Lexidesk uses Acuity as the scheduling layer behind your AI intake. Once connected, the AI qualifies each caller or chat visitor, sends them a booking link by text and email, and your team sees the consult appear on the right lawyer's calendar with the full intake summary attached.
This guide walks you through the full setup from a fresh Acuity account, including the hidden form that lets Lexidesk track which conversation produced each booking.
Plan for about 30 minutes.
How the booking flow works
Before you start clicking, it helps to know what you are building.
Here is what happens end to end once the integration is live:
The caller or chat visitor talks to your Lexidesk AI.
Once they are qualified, the AI sends a personalized SMS and email with your Acuity booking link. The booking form comes pre-filled with the details the AI already gathered (name, phone, email, county, opposing party, case description) so the client does not retype anything.
The client picks a time and, if you charge for consults, pays through Stripe on the booking page.
Acuity writes the appointment to the assigned lawyer's calendar.
Hidden IDs pass from Acuity back to Lexidesk.
Lexidesk marks the conversation as converted, drops the full intake summary onto the calendar event, and stops any remaining follow-up texts or emails to that client.
The hidden form in Step 5 and the form selection in Step 8 are what make the last three bullets work.
Skip either and bookings still happen, but Lexidesk loses conversion tracking and follow-up texts keep going out to clients who already booked. ( although you can stop them manually too )
What you will need
An Acuity (Squarespace Scheduling) account. Any paid plan works.
A Stripe account, if you want to collect payment at the time of booking. This is optional.
Admin to your Lexidesk account.
Roughly 30 minutes.
Step 1. Create your Acuity account
If you do not already have one, sign up at acuityscheduling.com. The default plan is enough to start.
On first login follow this article to set the right timezones for your bookings. This controls every booking that follows.
Step 2. Create a calendar for each lawyer/team member
In Acuity, a "calendar" represents one bookable resource. For most firms, that means one calendar per a lawyer who takes consults.
In Acuity, go to Availability → Add Calendar.
Name the calendar after the lawyer, for example "Consults with Hanna Smith".
Set the correct timezone for that lawyer.
Set the hours that lawyer is available for consultations.
Optional: add the lawyers' email under internal notifications so they get an alert on every booking.
Tips
1. Make one calendar per lawyer, not a single shared one. Separate calendars make it possible for Lexidesk to route the right client to the right lawyer later.
2. Make sure you have as much availability as possible; in our research, we found that people are 15% more likely to book when you have a lot of availability.
Step 3. Create your appointment types
An appointment type is what the client actually books. You can set one up for every type of consult you sell.
In Acuity, go to Appointment Types → New Type of Service.
Give it a clear, client-facing name, for example "Initial Family Law Consultation" or "Consultation with Hanna Smith".
Set the duration (60 minutes is common for a first consult).
Assign it to one or more calendars from Step 2.
If you charge for the consult, set the price.
Set padding. 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after is a common starting point. That gives your team 30 minutes between back-to-back consults.
Repeat for every consult type you offer. How you split them up is a business decision: a single "Initial Consultation" for every matter, separate types by practice area, or separate types per lawyer all work.
Step 4. Connect Stripe to take payments (optional)
Skip this step if you do not charge for consultations.
If you do charge, connect Stripe so payment is collected on the Acuity booking page itself:
In Acuity, go to Payment Settings → Connect Stripe.
Log in to Stripe and authorize the connection.
Open each paid appointment type and choose whether to take full payment, a deposit, or pay later.
Funds go directly to your Stripe account. Acuity does not hold them.
Step 5. Create the hidden Lexidesk intake form
This is the single most commonly missed step. Skip it and bookings will still happen, but Lexidesk will not know which conversation produced the booking, conversion tracking will break, and follow-up texts will keep going out to clients who already booked.
In Acuity, go to Intake Form Questions → New Custom Form.
Name the form something recognizable, for example "Lexidesk Hidden Form". You will select this name from a dropdown inside Lexidesk later, so make it clearly different from any other form you have.
Check the box marked Internal use only. This makes the form invisible to the client and is required.
Add four fields, each of type Text Box. The field names must match these exactly, including casing:
lexideskClientIdlexideskConversationIdlexideskConversationUrllexideskAppointmentOfferId
Save the form.
Example of a correctly set up form:
Important: Do not rename these four fields, change their casing, or add extra formatting. Lexidesk writes to them programmatically, and any change will silently break the data bridge between the two systems.
Step 6. Create a client-facing intake form (optional)
You can also create a second, visible form if there is information you want the client to confirm or fill in at booking time. Leave Internal use only unchecked on this one so the client sees it.
Common fields to include:
Opposing party name, useful for running a conflict check before the consult
A required disclaimer checkbox, for example "By booking, I acknowledge this consultation does not create an lawyer-client relationship"
Lexidesk can prefill most of these fields with information the AI already gathered on the call or chat, so the client is not retyping.
Available prefill fields are:
FULL_NAME,FIRST_NAME,LAST_NAMEPHONE,EMAILCOUNTYOPPOSING_PARTIESCASE_DESCRIPTION
Note: Prefill mapping between these Lexidesk fields and your Acuity form is configured by the Lexidesk team during onboarding. Just build the client-facing form with the fields you want and we will map it for you.
Clients can still edit any prefilled field before confirming, which is useful for catching spelling mistakes the AI may have picked up from a noisy phone call.
Step 7. Attach your forms to every appointment type
Forms need to be attached to every appointment type you want Lexidesk to use.
In Acuity, go to Appointment Types → Edit on an appointment type.
Scroll to the intake form section and attach:
The hidden Lexidesk form from Step 5. This one is required.
The optional client-facing form from Step 6, if you built one.
Save.
Repeat for every appointment type.
Now switch to your Lexidesk account to link the two systems. This step has two parts: authorizing the connection, then telling Lexidesk which of your Acuity forms is the hidden one.
Step 8. Connect your Acuity account to Lexidesk
Log in to Lexidesk.
Go to Agents in the left sidebar.
Click "Configure" on the agent that should use Acuity.
Find the Appointments section and click Connect with Acuity.
Log in to Acuity and grant the permissions Lexidesk requests.
You will see the status change to Connected, with the message "Acuity account connected".
Step 9. Select the hidden Lexidesk form
Under the Settings, you will see a dropdown listing every form in your Acuity account.
Open Settings.
2. Select the hidden form you created in Step 5, for example "Lexidesk Hidden Form".
3. Click Save.
Important: Lexidesk flags every form in the dropdown that is not marked "Internal use only" in Acuity with the warning "(visible — must be hidden)". Do not pick one of those. The whole point of this form is that it is invisible to clients and only used to carry tracking IDs between the two systems. If your form is showing that warning, go back to Acuity, open the form, check Internal use only, save, and refresh the Lexidesk page.
Step 10. Copy your Acuity booking links and add them as Appointment Offers in Lexidesk
Lexidesk does not automatically sync your appointment types from Acuity. You need to copy each appointment type's booking link out of Acuity and add it to Lexidesk as an Appointment Offer. Appointment Offers are what tells your AI which consultations it can actually offer to callers and chat visitors.
You can do this during onboarding and/or any time later from inside your Lexidesk account.
Step 10.1 Copy your Direct Scheduling Links from Acuity
For every appointment type you created in Step 3 that you want the AI to offer:
In Acuity, go to Appointment Types.
Find the appointment type in the list.
Click the Direct Scheduling Link dropdown on the right.
4. Copy the URL.
While you are there, note down the name, duration, price, and host name for each one. You will need all of those in the next part.
Step 10.2 Download the CSV template and fill it in
In your onboarding form, find the Provide appointment offers template section.
Click CSV template to download the template.
Open it in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.
Add one row per appointment type, using the Acuity Direct Scheduling Links you copied in Step 10.1
Save it as a CSV.
Step 10.3 Upload the CSV in your onboarding form
Back in the onboarding form, click Import CSV (or the upload button if this is your first import).
Select the CSV file you just saved.
Wait for the green Imported confirmation.
That is it. Once the green confirmation shows, the AI has every consult it can offer and the exact booking link for each.
For a full breakdown of every CSV column, what makes a good description (the AI reads this on every call to decide which offer to send), and how to set this up for your firm this article.
Tip: The description column is the single most important one. Write it in plain English describing exactly who this consultation is for, for example: "Consultation for new family law matters" Vague descriptions lead to the AI offering the wrong consult.
Note: You can still edit, activate, or deactivate these offers any time later from inside your Lexidesk account under Agents → Configure → Appointments. You are not locked into whatever you upload now.
Troubleshooting
Bookings are landing in Acuity but Lexidesk is not tracking them
This almost always means one of three things. Check each in order:
The hidden Lexidesk form does not exist yet, or is missing one of the four required fields. Revisit Step 5 and confirm all four field names are spelled exactly right, including casing.
The hidden form exists in Acuity but is not attached to the appointment type that was booked. Revisit Step 7.
The hidden form exists and is attached, but you have not selected it from the dropdown in Lexidesk. Go to Agents → Configure → Appointments and confirm the Lexidesk Intake Form dropdown is set to your hidden form and you clicked Save.
The form I need to select shows "(visible — must be hidden)" in the Lexidesk dropdown
That warning means the form is not marked as internal-only in Acuity, so clients would see the tracking fields on their booking page. Fix it in Acuity:
Go to Intake Form Questions and open the form.
Check the box Internal use only.
Save.
Return to Lexidesk, refresh the page, and pick the form again. The warning should be gone.
The AI is offering times that are already booked
Acuity reads availability from whichever external calendar you synced (Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud). Acuity does not always refresh in real time. Open Availability in Acuity and click the refresh icon. If the problem keeps happening, check the calendar sync under Sync With Other Calendars in Acuity and reconnect if needed.
The "Connect with Acuity" button does nothing or shows an error
Sign out of Acuity in your browser, sign back in, then retry the connection from Lexidesk. If it still fails, email [email protected] with your firm name and a screenshot of the error.
FAQs
Do I need Stripe to use Acuity with Lexidesk?
No. Stripe is only required if you want clients to pay at the time of booking. The rest of the integration works the same whether you charge or not.
Can I offer different consultation types for different practice areas or lawyers?
Yes. Create one appointment type per practice area or lawyer, attach the hidden Lexidesk form to each, then select the ones you want inside Lexidesk. The AI will offer whichever type matches the client's matter and the lawyer's availability.
Will my team get notified when a consult is booked?
Yes, if you add the lawyer's email to their Acuity calendar as an internal notification recipient in Step 2. Acuity will email that lawyer every time a booking is made on their calendar.
Can clients edit their details on the booking form?
Yes. Anything Lexidesk prefills can still be edited by the client before they confirm the booking. This is useful for catching spelling mistakes the AI may have picked up from a noisy phone call.
Do I need to build a phone menu for current clients versus new leads?
No. Your AI detects new leads versus existing clients from what the caller says and routes accordingly. No phone menu required.
Still stuck?
If you have worked through the steps and something is still not behaving the way you expect, email [email protected] with your firm name, the appointment type you are testing with, and a screenshot of the issue. The fastest diagnosis is a short Acuity account invite to our team (in Acuity: Account → People who can access my account → Invite to access) so we can see the exact setup.