The booking flow

The Booking flow tab is the client's side of a service, laid out in the order they meet it. Each numbered step opens into its settings.

Inquiry services have the same tab called Inquiry flow, with three steps rather than six.

Step	Direct booking and mini sessions	Inquiry
1	Client details	Client details
2	Questionnaire	Questionnaire
3	Contract	Confirmation
4	Payment
5	Follow-up questionnaires
6	Confirmation

Step 1: Client details

First name, Last name and Email are listed under Always collected and can't be switched off. A location joins them whenever the service asks the client to provide or choose one.

Three more fields are yours to control. Each has a switch. Turn the switch on and a tick box appears underneath that makes the field required:

Phone number, "For coordination and follow-ups." Worth having for anything where you might need to reach someone on the day. If your contract uses the client's phone number, this locks on and reads "Required by the contract."

Additional notes, "Let clients share extra details." Clients see it as "Anything we should know?". On inquiry services this is where the useful detail arrives, so leave it on.

Referral source, "Track where bookings come from." Clients see it as "How did you hear about us?", a menu you fill with your own options. This is the only reliable way to find out what's actually bringing you work, and it costs the client two seconds. Its tick box reads Required. The other two read Require phone number and Require notes.

Set the menu options under Your booking page. Keep the list short and specific: Instagram, Google, a venue you work with, word of mouth. Twenty options nobody reads is worse than five.

Required or optional

Required means the client can't continue without it. That's the trade: better information against more people abandoning the form.

A good rule is to require only what you'd have to email them for anyway. If you'd chase it, require it. If it's nice to know, leave it optional.

Inquiry forms can carry more required fields than direct booking ones, because someone inquiring is already invested in the conversation. Someone booking a headshot at midnight is not.

Step 2: Questionnaire

Turn on Include questionnaire, "Shown during the client flow", and the client answers your questions as part of booking. Click Build questionnaire to write them. Once it holds questions, the card shows the title and the count, and the button becomes Edit.

Use it for the details you always need before you turn up: what they're celebrating, who's attending, any access restrictions at the venue.

On an inquiry service this matters more than it sounds. The inquiry form has no date field, so if you need to know when they're thinking of, ask it here. It's also the only way a client can send you a file as part of inquiring.

Keep it short. A twenty-question form between someone and a confirmed booking is a form that loses you bookings.

Step 3: Contract

Not on inquiry services.

Build contract writes the contract this service uses, and Edit reopens it once one exists. Turning on Require contract makes the client sign it as part of booking. Until a contract exists the switch explains itself: "Add a contract first." Once it is ready it reads "Clients sign before the booking is confirmed."

Because you aren't there when they sign, CoreHue applies your saved signature the moment they do. The contract completes rather than sitting half-signed. That's why the card shows Signature added or Signature needed, with a Set signature link beside it, and why a contract can't be required until you've saved one. Anything else blocking it is listed under Finish these first.

See Auto-filled details and blanks for how the client's details fill themselves into the wording.

Step 4: Payment

Not on inquiry services. Covered in full under Pricing and deposits and Unpaid bookings.

In short: Collect payment turns it on, Payment at booking chooses full payment or a deposit, Payment methods picks what the client can pay with, and More payment settings holds the deadline for an unpaid booking.

Step 5: Follow-up questionnaires

Not on inquiry services.

These are questionnaires sent after the booking exists, rather than filled in during it. Click Add questionnaire, write the questions, and set When to send:

• After booking is confirmed
• Before service, with a Days before field
• After service, with a Days after field

Both offsets default to 7 days. Each entry has its own switch, so you can build one now and turn it on later. Remove in its three-dot menu deletes it.

Use step 2 for what you need before you turn up, and a follow-up for anything that can wait: shot lists closer to the day, feedback afterwards.

Step 6: Confirmation

The message the client sees after booking and receives by email. Write it in the editor, and use Insert first name to greet everyone by name.

Say what happens next: when you'll be in touch, what they should prepare, what to do if they need to change something.

The helper line says it plainly: "Shown after booking. Leave blank to use the default." That default is your account-wide message from Bookings → Settings → Emails. If confirmation emails are switched off there, this step tells you so and links you to Booking settings.

What the client actually walks through

The steps above build a flow the client sees with its own labels:

Direct booking	Mini session	Inquiry
Schedule	Slot	Details
Details	Details	Questions
Questions	Questions	Sent
Contract	Contract
Review	Review
Booking page	Booking page

Steps you haven't switched on simply aren't there. A direct booking with no questionnaire, no contract and no payment is two steps and a confirmation.

Review only exists when the service collects payment. Without it, Confirm booking sits on the last step the client does reach.