What it does
A client writes to your service number and talks to Orion the way they would talk to a receptionist: they ask who works on Saturdays, pick a time, give their name and phone, and leave with an appointment booked. Behind that conversation, the system does the technical work on its own:
- It only offers real slots. Availability comes from each professional's registered schedule and their Google calendar — a busy slot disappears from the offer. Orion is forbidden from inventing times: the system computes them, not the language model.
- It really books. Each booking becomes, in one step: a row in the control sheet, an event on the shared calendar (and an e-mail invitation to the client if they give an e-mail — with Google's own reminders), and a record in the system.
- It computes the price. Private sessions use the professional's rate; insurance uses the sheet's price table, with the professional's split computed alongside. The client doesn't need to ask the price for the conversation to move.
- It reminds the client the day before. An automatic WhatsApp reminder goes out the previous day (or same day, for last-minute bookings). Replying to the reminder lets the client reschedule or cancel in the same conversation.
- It feeds the CRM. A known client who writes in shows up on their own timeline; a booking becomes a recorded interaction.
The two halves: the engine and the voice
The Shared Agenda is always two pages working together — and understanding the split avoids most of the confusion:
The engine lives in Orion → Agenda: professionals, each one's days and time ranges, session length, gap between sessions, modality, prices, rooms. Everything mechanical — finding open times, writing to the sheet, creating the event, computing the split — is automatic and invisible.
The voice lives in the Public Role: which role Orion assumes, the tone, the conversation script (what to ask and in what order) and what it must never do. That's where you shape how the reception sounds.
One rule worth writing down, because it isn't obvious (settled on 11/08/2026): the ability to book comes from having professionals registered, not from the chosen role. With professionals registered, Orion can book under any public role — a "Customer Support" role also books, whenever the client asks. The "Booking Receptionist" role exists because it brings the right script: it steers the conversation actively toward booking instead of waiting for the subject to come up. Want a hybrid — support that also books? Use the support role and add booking steps to the script.
Turning it on — the full circuit
Booking is live when five things are true at the same time. The Agenda page shows a status card at the top that checks all of them and says, in one line, what's missing:
- Google connected — the business account that owns the sheet and the calendar.
- Professionals registered — at least one, with availability.
- An active service number — a dedicated number connected through the official WhatsApp API (the "WhatsApp service numbers" block on the Connection page; the chapter on turning Orion on explains the connection and the official API's limits).
- Public role switched on for that number.
- The "Booking Receptionist" role — recommended, not required (see the rule above).
The status card speaks plainly: green = answering, with the number and the last message received ("text it a hi to test it", if there is none yet); amber = something needs action — answering switched off, number still under WhatsApp review, or the last send failed; red = no service number connected. Every warning comes with the button that leads to the fix.
The sheet and the calendar are mirrors
The source of truth is the system. The control sheet and Google Calendar are projections: convenient to look at, but rebuildable. If someone deletes or messes up the sheet, the "Rebuild sheet from system" button creates a fresh one with the full history.
Access follows a simple, deliberate model:
- The sheet belongs to the business's Google account — the only one that edits.
- It is shared read-only with the organization owner's e-mail. There is no public link: nobody else can open it.
- Even in the owner account, the sheet is born protected: day-to-day editing covers only each appointment's outcome (Done, Cancelled, No-show) and the price/config fields. Dates, names and formulas stay locked — hand-editing would desync sheet and calendar, which is exactly what the lock prevents. Cancelling and rescheduling go through Orion.
On the calendar, each professional has a color, and event titles are generic on purpose ("Booking — Dr. Ana"): the client's name lives in the event description, not in the title that any shared screen displays.
Already use Calendly? (optional)
If your business already books through Calendly, you can connect the two: bookings made there flow automatically into the same sheet and CRM, alongside what Orion books. The connection is self-service, on the Agenda page itself, and requires a paid Calendly plan (Standard or above). If you'll only use WhatsApp booking, you don't need Calendly at all.
Honest limits
- A number under review doesn't answer. When you connect a new number through the official API, WhatsApp reviews the account before releasing it (hours, up to 24h). The status card shows "under review" and updates on its own.
- Today the official number understands text. Audio and images sent by clients aren't processed on that number yet — Orion says so and asks for text. (On your personal channel with Orion, audio works normally.)
- Outside the 24-hour window, only approved templates. That's a WhatsApp rule: the day-before reminder goes out as a pre-approved template precisely because of it. The booking conversation itself always happens inside the window — the client writes first.
- The sheet must stay a mirror. Hand-editing what's locked isn't supported — the path is always Orion or the Agenda page.