Porter makes it simple for clients to request appointments and for artists or shop managers to accept and schedule them efficiently. Here’s how the booking request flow works from start to finish:
🔧 Customize Your Booking Form
Before any client submits a request, make sure your booking form is set up correctly.
Head to Profile → Porter Booking Form in the mobile app.
You can copy your booking form link here to share on Instagram, your website, or other socials.
Click Customize Your Form to adjust which questions you want clients to answer. You can toggle individual questions on/off and save your changes.
Want to revert back to our proven default? Just hit Reset to Default.
Our default form is tested across 100K+ appointments and is optimized for both conversion and clarity. Use it as-is, or tailor it to your style. Read more about customizing your form here.
👥 Clients Submitting a Request
Clients will use your booking form to provide the info you need to decide if and how to move forward. This includes:
The tattoo idea or reference
Size, placement, budget
General availability
Photos of the area (if enabled)
Guest spot or service location (if applicable)
Once submitted, the request enters your “📥 Your Turn” queue in the Porter mobile app on the requests page.
✅ Responding to Booking Requests
When a new booking request comes in, you’ll see it in the “Your Turn” section of your Porter mobile app. Click into the request to view the client’s submission, including photos, availability, and any reference or idea notes.
From here, you have several options for how to respond:
💬 Open a Chat
If you need more info before deciding, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the request and choose "Start chat with customer."
Clients receive your message via SMS and can reply directly by text.
You can ask follow-up questions, request more photos, or clarify details like placement, size, or budget.
The request will stay in Your Turn until you officially accept or reject it.
✏️ Edit the Request
Sometimes a request needs a little cleanup before you act on it — a placement the client corrected over text, a budget that changed, or a note for whoever ends up taking the job. Shop managers can edit a request in Business Web (app.getporter.io) before accepting or scheduling it, or even after accepting it.
Open the request in Business Web and choose "Edit Request." From there you can update:
Request details
Tattoo and customer details
Internal notes
💡 Tip: Internal notes are for your team only — clients never see them. Use them to flag a repeat client, a tricky placement, or which artist you have in mind before the request gets assigned.
⚠️ Heads up: Editing requests is available to shop managers in Business Web. Artists can't edit requests from the mobile app yet.
❌ Reject the Request
If the project isn’t a good fit or you’re not currently accepting new clients, you can hit “Reject” at the bottom of the request.
You’ll be prompted to type a quick message to the client explaining why.
The client will receive a text message letting them know you’re not moving forward, and the request will be marked as closed.
✅ Accept the Request
When you're ready to move forward, tap "Accept." Everything you used to do from three separate buttons now happens in one flow — you'll choose what kind of booking this is and how you want it scheduled as you go.
First choice, right at the top: are you accepting this as an Appointment or a Consultation?
Appointment — you're booking the actual session. Pricing and deposit come first, then scheduling.
Consultation — you want to meet before committing to the tattoo. Shorter flow, no pricing.
Pick one and Porter walks you through the rest.
💡 On a computer instead? The browser version at app.getporter.io walks you through the same steps. The layout looks a little different, but the choices are identical.
🖊️ Accepting as an Appointment
Set your pricing. Choose Fixed, Range, or Hourly, then enter your numbers.
Set the deposit. Enter the amount you want to collect, then answer "Deposit Already Paid."
No → Porter sends the client a link to pay by card.
Yes → choose the Payment Method you took it with, Cash or Digital.
Choose how it gets scheduled. Under "Who picks the time?" choose one of three options — see Three ways to schedule below. Right underneath, set the appointment length so Porter knows how much time to block off.
Open More Options if you need it.
Then send it.
💡 Booking more than one session? Open the Multi-session section before you send. See Accepting multi-session appointment requests for the full walkthrough.
💬 Accepting as a Consultation
Choose the consultation type — In person or Virtual.
Decide what your calendar does during that time:
"Yes, keep my calendar open" (the default) — the consult won't stop other bookings from landing in that slot.
"No, block my calendar during this time" — the slot is held just for the consult.
Choose how it gets scheduled. Under "Who picks the time?" choose one of the same three options, then set the consultation length right underneath.
Open More Options if you need it.
Then send it.
💡 Tip: Keeping your calendar open makes sense for a quick chat you don't mind doubling up on. If the consult is a real sit-down, block the time.
⚠️ Running it virtually? Set up your meeting link first under Profile → Virtual Consultations, where you can add a video link or choose to do consults over the phone. See How to Set Up & Run Virtual Consultations in Porter.
📆 Three ways to schedule
Both paths land on the same question — "Who picks the time?" Choose the answer that matches how much control you want:
Send them a booking link — the client opens your real-time availability and picks whatever works. Least effort for you, most freedom for them.
Offer them specific times — you pick up to three slots and the client chooses from those. Great when you'd rather not hand over your whole calendar.
Choose a date & time myself — you set it. Best when you've already agreed on a time over text or in person.
⚠️ Heads up: Offer them specific times isn't currently available for multi-session appointments. Once you set more than one session — send a booking link or pick the dates yourself instead.
🕒 Offering specific times
If you choose Offer them specific times:
Tap Add Times next to the calendar icon.
Pick your slots. Open a day on the calendar and choose a time, then add another time that same day or jump to a different date. Keep going until you have what you want — up to three total.
Tap the arrow in the bottom-right corner to head back to the booking flow.
Review what you picked. From here you can edit any of the times or remove an option before it goes out.
Send the times. The client sees those options and nothing else.
⚠️ Heads up: Offering times doesn't hold them. Those slots stay open on your calendar until someone books, so a walk-in or another request can still take one while your client is deciding.
If that happens, the taken time simply drops off the client's list and they choose from what's left. If all three get taken, they'll see a note that the times are no longer available and a "Request new times" button — tap that, and Porter lets you know to pick a fresh set.
Offered times don't expire on their own. They stay available until the client books or the slots fill up.
💡 Tip: Spread your three across different days when you can. Three slots on the same afternoon is really just one option to a client with a day job — and since the times aren't held, a tight cluster is easier to lose all at once.
⚙️ More Options
Open More Options to handle a few extras before you send:
Default reply — edit the message the client receives
Internal notes — notes for your team only, never visible to clients
On appointments, you'll also find Waiver collection here, where you can choose to collect the waiver through Porter or handle it offline.
📤 What the client gets
Depends on how you scheduled it:
Booking link → a text with a link to pick their own time from your availability
Specific times → a text with the options you offered. They'll see whichever ones are still open when they tap through.
You chose the time → a confirmation with the details
If you're collecting the deposit through Porter, they'll also get a link to pay it. The appointment is locked in once they do.
✍️ After you've accepted
Plans change. Once you've sent an acceptance you can still:
Edit the times you offered, as long as the client hasn't picked one yet. Their link stays the same, so there's nothing new to send.
Resend the offered times if the client goes quiet.
Resend the booking link if that's what you sent.
Pick new times if the client asks for them. If your offered slots filled up before they booked, they can request a new set and Porter will let you know.
Once a client has chosen one of your offered times, those times are locked. Need to move things after that? Reschedule the appointment like any other.
💬 Chatting With Clients
After a request is submitted, a chat thread automatically opens between you and the client. Use this to ask clarifying questions or follow up. Clients receive SMS messages anytime you send a reply, and they can respond directly via text.
⚡ Tip: Use General Requests (Studio Pro)
If you’re on the Studio Pro plan, you can enable General Requests so clients can request with “Any Artist” at your shop. These requests are routed to your designated request managers who can assign them to the right artist.
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