Conditional Logic for Booking Forms

Open an event and go to Questions. There are two tabs: Questions, where you build the form, and Rules, where you change it. Each tab shows how many it holds. A question also shows how many rules use it, and a click on that number takes you to the Rules tab.

Choose Add question and pick how to start:

Every question says whether it is shared: Only in this event, or Used in 3 events. Order, required and rules always belong to this event alone. The wording and the choices belong to the question.

When you edit a question that other events use, TimelyDo tells you which events and offers two ways on: Make my own copy and change that, or Change it everywhere. Past bookings always keep what they were asked.

Remove from this event takes the question off this form only. A message with Undo stays for a few seconds. Rules that read the question are removed when you save, and rules that only acted on it lose that target.

On the Question library page, a question that an event uses cannot be deleted. You can archive it instead: it stays in those events and leaves your lists. A question that no event uses can be deleted.

On the Rules tab, choose Add rule, or start from one of the ideas such as "Ask a follow up question" (it opens the editor already filled in, and nothing is added until you save the rule). The editor is one sentence in two parts:

Rules are read from the top, and you can switch one off with its switch to pause it without losing it. A few things are good to know:

• A rule can only read a question that comes before the questions it changes.
• When one rule hides a question and another shows it, hide wins.
• A question that a Show rule names stays hidden until a rule shows it.
• Stop and Send rules are decided on the answers that are left after the hiding.
• Rules are saved together with the event. Add questions and rules in one go, even on a new event, and choose Update Event or Create Event to keep them. Cancel throws away everything you changed, rules included.

The live preview on the right is a working copy of your booking form. On the Your details step you can click into it and answer the questions the way a visitor would, scroll down when the form is long, and watch your rules show, hide, require, warn or stop as you go. Nothing is booked or saved, and Schedule Event does nothing in the preview.

By default visitors pick a time first and answer your questions on the next step. Turn on Ask some questions before the calendar at the top of the Questions section to ask the important ones up front. Then open the menu of each question you want asked first and choose Ask before the calendar. At least one question must be marked, or the event cannot be saved.

Visitors see only those questions, then a Continue button. Your stop rules and send rules work on that step, so someone who does not qualify never sees your calendar. A rule that needs an answer to a later question waits for the booking form. The answers carry over, so nobody is asked twice. Rescheduling a booking and bookings made by you for a client skip the step. Turn the setting off and the form goes back to one page.

In the Messages section, under After the booking, you can write a confirmation message that includes what the visitor told you. Use the buttons under the box to add an answer, for example Thanks {answer:...}, we will call you about your plan. The preview shows sample answers. Answers from questions you just added become available once you save the event.

File uploads, signatures and hidden questions are never used. Whatever the visitor types is shown as plain text, never as code.

You can also send visitors to your own page after they book. They see a Continue button on the confirmation page. The link must start with https:// and may include answers, but only short answers that are not personal: choices, yes or no, numbers and ratings. Open a question's menu and choose Allow in the redirect link first. Names, emails, phone numbers and free text cannot be put in a link, because links end up in logs and browser history.