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Booking Status Overview

This guide applies to:

  • Basic Edition
  • Plus Edition
  • Pro Edition
  • Business Edition

Introduction

The Simply Schedule Appointment bookings can take on a series of five different statuses, each obtained through different booking scenarios. In this guide, we’ll be breaking them down and explaining how the appointments take on each status with a booking status overview.

Potential status for an appointment:

  • Booked
  • Canceled
  • Abandoned
  • Pending Payment
  • Pending Form Submission

Booking Status Overview

The appointments can achieve different statuses depending on where the user is booking and whether they’re accepting payments.

Infographic depicting booking status flow for handling normal bookings, forms with payments, and using the form builder integration.
Booking Status Flow for various setups

Filter By Booking Status

The SSA Appointments Tab has a way to filter the bookings by Booking Status. Open the Filter options > use the Booking Status dropdown.

Appointment tab filters that affect Visible Appointments - using the booking status dropdown
Using the Booking Status dropdown to filter through bookings.

Modifying Appointment Statuses

Within the Appointment Details page, you can modify the booking status directly to your preferred status. A Booked appointment can only be marked as Canceled, whereas a Canceled appointment can only be marked as Booked.

Abandoned appointments can only be marked as Booked.

In summary:

  • Booked -> Canceled
  • Canceled -> Booked
  • Abandoned -> Booked

Learn more about changing booking statuses.

Change the status of the booking.

Pending Bookings

The Pending Payment and Pending Form Submission statuses come with a few extra options and are displayed differently in the Appointments tab.

Bookings with the Pending Payment status can be marked as Booked or Abandoned. In the same vein, a booking with the Pending Form status can be marked as Abandoned.

In summary:

  • Pending -> Booked
  • Pending -> Abandoned
  • Abandoned -> Booked

Visit our guide on how to manage Pending Bookings.

Screenshot of the SSA Appointments Tab displaying the special Pending Form Submission and Pending Payment format for the appointment listing.

Appointments Made Through the Default SSA Booking Calendars

If a booking is made through the default SSA booking calendars with no payment options, the appointments either are Booked or don’t get recorded in SSA.

SSA does not keep a record of appointments if the user doesn’t complete the booking process.

Once the user sees the confirmation screen in the booking form, SSA will mark the appointment as Booked.

In addition, an admin can modify the appointment from the dashboard and change it to a Canceled status.

Infographic using the Default Booking Calendars
SSA Booking Status Diagram using the Default Booking Calendars

Default SSA Booking Calendars Collecting Payments

This is where it gets tricky – a booking made through our default payment booking calendars can either be Booked, Pending Payment, or Abandoned.

If the user leaves the booking form before SSA collects the payment with Stripe or PayPal redirects them to the checkout page, the appointment is recorded as soon as the payment modal is opened.

If you’re interested in modifying the pending payment duration, please take a look at our guide that goes over how to do this.

Stripe

When a user decides to pay through Stripe, as soon as the modal is opened, the status of the appointment will be marked as Pending Payment. If the payment fails, SSA will inform the user immediately and ask them to retry entering their payment information.

SSA will start a timer, and the appointment will be marked as Abandoned if the plugin doesn’t hear back from Stripe within the pending duration.

When SCA is being used, the appointment status will remain in Pending Payment until authentication is complete. If this fails, the payment will be marked as Abandoned.

If the payment succeeds, the appointment will then be marked as Booked.

If a user opens the Stripe modal screen but abandons it, the appointment is still marked as a Pending Payment throughout the pending duration.

PayPal

When a user pays through PayPal, SSA does not immediately know if the payment is successful because PayPal redirects the user to the Checkout Page. Every appointment that uses PayPal Checkout is initially marked as Pending Payment.

While SSA is waiting to hear back from PayPal, SSA will start a timer. The appointment is marked as Abandoned if the plugin doesn’t hear back from PayPal during the pending duration.

But, if PayPal lets SSA know the payment is complete and it was successful, SSA will mark the appointment as Booked.

If a user opens the PayPal Checkout screen but abandons it, the appointment is still marked as a Pending Payment throughout the pending duration.

Infographic depicting a Booking with the payments feature establishing a pending payment status until it receives a message from Stripe or PayPal and is successfully marked as book. If it fails authentication or has not submitted payment, it will be marked as abandoned.
SSA Booking Status Diagram using the Payment Feature with Stripe or PayPal

Form Integrations

This applies to our Formidable Form and Gravity Form integrations. A booking made through these integrations can either be Booked, Pending Form Submission, or Abandoned.

When a time slot is selected in a booking form created through Formidable Forms or Gravity Forms, an appointment is immediately recorded. And, it will be marked as Pending Form Submission.

SSA will give the user the default 60 minutes to fill out their form. If SSA does not get any feedback from Formidable Forms or Gravity Forms, SSA finally marks this appointment as Abandoned.

If the form submission happens within the pending period, then the appointment will be marked as Booked.

We have a guide to show you how to adjust the default pending duration for the Form Integrations. This will also go over the reasoning behind this functionality.

Infographic depicting the flow of booking when it comes to form integrations.
SSA Booking Status Diagram using the Form Integrations

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