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This checklist walks you through setting up leanframe. Almost everything is in the portal under Settings (grouped into Business, Online booking, Customer communication, Team, Connections and Subscription & data; there is a search at the top). The overview also shows a setup checklist that ticks itself off. The order is tried and tested, and each step takes a minute or two.

1. Basics

• Create your account: On app.leanframe.de enter your business, name and email address and click the link in the email. You do not need a password.
• Health profession? Under Business → Profile & contact (also a step in the setup checklist) you answer whether you treat patients or process health information, for example physiotherapy, alternative practitioners (Heilpraktiker), psychotherapy, a medical practice, medical massage, occupational therapy, speech therapy or podiatry. If you answer “Yes”, more cautious defaults apply: no note on the contacts in the address book, the assistant does not ask about complaints and does not repeat health information, and the overview reminds you of the data protection impact assessment and, if you ask for reviews, of professional rules and the German Therapeutic Products Advertising Act (HWG). The industry chosen at sign-up is only a suggestion; your answer counts. Switching only changes defaults; what you have set yourself stays. Only admins can change it.
• Duties as a health profession: Even the fact that someone has an appointment with you can be health data (Art. 9 GDPR). Check whether you need a data protection impact assessment (Art. 35 GDPR) and briefly record the result in writing. Processing patient data by an individual physician or other health professional is generally not considered “large scale” (Recital 91 GDPR); larger practices, several locations, confidential questionnaires and enquiries answered by an AI point more towards an assessment. If you are bound by professional secrecy under Section 203 StGB (e.g. physicians, psychotherapists, physio and occupational therapists, speech therapists), you may involve service providers such as leanframe under Section 203(3) StGB to the extent necessary and if they are bound to secrecy; leanframe is, in the DPA. Ask customers not to write about complaints in the chat but to use the questionnaire or talk to you: what is written in the chat goes to the AI. Template for your privacy policy: “We process your appointment requests and appointments (chat, booking page, email) to arrange and manage appointments (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; where this reveals information about your health, such as the mere fact of a treatment, Art. 9(2)(h) GDPR in conjunction with Section 22(1)(1)(b) BDSG). Our technical service provider is leanframe (data processing on our behalf, servers in the EU); messages in the chat and by email are answered by an AI assistant via a subprocessor of leanframe. Please do not write about complaints in the chat.” Have the texts reviewed by a lawyer.
• Opening hours: Under Business → Opening hours enter the times for each weekday, including lunch breaks. Recurring named breaks (e.g. “Lunch break Mon–Fri 12–1 pm”) go under Business → Time off & blocked times → Weekly.
• Time off: Under Business → Time off & blocked times enter days off and closures. You choose the public holidays of your region when you sign up.
• Services: Under Business → Services add each service with duration and price. Customers can only book what is listed here. With several durations, choose a default: the assistant uses it when the customer does not name one.

2. Team and calendar

• People: Under Settings → Team every person appears once, with one card for everything: portal access, rights, whether customers can book with them (colour, services, own working hours, chat link), calendar and mailbox. “Add person” asks only two things: Should the person sign in? (as user, as admin or not) and Can customers book with them? This way you add, in one step, a team member who signs in and is bookable, a temp without access (calendar only) or the front desk without own appointments. Whoever should sign in receives an invitation by email. New bookable people get all services and the business opening hours; restrict this afterwards in the card.
• Bookable online: In the card under Bookable. Off: only your team enters appointments with this person in the portal; the chat does not offer them.
• Rights: Also in the card, in plain words and with a note on the default (e.g. “Change others' appointments”: on for the front desk without an own calendar, off with an own calendar). Admins always see and change everything. Owners also manage the subscription.
• Calendar (optional): leanframe has a built-in calendar; booking, rescheduling, cancelling and reminders work without any connection. In a person's card under Calendar you can additionally connect Google, Outlook/Microsoft 365 or iCloud if you also want to see your appointments there. Private appointments then count as busy. Connections → Calendar shows everyone at a glance (status, problems).
• Customers in your address book (optional, from the Standard plan): Under Connections → Address book choose iCloud (Apple ID with an app password; if an iCloud calendar is connected, one tap is enough) or, once enabled, Google Contacts or Outlook/Microsoft 365. leanframe adds your customers with an appointment to a separate group “leanframe” (name, phone, email and optionally a short note: with your business name, neutral or none; if your business is set as a health profession, “no note” is the default, because even “Customer of …” reveals a treatment, otherwise “with your business name”, and “neutral” while the question is unanswered), keeps them up to date every few minutes and deletes them there too when you delete or merge a customer. One way only: changes in the address book are overwritten. If the account is set up on your phone (contacts on), your phone shows the name when they call. Switching off: remove the contacts or keep them in the address book. As the controller, you decide whether you need your own data processing agreement with the provider of your address book account (e.g. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365).
• Calendar subscription (without a connection): Under Account (your own calendar) or in the person's card under Team → Calendar you create a secret link that Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook can subscribe to. It shows the appointments read-only, with service, time and the customer's first name; calendar apps refresh subscriptions every 15 minutes to several hours. Treat the link like a password; “Create new link” invalidates the old one immediately.

3. Booking rules and texts

• Booking rules: Under Online booking → Booking rules set how short-notice bookings may be, and under Online booking → Cancelling & rescheduling the deadlines for cancelling and rescheduling; whether customers may switch to another person when rescheduling is under Team. Rarely changed values (e.g. the time grid) are under Advanced.
• Reminders: In the same place, check when the reminder is sent and switch on a second reminder if you like.
• Texts: Under Customer communication → Texts & templates adjust the greeting and emails to your tone: one tab per email type, a Deutsch/English switch at the top and, on the right (below on phones), a preview of the real email with sample data or your next appointment. Empty fields use the default text. Every saved change becomes a version in the History (who, when, how many emails were sent with it; old versions can be restored), and every sent email keeps its version (visible in the customer record). Test email to me shows the email in your own inbox.
• Offers (from the Standard plan): Under Offers add discounts and promotions, optionally with a period, weekdays, for new customers only or with a code. The assistant only mentions these and notes them on the appointment; it never promises other discounts.
• Contact email: Under Business → Profile & contact enter the address for questions. It is the reply-to address in every email to your customers. Use an address on your own domain (e.g. info@your-business.com): reply-to addresses at Gmail, Outlook, GMX or web.de make emails land in spam more often.
• Privacy link: Under Business → Profile & contact enter the link to your privacy policy. It appears in the chat. Add a paragraph about booking via leanframe to your privacy policy.

• Aftercare (from the Standard plan): Switch it on under Customer communication → Aftercare and enter your Google review link; under Services set for each service after how many days customers are reminded to book again (e.g. 42). Customers are asked once after booking (chat, checkbox on the booking page; in the email channel only if you switch on Also ask for consent in the email channel, which you should only do after a legal review); only those who agree get a review request after the appointment and later the reminder, each with an unsubscribe link. Everyone gets the same review link, without a prior question and without a reward. Health professions: before switching on the review request, check your professional rules and the HWG (e.g. advertising with statements by third parties, Section 11 HWG); the follow-up reminder also works without a review link. Add this to your privacy policy, for example: “If you agree when booking, we email you after the appointment to ask for a review and remind you of a follow-up appointment (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw your consent at any time via the link in each of these emails. We keep proof of your consent for 3 years after withdrawal.” If in doubt, have the text checked by a lawyer.

• Questionnaires (Plus plan): Under Customer communication → Questionnaires create questions per service (short or long text, choice, yes/no, date, number; optionally in English), ideally from a template (massage, physiotherapy, beauty, hairdresser). Customers answer them on the booking page (skippable if you want), in the chat (non-confidential questions only) or via the link in the confirmation and reminder, and can change them until the appointment. Answers appear on the appointment and in the customer file. If you change questions, earlier answers keep their version. Deletion periods under Subscription & data → Retention & privacy, the reminder under Customer communication → Reminders.

• Confidential questions (e.g. health, once enabled): Only mark what you really need to prepare. Customers answer such questions only with explicit consent (separate box), never in the chat and never as required; answers are encrypted, never go to the AI and are deleted 3 years after the customer's last appointment by default (adjustable from 1 month to 10 years under Subscription & data → Retention & privacy). Which period applies to you depends on your retention duties (e.g. treatment records under § 630f BGB: 10 years) and is your decision. If you must keep a customer's answers, mark this in the customer file under Retention duty (with a reason): a withdrawal by the customer then does not delete their confidential answers immediately; they are no longer shown or used and are kept locked until the period ends, and the customer sees in the link that a legal retention duty applies. You can mark single chat messages containing confidential details as confidential in the customer file (permission Confidential). Admins can see them; give staff the right in their card under Team (section Rights). Your duties: update your privacy policy, check whether you need a data protection impact assessment (Art. 35 GDPR; often yes for regular processing of health data), observe confidentiality (health professions: Section 203 StGB; leanframe is bound to secrecy as an involved person, see DPA), keep your records in your own documentation. Template for your privacy policy: “Before your appointment you can fill in a questionnaire. We use your answers to prepare the appointment (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Information about your health in the questions marked as confidential is processed only with your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR); it is voluntary, your appointment is valid without it, and you can withdraw it at any time via the questionnaire link or with us; we then delete this information unless we are legally required to keep it (in that case we restrict it until the period ends, Art. 17(3)(b), Art. 18 GDPR). This information is stored encrypted, read only by authorised staff, not processed by any AI and deleted [3 years] after your last appointment with us, the other answers [24 months] after your last appointment. Our technical service provider is leanframe (data processing on our behalf, servers in the EU).” Have the text reviewed by a lawyer.

4. Share and test the chat

• Share the link: Under Online booking → Share chat & website (or in the Overview via Share & QR code), put your booking link in your Google Business Profile, on Instagram, in your email signature and on business cards (QR code).
• Booking page without chat: There you also find the link to the booking page. Customers choose service, day and time themselves; confirmation and links as in the chat. Can be switched off under Online booking → Booking rules.
• Window on your website: There, also copy the code for the chat window, add it to your website and allow your domain on the same page.
• Connect your mailbox (from the Standard plan): Under Connections → Mailbox sign in with Google or Microsoft, or enter your address and password or app password. The assistant then also answers booking emails, on its own or as a draft for your approval. leanframe marks answered emails as read in your mailbox (can be switched off). You can answer a discarded draft yourself in the portal or have it rewritten with a note.
• Test booking: Book an appointment in the chat yourself, check the confirmation email, then reschedule and cancel it via the link.
• Check the overview: The test appointment appears right away in the overview and the calendar, including after rescheduling.

5. Day to day

• Pause: On holiday or when fully booked, pause bookings with one click. Existing appointments and reminders continue.
• Tasks: Callback requests from the chat, emails for you and your own to-dos end up under Tasks, with a due date, an owner and, if you like, a time slot in the calendar. Tasks that are due also show in the calendar.
• Ask the customer: In a task, write in one sentence what you want to know. The assistant writes the email, you send it. It summarises the reply in the task; without a reply it sends one reminder (timing under Customer communication → Reminders).
• Waitlist: If nothing is free, customers join the waitlist. When a slot opens up, offer it with one click.
• Export and interfaces: Under Connections → Export & interfaces export customers, appointments and tasks as Excel, CSV or JSON. In the Plus plan, leanframe reports appointments by webhook to your CRM or via Zapier, Make and n8n to other programs.
• Choose a plan: The trial lasts 14 days. Choose a plan under Subscription in good time so the chat keeps booking without interruption. What each plan includes is listed under Features and plans.

Questions? Write to us and we will help you set up.