Going live

Learn how to get your venue ready to take real bookings, so you can share your page knowing payments work, your sessions are live, and your branding is in place.

This is the final step before you publicise your booking page. By now you've likely set up your account and seen the basics of what Session does. This checklist pulls the remaining pieces together - payments, sessions, prices, branding, and a quick test - so your first real customer has a smooth experience.

Work through it in order. Each item links to the full article if you need detail, but most can be done in a few minutes.

Connect Stripe

Until your own Stripe account is connected, customers can't pay online, so this is the first thing to settle.

1. 1
   Open Settings → Company and find the Stripe section.
2. 2
   Select Connect with Stripe and follow Stripe's onboarding to enter your business and bank details.
3. 3
   Back in Session, check the Stripe section reads Connected - that means charges and payouts are both enabled.

If the status still shows Charges not enabled, Stripe is still verifying you - select Complete setup to finish. The full walk-through is in connect Stripe.

Create your sessions

Customers can only book sessions that exist on your calendar, so set up your schedule next. Session works on shared capacity - a session has a number of spaces, not one-to-one appointments.

1. 1
   Go to the Sessions page and create a new session.
2. 2
   Set it to repeat with a recurring schedule, or add a one-off event for a single date.
3. 3
   Set the session's capacity and duration so the right number of spaces is offered.

You can run from multiple locations, offer part-session pricing for shorter and longer slots, and override a single date with instance overrides later. For now, make sure your regular sessions are on the calendar.

Set your prices

Each session needs at least one price option so customers know what they're paying.

1. 1
   Open the session you want to price from the Sessions page.
2. 2
   Add the price options customers can choose - for example a standard rate, or tiered rates for different groups.
3. 3
   Save the session.

Beyond standard prices, you can also offer add-ons like towels or drinks, group bookings and private hire, and sell memberships, bundles, gift vouchers and discount codes. None of these are required to go live - add them when you're ready.

Brand your booking page

Your booking page is the first thing most customers see, so make it look like your venue rather than a generic form.

1. 1
   Open Settings → Design.
2. 2
   Add your logo, icon, header image and brand colour.
3. 3
   Add links to your website and socials if you have them.

Your branding carries across your public page, the installable home-screen app and the printable booking poster. The full guide is in customise your booking page.

Check your settings

A few settings shape what your customers experience. It's worth a quick look before you go live:

• Cancellation and reschedule policy - decide whether and how late customers can change their own bookings on Settings → Booking policy. See cancellation and reschedule policy.
• Automated emails - booking confirmations and cancellations send automatically. You can also enable session reminders and review requests, and edit the wording, on Email → Automated - see automated emails.
• Country, currency and timezone - confirm these are right on Settings → Company. See country, currency and timezone.
• Your team - if staff will help run things, invite your team on Settings → Team.
• Waivers - if you need customers to sign a waiver, set it up first. See digital waivers.

Test a booking

Before you share your page, make a real booking yourself so you see exactly what a customer sees.

1. 1
   Open your public booking page at bookasession.org/your-slug and pick a session.
2. 2
   Go through checkout as a customer would, including payment if you've connected Stripe.
3. 3
   Confirm you get the confirmation email, and that the booking shows on the admin home.
4. 4
   Cancel or refund the test booking when you're done.

Share your links

Once you're happy, start pointing customers at your page. Session builds tidy links for your whole venue, a single location, or one session.

• Share your main address bookasession.org/your-slug, or a precise link for a location or session.
• Print a booking poster with a QR code for your venue.
• Add the page to your home screen as an installable app for quick access.

That's it - you're live. From here, manage day-to-day bookings from the admin home (see managing bookings as staff), and check how things are going with reports if they're enabled for your venue.

Common questions

1. What's the minimum I need to go live? A connected Stripe account (for online payment), at least one session on your calendar, and a price option on it. Branding and extras can follow.

2. Can I take bookings without connecting Stripe? You can run free bookings, and record offline or walk-in payments yourself. But online card, Apple Pay and Google Pay need a connected Stripe account.

3. How do I test without charging a real card? Any booking through your live page is a real charge. Make a genuine test booking and refund it inside Session afterwards.

4. Where do I send customers? To your booking page address, bookasession.org/your-slug. You can share a more specific link for one location or session, or a QR poster.

5. Can I change things after going live? Yes. Sessions, prices, branding and most settings are editable any time. Changing your booking URL changes the links you share, so settle that before you publicise the page.