wiki/clients/current/lamarie/2026-04-05-bookly-integration-go-no-go.md · 915 words · 2026-04-05

Bookly Integration Go/No-Go — Kim & Melissa Sync

Date: 2025-12-30
Attendees: Kimberly Gehrmann (technical PM, external), Melissa Cusumano (Asymmetric)
Client: ^[1]

Overview

Kimberly and Melissa aligned on the status of the blocked WooCommerce-to-Bookly credit card tokenization integration. The meeting established a formal go/no-go decision framework for the Bookly path and defined a contingency plan to launch the existing staging variant pages with direct Square booking links if Bookly cannot be made to work.

Context

The Bookly integration has been the top priority (P0) for the LMB project. Developer Ishak has been attempting to bridge WooCommerce's credit card authorization capability with Bookly's booking flow via custom PHP. The project has been in a holding pattern while this blocker is investigated.

Client Lisa has a firm directive: no "janky" or stopgap solutions. Any launched feature must be final-quality. This elevates the Bookly decision from an iterative fix to a binary go/no-go.

Key Decisions

Bookly is now a go/no-go decision. Ishak will consult one additional resource (a colleague). If that attempt fails, the Bookly path is formally abandoned. There will be no further iterative attempts.
Contingency plan confirmed: If Bookly fails, the team will push the staging variant pages live with "Book Now" buttons linking directly to specific Square service pages. This is not considered a new stopgap — it extends the existing Square booking flow while leveraging the high-quality design work already completed.
Kimberly will conduct a code audit of Ishak's staging work to provide a fresh perspective before the final go/no-go call.
Ishak's work continues uninterrupted while the audit is pending. The tokenization work is still relevant regardless of outcome, as WooCommerce handles all product purchases on the live site.

The Core Technical Blocker

WooCommerce's Square payment integration supports credit card authorization (tokenization) natively — this works correctly for product purchases. However, the token is not passed through to Bookly for service bookings. Ishak has been writing custom PHP to bridge this communication gap, but the token transfer remains broken.

"In WooCommerce, you can 100% capture the credit card. The problem is, is that it doesn't then relay it to Bookly. There's some sort of communication there that, again, it's captured in the WooCommerce connection, but doesn't transfer." — Melissa Cusumano

The relevant WooCommerce setting is: WooCommerce → Settings → Payments → Square → Manage → Authorization.

Contingency Plan: Staging Variant Pages → Square

If Bookly is abandoned:

Push the existing staging variant pages (currently built out for Vampire Facial as a template) to production.
Update all "Book Now" buttons to link to the specific Square service page rather than the generic Square homepage.
- Known bug on live site: Current "Book Now" buttons on the live site link to the Square homepage, not individual service pages. This is a simple URL swap.
The variant page design work (81 pages total, template built) represents significant completed effort from Asymmetric — this plan preserves that investment.

"How do we take the work that has been done, have that go live? Maybe we still go directly to Square, which technically is a stopgap solution, but it's not a new stopgap solution." — Kimberly Gehrmann

Why Bookly Is Likely Not the Right Fit

Preliminary research shows Bookly lacks the level of UI customization Lisa requires.
Migrating to Bookly would require moving the client source-of-truth out of Square, where some clients have 5+ years of history and tens of thousands of dollars in tracked spend.
Lisa reviewed a Loom recording of Bookly's interface and the gap between her design vision (Miro mockups) and Bookly's actual output became clear.

Action Items

Owner	Action	Notes
Melissa	Confirm with Mark whether the "filtering and search" contract (~$2k) has been paid	End-of-year billing reconciliation
Melissa	Ask Ishak to send staging code + settings video directly to Kimberly (CC Melissa)	Ishak may not have it ready until Friday
Ishak	Provide staging code in a Google Doc: (1) service variant pages, (2) tokenization PHP	Direct email to Kimberly
Ishak	Record short screen-capture video walking through relevant WooCommerce settings changes	No narration required
Ishak	Consult colleague on tokenization blocker; report outcome	Final attempt before go/no-go
Kimberly	Audit provided code for potential blockers	Fresh-eyes review
Kimberly	Complete comprehensive website audit (live site vs. services spreadsheet)	Variant page coverage, broken links, etc.
Kimberly	Meet with Lisa post-audit to review findings and make final Bookly decision	Will not happen before end of year

Notable Transcript Excerpts

On the go/no-go framing:

"Eshock going to talk to his friend. Go/no-go. Give me the code. I'll take a once-over. Probably not going to see anything new, but then we have exited this holding pattern and we get new problems — not the same problem that has been on loop for a while." — Kimberly Gehrmann

On Lisa's mandate:

"She doesn't want something janky... the goal is not a janky-looking modal. She wants what she wants." — Kimberly Gehrmann

On the Square data risk:

"Some of those clients have five-plus years — we're talking they've spent tens of thousands of dollars on product and services. All of that is tracked." — Kimberly Gehrmann

^[2]