once they tap Confirm Receipt on their side, the booking auto-confirms.

   You can find the booking afterwards on your Bookings page under Requests. Pending bookings (waiting for a deposit, yours or theirs) sit in the Pending sub-tab; once the booking is confirmed, it moves to the Confirmed sub-tab and the slot also shows up on the Calendar sub-tab on the same page. Tapping the booking from any of those views opens the same booking detail page, which is also where the conversation with the practitioner is wired up — every booking gets its own thread.

   If you closed the success screen and need to come back to pay the deposit, tap the booking from Requests → Pending and the Pay Deposit button is there.

Frequently asked questions

I tapped **Book Now** and the screen says **Notify Practitioner** instead of opening the form. What happened?

The practitioner's setup isn't ready for live bookings — usually one of their Services & Pricing, Availability & Schedule, or Policies & Legal info cards is missing, or they haven't subscribed to the Booking module yet. Tapping Notify Practitioner records an interest card on both sides so the practitioner knows you wanted to book and can come back to you when they're ready. Nothing is reserved on a calendar; it's a heads-up, not a real booking.

I picked a date but no time slots show up under the calendar. Why?

A few things can produce that: every slot is already booked by other clients, the day is too soon (the practitioner has set a minimum-hours-in-advance window), the day is too far out (their maximum-days-in-advance window cuts off later dates), or the service you picked is too long to fit any of that day's working windows after the break-between-clients buffer is applied. Try a different day, or pick a shorter service if you have a multi-service basket.

How do I pay a manual deposit (cash, bank transfer, Revolut)?

Open the booking from Requests → Pending on your Bookings page → tap the booking. The deposit section shows which methods the practitioner accepts. Use the booking's DM thread to ask the practitioner where exactly to send the money (account number, Revolut handle, in-person handover, etc.) — the platform doesn't relay those details for you. Pay them outside the app, come back to that same page, and tap I've paid outside the app. The practitioner gets a notification, confirms the deposit on their side, and the booking auto-confirms. The Pay button on the success screen takes you to the same place if you tap it right after submitting.

Can I save the form and come back later?

Yes — the Save Draft button on the final review screen keeps everything editable and exits the form. Drafts live on your Bookings page under Requests → Draft; tap one to resume from where you left off. Saving a draft does not notify the practitioner and does not reserve the slot on their calendar — only submitting does.

Where does my booking land after I submit?

It depends on whether a deposit is owed. With no deposit, the booking is **confirmed** immediately and lands under Requests → Confirmed on your Bookings page. With a deposit, it lands under Requests → Pending until the deposit clears (Stripe instantly via webhook, manual after the practitioner confirms receipt). Confirmed bookings also appear on the Calendar sub-tab on the same page. Tapping the booking from any of those views opens the booking detail page, where the conversation with the practitioner is also pinned.

I'm under the practitioner's minimum age. What happens?

If the practitioner has set a minimum age and you're below it, the Book Now button shows a blocking alert before the form even opens. If they've also said they accept minors with parental consent and you're old enough to qualify under that, you'll see a Parental Consent Required notice and a Continue button — tap Continue to proceed; you'll need parental consent in person at the appointment. If you're below their parental-consent age too, the alert blocks the booking entirely and there's no way to push past it on the app side.