Guide to Smart Links: Create Private Booking Links with Pre-Reserved Slots
This solution works across all industries and is ideal when you want to offer certain time slots only to a specific customer or group of customers. These slots are hidden from regular users of your Booking Widget and can only be booked using a unique, private link.
Smart Links are designed for service providers who offer consultation appointments in three ways:
At their own location
Online (via MS Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom)
On-site (at the customer’s business or home)
For on-site visits especially, service providers often need to offer fixed dates and times that only selected people can book. Smart Links make this possible.
With Smart Links, scheduling and managing these exclusive on-site appointments becomes faster, easier, and more convenient for both you and your customers.
Here Is What You Need to Know:
Smart Links is part of the Advanced Scheduler app.
This app is available upon request, so contact our Support Team or your Account Manager.
To use Smart Links, you need a WebApp account linked to a Branch Manager.
Smart Links is accessible with the TIMIFY Enterprise plan.
You also need to have Email Customisations and Global Attributes (optional, in case you want to assign resources to customers and wish to filter those resources when setting up links for customers), which can be arranged by our Support Team or your Account Manager.
Article Structure:
1. How to Create a Smart Link
Follow these steps to generate a Smart Link:
Navigate to Apps > Advanced Scheduler, or if you pinned the app as a Full Screen App, simply click the app’s icon at the bottom of the TIMIFY Calendar, then access the Smart Links Solution.
Click Create a Category (if you don’t have any categories yet)
Click Create New Link
ℹ️ Note: You can categorise your Smart Links by clicking on the Create new category button, which is in the Active Links section. Categories are particularly useful when you have customers with multiple locations, e.g., you are an insurance company and your resources consult a client who has one or more locations in London, as well as locations in Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow.
For each category you create, the solution generates a unique link. This way, you can share this link with your client, and if they have employees moving between locations, they can easily select where they want to schedule an appointment with your consultants.
There, you can also customise the landing page experience for your customers by adding elements like a headline and description to your landing page. The landing page is the link that you can share with your customers, and from which invited people can schedule the pre-reserved slots you have defined in your links.
If you want to offer your customers the option to schedule regular appointments in addition to the pre-reserved slot, you can also enable a standard scheduling button. This will display the TIMIFY Booking Widget on the landing page, where your customers can choose a slot based on your regular service and resource availability. The live preview below will show you how it looks.
1.1 Details & Settings
When you click Create new link, an overlay opens, starting with the Details & Settings page. Here, you enter some basic information—like naming your Smart Link and assigning it to a Category.
Next, you choose how the reserved time slots should work:
Single booking option:
Use this if you want to offer several time options to a customer, but only one of them should be booked. Once the customer picks a time, all other reserved dates and times are automatically released and become available for general booking.
Multiple bookings option:
Use this if you want to allow several people to book appointments within the reserved dates and times. They stay available until all slots are filled.
With the multiple bookings option, you can also set a minimum number of bookings. If this number isn’t reached within a set time (lead time), all reserved slots will be released and shown as available in your regular booking widget.
Finally, you can also add notes to the Smart Link if needed—for example, to give extra instructions or context for the bookings. This is especially useful when you want to provide details about where exactly the appointment will take place.
1.2. Select Services & Resources
In this step, you choose the Services and Resources for the Smart Link.
Start by selecting the service(s) you want customers to book. You can pick one or more.
If you select only one service, it will be pre-selected for your customers, and this step will be skipped during the booking process.
After selecting the services, choose which staff members or resources customers can book appointments with. For each service, you can assign one or more of the resources already linked to it. TIMIFY will then reserve time in those resources’ calendars and make them available through the private Smart Link.
If you have many resources and want to filter them by specific attributes—like customer assignment, spoken language, or region—you can use the Attribute Filter.
ℹ️ Note: To use this feature, the TIMIFY Attributes must be activated in your account. If you’re unsure whether it’s enabled, contact your Account Manager or our Customer Support team and request to activate and configure it.
1.3. Set Dates and Availability
Now choose the date range for when the selected resources should be available for booking via the Smart Link.
For each resource, you’ll define specific time slots within this range. To do this, click the Slots button next to the resource. An additional window will open where you can:
Add available times for each day
See if the resource already has appointments or is fully booked
Once everything is set, click Create Smart Link. The overlay will close, and your new link will appear under the Active Links tab in the Category you assigned it to.
Important Tips
Use the filter next to the search bar to quickly find your links by Category and Resource.
You can customise these filters in the Settings tab. There, you can also set up Resource Filters to make it easier to select the right resources when creating a Smart Link.
If a Smart Link has expired, you can reactivate it by updating the dates and time slots, then clicking Save.
FAQ
Q. Can I edit a Smart Link after it’s created?
Yes, after the Smart Link is created, click on the three dots next to its name, and then on the Edit button.
Q. Can customers book multiple slots with the same Smart Link?
Yes, if you configure the link to allow multiple bookings per slot, the time will remain available until all slots are filled.
Q. Can I customise the landing page that customers see?
You can add a headline, description, and a standard scheduling button to guide customers through booking.
Q. Do I need any special settings enabled to use Smart Links?
Smart Links require Email Customisations and Global Attributes to be activated, and your WebApp must be connected to Branch Manager.
Q. Can I limit availability to specific dates and times?
Yes, when setting up the link, you choose exact date ranges and define individual time slots for each resource.
Q. Do Smart Links expire?
Smart Links do expire, after which they move to the Expired Links column, where you can edit and reactivate them if you want.
Q. Can Smart Links be used for group bookings?
No, Group Services are not available in Smart Links.
Q. Is there a limit to how many Smart Links I can create?
There’s no set limit, but we recommend organising them clearly to keep your list manageable.