How to Let Clients Reschedule Their Own Appointments in Acuity

Yes — with conditions. When a client books through Acuity Scheduling (formerly Squarespace Scheduling), their confirmation email includes a link to change the appointment. Through that link they can move the appointment to a new date and time, pulled from your real availability. That's the entire self-service surface.

What the link does not do matters just as much. Clients can't change the service or add conditions to the change — the link is strictly a date/time swap. It handles one appointment at a time, so a client with a series of bookings works through them individually. And the link lives only in the emails Acuity sent for that specific appointment: there is no general "manage my appointments" page a client can visit, and no way for them to look an appointment up by name or email.

Client self-rescheduling is governed by your scheduling limits and policy settings. The two decisions that matter:

1. Decide whether clients can change appointments at all. Acuity's scheduling limits let you allow client rescheduling and cancellation, or block them so all changes go through you. For most businesses, allowing self-reschedules is the right default — a moved appointment keeps revenue on the calendar, and every self-serve change is a phone call you don't take.
2. Set the cutoff window. You can block client changes inside a window before the appointment — for example, no self-reschedules within 24 hours. Inside the window, the link stops offering changes and the client must contact you. 24 hours is the common default; 48 hours fits high-prep services.
3. Point clients at the link before they need it. Add a line to your confirmation and reminder emails: "Need to change your appointment? Use the reschedule link in this email." Copy-paste wording is in our reschedule email templates.
4. Test it. Book a dummy appointment as a client, open the confirmation email, and walk through the reschedule flow yourself. You'll see exactly what your clients see — including where it stops working.

The built-in flow is genuinely useful when the stars align: client has the email, wants a simple date change, and is outside your cutoff. Here's how it compares to a standalone branded reschedule link running on top of the same Acuity account:

The structural limitation is the delivery mechanism: a link buried in one email, for one appointment, with no fallback. Everything else — no fees, no conditions, no portal — follows from Acuity treating rescheduling as a courtesy feature rather than a policy surface.

When a client says "the link isn't working" or "it won't let me change it," it's almost always one of these:

1. They're inside your cutoff window. If your scheduling limits block changes within, say, 24 hours, the link stops offering a reschedule inside that window. This is the single most common cause. Check what your window is set to and whether the appointment falls inside it.
2. Self-rescheduling is disabled. If your settings don't allow client changes at all, the link won't offer them. Review your Acuity scheduling limits and policy settings.
3. They lost the email. No confirmation email means no link — there's nothing to troubleshoot. You (or a standalone reschedule link) are the only path forward.
4. No slots are showing. The link only offers times from your live availability. A fully booked calendar, reduced hours, or changed availability for that appointment type looks to the client like a broken link.
5. The appointment is already past or cancelled. A link tied to an appointment that no longer exists in an active state typically won't offer changes — the client needs to book fresh.
6. They're changing the wrong thing. The link changes date and time only. A client trying to switch services or make any other change will feel stuck — that change goes through you.

Tecton Scheduler layers on top of your existing Acuity account — it doesn't replace it. It syncs your appointments and services from Acuity, then gives your business one public branded reschedule link you can put anywhere: your website, reminder texts, voicemail greeting, email signature. Here's the flow:

1. Connect your Acuity account. Appointments and services sync on demand or on a schedule, and credentials are encrypted at rest.
2. Set your reschedule window and optional late-reschedule fee once in Settings. Your public link is generated per business.
3. A client opens the link and verifies their email and phone number — no account, no password, no original email required.
4. They pick a new slot from live Acuity availability, so double-booking isn't possible.
5. If the change falls inside your fee window, the fee is collected automatically via Square or Stripe before the new time is confirmed. The client gets an instant email confirmation.
6. You see every reschedule — and every fee charged or declined card — in one filterable notifications feed.

The lost-email dead end disappears, the 11pm "can I move Thursday?" text answers itself, and your late-change policy becomes a rule the system enforces instead of a conversation you have. Setup takes about 15 minutes, every plan starts with a free trial, and billing is month-to-month — see pricing.

Usually not for early changes — a reschedule is the good outcome, and you want zero friction on it. The question is late reschedules, where the moved slot is hard to refill. The common pattern: free changes outside your window, and a modest fee inside it — smaller than your cancellation fee, so clients always prefer moving the appointment to dropping it.

Acuity can't do any version of this: its policies address cancellations and no-shows only, and even those fees are charged manually. A fee-gated reschedule link is the piece you add on top. For fee amounts, windows, and the setup walkthrough, see charging a reschedule fee in Acuity; for the mechanics of shareable links, see how Acuity reschedule links work.