Accept bookings without charging online (pay on site)

If you want customers to reserve a day and time on your calendar and pay when they arrive at your location—or if you offer a free discovery call—you do not need to connect a payment gateway in véltica to start taking appointments.

When to choose the “Free or paid on site” payment mode

When creating or editing a service in Catalog → Bookable services, in the Price step (How is it charged?) you will see the Free or paid on site option. It is the right choice when:

• You charge in person at your location (cash, card terminal, or bank transfer at the end of the session, such as at a barbershop, salon, clinic, or studio).
• You offer a free initial consultation or estimate and want the appointment confirmed right away without asking for a card.
• You want to launch your booking page today while you finish setting up your Stripe account.

With this option you do not need to set an online price (though you can mention in the service description how much it costs on site), and the final button on the booking page will say Book instead of Continue to payment.

Why you can publish pay-on-site services on the free plan without connecting Stripe

The general rule in véltica is that a published offer requires a connected Stripe account, because someone could try to pay for it at any time.

Services set to Free or paid on site are the deliberate exception to that rule: because no money is collected online, you can publish them on the free plan and without connecting Stripe. Your calendar works end to end and every reservation goes straight to Catalog → Appointments.

Essential settings: duration, minimum notice, before/after buffers, and capacity

Even when you do not charge online, your calendar needs four clear rules in the Settings and Schedule (Advanced options) steps so nobody books you at an inconvenient time:

Setting	Where to set it	What it is for
Duration	Settings step (How long is each appointment?)	The engine of your schedule (between 5 and 1440 minutes): sets how much time is blocked on your calendar whenever someone books.
Capacity	Settings step (How many people per slot?)	One-to-one (1 person) blocks the slot as soon as someone books. Group (People per slot) lets several people book the same hour until all spots are full, ideal for a class or workshop.
Minimum notice	Schedule → Advanced options step	Prevents last-minute surprises (for example, someone booking at 9:58 for 10:00). The soonest available slot will always be at least that far out.
Free time before and after	Schedule → Advanced options step	Prep or cleanup time attached to every booked appointment. It blocks your calendar so clients never overlap, without adding to the visible duration of the service.

How the customer confirms their appointment and what email they receive

When a visitor opens your service’s public page (/book/<service-name>):

1. They pick an available day on the calendar and select one of the open time slots.
2. They fill in their Name, Email, and Phone (plus any extra questions you added in the Form step).
3. They click Book. The appointment moves straight to Confirmed status without going through any payment screen.
4. At that very moment, your customer receives a confirmation email with the date, time, your business details, an attachment to add the event to their calendar, and a link to reschedule or cancel if something comes up (plus an email reminder beforehand if you left reminders turned on for the service).