How it works

One booking, three ways to make it.

By Teresa & Sem Abrahams · 3 min read

Here's the same booking — Aria the Magician, a school assembly, May 14th, the Circus Day package, deposit paid. It can land in ActBook three completely different ways. Same date, same contract, same money in your account. What changes is who does the typing.

1. The client makes it

The one you already know: you send a link, and the client books themselves. They pick the date and the show, ActBook checks whether you're actually free — travel time and all — collects the event details, and takes a deposit by card. You did nothing but share a URL. For most gigs, this is the whole story, and it's the reason the app exists.

2. A program makes it

Every screen in ActBook is also an open REST API, so a booking is just one call away for any software you already use. Your own website's form, a Zap from your inbox, a spreadsheet macro — any of them can create the booking directly:

POST /api/v1/bookings
{
  "client": { "name": "Lincoln Elementary" },
  "project": "Spring Assembly",
  "date": "2026-05-14",
  "project_type_id": 7,      // your Circus Day package
  "deposit": 25             // percent
}

No copy-paste, no double entry. The booking lands in your calendar with the package priced from your own catalogue and a contract ready to send — exactly as if a client had made it.

3. A sentence makes it

And the newest door: you just say what you want, and an AI assistant makes the same call for you.

Under the hood it made the very same API call as the program in door two. You just didn't have to know that.

It's one system with three front doors. You don't pick one — you use whichever fits the moment you're in.

Why three doors matter

Because a booking doesn't always start the same way. Sometimes a client is on your website at midnight. Sometimes it's a lead in your inbox you want auto-created. Sometimes you're standing in a school hallway and it's easier to say it out loud than to type it. Same booking, same contract, same deposit — met wherever the work actually happens.

See the API & AI →