Acuity Scheduling: Easy online yoga class scheduler and payment option
“Acuity is a super powerful, really flexible tool that can do a wild amount of things for you, for your business, for your clients. But you don’t have to integrate or set up everything to its fullest potential right away, if ever.” — Kristin Barber
What is Acuity?
Acuity is a scheduling and payment tool that’s super easy to use!
It started as a personal tool for the founder’s mom who was a massage therapist and was struggling to get clients scheduled without spending hours on the phone. And what started as a tool for one person, grew into a much bigger business that now serves many different industries.
Acuity makes scheduling simple and cuts out multiple emails back and forth between you and your students or clients.
Imagine this, someone’s on your website and they want to come to one of your virtual classes or book a private session with you. Instead of them emailing you to find out when you have a spot available, they can immediately book with you and pay for the session right away. At midnight when they are ready to buy, they can do it! This is the world we live in today and we want to make it simple and easy for our students to book with us and Acuity is a great option for you!
“It’s a really great way for you to get business and build your business in a really professional and seamless way, without you having to put in much effort, which is nice.” — Kristin Barber
How can a yoga teacher use Acuity
Acuity is a great tool for yoga teachers because it combines scheduling and payment and even integrates with Zoom. That’s right, when someone registers for a class or private session with you, Zoom and Acuity talk to each other and create the Zoom link for you and sends an email to the person who booked with you. It’s a huge time saver once you get this set up.
Acuity can also work with class passes and registered series and there are lots of yoga teacher examples that Acuity mentions on their site.
Here are some other features you will find helpful as a yoga teacher:
- Student self-scheduling (saves you time!)
- Unlimited services and appointment types
- Reminder emails (that include a Zoom link if you’re using Zoom)
- Payment options for memberships and packages as well as individual sessions and classes
- Time zone conversions (no more messing those up!)
- Integrations with Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero, MailChimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Paypal, Square, Stripe
- Syncs with Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange and Office 365 (so you’re never double-booked)
“Acuity is a super powerful, really flexible tool that can do a wild amount of things for you, for your business, for your clients. But you don’t have to integrate or set up everything to its fullest potential right away, if ever.” — Kristin Barber
Acuity Pricing
There are several options for pricing and there’s even a FREE option to test it out:
- Free
- Emerging — $15 USD per month, allows for 1 calendar at one location
- Growing — $25 USD per month, allows for 6 calendars for multiple locations or teachers. This option also includes text messaging, membership subscriptions, packages and gift certificates.
- Powerhouse — $50 USD per month, allows for 36 calendars for multiple locations or teachers, all the features from the other options plus more customized options.
Want to see an example?
Click HERE to see a beautiful yoga teacher’s example on Acuity.
How to Get Started Using Acuity
Because you’re in my audience, Acuity has offered you a 45 day trial of the paid version (Emerging level) of their system! All you have to do is click this link and you will be able to have the extended free trial where you can play around with everything.
Once you sign up, choose “yoga or pilates” as the business and that will give you prompts on how to get your yoga business set up on Acuity step-by-step.
“Then you just get to play around with it. Send the link to your family and friends and have them try to book an appointment with you. See what happens and what they suggest.” — Kristin Barber
How to Set Up a Yoga Studio Checklist
Acuity has you covered when it comes to getting set up. Yes, they will walk you through this step-by-step after you sign up. But you can even take a look at the process before you sign up with this checklist. Enter your information below and I will email you the yoga studio checklist document.
PLUS — you will be entered into a drawing to win a free year of Acuity!
Payment Options with Acuity
Acuity works with Stripe, Paypal and Square and you can use one or even all three options. And no matter what payment processor you use, you are in control of how you get paid based on your appointment types.
For example, you might have your group classes as a pay in full payment system but for your private sessions you might take a deposit to book the date and then receive the remainder of the payment before or on the appointment date. You are in control of this and it’s based on the individual appointment types.
Connecting Acuity with Your Website and Social Media
There are many ways you can share your scheduling tool in your digital presence. You can embed the scheduler directly on your website so it’s part of your page and the student doesn’t even have to leave your website to book with you. Or if you don’t have a website yet, you can use a link to your scheduler directly. And they even have booking buttons that you can put on your website!
There are also ways to connect Acuity to Facebook and Instagram so someone can book a session or class with you from social media! You can check out my Facebook Page and Instagram to see how this looks and how easy it is to book!
“But again, you don’t need to go all the way and have it on absolutely everything on the first day you sign up. Get it created and see where you want to take it from there. We’re here to help you take it as far as you’re willing to go.” — Kristin Barber
Adding a Waiver to Your Scheduler
In order to add terms and conditions to your scheduler so you’re covered from a legal standpoint, you will need to set up an Intake Form. You are able to put your specific information into this form and then make it a required box to check so you’re covered legally.
Win a Free Year of Acuity!
Since you’re in my audience, you have the chance to win a free year at the Emerging level ($15 USD per month). All you have to do is download this super amazing guide that walks you step-by-step through setting up your yoga business with Acuity and you’ll be entered into the drawing. Below are the details and form to sign up:
Giveaway Details
- Deadline to enter: July 19th
- Winner will be announced by email: July 20th
- You must enter your information in the form to be entered
- A random number generator will be used to select the winner
Your next step
Enter to win a free year of Acuity and grab the 45 day free trial! Give Acuity a try and see if it works for your yoga business needs.
Until next time, give yourself permission to make online scheduling easy and grace along the way.
For more stories like this, listen to the Marketing Yoga with Confidence Podcast.
About Amanda McKinney (Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers)
Amanda McKinney is a Marketing Coach with a passion for empowering yoga teachers to earn more money doing what they love. She does this through her podcast: Marketing Yoga With Confidence and Online Offerings. All of which focuses on building confidence and community with an extra dose of encouragement every step of the way.
