AI Chat — asking Bookodile how things work and how you're set up

AI Chat is an assistant in your dashboard. Ask it how something in Bookodile works, or how your business is set up, and it answers from the help pages and from your own settings. It can also set things up for you, and move or cancel bookings: every change is shown on a card first, and nothing changes until you apply it.

It is part of every account, for everyone on your team. AI Chat is in the menu, near the top, and in the search (⌘K).

What it can answer

• How Bookodile works. It searches these help pages, reads the one that answers you, and links it at the end of its reply so you can read it yourself.
• How you're set up. It reads the branch you're in: your team and their working hours, your services, your resources, your opening hours and your booking settings. It reads them with your own account's access, the same rules that decide what your account can read anywhere else in Bookodile.
• Why a day is empty. Ask why Thursday has no times, or why customers can't book someone on Monday, and it checks what your booking page offers that day: which services have free times, who works, and the reason when there are none — closed that day, the team member doesn't work then, is on time off, or has nothing free, nobody who does that service is in, your minimum notice, or a day beyond how far ahead customers can book. A combination of services is checked stage by stage, with the team member set on each stage.
• A day's bookings. Ask what tomorrow looks like, or what one team member's day holds, and it summarises them: times, services, who, and what's still pending. It sees only the bookings your role shows you.
• Who's away. Ask whether anyone has time off planned, or when someone is away, and it lists the team's time off for the next 90 days, or the days you name. If your role can't manage the team, it sees only your own time off.
• Your best customers. Ask who spends the most or who comes most often, and it ranks this branch's customers over the last year, or the period you name: what each spent and how many visits. It counts the way Statistics does — bookings that weren't cancelled and weren't a no-show — but only visits that already happened, and a visit of several services once. Only a role that sees every customer, every booking and the statistics can ask; no screen ranks customers this way.
• In All branches, the organisation owner can compare branches and copy between them (see All branches); everyone else gets how-to answers only. Pick a branch to ask about its setup or its bookings.

It replies in the language your dashboard is in. When it writes something your customers will read, it writes it in your booking page's language.

Setting things up from the chat

Tell it what your business looks like, for example a team of four with three rooms or stations every service needs, and it asks for anything missing (names, hours, prices, durations), then shows one card with everything on it. Nothing changes until you press the card's button.

What a card can do:

• add team members (they work your opening hours and do every service, unless you say otherwise). The chat adds a name only: add their email or phone, and invite them to sign in, from Team
• change a team member's working hours: one day or several, a day off, or a break in the middle of a day. The rest of their week stays as it is
• add resources, and say which services need them
• add services, or change a service's price, duration or who does it
• give some team members their own price or length for a service; everyone else keeps the service's own. A junior team member might charge less for a haircut, or a newer coach take longer for an assessment
• build a combination of services from stages, each with its own length and the team member and resource it always uses
• choose the add-ons customers can pick with a service
• create categories of team members, like Junior and Senior, and put people in them
• switch a team member, a service or a resource off, or back on. Their bookings stay. The card says what else would stop being offered and how many upcoming bookings stay as they are
• set your opening hours, and the booking settings: minimum notice, how far ahead customers can book, the cancellation window, late cancellation, how often start times are offered, and automatic confirmation

If you add to a setup card before confirming it ("and we're open Saturdays too"), the new card keeps everything from the one before; say "start again" to drop it. A chat has one card waiting at a time, though: a card of another kind — an add-on, a booking, blocked time, a copy between branches — replaces a setup card you haven't confirmed, and that card's changes are not made. It never guesses a price or a duration; it asks. It changes an existing service rather than adding a second one with the same name.

What your role allows. A card only does what you could do in the dashboard yourself:

• team members, their working hours and their categories need the team permission;
• services need the services permission;
• opening hours, booking settings, resources and add-ons need the settings permission — and a resource that says which services need it, the services permission too;
• moving, cancelling and handing over bookings need the permission to change bookings.

Someone whose role allows none of these can still ask questions. A card that contains something your role can't do is refused as a whole.

Booking spots. A card that adds people who take bookings shows how many booking spots that adds and whether your plan includes them. If it doesn't, the card offers the same options as adding someone in Team, and applies only once your plan allows it. The chat never starts a plan or a trial for you.

After you apply. The chat lists what changed, each with a link to where it lives in the dashboard. If something fails partway, the card says so and lists the changes that did happen.

Every card shows what it will set up in full: for a service, its length and price, who does it, and the resources it needs; for a resource, the services that use it; for a new team member, the services they do. Once you apply it, each line opens what it made, in a new tab.

Add-ons

Ask what an add-on does ("what does the waiting list do?") and the chat answers from its help page and says whether it is on in your branch, with links to its page and its settings. Ask it to switch one on or off, or to change a setting ("stop sending reminder SMS", "show our reviews on the booking page"), and it shows a card first, like any other change. Every add-on is free; SMS are the exception that needs a paid plan, and the card says so when nothing would be sent. Where SMS are not available yet in your business's country, the chat says so instead of switching them on.

Undo

Undo under the changes reverses the whole card, for setup and add-on cards. It only reverses what nobody has changed since: a team member or service that already has a booking, or a setting changed again afterwards, is kept, and the chat says which.

Cards that move, cancel or hand over bookings, block time or mark someone away have no Undo — people may already have been told. Change those back in the calendar, where blocked time is also removed.

Moving or cancelling a booking

Ask it to move or cancel a booking ("move Declan's 9:30 tomorrow to 14:30", "cancel the 10:00 on Friday") and it finds the booking, then shows a card first.

• A visit moves as one. When a customer booked several services one after another, the whole visit moves together and keeps its shape: each service keeps its length and the gaps between them. A barbershop's beard trim, wash and hot towel all move; so does a physiotherapy session with a massage after it. You can cancel just one service of a visit and keep the rest.
• The card shows what will happen: every service, its old time and its new one, in your business's time, and anything the new time clashes with: a team member who isn't working, already has a booking, or is on time off; blocked time; the business being closed; a resource that isn't free. It says who and when, never whose booking it clashes with. You can still move it there on purpose, as in the calendar.
• Telling the customer. The card has an Email tick and an SMS tick, each shown only where that way can reach the customer: email when they have an address; SMS when your business sends SMS about changes, your monthly SMS cap isn't reached, and the customer has a number and hasn't turned your SMS off. A few words of your own go in the email; the SMS is a short set text with a link. The team members whose services moved are told as when you move it in the calendar.
• Nothing changes until you confirm. If the booking was changed by someone else after the card appeared, or something new now clashes, the card says so and changes nothing; ask again for a fresh card.
• Who can. Your role needs the permission to change bookings. If your role shows you only your own bookings, you can move only a visit one of your own services is in.
• No Undo. The chat links to the calendar, where you move it back.

Links and asking from anywhere

When the chat mentions a screen, it links it, and every link opens in a new tab, so the chat stays where it was.

Customers and bookings in an answer are things you can open: point at one, or tap it, for a small card. A customer's card shows their contact details and next visit, with Open customer and Mention in chat. A booking's card shows when it is, the service, the team member, its status and the customer, with Open booking (the booking itself, opened over the chat, exactly as the calendar opens it), Open in calendar (the calendar opens on that day with the booking open), Open customer, and Move or Cancel, which start the message for you; the change itself still happens on a card you confirm. You see only customers and bookings your role lets you see.

You can also ask from anywhere. The croc button at the top of every page opens the chat beside the page — from the bottom on a phone — and it knows which page you are on, so "what does this switch do?" needs no explaining. Open in full takes the conversation to the chat page. Or open the search (⌘K, or Ctrl+K), type your question and choose Ask Bookodile. Copy conversation, at the top of the chat, copies the whole conversation as text.

Moving many bookings at once

Ask for several at once ("move all of tomorrow to next Monday", "cancel Friday afternoon") and the chat shows one card with every booking: its time now, its new time, the customer, and anything the new time clashes with. Untick any you want to leave, and confirm once.

Ask to move them to part of a day ("move this morning to the afternoon", "move them to 4 pm") and the chat puts each booking at the first time it fits, with the same team member, one after another. It never gives one team member two customers at the same time. A booking with no free time then stays where it is, and the card says so; ask the chat for another day. Before it suggests a time, the chat checks it against the calendar the way the Move button does: working hours, time off, blocked time, other bookings, and any room or equipment the booking needs. If one of them was changed by someone else in the meantime, or meets a new clash, that one is left as it is and the chat tells you which; the rest still go.

The card can tell every customer by email, SMS or both, as for one booking, with a few words from you at the top of the email; the chat writes them in your customers' language and you can change them on the card.

Blocking time

Ask the chat to block time ("block tomorrow from 2 to 5, I'm going for lunch", "close on Friday afternoon", "room 2 is out of use tomorrow morning") and it checks the bookings already in that time first. If there are none, it shows a card with the blocked time; confirm, and nobody can book it. If there are bookings, it tells you which ones and asks what to do with each: move it (by default to the first free time after the blocked time), give it to a colleague who does that service and is free then, cancel it, or keep it in the blocked time. Then one card blocks the time and makes those changes together when you confirm. A booking with nowhere free to go stays where it is, and the card says so.

It blocks your own time unless you name someone else, a resource, or the whole business. Blocking someone else's time, a resource, or the whole business, and changing the bookings in it, need the permission to change bookings. Without it you can block your own time and keep what is in it. For whole days away, use time off in your vacations instead.

It checks the bookings your role lets you see. If your role shows you only your own bookings and you block a colleague's time or the whole business, the chat can't see the bookings in it and they stay inside the blocked time — check the calendar first.

When you can't work

Tell the chat you're ill or away ("I'm ill tomorrow, hand my bookings over") and it finds, for each of your bookings on those days, a colleague who does that service and is free at the same time, and shows them all on one card. Bookings nobody can take are listed and left as they are; ask the chat to move or cancel them. The card can tell the customers by email, SMS or both, with a short note in the email, and mark you away on those days so nobody can book you. A manager can hand over someone else's bookings, but only that person can mark themselves away. If your role shows you only your own bookings, you can hand over only your own.

Naming a customer

Type @ and the first letters of a customer's name to pick them from a list. The customer becomes a chip in your message: one item, removed whole with Backspace. The chat sends the AI a reference instead of the name, and shows you the name. You find only the customers your role lets you see.

If you type a customer's full name as it is on their card, it is sent the same way, and a line under your message says so. If you write it in another form (in Slovak or Czech, "Jany Novákovej" for Jana Nováková), the chat asks "Did you mean @Jana Nováková?" and changes nothing until you pick. A team member's name is always sent as written.

Any other name you type does reach the AI.

Naming a team member

Type @ and a team member's name to pick them as well: they are listed under Team, apart from customers, and shown in another colour, so a colleague never reads as a customer. A team member's name is sent to the AI as written, as it always is.

In an answer, the team members it names are highlighted the same way. Point at one, or tap it, for how many bookings they have today and when the next one starts, with Open team member, Open their calendar (the calendar opens on their bookings only) and Mention in chat. Only a name written exactly as on the team is highlighted.

All branches

In All branches, the organisation owner can ask the chat to compare the branches — opening hours, team, services and prices, booking settings, and how many bookings each had in the last 30 days and has in the next 7 — and to copy services, opening hours or booking settings from one branch to another. A copy is a card for the branch it goes to, applied and undone like any other.

It doesn't copy team members, resources, prices set per team member, categories or combinations of services. A service the other branch already has, with the same name, takes the copied price and duration. A new service is done by everyone at the other branch who takes bookings.

For anything about one branch's bookings or free times, switch to that branch. Anyone other than the organisation owner gets help answers only in All branches.

What it can't see

The AI never reads your customers' names, emails or phone numbers from your data. When it talks about a booking, it refers to the customer by a code, and the chat shows you the name, only if your role lets you see that customer; anyone else reading the chat sees "a customer". It doesn't read booking notes. If you type an email address or a phone number into the chat, it is replaced with [email] or [phone] before the AI reads your message. A name you type reaches it unless you pick the customer with @ (see Naming a customer).

Speaking instead of typing

The microphone button in the message box records you, up to two minutes, and turns what you said into text in the box. Nothing is sent until you press send, so you can fix a word first. What you say is turned into text before anything is replaced, so a name or number you say reaches the speech provider.

It hears the language your dashboard is in: English, Slovak, Czech or Vietnamese. Your browser asks for permission to use the microphone.

Your chats

History at the top lists your most recent chats; you can open or delete any of them, and New chat starts again. A chat is deleted 180 days after its last message.

Who else can read them. The people who manage your business: by default the Owner and Manager roles, through the permission "Read the team's AI chats", which the business can switch on or off for any role. They read a chat only from the branch they're working in, and never one that looked up something their own role couldn't see. They can't write in it. The workspace owner can always read them, and only they can read chats started in All branches. The chat tells everyone who can't read others' chats that these people can read theirs. See Roles and permissions.

What a chat changed stays in its record for 180 days, even if you delete the chat.

Where your words go

The chat runs on an AI model hosted in the EU, and asks every host not to keep or train on what you send. When that host is busy, the same model answers from another host, which may be outside the EU; a question that changes nothing may also be answered by the same model's previous version. The chat never sends your customers' names, emails or phone numbers from your data (see What it can't see for what you type). Speech is turned into text in the EU. Bookodile doesn't keep your recordings, only the text you send.

Limits

• It can be wrong. Check anything that matters against the screen it points you to.
• It doesn't write to customers in Messages. The only messages it sends are the ones a booking card sends about a change, as the calendar does.
• It can't create a booking, or move one to another branch.
• For add-ons it switches them on and off and changes their settings; it doesn't create discount codes, vouchers, events, promotions or banners, or set revenue-split percentages — it points you to the page for those.
• It doesn't set prices per category of team member; set those in the service.
• It doesn't read payments or the statistics screens. It ranks customers by spend and visits, nothing more detailed than that.
• One card holds at most 40 bookings or visits. One look at the bookings covers at most 14 days, a hand-over at most 14 days, and blocked time at most 31.
• It compares at most 12 branches at once.
• It reads the last 20 messages of a conversation; for something older, say it again. History lists your 30 most recent chats.
• Each organisation has a daily allowance, shared by every branch, which the microphone uses too. When it is used up, the chat says so; it starts again at midnight UTC. Each person can send ten messages a minute. On a very busy day the chat can also take a break for everyone until midnight UTC, and says so.
• In a demo workspace, a card shows what would change but can't be applied, and each visitor can send 15 messages a day.
• Speaking works in English, Slovak, Czech and Vietnamese, in the language your dashboard is in, up to two minutes at a time.