Fine-Tuning Square Appointments for Voka AI

Check which Square Appointments plan you are on

Square decides how much of your calendar an integration can touch based on your subscription. Appointments Plus and Premium grant seller-level access — full visibility into the calendar and the ability to manage any appointment on it. Square Free grants buyer-level access, where Voka can create bookings and manage the ones it created, but appointments made online, in person or as walk-ins stay outside its reach.

Do this

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  In SquareSettings›Account & Billing›Pricing & Subscriptions

  Check whether you are on Square Free, Plus or Premium. Plus and Premium are what unlock full calendar management by phone.

Worth knowing

Nothing breaks on Square Free. Voka still answers every call and still books. It just manages its own bookings rather than your whole calendar.

Name services the way your callers say them

Voka matches what a caller asks for against your live Square catalog by name. It never invents a service and never guesses an ID. It tries an exact match, then a whole-word match, then an overlap of words — and if two services tie, it deliberately resolves to nothing rather than pick wrong. So a catalog full of internal codes, or several services whose names start with the same word, is what turns "I’ll have a cut" into "we don’t offer that".

Do this

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library

  Read your service names out loud. If you would not say it to a client on the phone, rename it. Move durations and internal codes into the description.

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library

  Where two services start with the same word — "Haircut – Level 2" and "Haircut – Level 3" — put the distinguishing word first instead: "Level 2 Haircut".

• 3
  In SquareItems & services›Service library

  Set a realistic duration on every service and every variation. Square uses it to work out when a second service can start, so a duration that is wrong either overbooks the chair or hides slots the caller could have had.

Turn on "Bookable by Customers Online" for everything you want taken by phone

This one toggle controls API booking as well as online booking. A service with it switched off is dropped from the spoken menu, and if a caller names it directly Voka declines before it even searches. It matters most on multi-service calls: if any one service in the request is switched off, Square refuses the whole request and does not name which service caused it.

Do this

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library›each service

  Switch "Bookable by Customers Online" on for every service you want taken by phone — and check each variation of a service separately, not just the parent.

• 2
  In SquareItems & services›Service library

  If you deliberately keep something off the online menu, expect Voka to decline it by phone too. That is usually the right outcome — just know it is the reason.

Decide between cancellation fees and phone booking

Square’s Bookings API will not create a booking for any service that carries a cancellation or no-show fee. This is a platform rule, not a Voka limitation, and it is the single most common reason an owner says "it would not book my service". Voka detects it and declines cleanly rather than failing partway through a call.

Do this

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library›each service

  Check which services carry a cancellation or no-show fee. Remove the fee to open phone booking for that service.

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library

  Or keep the fee and accept that the service is online-only. Voka will point callers at your Square booking site and offer your other services.

Worth knowing

If the fee was there to protect against no-shows, a deposit does the same job without blocking the phone. That is step six.

Assign every service to the staff who actually perform it

Square filters which staff can take a service by the team members assigned to it — but only when that list is not empty. Leave it empty and every bookable team member is treated as able to perform the service, including people who cannot. This is what drives three things at once: honouring "I want Ana", answering "whoever is free soonest", and putting a different provider on each service inside one appointment.

Do this

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  In SquareItems & services›Service library›each service›Team members

  Select the team members who genuinely perform each service. An empty list means "everyone bookable", not "everyone qualified".

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  In SquareStaff›Team›Team members

  Make sure each person is bookable in their staff booking profile. A team member who is not bookable is invisible to Voka.

Choose whether bookings are automatic or reviewed

If your store reviews booking requests rather than accepting them automatically, Square returns new bookings as pending. Voka reports that honestly — the caller is told the appointment has been requested and is awaiting your confirmation — and it will not offer alternative times or try to book again.

Do this

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  In SquareAppointments›Settings›Booking flow

  Set bookings to be accepted automatically if you want callers to hang up with a confirmed appointment.

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  In SquareAppointments›Settings›Booking flow

  Keep review on if you prefer to approve each one, and expect Voka to say "requested" rather than "confirmed" on the call.

Turn on deposits if no-shows are the problem

Voka never asks a caller to read out a card number. Instead it books the appointment and then texts a secure Square link — a deposit, the full amount, or the caller’s choice — and the caller pays on Square’s own hosted checkout. This is the way to protect a slot without attaching a cancellation fee that would block phone booking entirely.

Do this

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  In VokaIntegrations›Square Appointments›Payment collection

  Pick how the assistant should collect payment: none, deposit only, full payment only, or let the caller choose. Then set the deposit amount as a percentage or a fixed sum.

• 2
  In VokaAI Assistants›your assistant›Messaging

  Make sure SMS is enabled on every assistant taking these calls. The link is texted, so without SMS the assistant cannot send it.