What a team needs that a solo practitioner does not
A solo consultant needs a link and a calendar. A team needs a front door. Several people take consultations, they cover different topics, and the prospect does not know who is right for them. If the booking system cannot decide that, someone in your office does it by hand, and every manual step is a day the lead can go elsewhere.
That changes what you should test. Instead of asking whether the tool can book a meeting, ask whether it can send a prospect with a tax question to the tax adviser, a prospect in another state to the licensed person, and everything else to whoever is free.
Five features that decide the purchase
Most booking tools look alike on the homepage. These five are where they differ in practice.
- Routing forms. Questions before the calendar that decide which experts the prospect can see. Check which plan includes them. See <a href="/blog/scheduling-software-with-routing-forms">scheduling software with routing forms</a>.
- Round robin. New consultations shared between people who cover the same topic, skipping anyone busy. See <a href="/features/round-robin">round robin scheduling</a>.
- Intake questions. The expert opens the appointment and sees budget, timeline and the problem in the prospect's own words.
- Reminders with reschedule links. A missed consultation costs the expert an hour, and a reschedule link turns many cancellations into a new booking.
- Branding on your own domain. Prospects book more readily on a page that looks like your firm than on a vendor address.
A worked cost example for 12 people
Take a firm of 12 where 9 people take consultations and 3 coordinators manage the calendars. Per seat tools charge for everyone who needs an account, so assume 12 seats. Take a hypothetical per seat price of $15 per seat per month for the plan with routing. That is $180 per month, $2,160 per year, and it rises by $15 for each hire. Check the real vendor price page before you decide, because tiers and what they include change.
HourMeet charges per team. Team costs $149 per month for up to 20 members and includes routing forms, round robin and own domain branding. Yearly billing is 50 percent lower, which brings the monthly equivalent down further. The firm can grow from 12 to 20 people without the bill changing. The longer version of this math is in scheduling software pricing per seat versus flat.
The point of the example is the shape, not the numbers: per seat cost is a line that rises with headcount, and flat cost is a step that only moves when you pass the member limit.
Paid consultations and deposits
Some firms charge before the call, others only after a qualifying first meeting. Decide this first, because it changes the tool. If the first call is free and qualifying, you need fast routing and strong reminders more than payment collection. If the call is paid, your booking page needs to link to your own invoicing or payment step before confirmation. Many firms take payment on their own site and then send the paid client to a private booking link.
Whichever way you go, collect the intake answers before the call. A prospect who answers six questions is more serious than one who clicks a time slot, and the expert saves the first ten minutes.
How to test a booking system in one week
Connect two real calendars, create one meeting type per kind of consultation, and add a routing form with three questions. Then book ten test meetings from different browsers and time zones. Cancel two, reschedule two, and check that the expert sees the intake answers in the invite.
If the setup takes more than an afternoon, it will take longer when you add the fifth expert. A fuller list of what to check is in the team scheduling software buyer checklist. Comparing a second scheduler such as Meetsetup during the same week is a cheap way to judge how much routing your team actually needs.
Which plan fits which team
Use the table as a rough guide. Adjust it for how many people actually take consultations rather than headcount.
| Team size | What you need | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 experts | One booking page, reminders, intake questions | Starter, $49 per month |
| 6 to 20 experts | Routing forms, round robin, own domain | Team, $149 per month |
| 21 to 75 experts | SSO, audit log, several departments | Business, $499 per month |
Who this is for
This is for firms that sell expert time: consultants, advisers, law and accounting practices, agencies. Industry setups are described on the consultants and client consultations pages. For regulated work such as legal or financial advice, check your own regulator guidance on client intake and record keeping, for example the SEC investment adviser resources, before deciding which intake questions to collect.