You’ve joined IdleHours, set your password and arrived at your dashboard. Now you’re wondering which button to press. Fair enough. Running a business already involves enough admin without adding a small treasure hunt.

Start with your profile, add a service, then prepare an offer. You can leave the more elaborate setup for later. Nobody needs to connect their entire digital life just to list an opening.

Joined before launch? Start with a draft

If your dashboard says “IdleHours hasn’t launched yet”, you can set up your business profile, add services and save draft offers. Publishing is closed until the marketplace opens, so you won’t receive customer requests yet.

We’ll email you before launch unless you turn off launch updates in Account & alerts. Before publishing a draft, check its dates, price and availability again. An appointment that was free when you wrote it might have been snapped up through your usual booking system since then.

Check the profile people will see

Sign in with the email address you used to join and choose Business dashboard from the main menu. If you haven’t added your business yet, that link takes you to the profile setup form. If we helped set up your account, open Settings in your business dashboard and check the details we’ve entered. You can edit them.

If you registered yourself, confirm your email using the verification link we sent before creating your business profile. If we sent you a password setup invitation, using that link confirms your email as part of setup.

Check your business name, description, suburb and contact details. Explain what you do in the words you’d use with a new customer. “Dog grooming for small and medium dogs” tells someone considerably more than “passionate about delivering exceptional experiences”. The dog is unlikely to be impressed by the second one either.

Add your logo and a cover photo if you have them. Use a clear photo of your own premises or work, and check that there’s no private customer information in the background. Finding the right logo file might involve opening “FINAL”, “FINAL2” and “ACTUAL_FINAL”. We’ve all been there.

Your business contact email and your sign-in email are separate. Change the first in Settings; change the second in Account & alerts. If you manage several locations, use Switch location in the dashboard and check each profile.

Add one service you know well

Open Services and choose Add service. Give it a name, explain what’s included, and enter the duration and usual price where relevant. Start with something you’re comfortable providing to a new customer. You can add the rest of your service list later.

A service saves the details of what you do so you can reuse them. An offer adds availability. For example, a hypothetical tutor might save “60-minute maths tutoring” as a service, then create an offer for one of those sessions on Thursday at 4 pm.

Put a time against it

Open Offers and choose Create offer. If you’ve saved a service, select it under “Start with a saved service” to bring its details across. You can also start from scratch.

For a simple offer with one appointment time, check:

  • The headline says what the customer can book.
  • The description explains what’s included and any preparation they need.
  • The price matches the service you’re offering.
  • The start and finish times fit your diary.
  • The booking cutoff leaves you time to read and accept a request.
  • The places available match how many bookings you can actually take.

Have your existing diary open while you do this. Leave room for the practical bits, such as getting ready for the next customer or travelling between jobs. Save a draft if you’re still working out the details. Once publishing is available, put it live when you can monitor requests.

If you’d like a worked example, our guide to writing your first IdleHours offer walks through a dog-grooming listing, including what to put in the description.

Calendar connections can wait

You can start on the free Starter plan and create offers manually while continuing to use your existing booking system. Paid subscriptions are optional. You can leave calendar setup until you’ve tried creating an offer and know what would help with your own workflow.

Pro and Business include connections for Google Calendar, Square Appointments, Bookeo, Acuity Scheduling and Cliniko. Our calendar setup guide explains the supported options. If you’re unsure how your system fits, ask us before spending an afternoon doing password archaeology.

A request arrives. What happens next?

Once the marketplace is open and your offer is published, customers can find it and send a booking request. Those requests appear in Enquiries in your business dashboard. Check the details and your availability, then accept or decline. A request becomes a booking when you accept it.

Use the conversation to confirm anything the customer needs, such as the exact address, arrival time or preparation. If the opening fills through another channel, use Mark filled on the offer so it stops taking new requests. Keep your usual booking system up to date too.

Customers pay your business directly. IdleHours doesn’t collect service payments or deposits and doesn’t take commission. Explain your payment arrangements and any deposit requirements before accepting the request, so everyone knows what they’re agreeing to.

Stuck on a screen? Ask us

Email hello@idlehours.app or send a message through IdleHours support. Tell us which screen you’re on and what you’re trying to do. We can help from there.