A patient file can be marked as inactive when the patient has not attended the practice for an extended period, or has finished their treatment. Marking a patient as inactive will hide them from various search menus, including in the main Search box and when booking appointments. Further, inactive patients are also excluded by default from several PracSuite reports.
To mark a patient file as inactive, navigate to a Patient file and select the cog to the right of the patient name.
Select Mark Client as Inactive and click OK. If applicable, select the options to mark the patient as Deceased, Delete Future Appointments etc.
This checklist is fixed and can't be customised. If the patient has an outstanding balance, a summary (Balance, Unissued, Current, Overdue) is shown above the checklist as a heads-up before you continue.
The available options are:
Deceased – marks the patient file as deceased.
Select All – ticks every option below in one click.
Delete future appointments – removes any upcoming booked appointments.
Delete scheduled follow up messages – cancels any pending follow-up SMS/email messages.
Delete future tasks – removes any tasks scheduled against the patient.
Delete future recalls – removes any pending recall reminders.
Delete waiting list entries – removes the patient from the waiting list.
Disable online booking account – prevents the patient from logging into their online booking account while inactive.
Under Marketing, you can also set the patient's SMS Marketing and Email Marketing consent (e.g. Soft Opt-in) at the same time as marking them inactive, rather than needing to update this separately.
An Inactive label will be displayed at the top of the patient file.
To mark a patient as active, go the Client file and click the cog and select Mark Client as Active. The patient will then become active again.
Bulk Archiving from a Report
Most patient- and appointment-based reports (e.g. the Active/Inactive Patients report) have an Archive button. This performs the same action as marking a patient inactive above, applied in bulk to every patient currently shown in the report, and takes effect immediately once clicked.
Unlike the single-patient flow, the bulk action does not offer the Deceased / delete future appointments / delete recalls etc. checklist — it simply marks every patient in the report inactive. Use this when you want to mark a whole filtered list (e.g. everyone with no appointment in the last 12 months) inactive in one step, rather than opening each patient file individually.