{"slug":"anonymous-bookings","title":"Book a vendor anonymously","description":"Book and charge a walk-up vendor from Scheduler, without creating a vendor profile for them.","section":"market","sections":["market"],"tags":["scheduler","booking","walk-up"],"aliases":["walk-up vendor","day-of vendor","book without a vendor profile","drop-in vendor","book a vendor on the spot"],"updated":"2026-10-09","published_datetime":null,"promoted":false,"related":["booth-booking-overview","take-a-payment-against-an-invoice"],"links":["take-a-payment-against-an-invoice"],"images":{},"video":null,"source_commit":"d31b29e","body_format":"markdown","nav":{"section":"market","group":"Book vendors into booths","previous":{"slug":"stage-a-vendor-to-assign-stalls-at-a-later-time","title":"Stage a vendor to assign stalls at a later time"},"next":{"slug":"modifying-vendor-rentals","title":"Modify a vendor's rentals"}},"related_articles":[{"slug":"booth-booking-overview","title":"Book vendors into booths","description":"See which vendors still need a booth, then assign or unassign them from an event day in Scheduler."},{"slug":"take-a-payment-against-an-invoice","title":"Take a payment against an invoice","description":"Record a payment a customer already made, by cash, check, card or another method you accept."}],"body":"An anonymous booking assigns a booth and takes payment for a vendor who shows up on the day, without you creating a vendor profile for them. Use it from Scheduler when someone walks up wanting a space and you don't need to keep their information on file.\n\n## Book a walk-up vendor\n\n1. Click **Scheduler** in the left-hand menu.\n2. Without selecting a vendor, click **Book Anonymous**.\n\n    ![Scheduler, with no vendor selected and Book Anonymous on offer](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/01-scheduler.png)\n\n3. The first time you do this, a message explains what booking anonymously means. Click **Book Anonymous** to continue. Check **Don't show again** first if you don't want to see this message next time.\n\n    ![The explanation of what booking anonymously means, with Book Anonymous to continue](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/02-book-anonymous-warning.png)\n\n4. On **Step 1: Days**, click the day you're booking. If Scheduler is set to book by the day, the next open day is already checked for you. You can also:\n    - Click **Select All** or **De-select All** to select or clear every day shown.\n    - If your market books by more than one length of time, click **Day**, **Week**, **Month** or **Event** to switch.\n    - Click a month's name to select every day in it, or a weekday's heading to select that weekday every week in the month. Hold **Shift** while clicking the first and last day of a range to select everything in between.\n\n    ![Step 1: Days, with the next open day pre-selected and Select All on offer](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/03-days.png)\n\n    !!! important\n        An anonymous booking keeps no record of who the vendor is. Once it's booked, you can't look it up or track it later the way you can for a vendor with a profile. Stick to booking for today unless you have a reason not to.\n\n   Click **Next**.\n\n5. Click an available booth. Booths that aren't available are greyed out. Click **Next**.\n\n    ![Step 2: Booths, with an available booth clicked](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/04-select-booth.png)\n\n    !!! tip\n        Once you've picked a booth, click **Summary** at the top to skip straight there.\n\n6. If your market has rentals, fill in **Qty** for any rental the vendor needs. The rental's total, and the total for the booking, update as you type. Click **Next**. If your market doesn't offer rentals, you won't see this step.\n\n    ![Step 3: Rentals, with the quantity for Table filled in and the totals updated](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/05-rentals.png)\n\n7. Check the total on the summary, then click **Book & Pay**.\n\n    ![The summary, with the total for the day and Book & Pay ready](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/06-summary.png)\n\n8. Add the payment the same way you would on any invoice: choose **Cash**, **Check**, **Charge** or **Custom**, fill in **Amount**, then click **Add payment** (or **Charge**, for a card). Choosing **Manual entry** to type in a card by hand runs at a higher transaction rate, which the window tells you. See [Take a payment against an invoice](https://articles.marketspread.com/v1/articles/take-a-payment-against-an-invoice) for more on each method.\n\n    ![The Add Payment window, open after Book & Pay, with Cash chosen and Amount ready to fill in](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/07-add-payment.png)\n\nOnce payment is added, you're back in Scheduler and the booth shows **Anonymous**, followed by the booking number in parentheses, with a small green mark in the corner to show it's paid.\n\n![Scheduler afterward, with the booth reading Anonymous and its paid status square](https://articles.marketspread.com/images/anonymous-bookings/08-scheduler-after.png)\n\n## Good to know\n\n- Only staff with permission to create anonymous bookings in Scheduler see the **Book Anonymous** button. Administrators and Managers have this by default; other roles need it added.\n- Booking anonymously needs no other setup.\n- An anonymous booking doesn't keep a record of who the vendor is — no name, contact details or history. You won't be able to look them up later."}