The online booking system includes an optional Login Portal that allows clients to view their upcoming appointments, as well as options to book, reschedule and cancel their appointments online. Appointments that are booked while a client is logged in do not require processing by staff, which is required for Guest Bookings.
The Login Portal also provides practices with greater control over which clients are able to book online, as well as what services and practitioners clients can book with when they are logged in.
Enabling the Login Portal
To enable the Login Portal go to Settings > Online Booking > Online Booking Overview.
Click Edit > scroll down to Login Portal and enable the toggle.
Login Portal Settings
Once the Login Portal is enabled, a few additional options appear:
Registrations require approval before client can log in - if enabled, a staff member must process a client's registration request before they can log in. See Processing Registration Requests below.
Use client preferred names in the Login Portal where available - displays a client's preferred name, if one's set on their patient file, instead of their legal first name throughout the Login Portal.
Send alerts for logged in client bookings - Guest Bookings always trigger an alert when a booking comes through, since they require staff processing. This option extends the same alert to bookings made by logged-in clients, even though those don't need processing, so staff still know when they happen. Alerts go to all users, including admin staff.
Prevent inactive clients from logging in - stops clients marked as inactive on their patient file from logging into the Login Portal.
Hide select Appointment Types from upcoming appointment list - see Hiding Appointment Types from the Upcoming Appointments List below.
Hiding Appointment Types from the Upcoming Appointments List
By default, all of a patient's appointments appear in the Login Portal's upcoming appointment list. If you use appointment types for internal purposes only, such as travel time or report writing, that shouldn't be visible to patients, you can hide these.
Go to Settings > Online Booking > Online Booking Overview, select Edit, and tick Hide select Appointment Types from upcoming appointment list.
Select the settings icon next to it to open Hidden Appointment Types, then add the appointment types you'd like to hide, for example Report Writing or Travel.
Note: this only applies to appointment types that aren't enabled for online booking. If an appointment type is offered as a service online, it will always show in the upcoming appointment list regardless of this setting.
Cancellation and Reschedule Preferences
Enabling the Login Portal will display new settings under Individual and Group Appointments regarding cancellation and reschedule preferences. You can enable rescheduling and cancelling of individual appointments and set how much notice is required to do so online as well as allowing group appointments to be cancelled online.
The minimum cancellation/reschedule notice can be set to hours, days or business days.
Processing Registration Requests
Clients can register an account from the online booking home page or choose to register when they're booking an appointment as a guest.
If a client books as a guest and chooses to register an account at the same time, they will receive an email to generate their password and confirm their email address. When you process the appointment, their account will also be confirmed.
If a client registers without making an appointment, you will receive an alert in the PracSuite dock within Alerts. Select the Registration Request to process it by linking it to an existing client or creating a new client file. See the processing of a guest appointment article for more information.
You can select if practice staff must first process registration requests before a patient can log into their account.
Deleting a Registration Request you don't need to process (e.g. it was created in error, or the patient already has a file): open the alert and click Delete Patient in the top-left. This only removes the temporary registration file created by the request — it does not delete any existing patient file. This is different from a standard online-booking alert, which can't be deleted and only needs reviewing.
Practitioner Permissions
On the practitioner's online booking profile in Settings > Online Booking > Practitioners, Patient Booking Permissions can be configured to limit which patients are able to book online with the practitioner when logged into their account.
Tick the box if you would like to prevent registered patients from booking with this practitioner if they have not previously had appointments with that practitioner at this business. You can also edit which locations, services or practitioners registered patients can book with if they have this practitioner set as the Default Practitioner on their patient file.
Client Permissions
Go to the Appointments tab of a client's file and select the Online Booking button at the top.
You can completely revoke a client's access to the login portal by turning off the toggle. Untick the options for enabling Individual or Group appointments and limit which practitioners this patient can book into. Note that this supersedes the practitioner overrides. You can also define limited group appointment services that the client can book online.
Group Appointment/Class Permissions
Each Class Service can be configured so that it is only available to be booked online to select patients. This is ideal for practices that offer advanced classes that they only wish approved patients to book into.
All Clients - the service can be booked by Guest and Logged In clients.
Guest Clients - the service can only be booked by guests.
Logged in Clients - the service can only be booked by logged in clients.
Approved Clients - the service can only be booked by clients that have permission to book into.