Calendar

Calendar lets you schedule bookings with your contacts directly in Chatfuel. Every booking you create automatically sends confirmation and reminder messages to your contacts via WhatsApp.

This means:

• Your customers get instant confirmation for their bookings
• They get reminders 1 day and 2 hours before their booking
• You see fewer no-shows because people don't forget about their booking
• You can track booking statuses — confirmed, needs rescheduling, or cancelled
• Everything happens automatically — no manual work from your team

Think of it as your booking system + automatic reminders rolled into one.

Set it up in Calendar

1. Open Calendar in the left sidebar.
2. In the Settings tab, fill in your company info and add your services and specialists — How to Set Up Calendar walks through it, and the sections below cover every setting.
3. Create bookings on the calendar view — click a time slot or the + button.

Or ask the AI Co-Worker

Tell the AI Co-Worker what you want in chat:

"Book Maria for a haircut tomorrow at 3pm."

It updates your bookings, services, and specialists for you and confirms what it set.

Note: Connecting your own WhatsApp number requires Meta authorization, so the Co-Worker can't complete that step for you — see Option 2 below.

Before you start

To use Calendar and get the automatic reminders working, you choose how booking messages are sent. Important: you do not need to connect your own WhatsApp number — reminders work immediately from Chatfuel's number.

Option 1: Use Chatfuel's WhatsApp number (quickest setup, default)

You can start using Calendar immediately without connecting your own WhatsApp. No phone number connection is needed at all. Chatfuel will send confirmations and reminders from its own shared number. This is the fastest way to get started.

Option 2: Use your own WhatsApp number (optional)

If you prefer messages to come from your business number, you need to:

1. Connect WhatsApp

Your WhatsApp business number must be connected to Chatfuel. You can connect your existing WhatsApp Business App number or connect a new phone number.

2. Add a payment method in Meta

WhatsApp only lets you message contacts who wrote to you in the last 24 hours — this is the 24-hour messaging window. Booking confirmations and reminders often need to be sent days later, so they use WhatsApp templates (Meta's approved way to send messages beyond that window). Calendar uses Utility templates, which are the cheapest category for business communications like reminders.

To send template messages, you need an active payment method connected to Meta — even if the reminders end up being free.

Will I be charged?

It depends. If a contact messaged you in the last 24 hours — no, these reminders are free. If not, you will be charged a small fee ($0.01–$0.06 USD per message depending on your country). These charges come from Meta directly, not Chatfuel.

Example pricing in some countries

Even for free reminders, you must add a payment method to Meta.

Setting up your Calendar

Before creating bookings, configure your calendar in the Settings tab.

General Info

• Company Name — appears in messages to your customers
• Company Phone — your business contact number
• Language — language for customer notifications

WhatsApp Number — choose which number sends your booking messages:

• Chatfuel number (default) — start immediately, no setup required
• Your business number — requires WhatsApp connection and Meta payment method

Services

Create service types that your business offers. For each service, you can set:

• Service name (required)
• Duration (required)
• Price (optional) — supports multiple currencies
• Description (optional) — helps AI agents answer customer questions

When you add a service to a booking, the end time is automatically calculated based on duration.

Specialists

Add team members who deliver your services (barbers, trainers, therapists, etc.). For each specialist:

Details tab:

• Photo — quality photos increase booking rates
• Name (required) and last name
• Description — helps AI personalize responses

Services provided tab:

• Select which services this person can deliver
• AI will use this to match customers with the right specialist

Working hours tab:

• Set individual schedules for each specialist
• Add multiple shifts per day (e.g., morning and afternoon with lunch break)
• Hours cannot exceed your business working hours

Notifications

Configure which messages are sent automatically and customize their content.

Message types:

• Immediate confirmation — sent right after a booking is created
• 1-day reminder — sent 24 hours before the booking
• 2-hour reminder — sent 2 hours before the booking

All messages automatically include booking time, date, and your company name.

Adding custom instructions

Each notification type has an "Additional info" field where you can add custom text for your business needs:

• Location and directions ("We're on the 3rd floor, take the elevator on the left")
• Preparation tips ("Please arrive 10 minutes early and bring your ID")
• Parking info ("Free parking available behind the building")
• What to bring ("Wear comfortable clothes for the session")
• Cancellation policy ("Please cancel at least 24 hours in advance")

Custom text limit: 512 characters per message type.

If you leave the field empty, the standard message template is used without additional info.

How to create bookings

1. Open Calendar.
2. Click the time slot you want for your booking. Or click the + button instead.
3. Fill out the fields:
   • WhatsApp contact
   • Phone number
   • Date and time
   • Service (optional) — auto-fills duration
   • Service provider (optional)

If your customer is not on the list of your contacts yet, just type their number to create a new contact.

4. Click Save to save your booking to the calendar.

Your booking now appears in Calendar and your customer immediately gets a confirmation message on WhatsApp.

Booking statuses

Every booking has a status that updates automatically based on customer responses:

• Not confirmed — default status for new bookings, waiting for customer response
• Confirmed — customer clicked "Confirm" in the reminder
• Needs rescheduling — customer requested to reschedule
• Cancelled — customer cancelled the booking

How it works

The 1-day reminder includes buttons for customers to respond:

• Confirm
• Cancel
• Reschedule

When a customer taps a button, the booking status updates automatically in your calendar.

Manual status changes

You can also change status manually by clicking the status indicator — useful when a customer confirms by phone or other means.

Smart reminders

If a booking is cancelled, the 2-hour reminder won't be sent — no point reminding someone who already cancelled.

How to edit or remove bookings

• Edit: click the booking, make your changes, and click Save.
• Cancel: click the booking and click Delete.

What's available now (and what's coming)

Available now

• Calendar view — clear schedule for all bookings
• Create bookings manually — schedule bookings in a familiar view
• Auto confirmations — customers get booking details right away in a WhatsApp message
• Auto reminders — sent 1 day and 2 hours before bookings
• Custom reminders — edit the text that gets sent to customers
• Booking status tracking
• Services with duration, price, and descriptions
• Specialists with individual schedules
• Send from Chatfuel number or your own

Coming soon

• Booking with Fuely AI — Fuely AI books appointments for you based on conversations with customers
• Multiple calendars for different teammates
• "Attended/No-show" status tracking

You can also connect Google Calendar to keep availability in sync and avoid double bookings.

FAQ

What if I don't have WhatsApp connected?

You can still use Calendar. Bookings will be created and reminders sent from Chatfuel's WhatsApp number. Connect your own number later in Settings when you're ready.

What if my customer doesn't have WhatsApp?

Currently, reminders only work through WhatsApp.

Can I use Calendar in Flows?

Not yet, but this is planned. For now, calendar event creation is only available through Fuely AI.

What happens to existing bookings if I switch WhatsApp numbers?

New notifications will be sent from whichever number is selected at the time of sending. Your booking history is preserved.

Can I delete a service that has future bookings?

No — you'll see an error. Disable the service's availability instead so it won't appear for new bookings.