Test mode lets you walk through your booking flow exactly as a client would — but without Stripe charges, real confirmation emails, or anything counting in your income.
How to start a test booking
While logged in as yourself, go to the dashboard and click Preview booking page (test mode) → on your profile card. You can also find this on the Getting Started page.
The preview link is ?preview=1 on your normal booking URL. It only works when you're signed in as the therapist — if anyone else follows the link (or you open it in an incognito window), they'll get the normal, live booking page.
What's different in test mode
- No Stripe charges — the payment step is skipped; bookings go through as if paid in cash.
- No real emails or SMS — confirmations are rerouted to your own inbox so you can see the templates without pestering anyone.
- No income impact — test bookings are excluded from income reports, daily digests, and reminders.
- No membership / package credits used — test bookings don't consume sessions.
- Purple TEST badge — every test appointment is clearly marked on the calendar, the manage page, and the client portal.
Clearing test bookings
On the Getting Started page, click Clear test bookings. This removes:
- All appointments where is_test is true.
- Any client records that exist only because of test bookings (at least one test appointment, zero real appointments).
Imported clients and clients with any real booking history are never touched.
Testing as a client in a second browser
Test mode is for testing from your own logged-in session. If you want to see what a brand new client experiences end-to-end (real Stripe, real emails, real payment), open your booking link in an incognito window or a different browser and use a throwaway email address. That path produces a real booking — so refund it in Stripe and cancel it afterwards.