How to Set Up Amelia Booking Plugin the Right Way

Amelia is one of the most complete appointment booking plugins for WordPress. It handles multiple employees, multiple services, custom working hours per employee, payment collection at booking, and a full backend calendar for managing appointments. The initial setup has a specific order that matters – skipping steps causes configuration problems later.

The Right Setup Order

Most Amelia configuration problems come from setting things up in the wrong order. Follow this sequence to avoid them:

1. Configure general settings (time zone, date format, currency)
2. Create locations (if you have multiple physical locations)
3. Create services and categories
4. Create employees and assign them to services
5. Set working hours per employee
6. Connect payment gateway
7. Add the booking form to a page

Step 1: General Settings

Go to Amelia -> Settings -> General. Set your time zone – this is critical. Every appointment time is calculated relative to this zone, and a wrong time zone means all bookings show at incorrect times. Set your default country, phone format, and currency. These cannot be changed easily after bookings are made.

Step 2: Create Services

Go to Amelia -> Services -> Add Service. For each service configure:

• Duration – the appointment length in minutes
• Buffer time before/after – padding between appointments (travel time, cleanup, preparation)
• Minimum/maximum capacity – for group bookings; set both to 1 for individual appointments
• Price – base price; individual employees can have different prices for the same service
• Deposit – if you want to collect partial payment at booking rather than full amount

Need help configuring this for your business? Describe your booking setup and get a free estimate.

Step 3: Create Employees

Go to Amelia -> Employees -> Add Employee. Each employee needs a WordPress user account. Important settings per employee:

• Assigned services – which services this employee can perform. An employee only appears as available for services they are assigned to.
• Custom price per service – override the service default price for this employee if rates differ
• Google Calendar sync – connect the employee’s Google Calendar to prevent double-bookings

Step 4: Set Working Hours

Go to the employee edit screen, find the Work Hours tab. Set the days and times they are available. This is where most availability problems originate – if a service appears unavailable, check the employee’s working hours before anything else.

Special dates (holidays, vacation) go in the Days Off tab. Amelia blocks bookings on these dates automatically.

Step 5: Payment Setup

Go to Amelia -> Settings -> Payments. Amelia supports Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, and WooCommerce as payment processors. For Stripe: enter your API keys (publishable and secret from your Stripe dashboard). Enable “Require payment to confirm booking” to ensure payment is collected before the appointment is confirmed.

Step 6: Add the Booking Form

Create a WordPress page for bookings. Add the Amelia booking shortcode or block. Options:

• [ameliabooking] – full booking form showing all services and employees
• [ameliabooking service=1] – pre-selected service (use the service ID from Amelia)
• [ameliabooking employee=2] – pre-selected employee

For service-specific landing pages, pre-selecting the service simplifies the booking flow and increases conversion.