School-level feature — managed within your school portal at
yourschool.deandesk.com.Video walkthrough
This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
How booking sessions work
- You create a Booking Session product — one provider, one set of weekly hours, a session length, and one or more one-time prices.
- A customer chooses a time at
yourschool.deandesk.com/bookings. DeanDesk shows only the times that fit the provider’s hours, buffers, notice period, daily limit, and existing calendar commitments. - The time is held for 15 minutes while the customer completes checkout. Nobody else can take that slot during the hold.
- Payment confirms the session. A confirmed session lands on the provider’s calendar, both sides receive an email, and the meeting link (for online sessions) is shared with the customer. Free sessions confirm as soon as checkout is completed.
- Staff manage the session — mark it completed after it takes place, or cancel it if plans change.
Create a booking session
1
Choose the product type
Go to Finance → Products & Donations, click Create Product, and choose Booking Session — “Sell scheduled sessions with staff, availability, and payment at checkout.” Click Next.
2
Enter the details
Give the session a Name customers will recognize (for example, “Math tutoring, 30 minutes”) and a short Description. Images, tags, and the other catalog fields work the same as for any product; see Products.
3
Set the session and availability
The Session & Availability step holds everything that controls when the session can be booked. The settings are described in the next section. At a minimum, choose a Session provider and keep at least one row of Weekly availability.This step also offers a Required Checkout Form, exactly like a program product. Attach a public, active form when you need an intake questionnaire or agreement before the session.
4
Set the price
Add one or more price rows. Booking sessions are sold one session at a time, so Price Type offers One-time and Free only — recurring billing is not available. Add several rows when you want options, for example a full-length session and a shorter free intro call; the customer picks one on the booking page.Click Create Product. The session appears in your products list and on the public Bookings page straight away.
Availability settings
How available times are calculated
For the day a customer picks, DeanDesk starts from the provider’s weekly hours in the schedule timezone and removes:- any slot shorter than the session plus its buffers,
- times already held or booked for that provider — across every booking product they appear on,
- busy times from the provider’s internal and Google calendars, when those checks are on,
- anything inside the minimum notice period or beyond the booking window,
- the rest of a day once the daily limit is reached, and
- days outside the Available from / Available until range.
If the provider’s Google Calendar cannot be reached, DeanDesk shows an error rather than offering times that might clash. The customer can try again in a moment.
The public Bookings page
Every school has a built-in Bookings page atyourschool.deandesk.com/bookings — “Book a session at Your School”. It lists every active booking product. Each card has a Choose a time button, and a My bookings button at the top takes signed-in customers to their own sessions. Booking products also appear in the main Products catalog with the same Choose a time button, unless you turn on Hide from public catalog on the product.
The page is also available as a Bookings item in the signed-in sidebar. Turn it on or off under Website → App Menus → Main Sidebar, and style the catalog with the Bookings page entry in Built-in page templates.
Booking a session
The session page is split into three steps:1
Choose your session
If the product has more than one price, the customer first picks a Session price. They then choose a Date, confirm Your timezone (DeanDesk pre-selects the browser’s zone), and click one of the available times. The price per session is shown beneath the times. Click Continue.
2
Your information
The chosen time is summarized at the top. The customer enters First name, Last name, Email, an optional Phone, and anything you should know before the session. Signed-in customers have their name and email filled in. Clicking Continue to checkout holds the time for 15 minutes.
3
Checkout
The cart shows the session, its date and time, and the deadline for completing checkout. Payment is taken immediately, like any other product; the DeanDesk online processing fee applies. If the hold expires before payment is completed, the customer is sent back to choose a new time.
- One session per checkout. The quantity is fixed at one, and the session is always for the person paying — it cannot be assigned to a child or another family member.
- Guests can book. A visitor without an account checks out as a guest, and DeanDesk creates their account along the way, as for any other purchase. The email entered on the booking page must match the email used at checkout.
- Stripe must be connected for paid sessions. See Stripe. Free prices work without it.
After checkout
When a session is confirmed, DeanDesk:
- adds a private event to the provider’s DeanDesk calendar, and to their Google Calendar when it is connected;
- emails the customer a Booking Confirmed message with the date, time, location or meeting link, and a link to their bookings;
- emails the provider a New Booking message with the customer’s name and any notes they left;
- records the sale on the product’s Sales tab and in Transactions.
Manage sessions
Admins: Finance → Bookings
Open Finance → Bookings in the admin sidebar — “Manage paid sessions. Configure providers and availability on each booking product.” The page lists every session across all booking products.- Search by session name, customer name or email, or provider.
- Filter by Upcoming (the default), Payment processing, Past, Cancelled, or All bookings.
- Each card shows the session name, its status, the date and time in your browser’s timezone, the customer’s name and email, any notes they left, the payment status (or Free session), and the location for in-person sessions.
- Browse sessions opens the public Bookings page; Manage booking products jumps to Products & Donations.
- Join session — opens the meeting link for online sessions.
- Mark completed — records that the session took place, with optional Session notes. The customer receives a Session Completed email.
- Cancel session — frees the time, removes the calendar events, and emails both sides. Add an optional Cancellation reason.
Teachers: Profile → Manage Bookings
Teachers see their own sessions at Profile → Manage Bookings (/profile/bookings), with the same filters and the same Mark completed and Cancel session actions. The neighbouring My Availability entry points them to the booking product that holds their hours — availability is set on the product by an admin, not on the teacher’s profile.
Customers: My bookings
Signed-in customers find their sessions at My bookings (/my-bookings, also reachable from the Bookings page and from Profile → Manage Bookings). They can filter by status, join an online session once it is confirmed, and cancel an upcoming session with an optional reason. An Upcoming bookings card on their dashboard shows the next few sessions.
Booking emails
These live in the customizable system email library under Bookings, alongside session reminder templates. Edit their wording at Admin Dashboard → System Email Library; see System emails.
Next steps
Products
Pricing plans, catalog visibility, public pages, and bulk editing.
Zoom & Google Calendar
Let providers block times they are busy in Google Calendar.
Stripe
Connect payments so paid sessions can be sold.
Scheduling & calendars
Shared school calendars, events, and the academic year.