Online appointments

Handling booking requests

Confirming, cancelling and following up the appointments your patients request.

In this article

When a patient books on your website, their request arrives here. It is waiting for your answer: nothing is confirmed automatically.

To get there: Calendar → Bookings.

Reading the list

Column	Contents
Date	The date of the appointment.
Time	The start and end time.
Patient	Their name and e-mail address.
Type	The appointment type they chose.
Status	Where this appointment stands (see below).
Actions	Confirm, cancel, add to your calendar.

Status	Meaning
Pending	The patient has asked, you need to answer.
Confirmed	You accepted. The patient has their confirmation.
Cancelled	The appointment will not happen. The patient has been told.
Expired	The date passed without you confirming or cancelling.

You can tell there are pending requests from the orange dot next to Calendar in the left menu. The number tells you how many.

On the appointment's row, click « Confirm ».
A window opens. It shows you the recipient's e-mail address and a preview of the message that will go out.
Read it over.
Click « Confirm and send ».

What then happens:

the patient receives a confirmation e-mail;
a calendar invitation (.ics file) is attached automatically: the patient clicks it and the appointment lands in their diary;
the status changes to Confirmed.

The patient receives a cancellation e-mail, and the slot becomes available to others again.

Click anywhere on the row: a card opens with all the information.

You will find:

the name, the e-mail (with a « Copy » button) and the phone number of the patient;
the date, time, type and duration;
the message the patient wrote — always read it, it often contains something essential: an address, an allergy, a particular need;
the date the request was created;
the « Confirm » and « Cancel » buttons;
the buttons to add the appointment to your own diary.

Three buttons sit under « Add to my calendar »:

Google — opens Google Calendar with the event pre-filled.
Outlook — the same for Outlook.
Apple / .ics — downloads a file you then open to add the appointment to your iPhone, Mac or any other calendar program.

The event contains the appointment type, the patient's name, their contact details and their message.

By default the list shows only upcoming appointments. That is deliberate, so you see what matters straight away.

Tick « Show past dates » to see the whole history.
Use the « All statuses » drop-down to see, for instance, only the Pending ones.
The button with two circular arrows reloads the list.

An appointment becomes Expired when its date has passed without you confirming or cancelling it.

No action is required and no e-mail is sent to the patient. The request has simply lapsed.