Is there a way to create Appointment categories?

[BarbaraC]

Is there an option to create categories in Appointments? I have a rather long list of services and don't like that my clients have to scroll through everything to get to what they want. If not, is it a feature coming soon?

Thanks!

[#2]

So, there is a way to do this, but it requires embedding the list on your own website. 

In appointments, under online booking, website embed: 

"View Advanced Options" button

"Create New Widget for [your company name]"

Give this widget a name - location, day of the week, etc. Whatever will help you know what is in the list.

You can select what staff are able to be booked - so you could limit it per location

You can select which services are to be included

Save

Now you will see the widget in the "Saved Custom Widget" list.

Click view the online booking page will open displaying only the staff and services you selected. 

You can copy the link URL and either send it to clients, make a link on your business website, or embed the entire widget into your site. You can even embed several widget on the same page of your website to split up categories, dates/days, location, staff, etc, keeping all services on one page, just organized by categories. Or you can devote seperate pages to specific items/staff/etc. I created a google sites (in google drive) website to try this out. works beautifully with a google site. I haven't tried it with any other site yet.  It molds right into your webpage and keeps viewers on your site and not moving to the appointments page and missing all the other content on your website.

I hope this helps those that are really struggling with the need to have this all categorized and organized better. If you have any questions about what I've done here, please ask.

[#3]

I see how that would be super useful, especially when you have a wide range of services offered under one roof. We don't have that option right now but we'll announce any updates as soon as they're available. 

[bloomicures]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Service Library Reorganizing

I do like the new library but when we put our items in they are alphabetized on the back end and totally chaotic looking to the customer who is booking. Would like to to be able to reorganize them to make more sense. Thanks!

[Valentina]

Thanks for the positive feedback - we love hearing when changes are well-received 😊

When viewing your service items within your Service Library in your Dashboard, you'll see them displayed in alphabetical order. You can change the order in which they appear to your customers on your booking site by heading over to the Visibility & Display section of your Online Booking settings.

I moved your post here so you can take a peek at @Helen's Best Answer for the steps you'll want to take to edit the displayed order of your services!

[thebeautypixel]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Display service categories for customer

During my square appointments set up I noticed that it is not possible to see any categories in the online booking view for my customers. With offering over 30 services it is not user friendly for my customers to scroll through all of my services to find what they need. Square offers in the backend to categories items and services to find them faster. This is also needed for customers for a better online shopping experience. I'm aware that there is a workaround with building widgets and to embed them into my website by creating widgets for each category. This workaround does not let my clients book multiple services through out different categories though. I'm requesting a feature that offers category selection and booking multiple appointments with entering the credit card information only one time. Once this feature is integrated I can switch my online booking to square. Has this been worked on as a feature? I saw a post from 2016 where someone else has requested this?

[Valentina]

While we don't currently have any updates about this feature request, we'll be sure to update this thread as soon as we have any news to share, @thebeautypixel.

I've gone ahead and moved your post to the thread where we are tracking this request so that you can get a notification when the thread is updated. I also wanted to make sure that our Appointments team doesn't miss your post, as you've provided some great insight into why this feature would be beneficial for your business. I especially appreciate that you've explained why the widget workaround doesn't work for your business model - this is definitely helpful information.

[ELS123]

This request has been out here now since 2016. The Square customers have been begging for this feature. It is not hard to do as many other scheduling softwares offer it.

It is insulting that Square does not just admit they do not want to offer this service for whatever reason. 

[Joe]

Hi there, @ELS123 - thanks for taking the time to reach out to us here on the Seller Community. We appreciate you adding your voice here for this feature.

You are correct - this has been a longstanding Feature Request that our Appointment Teams have been diligently working towards. While I can sense your frustration, we that this would be highly beneficial for our Appointment based Sellers. 

We field thousands of feature requests each week here on the Seller Community, and bringing these features to fruition often takes an ample amount of time and effort from our engineers. We want to ensure that our releases are not just surface level products, but the best all-around resources to help you grow your business.

I've gone ahead and merged your post into an existing thread of Sellers who were also requesting this feature. As soon as we have some news to share, we will update everyone here on this thread.

Again, thank you for your patience - and hopefully we will have some good news for you soon.

[Drea245]

This has been a common question as far back as 2016!! I've never heard of any software updates taking this long. I have been with Square since 2017 and I've seen lot's of new updates that have been added in, and I just don't understand why this particular request seems to be taking so long. There are tons of beauty app's out there that have this feature available for their salon professionals. All I keep reading is the general " We will pass this information on..." "Yes, this is a popular request and when we have any updates we will notify.." Is this feature even being worked on?? Those of who are service based would appreciate an actual update on this feature, if it is actually being worked on... 

[Jasmineroman181]

square really needs to make it so that we can categorize different services that we do so that clients can book what they want without having to scroll through multiple services on one page!! I love Wix for this reason and I'm surprised they haven't done this yet. it's annoying

[sugarmamabyron]

Adding my vote to this basic feature request! 

In addition to needing categories for reporting and to consolidate a long list of services, I am having to use variations to consolidate the list, but when viewed on mobile, variation names are way too long for customers to see, because the price and duration take up the whole line. 

[Renewmespa]

My shop offers a LOT of different services. When clients book online all the services are listed in the order that I arranged them. However the list is STILL long. How do I allow my clients to choose from a category to view just THOSE services... instead of just scrolling all the way down from one service to the next. They are already categorized on the seller end, but why can't the clients see the categories?