Your Online Booking Settings let you customize everything your clients see when booking—your business hours, how appointment slots appear, and whether you show arrival windows for jobs instead of exact times.
Job arrival windows help set realistic expectations and create a smoother booking experience. Arrival windows are only available to the Jobs booking type.
Job arrival windows in your online booking settings
Arrival windows are found under Online Booking Settings.
To edit these settings:
Click Settings in the main navigation.
Select Online booking.
This is where you can turn arrival windows on or off, choose how large the window should be, and decide how it appears to clients.
Overview
A job arrival window tells clients the time range in which your team will arrive, instead of promising an exact start time. This makes scheduling more flexible and helps set realistic expectations for both you and your clients.
Arrival windows are used in two places:
Online Booking — where customers can choose an available arrival window when scheduling their appointment
Job Scheduling — where you can apply a default window or customize the window for each job
These windows can be set globally in your Online Booking Settings and can also be adjusted on individual jobs when needed. All job notes and details remain saved even if the arrival window changes later.
Setting your default arrival window
In Settings > Online booking, scroll to the section for Arrival Windows.
You’ll see two choices to configure:
1. Default arrival window length
This decides how long the arrival window will be for new jobs.
Available options include:
None
15 minutes
30 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
3 hours
4 hours
Once you save your default, it applies to all newly created active jobs.
2. Arrival window style
This controls where the arrival window starts.
You can choose:
Add window after start time
A 9:00 AM job with a 1-hour window will show an arrival window of 9:00–10:00 AM.
Center window around start time
A 9:00 AM job with a 1-hour window will show an arrival window of 8:30–9:30 AM, centered around the start time.
To turn off arrival windows:
Set the default to None to disable arrival windows for future jobs.
Jobs already created will keep their previous settings unless manually updated.
Customizing arrival windows on a job
Some jobs require a different arrival window—for example, a larger project that needs a wider buffer.
To set or adjust the arrival window:
Create a new job or open an existing one and click Edit.
In the Schedule section, enter start and end dates/times.
Talo will show the arrival window automatically based on your defaults.
Click Edit next to the arrival window to customize it for this job.
Save your selection, then click Update Job.
Note: Arrival windows are set at the job level, not per individual visit. All visits within the job will use the same arrival window.
Viewing arrival windows on your schedule
On the main schedule, visits show their start time, but the arrival window doesn’t appear directly on the calendar view.
To see the window:
Open any schedule view.
Click a visit.
Select View details.
The visit details will show the full arrival window for that appointment.
Arrival windows in message templates
If you enable booking confirmations or visit reminders, your templates automatically include arrival windows using variables.
The preview panel on the right shows how these variables will look to clients.
If a job has no set start time (e.g., “Anytime” or “Schedule later”), arrival window variables will automatically hide themselves.
Arrival windows do not apply to appointments or other booking types.
What your clients see
Clients will see their arrival window in all customer-facing places, including:
The visit in their Client Dashboard
Booking confirmation emails and texts
Visit reminder emails and texts
These messages clearly show the arrival window so clients know when to expect your team.