Video Consultations
Offer appointments as in-app video calls or external Meet, Zoom and WhatsApp links: turn it on, choose the join window, start and end calls, handle no-shows, and track your monthly video minutes.
A video consultation is a normal booking whose offering is delivered over video instead of in person. The customer gets a private join link, waits in a lobby, and you start the call from the appointment. There is nothing for the customer or your team to install, and your team does not need a separate video account.
You can deliver an offering in one of two video ways:
| Delivery choice | Where the call happens | Who starts it |
|---|---|---|
| In-app video | Inside BillionBiz, on a call page for your store. | You, with Start call on the appointment. |
| Video link | Google Meet, Zoom or WhatsApp video, using a link you enter. | You, in that service. BillionBiz only delivers the link. |
Plan requirement
In-app video is included in the Appointments add-on, so there is no separate purchase. If your plan does not include it, the in-app option stays disabled and the page says so. See Plans, Add-ons & Seats.
Turn on video consultations for the store
Screen: In the classic admin sidebar, go to Sales & Orders → Appointments → Settings. In the new admin sidebar, go to sell. → Appointments → Settings. Only store administrators and super administrators can open Settings. The Video consultations card sits below the booking rules.
Switch on Offer video consultations
Turn on Offer video consultations. Until this switch is on, the offering form cannot select In-app video, and every other control in the card stays disabled.
Check Booked video appointments
The Booked video appointments switch controls whether customers receive a join link with their booking. Leave it on if you want customers to join from their booking.
Choose When can customers join?
Pick one of two options:
- Anytime on the appointment day opens the call from 00:00 to 23:59 on the appointment day, in your store's timezone. This is the default.
- Set minutes before start and after end shows two number fields, Minutes before start and Minutes after end. Each accepts 0 to 1,440. The window opens that many minutes before the appointment starts and closes that many minutes after the appointment ends.
Outside the window the customer sees a "not open yet" or "window has closed" screen and you see the matching state on the appointment.
Choose what happens when a deposit is unpaid
Under Customers with an unpaid deposit can, choose Join anyway or Must pay first. With Must pay first, the customer sees Complete payment to join and is sent to the existing payment page. Joining does not remove the amount owed.
Save
Select Save changes. The button reads Saving… while the request runs and is disabled until you change something. A success message reads Video settings saved.
The same card shows Monthly video minutes and a Powered by BillionBiz Video note. If your plan has no video you see Video consultations are not in your plan with a View plans button; if the plan has lapsed you see Your video plan has lapsed with a Renew plan button, and new in-app calls are paused. If the card cannot load it shows Video settings could not be loaded. with Try again.
Set up an offering for video
Screen: Appointments → Offerings, then open an offering or create a new one. The form has a How is this delivered? section (subtitle Choose where the appointment takes place.) with three choices: In person, In-app video and Video link.
Choose In-app video
Select In-app video. The section shows "Customers get a join link by email. No app needed." There are no further fields.
Or choose Video link
Select Video link, then set Video service to Google Meet, Zoom or WhatsApp video, and paste your meeting link into Default video link. The link must start with https://; otherwise the form shows Enter a valid link that starts with https://. If the address does not match the chosen service you see This link does not look like a Zoom link. (with the service you picked). A Check your link before sharing notice reminds you to use a private meeting link. For WhatsApp the link opens a chat and your team starts the video call there.
Save the offering
Save as you normally do. The delivery choice applies to bookings made after that. When you edit an existing offering, Save stays disabled until you change something on the form.
Things that disable or block the choice:
- Video is not available on your plan or In-app video is turned off appears when the plan lacks video or the store switch above is off. The second notice has an Open settings link. An offering that is already on in-app video keeps its value even then, so a lapse never silently rewrites it.
- Cannot change delivery yet appears when you try to move an offering off in-app video while upcoming bookings still use it. It shows how many bookings are affected and a View bookings link. Reschedule or cancel them first. The form stays on In-app video.
Link a product to a video offering
A product can offer a video call with your team. The offering must be set to In-app video first.
Open the product's video settings
Go to Inventory, open the product and choose Edit. In the classic (v1) admin, expand Pre-orders, video & badges. In the new (v2) product editor, open Video-call shopping under Selling features.
Turn on the consultation
Turn on Offer a video-call consultation for this product. The Video offering field appears below it.
Pick the offering and save
Choose the offering from Video offering, then save the product. While the switch is on, the product cannot be saved without an offering. The field shows Select a video-call offering until you choose one.
- If your store has no offering on In-app video yet, the field is greyed out and reads No video offerings yet. Below it, Create a video offering opens the new-offering form. Create the offering, then come back to the product. Turn the switch off to save the product without a video call.
- If the offerings fail to load, the field is greyed out with Video offerings could not be loaded. Try again before saving. Reload the page.
Who can host, and take-over
- The user linked to the appointment's assigned team member or resource can host that appointment.
- Store administrators and super administrators can host any appointment.
- Other staff who press Start call are refused with "Only the assigned staff member or an admin may host."
If someone is already hosting and an administrator needs to step in, the administrator sees Take over instead of Start call. Taking over transfers the host controls to them. The appointment stays In progress, and both people on the call are told the host changed. The previous host is disconnected and sees "The host changed".
Start a call
Screen: Start from whichever surface you already use. The call itself opens full screen on its own page.
- Calendar: appointments delivered by video carry a small camera icon on the calendar chip (tooltip Video, or Video link for external links). The chip shows the customer's full name, wrapping to two lines before it is cut off; hover over it to see the full name. Select the chip to open the appointment detail panel.
- Day and week views: the card's camera icon in the top row, next to the time, is itself the control. It is an icon-only Start call (or Rejoin call, or Take over for an administrator when someone else is hosting). Hover over the icon itself to see its label; move the pointer onto the rest of the card and the card's own tooltip (customer name and booking status) takes over. When the booking is awaiting payment under Must pay first, the icon is greyed out and hovering it shows Payment pending: the customer hasn't paid yet. When there is nothing to start yet (for example before the call window opens), the icon is only a marker with the tooltip Video. Month view, the detail panel and My Day keep the full text button.
- Detail panel: the video section shows the state and the Start call button.
- My Day: each video appointment row shows a short state and Start call, for staff on a phone or desktop.
The state text tells you why the button is or is not there:
| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Join opens today at a time, or Opens on a date | The window has not opened. No button yet. |
| Join window is open | You can start. |
| Payment pending (calendar and My Day), or Payment pending: the customer hasn't paid yet with "Start call unlocks once the required deposit is paid." (detail panel) | The booking is still awaiting payment and the store's Customers with an unpaid deposit can setting is Must pay first. Start call is shown but greyed out. With Join anyway, Start call stays available. |
| In-app video is not enabled for this store. | The join window is open, but in-app video is switched off in Settings → Video consultations (Offer video consultations or Booked video appointments is off). There is no Start call. Turn both switches back on. |
| The customer's name followed by "is waiting in the lobby" | The customer is already in. Start when ready. |
| Call in progress | A host is in the call. You see Rejoin call, or Take over if you are an administrator and someone else is hosting. |
| Call ended | The appointment is Completed or No-show. |
| Appointment cancelled | The join link no longer works. |
| The join window has closed | The window passed without a call. |
On a phone the screen is the same page, with a Flip control to switch between front and rear cameras. Screen sharing is offered on desktop only.
In the call
- Check your devices. Allow camera and microphone, pick a camera, microphone and speaker under Device settings if needed, and test the speaker with Test speaker. Then press Start call under Ready to start?.
- During the call the control bar has Mute / Unmute, a camera on/off control, Flip (phone), Share / Stop sharing (host, desktop) and Leave. Your own picture is a small self-view you can drag. When you mute, the microphone button switches to a slashed-mic icon and a filled, pressed look (it reads Unmute); turning the camera off does the same to the camera button (it reads Camera off). With your camera off, your self-view shows your initials, and the customer sees an initials tile in place of your video.
- Leave without ending. Leave asks Leave without ending? The customer can stay in the call, the appointment remains In progress, and you can rejoin.
- End for everyone. The host sees End for everyone, which asks End this consultation? and says the customer leaves the call too and the appointment will be marked Completed. Choose End for everyone to confirm or Keep call open to go back.
If the customer drops, you see "has left the call" and they can rejoin while you keep the call open. If your own connection drops, the screen shows Reconnecting… and restores your camera and microphone settings when it returns.
Status changes
| Event | Appointment status |
|---|---|
| Host starts or joins the call | In progress |
| Host ends the call for everyone | Completed |
| Host leaves without ending | Stays In progress |
| You mark the customer a no-show | No-show |
| Appointment is cancelled | Cancelled, and the join link stops working |
The no-show prompt
When the scheduled start time is behind you by more than the store's no-show grace period (15 minutes by default), the appointment is still Confirmed or Checked in, and the customer has not entered the lobby, the detail panel shows "has not joined" with the text "It is past the scheduled start. Check with the customer before marking no-show." Choose Mark no-show to continue to the usual no-show confirmation, or Keep waiting to dismiss it. BillionBiz never marks a no-show automatically. Only your confirmation changes the status.
The monthly minutes allowance
In-app video is metered in participant-minutes: every connected person's minutes count, so a 20-minute call with two people uses 40 minutes. The included allowance depends on your plan. The Monthly video minutes meter in Appointments → Settings → Video consultations shows Minutes this month: used of included, for example "1.5 of 1,000". Used minutes show at most one decimal place, and whole numbers show none.
- At 80% the card shows You have used 80% of your included minutes.
- At 100% it shows Monthly video limit reached. New joins are blocked until the 1st of the next month; a call already in progress can finish. The allowance never cuts off a live call.
- Store administrators are emailed at 80% and at 100%.
- Customers who try to join after the limit see a message to contact the store, and your appointment shows Monthly video limit reached. New joins are blocked until next month.
Troubleshooting
The offering will not let me choose In-app video. Check Settings → Video consultations: the plan must include video, and Offer video consultations must be on. The notice in the form tells you which.
There is no Start call button. Read the state text. Before the window it shows when the call opens; after it, The join window has closed. If the window is open but the text reads In-app video is not enabled for this store., turn Offer video consultations and Booked video appointments back on under Settings → Video consultations. If the appointment is on a video link, you see Open ... link instead. Also check that your account is linked to the assigned team member, or that you are an administrator.
Why is Start call greyed out? Open the appointment. If it reads Payment pending: the customer hasn't paid yet, the booking is awaiting payment and Settings → Video consultations → Customers with an unpaid deposit can is set to Must pay first. Start call unlocks once the customer pays the deposit. To let unpaid bookings join, choose Join anyway and save.
Customers say they cannot join. Check the window you set, whether an unpaid deposit is set to Must pay first, and whether the monthly limit is reached. Customers who opened the link inside WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail or Outlook are asked to open it in Safari or Chrome. See Joining a Video Consultation.
The Video offering field on a product is greyed out. No offering in your store uses In-app video yet. Offerings on In person or Video link are not listed. Use Create a video offering, or switch an existing offering to In-app video.
I cannot switch an offering back to in person. Upcoming bookings still use in-app video. Reschedule or cancel them from the calendar, then try again.
The customer was sent a new link. After a reschedule the old join link shows "This link was replaced" and the customer must use the latest message. On your side, refresh the appointment.
My camera or microphone is blocked. Allow both for the admin site in your browser's site controls, reload the page, and press Check again on the device screen. Close other apps or tabs using the camera.
Not available yet
Recording, instant (unscheduled) calls, and WhatsApp join links are not part of video consultations today. Customers receive join links by email, a calendar file, and their booking pages.