Getting Started

• Requirements:

  In order for Appointly module Email Notifications, SMS Notifications and Pusher live push notifications to work note that:

  • Perfex CRM Cron Job must be configured in order reminders to be sent: Read more...
  Note: If cron job is not set reminder will not be sent for appointments
  • Perfex CRM SMS provider must be configured in order SMS messages to be sent: Read more...
  Note: If SMS provider is not set SMS notification will not be sent for appointments to contacts

Introduction

Introduction to Appointly - Appointments module for Perfex CRM

Appointly fits perfectly for any type of appointment with ability to integrate a form on your websites.

Appointly is a module for Perfex CRM that you can schedule appointments to your CRM and from external form and manage your Appointments with ease, the module is designed for fast creating appointments to ease your communication with your contacts and also you can include staff as attendees, subject, description, date and time and many other features. Appointly offers users to add request appointment form to any of your websites and clients can directly ask for an appointment.Appointments can be created with a specific start time and location with option to include Internal, External Contact or Lead and also include staff as attendees. The module is flexbile with simple nice looking design and easy to use. Offers options as External Form can be embed(added) to any website, Internal, Internal Contact, External Contact, Lead, Email and SMS Notifications, Name, Email, Location, Approve Appointment, Cancel Appointment (Reason), Confirm as Finished and many more other features to come. Custom Fields, Email Tracking, and Feedbacks are also available for Appointment which also support live notification and email templates.

Installation

Installation and upgrade guide for Appointly - Appointments module for Perfex CRM

• Option 1: Installation time (1-2 min)
  • Extract downloaded zip contents from CodeCanyon. Navigate in Setup->Modules in sidebar menu upload appointly.zip to modules section and click install. Navigate to your module and click Activate. If database upgrade is required click Upgrade Database and you are set to go. If database upgrade is required click Upgrade Database and you are set to go.
• Option 2: Installation time (1-2 min)
  • Open your downloaded zip folder from CodeCanyon and unzip appointly.zip directly into your modules folder on your server eg. it should be unzipped inside your modules folder like this modules/appointly/[other folders] and reload your browser. Navigate to your module and click Activate. If database upgrade is required click Upgrade Database and you are set to go.
• IMPORTANT: Always clear your browser cache after installing or upgrading
  Depending on your operating system all you need to do is the following key combination:
  Windows: ctrl + F5
  Mac/Apple: Apple + R or command + R
  Linux: F5

Features

• Services Management System
• Analytics Dashboard
• Google Calendar API
• Google Meet Integration
• Invite Client and Staff to Google Meet (via email)
• Outlook Calendar API
• Custom Fields
• Email Tracking
• Convert to task (can be related to Project, Invoice, Customer, Estimate, Contract, Ticket, Expense, Lead and Proposal)
• Convert to lead
• Appointment Feedbacks. Clients with finished appointments can add feedback rating and comment. Staff can request a feedback.
• Embed (iFrame) form to any of your websites (can be added to multiple websites)
• Staff permissions (View, Create, Edit, Delete, Approve, View Reports)
• Live push notifications (Reminders, New Appointment, Appointment Cancelled, Request Cancellation, Updated, Feedback notifications)
• Dashboard Widget
• Google Calendar API
• Today's Appointments Calendar sync
• Option to Edit Appointment
• Option to Delete Appointment
• Option to Cancel appointment
• Option set default table filter
• Option set clients to book appointments logged in or before login
• Calendar type events
• Appointment Notes
• Service Management
• Calendar type color events in staff and clients area
• Books appointments directly from customers area
• General appointment view
• General appointment view separate for external public client url client (hashed and unique)
• General appointment view separate for internal staff private CRM url attendee
• Assign Multiple Staff Attendees
• Internal Appointment (Contacts)
• Internal Appointment (Leads)
• External Appointment
• External iFrame Form (Contact)
• SMS Notifications and Notification reminders
• Email Notifications and email reminders
• Reminder Notifications
• Send Early Reminder
• Access Logs
• Reschedule appointment (Mark as Ongoing)
• Email Templates
  • Appointment Approved to (Staff and Attendees)
  • Appointment Cancelled to (Staff and Attendees)
  • Appointment Approved to (Contact)
  • Appointment Cancelled to (Contact)
  • Appointment reminder to (Staff and Attendees)
  • Appointment reminder to (Contact)
  • Feedback Receive to (Staff)
  • Feedback updated to (Staff)
  
• SMS Templates
  • Note: Make sure that all your SMS templates in Setup->Setting->SMS are filled with some content as given in the example below or SMS will not be sent if your SMS templae is empty.
  • Appointment Approved to (Contact)
  • Appointment Cancelled to (Contact)
  • Appointment Reminder to (Contact)
  
• Dashboard Todays Appointments Widget
  • Add today's appointments widget to your dashboard
• All your appointments are shown and synced with your calendar
  • Directly open appointment from calendar
  • Calendar colored events
• Flexible date and time manipulation
  • Busy hours and dates indicator
  • Also available in external form
• Email and SMS notifications :
  • Send Email and SMS notifications to contact / attendees on creation, approval or editing existing appointment
  • Email Templates for Appointments (translate ready)
  • Custom content and subject
  • Custom Fields
  • Feedbacks
  • Custom admin email templates and SMS
  • Appointment Confirmation
  • Appointment Cancellation
  • HTML content via TinyMCE editor in Email Templates
  • Custom statuses for different status of appointments : pending, approved, cancelled, confirmed, upcoming, missed
  • Template merge fields, in SMS and Email templates
  • Action Hooks
• Table Filters
  • All
  • Approved
  • Not Approved
  • Cancelled
  • Finished
• Live Search, Live Search Leads
• Source: eg. Internal (Contact) / External / Lead (Can be marked as External from Inside CRM or External Contact from any website you added Appointly embed form)
• Appointment due date pointers
• Appointment busy dates pointers (can be disabled)
• Responsive Bootstrap Layout
• Available languages: English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese Brazil, Polish, Vietnamese, Russian, Romanian, and Turkish
• Translate ready

Additional Information

• When new appointment is created from outside External Form (iFrame) if you have not selected any attendees and click Approve appointment, you will be set as default appointment attendee. Notification for approval will be sent to all attendees and contact.
• If you edit and existing External Appointment and change current contact, when new contact is added email and SMS will be sent to the newly added contact, also if staff attendees are added they will recieve notifications also.
• Date and time are fetched automatically directly from your CRM setup in Setup->Setting->Localization
• Appointment can be created internally from inside CRM.
  • Internal (Lead)
  • Internal (Contact)
  • External (Contact)
• External appointment
  • External Client from embed form added to any of your websites. See in Setup->Setting->Appointments
• Adding action hook to external form, this is (Optional)

If you still haven't created my_function_helper.php file, you need to create it and insert your code inside.
Example:
Appointments external form custom header
/**
 * Appointments external form custom header
 */

hooks()->add_action('appointly_form_header', 'my_appointly_form_header');
function my_appointly_form_header()
{
    echo div class="text=center";
    echo get_company_logo();
    echo div;
}

Now in your external iFrame form you will have a new header.
    
Adding custom SMS message action hook
    
hooks()->add_action('send_sms_after_external_appointment_submitted', 'handle_external_appointment_sms');

function handle_external_appointment_sms($appointment_url)
{
    /**
     * After appointment is submitted via form, choose what phone number will be receiving the SMS message 
     * Your phone
     */
    $phoneNumber = '+18182064114';

    /**
     * Your custom SMS message to receive
     */
  /**
      * Your custom SMS message to receive
      * $appointment_url is the url for the new appointment requested from external form 
      */
     $smsMessage = 'You have a new appointment request submitted via external form, you can view the appointment at the following url ' . $appointment_url;

    if ($gateway =  get_instance()->app_sms->get_active_gateway()) {
        $className = 'sms_' . $gateway['id'];
        get_instance()->{$className}->send($phoneNumber, $smsNotifyMessage);
    }
}

     Read more here...
  

• Overwriting default language
  • 1. Navigate in your modules folder and into appointly folder
  • 2. Navigate in languages folder and copy and paste english folder
  • 3. Rename english folder copy to your language eg. french (must starts with small letters)
  • 4. File inside french folder appointly_lang.php now can be overwriten with your translations.
  • 5. After your change Perfex CRM default language to eg. French, Appointly module language will be automatically changed to French.
  • This is just an example how language folders should look.
    

Service Management System

The new Service Management System allows you to create and manage different types of services that clients can book. Each service can have its own duration, price, availability, and assigned staff members.

Key Features

• Create Services - Define unlimited services with custom details
• Pricing Control - Set individual prices for each service
• Duration Management - Specify precise service times in minutes
• Visual Organization - Color-code different service types
• Staff Assignment - Assign specific staff members to services
• Detailed Service Information - Add comprehensive service descriptions
• Service Status Control - Easily enable or disable services
• Custom Availability - Set specific working hours for each service

Managing Services

To access the service management system:

1. Navigate to Appointly → Services in the main menu
2. Click on New Service to create a new service
3. Fill in the required information:
   • Name - The name of the service
   • Description - A detailed description of what the service includes
   • Duration - How long the service takes (in minutes)
   • Price - The cost of the service
   • Color - Choose a color for easy identification in the calendar
   • Working Hours - Set specific hours when this service is available
   • Staff Members - Assign staff who can provide this service
4. Click Save to create the service

The module comes with three pre-configured services that you can use as templates:

• Initial Consultation (30 minutes)
• Business Strategy Session (60 minutes)
• Project Review Meeting (45 minutes)

Client Booking Experience

When clients book appointments through the external form or client portal, they will now be able to:

• Select a specific service
• View service details including duration and price
• Choose from available staff members who provide that service
• See available time slots based on service duration and provider availability

Analytics Dashboard

The new Analytics Dashboard provides comprehensive statistics and reporting on your appointments, allowing you to make data-driven decisions about your business.

Key Features

• Appointment Statistics - Track total, completed, and cancelled appointments
• Monthly Performance Charts - View appointment trends over time
• Service Popularity - See which services are most frequently booked
• Staff Performance Metrics - Track completion rates and cancellations by staff member
• Date Range Filtering - Filter statistics by custom date ranges

Accessing the Dashboard

To access the analytics dashboard:

1. Navigate to Appointly → Analytics Dashboard in the main menu
2. Use the date filters at the top to view statistics for specific time periods
3. Explore the various charts and tables to analyze your appointment data

The dashboard requires the "View Reports" permission, which can be assigned to staff members in the permissions settings.

Google Calendar Setup Guide

NOTE: This feature does not sync your Perfex CRM calendar events with your Google Calendar. Google Calendar feature will not fetch your current added events to your Google Calendar and implement them into appointments. Google Calendar feature will fetch all busy appointment date / times and add them to your current appointments busy hours internally and externally even when external clients are booking from Perfex CRM external form your Google Calendar busy dates that are already taken will be available and displayed in Calendar datetime picker.

Google calendar feature allows you to choose (checked by default) when you are creating an appointment to add this appointment also to your Google Calendar. Same applies if you delete the appointment previously created in your CRM and it is added to your Google Calendar and if is enabled in Setup->Settings->Appointment (Before appointment is deleted also delete created appointment in your Google Calendar) is set to Yes appointment (event) will be removed from your Google Calendar also and all emails from google connected with your current appointment their event will be deleted from theire Google Calendar also because your appointment is not existing anymore in your Google Calendar. When editing the appointmenet it will be also updated in your Google Calendar

When external appointment is approved before approving if you want to sync / add this appointment to your Google Calendar you can click edit appointment assign more attendees perhaps and click save, appointment will be auto added to your Google Calendar.

Infomation: Every staff member will be able to sync their Google Calendar with Appointly separately and manage their events / appointments with their Google Calendar. All of the above will be applied if you are only CONNECTED to your Google Calendar API

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If any of the above doesen't apply for you then you should follow these steps to setup your Google Calendar

First you will need to create a project that will be associated with your Google Calendar API open Google Developers Console

Enter your project name and click create.

After your project is created successfully you will be redirected to APIS & Services. Now you need to enable the Google Calendar API library in the application project you created, to achieve this, click on the top left menu toggle then APIs & Services->Library and search for Google Calendar API, click on the library and then click Enable.

Now your Google Calendar API is enabled, next step will be to create OAuth consent screen for Google Calendar API, in menu sidebar click on OAuth consent screen and click Create.

Now you will need to setup your OAuth consent screen by entering your application name and authorized domains.

After you are all done with OAuth consent screen now you need to navigate to create credentials for you newly created app.

Now your credentials are created but you need to add authorization and redirect urls for Google Calendar API. Authorization login url can be found in your CRM in Setup->Settings->Appointments

Click on Credentials and click the edit icon on your newly created OAuth Client ID

Connecting to Google Calendar API

Firstly navigate in your CRM in Setup->Settings->Appointments and fillout the fields Google Calendar API Client Id and Google Calendar API Secret and click save Now you can click on Appointments and Dashboard in your sidebar menu.

After you click Sign In in your appointments dashboard if you setup your Google Calendar correctly and inserted your credentials correctly you should get something like this. A new popup will be shown to choose your Google account that you will grant access for the application.

After you select your account, probably you will see a message "This app isn't verified", it's your responsibility to ensure that the Project/App you created is verified, you can click here to read more how to verify your application, otherwise click on Advanced then  Go to [App Name] (unsafe) just to test this feature for your own account.

The verification process is clearly explained by Google and all the steps how you can verify your app, as Perfex CRM does not hold any data for your company, you will need to verify this on your own as you will use the Google Calendar API.

You are all done and ready to use Google Calendar API, congratulation.

Some additional informations to consider

Known errors: { "error": "invalid_grant", "error_description": "Token has been expired or revoked." }. About this refer to No.1

Outlook Calendar Setup Guide

NOTE: Outlook API Calendar feature allows each separate staff when appointment is created via Perfex CRM if checked option for Outlook will be also added to your Outlook calendar, if you edit or delete the existing appointment from CRM Apointments it will be also updated directly to your Outlook calendar.

Please follow this guide carefully and step by step how to create your Outlook Calendar API application and connected Perfex CRM with the same.

Step 1: Go to Microsoft Azure https://portal.azure.com/#home

Step 2: If you have created an account with Microsoft Azure, enter your credentials to login, else create an account

Step 3: Register you application

Step 3: Register you application

Step 4: Select like shown in images and click register

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Step 5: After your application is registered now you need to add a platform and configure the same.

Outlook Authorization and Redirect URI can be found in Setup->Settings->Appointments

Step 6: Adding permissions.

Click delegated permissions and scroll down and search Calendar

Select all Calendar permission values and click Add permissions. Permissions are really not needed but we will add them just in case the API changes from outlook and they are required and for the sake of the application and further development.

Step 7: After permissions are added and saved you need to go back to overview and copy your application client (ID) and add it to Setup->Settings->Appointments Outlook Calendar API and click save.

This means that you have successfully configured your Outlook Calendar api and now can be synchronized with Perfex CRM

It is recommended that you wait 5 min while your API config and URIs to propagate and then try login and use your Outlook Calendar API

After everything is configured click Sign in to Outlook in Appointments dashboard, a popup window will shop if you configured the application correctly and will ask for your outlook email and password. You will be asked to confirm calendar outlook permissions click allow or accept. You are done, now you can use your Outlook Calendar API.

Known errors / bugs:

If you sometimes get unexpected crash which can happen rarely but it can, open your browser console (Chrome CTLR+SHIFT+I or Right click and click inspect) and navigate to Application -> Storage -> Cookies find your domain name and remove all cookies that stars with msal. or just remove all cookies and re-login.

Another issue that may happen that outlook api doesn't handle well is if you create a new brand account you API may not work or crash untill you verify your account with Outlook, by phone number or email. Just keep that in mind if your appointment are not saved in your Outlook Calendar.

Screenshots Overview

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Appointment Dashboard Widget

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Appointment Calendar

Appointment Clients Calendar

Table View

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New Appointment

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Leads included

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Create Task from appointment and Lead

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Appointment View

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Custom Fields and Email Tracking

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Appointment Send Early Reminders, Notes

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Appointment Feedbacks

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Edit Appointment

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Logged In Contact Appointment Request

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Appointment Settings, Filters, Types

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Appointment External iFrame Form

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Appointment Public URL

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Appointment Cancelled

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Appointment Cancelled

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Client Appointment Cancelled

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Mobile Ready

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Changelog

Version 1.2.5 - April 15, 2023

• New: Complete Services Management System replacing appointment types
• New: Services with customizable durations, pricing, and staff assignments
• New: Analytics Dashboard with comprehensive reporting and statistics
• New: Customizable external form heading and description
• New: Provider assignment for better staff management
• New: End hour field added to appointments for better scheduling
• New: Enhanced timezone support with automatic conversion
• New: Direct appointment feedback collection system
• New: Additional language support (Vietnamese, Russian, Romanian, Turkish)
• New: Improved notification controls with per-appointment settings
• New: Status tracking with color-coded visual indicators
• New: Optimized calendar views for mobile devices
• Improved: Modernized UI with better user experience
• Improved: Integration with Tailwind CSS for better styling
• Improved: Google Calendar and Outlook synchronization
• Improved: Staff availability management
• Improved: Appointment reminder system with configurable timing
• Improved: Client booking interface with service selection
• Improved: Performance for large appointment datasets
• Updated: Database structure for better performance
• Updated: Email and SMS notification templates
• Updated: Google API integration for enhanced reliability
• Removed: Callbacks feature has been completely removed
• Removed: 'view_own' permission in favor of a simpler permissions model

Version 1.2.4 - July 25, 2023

• Updated: PHP 8.2 compatibility with optimized dynamic properties
• Updated: Full compatibility with Perfex CRM version 3.0.6
• Fixed: Appointment creation from leads, staff, and customer interfaces
• Updated: Google API and Calendar API libraries
• Improved: Overall code quality and performance

Version 1.2.3 - November 3, 2022

• Added: Export functionality (PDF, Excel, CSV) with custom fields
• Added: Custom fields visibility in appointment tables
• Added: Google Meet integration in email templates
• Fixed: Weekend booking restrictions and notification delivery
• Updated: Brazilian Portuguese translation

Version 1.1.4

• New: Added Custom Fields support in admin and appointments external form area
• New: Added Email Tracking (is appointment email to client read or not read), applies for appointment approved email
• New: Added Feedback and comments for finished appointment
• New: Added Feedback custom statuses, total 7 min 1 (can be translated)
• New: Email templates for appointments feedbacks, New feedback Received, Existing feedback Updated, Request feedback from client
• New: Added option to Convert and relate appointment to Lead
• New: Added option to Convert and relate appointment Task from appointment (can be related to Project, Invoice, Customer, Estimate, Contract, Ticket, Expense, Lead and Proposal)
• Fixed: Appointments->Settings minor fix when there is no staff members added
• Fixed: Bug when updating internal appointment to Google Calendar attendees (was not updated properly)
• Fixed: Minor fix in when appointments are exported initiated by heading if created by admin name was shown in list
• Improved: Fully refactored responsible person permissions for Appointments, now responsible person will have full permissions over appointments, except delete permissons that will be require as added from permissions.

Version 1.1.3 03/01/2020

• New: Callbacks feature for Appointly
• New: Callbacks email templates and live notifications
• New: Callbacks assignee's
• New: Callbacks Responsible Person
• New: Callbacks notes
• New: Appointments reCAPTCHA
• New: Added option to disable / enable Appointments busy times
• New: Added new email template / feature so responsible person will receive email when new appointment is submitted via external form
• Fixed: Applied date time fix for specific date format time zones

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Version 1.1.2 02/13/2020

• Fixed: minor fix with language files

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Version 1.1.1 02/13/2020

• New: Google Calendar API Integration
• New: Options to add appointment to own Google Calendar (separate for each staff member) (Requires Google Authenticated)
• New: Options when appointment is updated or deleted will be also applied directly in your Google Calendar (Requires Google Authenticated)
• New: Google Calendar busy dates shown with yellowish color
• New: Option to add own booking hours (Admin)
• New: Option to disable weekends (Admin)
• New: Option to enable hours buffering (Admin)
• New: Option to auto approve external appointments (Admin)
• New: Appointment types (if any) are now shown in clients external form
• New: Feature if appointment is in my Google Calendar will be shown as icon link in dashboard (Only for own appointments, requires Google authenticated)
• New: Google busy date / time are now synced from Google Calendar API (Requires Google Authenticated)
• New: Added option to click SMS or Email and call or send sms in appointment single view appointment
• New: Added option to click client address and separately open in Google Maps in appointment single view
• Improved: UI / UX
• Changed: Reversed font back to Roboto
• Updated: French and Portuguese language to full translation
• Fixed: Busy hours not always shown minor bug
• Fixed: Reminders feature minor bug
• Fixed: Appointment cancellation description not included in staff view after client requested cancellation, fixed minor bug when client is trying to cancel an appointment there is no response

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Version 1.1.0 01/22/2020

• New: Added busy dates (booked hours) lookup in clients external form and calendar language
• New: Customers can book appointments if not logged in from customers area (Admin can enable disable this option)
• New: Customers can book appointments when logged in from customers area (Admin can enable disable this option)
• New: Added meeting notes with WYSIWYG editor, option to upload images.
• New: Added new option to set default table filter (per user)
• New: Added new option Appointments Summary can be enabled or disabled (per user)
• New: Added staff roles in appointment external clients view
• New: Added new option Send Early Appointment reminders Email and SMS (Can be reused per your needs)
• New: Appointment Types (Option to create custom appointment types)
• New: Appointment types will be shown in staff and clients calendar (own if not Admin)
• New: Added new languages German, French, Italian, Portuguese Brazil and Polish
• Improved: Changed date format for all appointments according to default date format due to better and global readability for all clients.Date format is in Setup->Settings->Localization
• Improved: Added half hours to already existing booking hours
• Fixed: Notification not send always when creating internal meeting

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Date published 01/13/2020

Initial release compatible with latest version of Perfex CRM 2.4.1 and PHP 7.X.X

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