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🔄 We're freshening things up!

Practice Better is gradually rolling out a refreshed UI/UX design. You may notice that the navigation bar has moved from the top to the left side of the portal. As a result, some screenshots and images in our articles may not yet reflect the updated interface — but the steps and guidance are still accurate.

We're actively updating all articles and appreciate your patience in the meantime. If something looks different than what you see on screen, the functionality is the same — just with a fresh coat of paint.

Under My Practice > My Services, you can add services that clients will be able to choose from when requesting sessions with you. This article covers the key aspects of setting up and managing your services.

In this article:

Adding a Service

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Select Add service from the Fast Action Button in the bottom-right corner.

     
  3. On the Professional plan and up, you'll see a pop-up prompting you to choose a Service Type.
    Choose One-on-One Service. 
    Learn more about Group Services.

     
  4. Choose a banner image from our set of choices, upload your own image, or select no image.

     
  5. Name your Service and assign a color code for easy visual reference in your Practice Better Calendar.
    • Click the color circle to choose a different color, or type in the text field if you know the hex code for your desired color. 

       
  6. Use the Description field to give clients a brief overview of what to expect during the service. This description is visible on your Bookings Page.

Adding Terms & Conditions (Optional)

Require clients to accept your Terms and conditions before completing their booking. Learn more.

  1. To create terms, go to My Practice > Disclaimers.
     
  2. Add them when setting up your services.

Fee & Payment Options

Require clients to pre-pay, suggest pre-payment, or simply display your service fees (no payment).

This setting can be the same or different in the Client Portal and on your public Bookings Page. Learn more.

On the Professional plan and up, you can set up payment plans for your services to accept a deposit upfront, collect installments, or ongoing payments. Learn more. 

Service Availability

Set up your service to be In-Person, Online/Video Chat, By Phone, or a combination of the three.

Clients can specify their preferred format when requesting the service.

These service methods can be further restricted when setting up your availability. Learn more.

You also have the option of setting up the default method that is selected when you manually book a session.

Booking Options

Set up buffer time and date restrictions, and customize the button and confirmation labels.

These settings override the defaults in your Booking & Cancellation Settings. Learn more.

Buffer Time

Buffer time is useful if you need to account for prep time and travel between sessions. On days that you set your availability, we'll ensure your clients' bookings always account for buffer time between sessions.

You can specify buffer time before and after sessions based on this service.

Restrict how early or late clients can book services

To help reduce last-minute bookings, you can restrict how much in advance a client can book this service. For example, requiring clients to book no less than 1 day in advance gives you a 24-hour notice of new appointments.

You can also set up a rolling date range to prevent clients from requesting sessions too far in advance. For example, a 14-day rolling date range will ensure clients can only request sessions within the next 2 weeks.

Availability Increments 

Depending on your service duration, you can set the availability increments accordingly. 

For example, a service of 45 minutes should display availability in 15 minute increments to accurately display the following start time on your booking page. 

Recording Summary Format

When you have the AI Charting Assistant enabled, you can choose your preferred format for the AI Summary. This selection can be different for each Service or set to use the Default. Learn more. 

Multiple Bookings (Optional):

Although we don't yet support true group sessions, we do allow multiple clients to double-book the same day and time in your calendar. Learn more.

Including buffer time when displaying available times to clients

Let's say you have a 60-minute service with a 15-minute buffer time after each session. By default we display times as follows:

  • 2:00 - 3:00 PM
  • 3:00 - 4:00 PM
  • 4:00 - 5:00 PM

With this setting enabled, we will display times as follows:

  • 2:00 - 3:00 PM
  • 3:15 - 4:15 PM
  • 4:30 - 5:30 PM

Rolling availability will override this setting.

Require a reason for booking (Optional)

With this option enabled, clients will be required to provide a reason for booking this service when requesting sessions from your public Bookings Page.

When clients leave a note in this field of the booking page, it will arrive in the practitioner portal as a "Booking Update" on the Session Details page.  

Button and Confirmation Labels

We provide a couple of options to customize the display of the "select service" button and confirmation prompts on your Bookings Pages. The Button label appears when clients are presented with a list of services; the Confirmation label appears when clients have successfully requested your service.

Redirect URL

Customize the page clients are redirected to after booking this service from your Bookings Page. You can use this option to redirect clients to a thank you page, newsletter sign-up, or an external payment page if you're accepting payments outside of Practice Better. Learn more.

This will override the redirect set in your Booking & Cancellation Settings. 

Track page views for your URL redirects with integrated analytics from Google or Facebook.

Booking Restrictions

On your default Bookings Page, we will display a list of all publicly available services. You may want to hide certain services if they are only available to specific clients or can only be booked as part of a Package.

This setting can be overridden by using a custom Bookings Page which gives you full control over what Services (and Packages and Programs) are presented to clients. Learn more

Notification Options

On the Professional plan and up, you can customize the default notifications sent to clients for confirmed, updated/rescheduled, or canceled bookings.

You can include links to resources on your website, directions for in-person sessions, or general reminders to bring documents or complete forms before an appointment.

Customized templates within your Service will override the templates you've set up on your Settings > Notification Preferences page.

Advanced Payment Options

You can set up advanced payment options for your service (e.g. override your default tax setting, require billing information) from the Advanced Options tab of the Add/Edit Service page. 

Change the Displayed Fee (Optional)

Use this option if you want to highlight a limited-time offer or subscription-style payment plan (e.g., $100 monthly).

If payment will be collected at the time of booking, you are responsible for accurately reporting the fees associated with your service.

Learn more about setting up:

Rearranging My Services

You can change the order in which your Services are displayed in your portal.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click Change Order near the top-right.

     
  3. Click and drag to rearrange your services, using the group of dots to the left of each Service name.

     
  4. To save your changes, click Done near the top-right. 

Managing Your Services

Once a service is saved, additional options are available from the More Options menu (3 dots) next to each service in My Practice > My Services. These options let you share, duplicate, audit, and delete services without leaving your services list.

You may also notice status indicators on your service cards:

  • Public or Private: Indicates whether or not the service is visible on your default Bookings Page. This is controlled by the Booking Restrictions setting within the service.
  • Shared (Team Plans only): The service is shared across multiple practitioners on your team.

Inviting a Client to Book

Use Invite to book to send a direct booking invitation to a specific existing client by email. You can personalize the message at the time of sending.

💡 Invite to book is a manual action for individual clients. There is currently no Practice Better automation that sends booking invitations automatically.

Learn more about Sending Booking Reminders to Clients → 

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select Invite to book.

     
  3. Choose the client you'd like to invite, customize the message if needed, and send.

📍 Note: You can customize the default email template for booking invitations under Settings > Notification Preferences using the "Invitation to Book Session" template. Template customization is available on the Professional plan and up.

Sharing a Service Booking Link

Use Share link to get a direct URL for a specific service that you can share through any channel, inside or outside of Practice Better. This link is suitable for sharing with both existing clients and prospects.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select Share link.

     
  3. Copy the full URL, or select Create short link to generate a shorter version (recommended for social media).

📍 Note: The Share link is unique to this service, not your general Bookings Page URL. Anyone with the link can use it to request a booking for that service according to your Availability.

Duplicating a Service

Duplicating a service copies all of its configuration, including payment options, booking settings, notifications, and restrictions, so you don't have to start from scratch when creating a similar service.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select Duplicate.

     
  3. The new copy opens in the service settings page. Review and adjust as needed, then select Save.

📍 Note: Sharing settings (Team Plans) are not copied to the duplicate. The new service is not live until you save it. You will need to update your Availability to include this new service.

Managing Sharing (Team Plans)

On Team Plans, services can be shared across multiple practitioners. Use Manage sharing to control which practitioners on your team have access to a shared service. Services that have been shared display a Shared badge on the services list.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select Manage sharing.

     
  3. Update the service’s sharing settings as needed and save your changes.

📍 Note: Sharing settings are not included when a service is duplicated. Learn more about Sharing Resources with Team Members →

Viewing Service Activity

Use View activity log to see a record of activity for a specific service, such as when it was created or last updated. This can be helpful for auditing changes or troubleshooting unexpected behavior.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select View activity log.

Practice Better navigates you to your practice's Activity page, filtered to show activity for that service.

Learn more about Reviewing Account Activity Logs → 

Deleting a Service

Deleting a service removes it from your services list and your Bookings Page permanently. Existing scheduled sessions for that service are not affected and will remain on your calendar.

⚠️ Important: If the deleted service is part of an active package, program, or custom booking page, the affected resources will need to be updated manually.

  1. Go to My Practice > My Services.
     
  2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the service and select Delete.
     
  3. Confirm the deletion when prompted.

💡 Tip: Deleted Services can be restored within 60 days of deletion. Learn more about Restoring, Deactivating, and Deleting Clients & Resources →

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