Online booking system for small business
An online booking system lets customers book and pay on your own website, at any hour, without ringing you. It shows only the slots you can actually honour, takes a deposit or the full amount, and sends the reminders. You keep the customer list and you pay no commission on bookings.
What taking bookings by phone really costs
If the only way to book is a phone call during working hours, you lose every customer who was free at nine at night. They ring once, get voicemail, and book somebody else before you wake up. You never hear about any of it.
The evening enquiries never reach you
Most people sort this kind of thing after work, when you are closed. If a phone call is the only way to book, those enquiries never reach you at all.
Double bookings cost a whole afternoon
Two people, one slot, and an apology that costs more than the job was worth.
Platform fees compound quietly
A monthly charge plus a slice of every booking, on somebody else's terms, with your customer list on their servers.
What changes when the bookings take themselves
Bookings come in while you are working or asleep. Somebody finds you in the evening, picks a slot that is genuinely free, pays a deposit and gets a reminder the day before, without you touching any of it. It sits on your own website under your own name, so the customer books with you rather than with a platform.
- The deposit is taken before they arrive.
- The customer list is yours, on your site.
Tell us what you need and a fixed price comes back the same working day.
What a booking system is made of
A booking system that works is built around how you actually operate: your real hours, your real rules, the payments you want to take and the reminders that keep people turning up. Here is what goes into one.
Your real availability
Your hours and your rules, including the days you are shut and the jobs that run longer than a standard slot. The calendar shows exactly what you can honour, so every booking is one you can keep.
Payments, straight to you
Stripe, into your own account, taking a deposit, the full amount, or nothing up front depending on what suits the job. The money goes directly to you.
Reminders and rescheduling
Reminders go out automatically the day before, and people can move their own appointment without ringing you. Most people turn up when they are reminded.
Built into your own site
It sits on your website under your own branding, and can be added to a site you already have. Customers book with you, not with a platform in the middle.
Phone bookings kept in step
Bookings you take by phone are added by you and the availability stays straight, so the diary is always one diary.
Your customers, your list
They book on your site and the list lives in your system. It is yours to keep, to email, and to take with you.
Know what you need already? Tell us in a couple of lines and you get a fixed price against a written scope, the same working day.
One we built
Countryside Canines
Dog daycare, Swaffham PriorA dog daycare taking bookings and payments through a rented platform, wanting the same thing on their own site under their own name.
What we did
- Bookings, payments and reminders built into their own site
- Stripe connected directly, so no cut goes to a booking platform
- Their real availability and their real rules, not a template's assumptions
- Moved off the rented platform and onto something they own
Bookings, payments and reminders now run on their own platform, and the customer list is theirs.
See the full case studiesWhat it can do
It takes bookings on your own site under your own name, and takes a deposit or the full amount through Stripe at the same moment. The confirmation and the reminder go out on their own, so fewer people forget.
It holds your real availability, including the days you are shut, and works to the rules your business really has rather than the ones a template assumes. Customers can move their own booking without ringing you, everything sits in one place you can see from your phone, and the customer list stays yours.
Have you done this before?
Countryside Canines, a dog daycare in Cambridgeshire, takes its bookings and payments through a system Fixr Systems built into their own site.
A booking system takes the booking at eleven at night, takes the deposit at the same time, and only offers slots you can actually do. That is three jobs you would otherwise be doing yourself.
Ben Criddle, who builds everything Fixr Systems ships
Seen enough? Tell us what you do and where you work, and a fixed price against a written scope comes back the same working day.
What happens next
We start by mapping how you actually work, exceptions included, because that is where booking systems break rather than in the calendar. Then it is built into your own site under your own branding, with Stripe connected so the money goes straight to your account. You take a real booking through it yourself before it goes anywhere near a customer.
Most projects take up to two weeks. Some are quicker, some take longer, and the scope decides which.
Payments run through Stripe, so the only transaction cost is Stripe's own published card fee. Stripe UK pricing
What it costs
A booking system starts from £1,200, built into your own site. No monthly platform fee and no cut of your bookings.
You get a fixed quote before anything starts, and the price you agree is the price you pay. Pay up front, a deposit, or 50/50 depending on the project, and Klarna is available on most. Smaller and larger projects are priced appropriately.
What if it goes wrong on a real customer?
- You take the first booking through it yourself, before it is live to anyone.
- There is no monthly platform fee to us and no cut of your bookings, ever.
- Your customer list is yours, on your own site.
Before you ask
How much does a booking system cost?
From £1,200 built into your site, with no monthly platform fee to us and no cut of your bookings. You pay Stripe their card fee, the same as you would anywhere. If what you need is simpler than that, tell us anyway, because a small job done properly is still worth doing.
Can it take payments?
Yes, through Stripe. Deposits, full payment or nothing up front, whichever suits how you work. The money goes straight to your account.
What about no shows?
A deposit is the honest answer, and the system takes it at the point of booking. Reminders help too, and they go out automatically the day before.
Why not just use one of the big platforms?
If you are small and starting out, sometimes you should, and we will say so. Your own online booking system for small business earns its keep once the platform fees have grown into real money, their rules stop fitting how you work, or you want your customers to be yours rather than theirs.
Can I still take bookings over the phone?
Of course. You add them yourself and the system keeps the availability straight, so the two never fight.
Can I take bookings for more than one person or place at once?
Yes. Where you have two or three of something that can be booked at the same time, whether that is staff, rooms, pitches or vans, the system holds each one separately and only offers a slot when the right one is free. It is set up around how many of each you really have, so the calendar never sells you the same slot twice.
Ready when you are.
Written and kept up to date by Ben Criddle, who builds everything Fixr Systems ships.Last reviewed 2 September 2026