Enabling Group Appointments Online
Group Appointments are between one practitioner and multiple clients. Turn on Group Appointments by going to Settings > Online Booking > Online Booking Overview.
Click Edit and scroll down to Group Appointments and enable the toggle.
Customise the Group Appointment Descriptor between Class or Session.
Set the Minimum Search Range, which represents how much notice you would like when someone is booking a group appointment online. For example, a one-hour minimum search range means that the earliest possible time a client can book in is one-hour away from the current time.
The Maximum Search Range represents to furthest possible date a patient can search for a group appointment from the current date.
If you would like your clients to know how full a group appointment is while they are booking, tick the checkbox to display the number of bookings per group e.g. 8/10. Leaving this option unticked will only indicate if a group appointment is full, or not full.
Next, turn on the toggle if you would like to allow clients to book recurring appointments. This feature allows a client to book regular occurring group appointments if they are set up to occur weekly at the same time.
When recurring bookings is enabled, you can also decide if you would like to limit the number of appointments that can be booked at once. Enable the toggle and select the maximum number of group appointments a client can book as part of a recurrence.
Setting up Class Services
Scroll down to Class Services and here you can create group appointment services which can then be assigned to practitioners. The page will display any existing services and their associated new patient and existing patient appointment types.
Select Add to add create a new service.
Service Details
When creating a new service, specify the Service Name that will be displayed online to patients. The Service will also need to be linked to an existing Profession in your PracSuite system.
The following settings can also be enabled:
Show Description - Display further details regarding the service
Show Photo - Display a photo for the service
Confirmation Prompt - Present a confirmation prompt that patients must confirm before finalising their appointment.
This class service can be booked by - Allows the option to choose who can book into this class, either All Patients, Guest Patients, Logged in Patients or Approved Patients.
Creating multiple services allows patients to filter to certain group appointment types grouped by Service.
Appointment Types
When creating a class service, you need to specify the Appointment Types that New and Existing patients can select from.
Select Add and select the appropriate appointment type from the drop-down list.
Note: If you do not wish for New or Existing Patients to book for this service, do not add any appointment types to the respective grid.
The following settings can also be enabled:
Description - Override the name of the appointment type and provide a description that will be displayed online.
Show Duration - Displays the length of the appointment according to the profession and practitioner defaults set on the appointment type.
Show Fees - Displays the fee for the appointment according to the default on the appointment type and the Guest Fee Category.
Allow Notes - Provide the option for the patient to provide a reason for their appointment.
Require Notes - Requires the patient to provide a reason for their appointment.
Confirmation Email Template - The selected template will be emailed to the patient after confirming their appointment.
Confirmation SMS Template - The selected template will be sent as an SMS to the patient after confirming their appointment.
Enabling Practitioners for Group Appointments
To make a practitioner available for online group bookings, go to Settings > Online Booking > Practitioners.
Select Add to add a new practitioner to your online booking site.
Practitioner Details
Use the Practitioner dropdown to select the Practitioner you wish to enable.
If the practitioner is happy to accept new patient bookings, enable the Allow New Patient Bookings setting.
Should the practitioner only accept group appointments and you don't want to allow one-on-one appointments to be booked with them, tick Group Appointments Only.
Please note that the Practitioner's description and photo do not display while booking a group appointment.
Locations & Services
You will see a list of the Practitioner's Businesses and their Corresponding Locations. Select the Businesses that you would like to enable online booking for and then click into the services line to add the services the practitioner offers at that location.
When you are done, click Save at the top to confirm your changes.
You have now successfully set up group appointments for online booking!
