The agent either books a time on the call itself or captures what the caller wants and hands you a request to confirm. You choose once for the whole business, and can override it for single services and columns.
- Select Integrations in the sidebar, then the Booking systems tab.
- Find How the agent books at the top of the page.
- Open the Booking mode menu and choose Internal diary — book live, Request mode — team confirms, or the name of a connected booking system followed by — book live.
- Select Save mode. Booking mode saved. confirms it.
You can reach the same control from Requests: open the folded Booking mode line at the top of that page.
What each choice does
- Internal diary — book live. The agent checks Harkbell's own diary and books available appointments on the call. A new workspace starts here.
- Request mode — team confirms. The agent captures the caller's preferences and sends your team a notification and an email with a link. Nothing is booked until you confirm. See Approve or decline booking requests.
- A connected system. The agent books straight into Square, Calendly or Acuity. A request is also what the agent falls back to when that system cannot be reached mid-call, so an outage costs you a tap instead of the caller.
Overrides for one service or one column
Under Bookings › Setup, the Agent may book switch on a service set to Only humans makes the agent offer a callback instead of a slot. On Harkbell's own columns, On a call, the agent can be set to Takes requests for a single column. The page under How the agent books shows which services and columns are set that way.
One choice for the whole business
Request mode is the business's route, not one service's. A connected diary books every service on your list. A pending request holds nothing: the time stays bookable until you confirm, and a confirmation that has been overtaken tells you the slot has gone rather than double-booking you.
Why can I not change the mode?
While a booking system is connected, only an owner or admin can move the agent off it. Everyone else sees a note naming the connected system. The Booking mode menu also needs the Owner, Admin or Manager role.
Does connecting Square or Calendly switch the agent over by itself?
Only when nothing else is live. A connection never takes over a diary in use, so if your Harkbell diary still has upcoming appointments, the panel shows Connected — agent not booking until you choose to switch. See Connect Square Appointments.