This article provides an overview of Booxi's architecture. The below definitions will help you familiarize yourself with the different concepts Booxi is built from.
Head Office
The Head Office is a web interface to manage users, service offer, booking rules and perform batch operations to all your store accounts from a centralized point.
Applications
A Head Office is usually deployed for brands who manage multiple stores locations. To ease the management of country related metadata such as currency, taxes and local rules, we recommend the deployment of a Head Office for each country a brand is doing business in. Based on business needs, other applications may be suggested.
Merchant
Merchants are Booxi accounts that represent a store, a team, a factory or any other entity in an organization. One or several accounts can be managed by the Head Office. From each merchant account, manage resources, users, staff and their availability. Information set in the Head Office, such as services and booking rules can be customized at the merchant level.
Applications
As stated above, a Booxi merchant account can represent a store, a team, a factory or any other entity. Therefore, business applications are varied:
For online services, a Booxi merchant could represent a team of people working within the same time zone.
For in-store services, a Booxi merchant could represent a brick-and-mortar store with its own services and availability.
For pick-up services offered at an outlet, a Booxi merchant would be set up for this specific location.
A Booxi merchant can represent a team of experts offering masterclasses or group events to promote new products.
Services
Services are a product sold or service rendered to a client by an associated member of staff. As they represent the core component of a business, they are highly customizable. Services are usually managed from the Head Office but can also be created and managed at the store level.
Service Details
Assign each service basic information as well as more advanced options such as price, description, survey questions, group capacity (for group events), etc..Location
Set how each service is provided to clients: in store, at home, at a custom address, by phone or by videoconference.Staff Selection
Predetermine who provides each service or let your clients choose a staff member of their choice. To learn more about staff selection, consult this article.Booking Rules
Set options to further customize service booking rules such as additional reminders, cancellation policy, etc.Payment Options
Set options to collect payment (partial or whole) online, on-site or integrate Booxi with your shopping cart solution. You can also capture credit card information.Multilingual Content Support
See here for the list of languages Booxi supports.
Applications
As a core component of a business, services may be customized extensively with the help of a variety of settings, tailored to fit many business practices.
Multiple service types through customization.
Online services such as virtual consultations or virtual shopping assistant.
Online booking with pick-up service at the nearest location.
Training sessions for in-house personnel.
Remote selling by scheduling Live Shopping sessions.
Free and paid services.
Resources
Resources are any item, space, machine, equipment of any sort used in the rendition of a service. Each resource can be managed through its own individual schedule.
Resources are always managed at the store level.
Personnel
Personnel are all staff members associated with a merchant. Personnel are of type "Personnel with a calendar" or "User without calendar".
"Personnel with a calendar"
These are the staff members that provide the services booked by clients; as such, they can be "scheduled" by clients. Each staff profile has an availability schedule which determines their booking availability.
By default, such users do not have an associated account with which to access Booxi. However, they may be given their own account (which will allow them to consult the store's schedule and perform different actions (based on their access level)) if they are invited by an account administrator.
Availability: Set availability either by using a merchant's open business hours, a custom weekly schedule or an open calendar in which available and busy time slots are defined with the possibility to create custom busy time slots.
Notifications and Alerts: such users can receive notifications by email (primary email address and possibility to add a second email in CC) as well as alerts.
"Users without calendar"
These are the staff members that do not provide services; these users have no associated schedule and do not appear in the calendar, the booking widget or the Booxi page. Such users are usually management personnel (either from the store or the Head Office); they must be invited by an account administrator to obtain access to an account.
Client
A client is a person who has made a booking for a service offered by a store. Upon booking, clients are required to provide personal information, notably first and last names, email address and phone number, which are saved in a client record along with its booking history. Clients are associated with a store but can also be part of a clientele shared among several stores within the same merchant group.
Attendee
An attendee is a person who is invited to participate in a group reservation booked by a client. While the client can also be an attendee, an attendee cannot be the client. Information such as first and last names, email address and phone number are collected. Such as for a client, the booking history of an attendee is stored in his record.