Go live in one evening

This is Mountify’s big promise: a working booking page in one evening, without a developer and without a second system on the side. Realistically it’s six steps and about 30–40 minutes, once you’ve decided which services you offer.

Important right from the start: a new board is public from the moment it’s created — the Online booking switch is on by default. If you don’t want clients finding it while you tidy it up, turn it off now (step 5 shows where) and turn it back on when you’re ready.

What you need: a created board (see The setup wizard), a list of 2–5 services with durations and prices, and your opening hours.

1. Set your working hours

Navigation: Setup → Working hours.

The page is titled Working hours. At the top is a mode toggle with two options: Business hours (the venue’s hours) and Staff schedule (each person’s own hours). Stay on Business hours.

Under it are two tabs: Weekly hours and Holidays.

1. If you have more than one location, a location row sits at the top. The hours you edit belong to the selected location — this page always writes to a location, never to an abstract “board”. With one location (the normal case after the wizard) there’s nothing to pick.
2. Each day is a bar. Drag the edges to change start and end; drag the middle to move the whole block. There are also exact From and To fields.
3. The switch beside a day makes it Open or closed.
4. Above the grid there are two quick actions:
   • Copy Monday to all — Monday’s hours replace every other day;
   • Apply 9–18, Mon–Sat — the whole week becomes 9–18, Sunday closed. Both ask for confirmation (“Overwrite the whole week?” → Overwrite) and save immediately.
5. Lunch break: Add a break on the day, then a start and an end.

The break rules, so you’re not left wondering why one won’t save:

Rule	The message you’ll see
Up to 7 breaks per day	Up to 7 breaks per day
Minimum 15 minutes	Min 15 min
They can’t overlap	Overlaps another break
They must sit inside working hours	Outside working hours

If you see “Add a location first — working hours live on each branch.”, the board has no location at all. Create one from Catalog → Locations and come back.

Holidays are on the other tab. A country’s public holidays are shown but do NOT close the salon automatically — if you don’t work that day, you have to close it yourself. See Closures and holidays.

2. Add at least one resource

A resource is whoever or whatever gets reserved: a master, a chair, a room, a court, a piece of equipment. With no active resource, nothing can be booked.

Navigation: Catalog → under the TEAM & RESOURCES group, pick your kind (for example Masters).

1. Press Add at the top right (for example Add masters). There’s an Import option too, for a list from a file.
2. Type a name. The colour is assigned automatically and default hours follow the venue.
3. Check the Available for booking switch. Only active resources take bookings.

The chip at the top — “3 / 15 spots”, say — is your plan’s limit, not the kind’s capacity. It counts active bookable resources across the whole workspace. Hit the limit and the activation switch is blocked with an explanation: “You’ve reached your plan’s bookable-spots limit. Deactivate another resource or upgrade your plan to activate this one.” See Your plan’s bookable-spots limit.

If a service requires two kinds (a master and a chair, say), you need at least one active resource of each.

3. Add one or two services

Navigation: Catalog → Offerings.

The button at the top right carries the word for a service in your trade — Service by default, but a tattoo studio says Session, a clinic may say Treatment. That’s normal, and it comes from the board’s preset.

For each service, set the minimum:

Field	Why it matters
Name	This is what the client sees
Duration	Sets the slot length on the schedule
Price	Shown to the client; without it no deposit can be taken
Resources & add-ons	Which resource kinds are needed — this decides whether the service is bookable at all

Two or three services are enough to start. Everything else — groups, photos, deposits, discounts — is for later. In detail: Create a service.

If a warning appears beside a service saying it can’t be booked, the cause is nearly always step 2: it requires a resource kind with no active resource.

4. Verify there really are free times

Don’t skip this — it saves the nastiest scenario: a published page where the client sees “no free times”.

1. Open Home (the board’s landing page).
2. Look at the Needs attention card. If it says a service can’t be booked, press Fix or See why — Mountify names the exact cause, so don’t guess.
3. When it’s clean it reads: “Everything is fine — nothing needs your attention.”

If something doesn’t add up, open Find out why a service shows no free times — the eight possible causes are listed there in plain language.

5. Style the page and publish it

Navigation: Setup → Public site. The page is titled Booking page.

There is no Save button here. Under the title it says: “Changes save and go live on your booking page automatically.” Text fields commit when you leave them. If you close the tab mid-typing, the browser warns you.

The first thing on the page is a large block with an Online booking switch:

• On: “Your booking page is live — customers can find you and book.”
• Off: “Your booking page is hidden — customers can’t book online yet.”

This is the only live/hidden switch. There’s no separate status to flip anywhere else.

Then, top to bottom:

1. Page address — shows the full link and offers Copy link. Under it is the Address (the last part of the link) field.
2. Identity — Logo (square, PNG/JPEG/WEBP up to 5 MB), Name and About (one line).
3. What’s the mood of your site? — ready-made moods in two groups, Light moods and Dark moods, plus Theme (Light/Dark) and Brand colour.
4. More optional sections — photos, hero, socials, reviews, fine-tuning.

A Live preview runs on the right. On a small screen you open it with the Preview button. The Open page button at the top opens it in a new tab — exactly as a client sees it.

The address rules

Rule	The error message
Lowercase letters, digits and hyphens only; 3–40 characters; no leading or trailing hyphen	”Lowercase letters, digits and hyphens only (3–40 chars, no leading or trailing hyphen).”
The address must be free	”That address is already taken — try another.”

Changing the address breaks the old link. The hint says exactly that: “Changing it changes the link — the old one stops working.” Pick your address once, before you spread it around. And to be clear: there is no custom domain — you can’t point www.your-salon.com at it.

6. Test booking and sharing

1. Open the public page (Open page, or the Booking page button on Home).
2. Book yourself as a client — with your real email. That tests the whole path: free times, form, confirmation.
3. Find the booking in the Schedule, then cancel it so it doesn’t pollute your stats.

Only bookings made on the public page send email. If you test by typing a slot into the admin, you’ll receive nothing — and that isn’t a bug. See Confirmations and reminders.

How to spread the link:

• Copy link from Page address → Instagram bio, Google listing, email signature.
• QR code — on Home, next to the Booking page button. Print it for the window and the till.
• On your own website — Setup → Public site, the Embed tab. See Embed on your site.

The helper at the bottom right

Until the board is ready, a small checklist pill hangs at the bottom right. It lists exactly these steps: Add your services, Set your prices, Add your team & resources, Set working hours, Make your public page yours, Go live, and optionally Create packages and Set up loyalty. Each row has a hint and a button that takes you to the right place.

The pill disappears by itself once everything required is done. It can’t be dismissed for good — it collapses so it stays out of the way.

What you do NOT need for a first booking

Don’t take these on tonight:

• online payments and deposits — it all works without them; the client pays on site;
• loyalty, promo codes, banners;
• packages and memberships;
• a second location;
• team invitations — you can be on your own at first;
• embedding on your own site.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
The public page is empty / “no free times”	No active resource of the kind the service requires, or no working hours for that day. Check Needs attention on Home.
I see slots in the admin but the client doesn’t	The classic case. Several causes are possible (inactive resource, a service with no location, specializations, time off). Work through Find out why a service shows no free times.
The board says Not bookable	Online booking is on, but nothing is bookable. See steps 2 and 3.
The Available for booking switch won’t turn on	You’ve hit your plan’s spots limit. Deactivate another resource or buy a spot.
”That address is already taken”	Pick a different page address.
I can’t change the working hours	There’s no location. Create one from Catalog → Locations.
The client booked but got no email	Check they entered an email and that the booking came through the public page. Manual bookings send nothing.

Common questions

Will clients find me on Google right away? Don’t count on it on the first evening. Spread the link yourself — Instagram, your Google listing, a QR code in the window.

Can I go live for just a few known clients first? Yes. Simply don’t spread the link. The page is only reachable at that address.

Do I need Stripe to take bookings? No. Online payment is an extra. Without it the client pays on site and you record the money under Money.

Can I add services later? Of course. Add the minimum tonight and fill in as you go.

If I turn “Online booking” off, do I lose bookings? No. Existing bookings stay; the page just stops taking new ones.

What’s next

• Trial & going live — what you get for 14 days.
• Connect Stripe — when you’re ready for deposits.
• Invite your team — when you’re not on your own.
• The calendar — the daily work after that first booking.