PracSuite appointment reminders can be scheduled using hours, calendar days or business days before an appointment. Additional settings control weekend sending, quiet hours and reminders for appointments booked after the normal sending time.
Configure appointment reminders under: Settings > Appointment Book > Appointment Book
Quick recommendations
To send Monday’s reminders on Friday, choose 1 business day before.
To send every reminder at a consistent time of day, choose days before or business days before, then select the sending time.
To send at an exact interval before each appointment, choose an hours before appointment option.
For most practices, enable Do not send a reminder within the same day of the appointment. This prevents unnecessary reminders for appointments booked on the day they occur.
For a public holiday, temporarily change the existing reminder so it sends earlier, then restore its usual settings after the reminders have been sent.
PracSuite can also send multiple reminders at different times, including a second reminder only for patients who have not confirmed.
Understanding the timing options
Hours before appointment
Hour-based options count backwards from the appointment’s exact time.
For example: A reminder set to 24 hours before appointment for a Monday 2:00 pm appointment is scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 pm.
Choose an hours-before option when the exact interval before the appointment is more important than sending every reminder at the same time of day.
When using an hours-before option, you can also enable But not between these times to prevent reminders from being sent during quiet hours, such as overnight.
On the same day
This option sends reminders at the selected time on the appointment date.
For example: Selecting on the same day at 8:00 am sends reminders at approximately 8:00 am for appointments occurring later that day.
Consider whether same-day reminders are appropriate for your cancellation policy and practice workflow.
Days before
Day-based options count backwards using calendar days. Saturdays and Sundays are included unless you enable a weekend restriction.
For example: 1 day before at 9:00 am sends reminders for Monday appointments on Sunday at 9:00 am.
The selected sending time applies to every appointment, regardless of the appointment’s own time.
Business days before
Business-day options count Monday to Friday and skip Saturdays and Sundays.
For example: 1 business day before at 9:00 am sends reminders for Monday appointments on Friday at 9:00 am.
Business-day options are usually the clearest choice for practices that do not want their regular reminders sent on weekends.
Public holidays can still require a temporary change. See Sending reminders early for a public holiday.
Days before compared with hours before
Although 1 day before and 24 hours before may sound similar, they behave differently.
Consider a Monday appointment at 2:00 pm:
Setting | Reminder time |
24 hours before appointment | Sunday at 2:00 pm |
1 day before at 9:00 am | Sunday at 9:00 am |
1 business day before at 9:00 am | Friday at 9:00 am |
Use hours before when reminders should follow each appointment’s exact time. Use days before or business days before when reminders should be sent at a consistent time of day.
Preventing reminders from being sent on weekends
For calendar-day reminders, enable Do not send reminders on and choose one of the following options.
Saturday or Sunday
If the calculated sending date falls on Saturday or Sunday, the reminder is brought forward to an allowed day.
For example: A reminder set to 1 day before for a Monday appointment would normally be sent on Sunday. With Do not send reminders on Saturday or Sunday enabled, it is brought forward to Friday.
Sunday
This option allows reminders to be sent on Saturday but prevents them from being sent on Sunday.
For example: A reminder set to 1 day before for a Monday appointment is brought forward from Sunday to Saturday.
If the goal is simply to send Monday’s reminders on Friday, selecting 1 business day before is generally easier to understand.
Reminders for newly booked appointments
PracSuite continues checking for appointments after the scheduled reminder time has passed.
For example, suppose a reminder is configured to send 2 days before at 9:00 am. If a new appointment is subsequently booked less than two days before it occurs, PracSuite will still send the reminder unless a cut-off has been configured.
This ensures newly booked appointments are not missed simply because the original reminder time has already passed.
Do not send a reminder within
Use Do not send a reminder within to prevent reminders from being sent too close to an appointment—particularly for appointments booked after the normal scheduled sending time.
The most commonly used selection is:
Do not send a reminder within the same day of the appointment
With this option selected:
An appointment booked on the day it occurs will not receive an automatic reminder.
An appointment booked after the normal reminder run, but before the appointment date, can still receive a reminder.
The reminder continues working normally for appointments booked sufficiently in advance.
You can alternatively select a specific number of hours or days when a longer cut-off is required.
Example
A reminder is configured for 2 days before at 9:00 am:
When the appointment is booked | Result |
More than two days beforehand | The reminder is sent at the scheduled date and time. |
One day beforehand | A reminder is sent after the appointment is booked. |
On the appointment date, with same day selected | No reminder is sent. |
Within 24 hours, with 24 hours selected | No reminder is sent. |
Quiet hours
The But not between these times option is available for reminders configured using an hours-before setting.
Use it to prevent reminders from being sent during a selected period, such as between 9:00 pm and 7:00 am. If a reminder is due to be sent during quiet hours, it will be sent before quiet hours start.
This is different from Do not send a reminder within:
Setting | Purpose |
But not between these times | Prevents hour-based reminders from being sent during selected quiet hours. |
Do not send a reminder within | Stops reminders for newly booked appointments once they are too close to the appointment. |
Sending Monday’s reminders on Friday
For a regular Monday-to-Friday practice, the simplest configuration is:
Go to Settings > Appointment Book > Reminders.
Open the relevant SMS or email reminder.
Set Send Reminders to 1 business day before.
Select the preferred sending time.
Enable Do not send a reminder within and select the practice’s preferred cut-off. Same day is the most common selection.
Select Save.
With this configuration:
Monday appointments are reminded on Friday.
Tuesday appointments are reminded on Monday.
Wednesday appointments are reminded on Tuesday.
You can alternatively choose 1 day before and enable Do not send reminders on Saturday or Sunday, but 1 business day before communicates the intended behaviour more clearly.
Using more than one appointment reminder
PracSuite can have multiple active SMS or email reminders, each with a different sending time.
For example, a practice might configure:
A first reminder 3 days before the appointment, asking the patient to confirm.
A second reminder 1 day before the appointment for patients who have not confirmed.
Each active reminder can send when its configured time is reached. Appointment status settings can be used to stop further reminders when they are no longer required.
Using Hold App. Reminders
The Hold App. Reminders flag is configured for each appointment status under:
Settings > Appointment Book > Appointment Book
When an appointment has a status for which Hold App. Reminders is enabled, PracSuite will not send further automatic appointment reminders for it.
This can be used to send a second reminder only to patients who have not confirmed:
Configure the first reminder to send several days before the appointment and ask the patient to confirm.
Configure confirmed replies to change the appointment to the appropriate confirmed status.
Enable Hold App. Reminders for that confirmed status.
Configure a second reminder to send closer to the appointment.
Patients who confirm after the first reminder move to a status that holds further reminders, so they do not receive the second reminder. Appointments that remain unconfirmed can receive it.
Important: Enabling Hold App. Reminders for the Reminder Sent status will generally prevent subsequent reminders once the first reminder has been sent. Do not use that configuration if the practice intentionally sends multiple reminders.
Sending reminders early for a public holiday
A public holiday may require reminders to be sent earlier than usual. For example, a practice may want reminders for Tuesday appointments to be sent on the preceding Friday instead of Monday public holiday.
For a Tuesday appointment, Friday is 4 calendar days before:
Monday is 1 day before.
Sunday is 2 days before.
Saturday is 3 days before.
Friday is 4 days before.
Temporarily adjust the existing reminder to send on the required date, then restore its usual settings after the reminders have been sent.
Before making the change
Record the reminder’s current:
Send Reminders option.
Sending time.
Do not send reminders on setting.
Do not send a reminder within setting.
This makes it easier to restore the reminder accurately.
Temporarily change the reminder
Go to Settings > Appointment Book > Reminders.
Open the SMS or email reminder that normally sends these reminders.
Change Send Reminders to the required number of calendar days before the appointment.
Select the required sending time.
Review Do not send reminders on. Temporarily disable it if necessary to ensure the calendar-day calculation produces the required sending date.
Select Save.
Wait for the reminders to be sent.
Confirm that the messages appear in the patient message history.
Immediately restore the reminder’s original settings.
For Tuesday reminders that must be sent on Friday, temporarily select:
4 days before at the required Friday sending time.
The temporary setting applies to every appointment covered by that reminder. Make the change shortly before the required send and restore the original configuration as soon as processing is complete.
Practices with multiple reminders
If the practice already has multiple active reminders, make sure you temporarily change the correct reminder.
Consider whether patients should still receive any separately configured later reminder. The practice’s appointment statuses and Hold App. Reminders settings will determine whether subsequent reminders are allowed to send.
Do not create an additional reminder solely for the public holiday.
After the public-holiday reminders have been sent
Confirm the following:
The reminder has been restored to its normal timing.
The original sending time has been restored.
Any temporarily changed weekend settings have been restored.
Do not send a reminder within is using its original value.
The required messages appear in the patient message history.
Any other active reminders will behave as intended.