April 2026: Two-Way Messaging, AI Digest & Schedule Optimisation
29 April 2026
Highlights
Two-Way SMS Messaging
A dedicated phone number for your business with a full threaded inbox. Send and receive SMS messages with clients, add internal notes, and see automated messages in context — all in one place.
AI Business Digest
An AI-generated weekly performance summary delivered to your inbox. Covers revenue, bookings, client trends, cancellation rates, and actionable insights — calibrated to your business maturity.
Schedule Optimisation
Three scheduling modes for online booking — Show All, Reduce Gaps, or Eliminate Gaps. Minimise dead time between appointments and keep your calendar compact.
Afterpay / Clearpay Support
Clients can pay with Afterpay (or Clearpay in the UK) for deposits, gift cards, and packages. You receive the full amount upfront through Stripe.
Find a Time Wizard
An availability-first booking approach. Select a client and services, then browse available slots across multiple days with intelligent gap-fill scoring that ranks the best times.
Dark Mode
A full dark theme for the business dashboard. Toggle between light and dark from the sidebar — your preference is remembered across sessions.
Messaging & Campaigns
A dedicated phone number for your business with a three-panel inbox: thread list, conversation view, and contact info. Send messages, receive client replies in real time, and add internal notes. Automated appointment messages (reminders, confirmations) appear in the same thread for full context.
Send a single message to multiple clients at once. Filter your audience, preview recipient counts and credit usage, then send. Campaign history tracks delivery statistics. Respects client consent preferences.
Two-way messaging and campaigns are part of Messages Plus, an add-on subscription. Includes a dedicated phone number, two-way inbox, campaigns, and SMS credits. Automated messages (reminders, confirmations) remain on all plans.
A dedicated page for viewing credit balances, purchasing credit packs, configuring auto-top-up, and reviewing transaction history.
Bella automatically handles common client responses: YES/Y confirms appointments, NO/CANCEL flags for follow-up, and STOP/UNSUBSCRIBE manages consent. Auto-replies keep clients informed.
AI & Intelligence
An automated weekly performance email powered by AI. Analyses your appointments, sales, and client data to produce a personalised narrative with highlights, concerns, and actionable insights. Tone is calibrated to your business volume and maturity — new businesses get encouraging guidance, established businesses get detailed trend analysis.
Rate Bella AI responses with thumbs up/down to help improve accuracy. Flag incorrect information directly in the chat.
The command palette search now integrates AI-powered results alongside standard navigation and record search.
Scheduling & Appointments
An availability-first booking approach. Select a client and services, then browse available slots across multiple days. Intelligent gap-fill scoring ranks each slot as "Best fit", "Great fit", or "Good fit" based on how well it fills gaps between existing appointments.
Three scheduling modes: Show All (every available slot), Reduce Gaps (hide slots that create gaps too short for another booking), or Eliminate Gaps (only offer slots directly adjacent to existing bookings). Configure per location in online booking settings.
Online bookings can now require business approval before confirmation. When enabled (and no deposit is required), clients receive a "Pending Approval" notification and the business can approve or decline.
View online bookings that clients started but did not complete. Appears in a Follow-ups panel alongside the waitlist, with options to dismiss or send a reminder to the client.
Blocked time slots now show a lock icon and use distinct colours. Improved visual distinction between different blocked time types on the scheduler.
A new 10-minute zoom preset for the scheduler grid, giving you finer-grained time slot visibility for shorter services.
Payments & Buy Now, Pay Later
Clients can now pay with Afterpay (Clearpay in the UK) for deposits, gift card purchases, and package purchases. Split into 4 interest-free instalments — you receive the full amount upfront through Stripe. Available in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Apply discounts with selectable reasons when checking out appointments and creating sales. A new Discount Summary report tracks discount usage, amounts, and breakdowns by reason.
Staff can now charge a client's saved card for the deposit amount when creating an appointment, without the client needing to pay through the online portal.
Deposits can now be refunded through Stripe when an appointment is cancelled. Refund amount respects the cancellation policy fee percentage.
Gift Cards & Packages
Clients can now apply gift cards when booking online to cover the deposit or full payment. Enter the gift card code at the payment step, and the balance is deducted from the total.
Clients can view all their gift cards and remaining balances from a dedicated "My Gift Cards" page in the online booking portal.
Gift cards now support configurable expiration dates. Expired gift cards cannot be redeemed, and the expiry date is shown to clients in both the delivery email and the My Gift Cards portal.
Client Management
Multi-select clients from the client list to send bulk announcements or copy email addresses. Selection persists across pages.
CSV export now respects active filters, so you can export specific client segments rather than the entire list.
Appointments now show whether they were booked online or created by staff, with filtering support on the appointments list.
Real-Time & Notifications
Business events now push instantly to the dashboard via Azure SignalR. New appointments, cancellations, and waitlist entries appear without refreshing the page.
The Business Summary (formerly Digest Ready) event type lets you control how and when you receive weekly AI digest emails.
Reports & Insights
A new report tracking discount usage across your sales, broken down by discount reason. See total discount amounts, frequency, and percentage breakdowns.
Track team member attendance, clock-in/out records, and hours worked. Includes days worked, total hours, average hours per day, and late arrival tracking.
Platform & Design
- NewDark Mode
A full dark theme for the business dashboard. Toggle between light and dark from the sidebar theme switch — your preference is remembered across sessions.
- EnhancedDesign System Overhaul
The internal design system has been restructured into dedicated pages covering foundations, inputs, data display, feedback, overlays, navigation, scheduler, payments, checkout, AI chat, and reference patterns.
- EnhancedPushPanel Component
A new slide-over panel component replaces the previous Slideover across the entire application. Provides consistent push-panel behaviour for appointment editing, client details, and settings.
- EnhancedNext.js 16 Upgrade
The frontend has been upgraded from Next.js 15.5 to 16.2 with Turbopack for faster builds and improved performance.
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Australian-owned business. Sydney-based support team.