After signing in, the heart of the booking journey is three short choices: what is the appointment for, who should see the pet, and when should it happen. Lupa walks the client through these as three discrete screens, in that order, with the available options re-calculated live from the clinic's diary every time. This page covers exactly what shows up on those screens, how Lupa picks what to offer, and the edge cases the team should be aware of.
For the orientation overview of online booking — and how this fits into the wider journey — see How online booking works.
<aside> 💡
In short: Pick the pet → pick the visit type (filtered by the pet's species) → pick a vet (optional) → pick a date and time slot (live availability). Lupa never offers a slot that isn't free.
</aside>
<aside> ⚠️
Trust the live availability — don't padlock the diary "just in case". It's tempting to block out internal time in the diary to stop online bookings landing on it. Lupa's slot calculator already excludes anything that isn't a bookable gap (existing appointments, blocked time, time outside opening hours, time outside the lead-time window). Padding the diary with manual blocks just hides slots from clients without making your day any less full.
</aside>
| What this step gives you | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Species-aware visit types | A cat-only owner doesn't see exotic-only services, and vice versa. The list is filtered by the pet they picked on the previous screen. |
| Live, gap-aware availability | Slots are calculated when the screen loads, and again when the client changes vet or date. Anything booked moments ago is gone immediately. |
| Optional vet preference | Clients can pick a specific vet for continuity — or pick Any Employee and let the clinic assign whoever's free. |
| Honest pricing | If a visit type's price is marked public, it shows on the card. If it isn't (consultation needs assessment, custom quote), the price is hidden and re-appears only on the confirm screen. |
| Honest timezone | Times shown are always in the clinic's local timezone, with a banner if the client is in another zone. |
The wizard surfaces three screens in this article's scope. Some are skipped automatically depending on configuration.
| Screen | Wizard heading | When it's shown |
|---|---|---|
| Visit type | Select booking type | Always. |
| Vet / nurse | Select a date and time (vet row at the top) | Only if the clinic has employee selection enabled in the portal settings. |
| Date and time | Select a date and time | Always (unless the clinic has disabled date selection — rare, used for some pre-registration-only setups). |
The screen is titled Select booking type. It's a vertical list of cards — one per visit type the clinic offers online for the pet's species.
Each card shows:
The list is filtered by the pet's species, so a dog owner won't see services configured as cat-only and vice versa. Clients tap a card to select it; the card outline changes colour to confirm.