---
title: Creating a new appointment
slug: creating-new-appointment
category: Appointments & Scheduling
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/creating-new-appointment
audiences: all
updated: 2026-09-06
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Creating a new appointment
There are three ways to start a new appointment:

- Sidebar, **Appointments**, then **New Appointment** (this opens the Calendar with the form already up).
- On the **Facility Calendar**, click an empty slot in day or week view — the date, time and staff column are pre-filled.
- Press **N** anywhere on the calendar.

You can also start one from a client's profile with the **Add Appointment** button, which pre-fills the client.

## The four steps

The form is a wizard: **Client and Pet**, then **Service and Time**, then **Details**, then **Review**. You can click back to a finished step at any point.

### 1. Client and Pet

Search for the client, then tick the pets. Selecting more than one pet creates one appointment per pet, so two dogs on the same visit become two bookings you can assign and price separately.

### 2. Service and Time

- **Appointment Type** — Grooming, Training, Veterinary or Other.
- **Service** — the list shows name, price and duration from your service catalog.
- **Assigned Groomer** — required when creating. On an existing appointment you can also set it back to Unassigned.
- **Date**, **Start Time** (15-minute steps between 6:00 and 21:00) and **Duration (minutes)** (15 to 480, in 15-minute steps). The duration is suggested from the service but you can override it.

### 3. Details

- **Repeat** — Does not repeat, every week, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, every month, every 6 weeks, or a custom number of days. Choose **Repeat until** and Alaga previews how many appointments it will create and warns about conflicts before you commit.
- **Status** — normally leave this as Pending or Confirmed. See [Appointment statuses](/help/article/appointment-statuses-explained).
- **Notes** — anything the groomer needs to know.

### 4. Review

Check the summary and press **Create Appointment** (or **Create N Appointments** for a series or multiple pets). The confirmation toast carries the appointment's short ID and a **View** link.

## When the slot is already taken

If the staff member is already booked, or the service is marked as requiring exclusive attention, Alaga asks you to confirm with the **Double-book this slot?** dialog and records a reason — for example "Quick service, fits alongside" or "Another staff member is covering part of it". The reason is stored with the appointment, which is what makes the double-booking report meaningful later.

## Booking onto an existing boarding stay

If you open the form from a reservation, a **Linked to Stay** badge appears. The appointment is attached to that stay so the service is billed together with the boarding at checkout.

## What the client receives

If your business has booking confirmation emails switched on and the client has not opted out, a confirmation goes out immediately, and reminder emails follow 24 hours and 2 hours before the start time.