Opencals lets you ask customers for the exact information you need at the moment they book — allergies and dietary needs, a preferred stylist, consent to treatment, or a reference photo uploaded from their phone. These are checkout questions: custom intake fields that appear on the booking form. This guide walks through creating one, choosing the right input type, controlling which services it shows on, and writing the wording customers actually see.
Build a checkout question once and it appears on the booking form for the services you choose. Go to Forms → Checkout, add an Internal name, pick a Type (text, dropdown, rating, checkbox, or file upload), and set whether it's Required. Turn on Show for all services or assign specific ones, then add the customer-facing Title — in as many languages as you support.
Before you start
You'll need admin access to your Opencals dashboard. It also helps to have your services set up first, since you can scope a question to specific services — see Set up your services. No third-party account or integration is required.
Step 1 — Open the checkout questions list
Go to Forms → Checkout. This is the list of every question a customer answers when booking, showing each question's Name, Type, whether it's Required, and the Saved languages you've translated it into.
| Name | Type | Required | Saved languages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allergies & dietary needs | Multi Line Text Field | Yes | EN, FR | |
| Preferred stylist | Dropdown | No | EN | |
| Consent to treatment | Checkbox | Yes | EN | |
| Reference photo | File Upload | No | EN |
Click any row to edit it, or New question to add one. Each question is reusable — you build it here and attach it to as many services as you like.
Step 2 — Create a question and choose its type
Give the question an Internal name (required). This is the label you'll recognise it by in the dashboard; it isn't what customers see — that's the translated Title you'll add in Step 5. Then pick the Type, which controls the input the customer fills in.
Question
Services
Opencals offers six input types:
Single Line Text Field
A short one-line answer — a name, a booking reference, a car registration.
Multi Line Text Field
A longer free-text box for notes, requests, allergies, or medical details.
Dropdown
A list of preset options you define, so the customer picks one — e.g. a preferred stylist or a service tier.
Rating
A star rating input, for when you want a quick score rather than free text.
Checkbox
A single tick box — ideal for consent, waivers, and terms the customer must agree to.
File Upload
Lets the customer attach files at booking, such as a reference photo, a prescription, or a signed form.
Toggle Required on if the customer must answer before they can complete the booking. Leave it off for optional details.
Internal name vs. the customer-facing title
The Internal name is only ever seen by you in the dashboard, so make it clear and searchable (e.g. "Allergies & dietary needs"). The question customers actually read is the Title under Translations — you'll set that in Step 5.
Step 3 — Set file-upload limits (File Upload only)
When you set the Type to File Upload, extra options appear so you can control what customers can send.
- Allowed file types — tick the categories you accept: Images (jpg, png, webp, heic), PDF, Audio (mp3, wav, m4a), Video (mp4, mov), Documents (doc, xls, ppt, txt, csv), and Archives (zip).
- Max size (MB) — the largest single file a customer can upload. Defaults to 25.
- Max files — how many files they can attach to this question. Defaults to 5.
Restricting the allowed types keeps uploads relevant and your storage tidy — for a "reference photo" question, allow only Images.
Step 4 — Decide which services show the question
On the right of the editor, the Services card controls where the question appears.
Show for all services
Turn this on and the question is asked on every service's booking form. Best for questions that apply store-wide, like consent or allergies.
Assign services
Turn Show for all services off and pick specific services instead. The question only appears when a customer books one of those services.
The two are mutually exclusive: enabling Show for all services clears any specific services you'd assigned, because the question now applies everywhere.
A question with no services stays hidden
If Show for all services is off and you haven't assigned any services, the question won't be shown to customers until you assign a service or turn the toggle back on.
Step 5 — Write the customer-facing title and translations
Save the question first — translations unlock once it exists. Then, under Translations, add the wording customers see. This is separate from the internal name so you can phrase it for customers and support several languages.
Translations
- Title — the question text shown on the booking form. This one is required (marked Title *).
- Description — optional helper text under the question, for extra context or instructions.
- Options — for a Dropdown question, the list of choices the customer picks from.
Use the language tabs to add a translation for each language your store supports; the Saved languages column on the list reflects what you've filled in.
Translate every language you sell in
Customers answer in their own language. Add a translation for each language your booking flow uses so the question — and its dropdown options — reads naturally instead of falling back to another language.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep going
Checkout questions overview
See how custom booking questions fit into the Opencals checkout and what you can collect.
Set up your services
Create bookable services first so you can scope checkout questions to the right ones.
Collect customer feedback
Ask questions after the appointment instead of at booking, using the same question builder.
Customize your booking design
Match the booking form — questions included — to your brand's look and feel.
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