Calendar

Open Schedule to see the calendar. It shows the appointments at the location chosen in the location picker at the top of the menu; choose All locations to see every location you can reach. The Schedule panel beside the main menu also lists the appointment list, the reminder log and telehealth visits.

Views#

Pick a view with the buttons at the top right of the calendar:

• Month: each day with its first appointments and a +N more link that opens that day.
• Day: one column per provider (or per room), the main front-desk view.
• Week: the seven days as columns. Choose up to three providers to see each of them side by side within every day; otherwise each day is one column and every block carries the provider's initials.
• Agenda: the next seven days as a list, earliest first.
• Timeline: one row per provider across the day, to see who is free at a glance.

The first time you open the calendar, a provider lands on Week filtered to their own appointments, and everyone else (such as the front desk) lands on Day with one column per provider. After that, the calendar remembers the view, columns and filters you last used and opens that way next time. Weeks start on the day your practice chose under Practice, and the first slot size follows the practice's default appointment slot until you pick your own.

Use Today, the arrows and the date title (which opens a date picker) to move around. In Day, Week and Timeline you can also change the Slot size (5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes) and zoom in or out. While appointments load, the calendar dims and shows Loading appointments, so an empty time is not mistaken for a free one.

Time zones#

Times are shown in the location's time zone, whatever the time zone of your computer. When you view all locations and they are in different time zones, the calendar uses your computer's time zone and labels each block from another zone with that zone's abbreviation (for example EST). Days with a daylight saving change keep their blocks at the right wall-clock times.

To see the calendar on another clock, open Display and pick a Time zone: Location time (the default), This device's time zone, or a United States zone such as Eastern or Pacific. This suits a remote supervisor or a provider seeing patients in another state. It changes only how times are shown to you: blocks from another zone keep their zone label, and hours, recurring appointments and reminders still follow each location's own time zone.

What a block shows#

Each block takes its appointment type's color as a light tint with a solid stripe on the left. The patient's name comes first (or the subject for a block without a patient), then the time, the appointment type and any subject, then the status when it is not Scheduled. A short block shows only what fits: the name with the time below it, or one line with the start time and the name. Narrow blocks drop the icons and initials first. Blocks also carry a video icon for telehealth, a repeat icon for an appointment in a recurring series, an alert icon when a patient on it has alerts or allergies (amber, or red for a critical alert or severe allergy, a group showing its most serious one) and the provider's initials in views that are not already per provider. Cancelled, late-cancelled and no-show appointments are struck through. Zoom in to see more of each block.

Once a visit starts, a document icon shows how far its documentation has come: Visit started and Note ready to sign in amber, Note signed and Charge created (a receipt icon) in green. With several patients or providers, the block shows the least finished visit, so unfinished work stands out.

While Hide patient details is on, calendar blocks show the patient's initials and the appointment type instead of the name. Your clinic can also show initials on every block for everyone (see Scheduling settings).

In Day, Week and Timeline, a light hatched strip just before or after a block is the appointment type's preparation and cleanup time. It is not part of the appointment: dragging or resizing the block moves only the appointment's own time.

Hover over a block, or move to it with the keyboard, to see its summary: the type, time and length, the patients with their chart numbers and alert indicators (a link to the chart when you can open charts), the subject, the providers and the location. If you can manage the schedule, the summary also offers Edit, Confirm, Check In, Reschedule, Cancel and Copy (and Fill This Time on an upcoming cancelled appointment), plus a clock button beside each patient to mark that they want an earlier time (see Find a time and fill cancellations). Everyone who can open the appointment also gets Add to Calendar (see Print, export and calendar feed). Clicking a block opens it for editing.

For each patient the summary also shows:

• Phone: the patient's primary phone, only when you can open that patient's chart.
• Eligibility: Verified, Inactive, Problem (the last check returned an error) or Not checked (no check in the last 30 days), from the latest eligibility check of the primary coverage on the appointment's date. Patients without insurance, or whose payer does not take electronic eligibility checks, show none.
• Authorization: Covered, Missing, Expired, Used up or Not required, with the visits left on the authorization after this appointment. It shows only for appointment types with Requires authorization check on.

With a single location chosen, the hours a provider is not available (outside their availability, on time off or on a holiday) are shaded in their column in Day and Timeline, and in Week when providers are side by side.

Due items#

A strip above each day lists what comes due that day for the providers in view, so a therapist sees it while planning visits:

• Authorization expiring: an approved authorization ends that day and no renewal is on file. It shows for each provider on the patient's care team and opens the patient's Authorizations tab.
• Credential expiring: a provider's license or certification expires that day. It opens the provider in Setup.

You see a patient's items only for patients you can see on the schedule at the location you picked. In Month, a day with due items shows how many.

Filters and saved views#

The toolbar above the calendar filters what you see:

• Discipline: which providers appear. Pick providers on the Providers tab of the panel on the left (see Show only some providers). With no provider chosen, Day shows everyone based at the location plus anyone booked there that day.
• Type and Status: show only the types or statuses you pick.
• Documentation: show only appointments whose documentation is at the stages you pick: Not started (no visit yet), Visit started, Note ready to sign, Note signed or Charge created. A group shows when any of its patients matches. Useful for finding the sessions still waiting on a note.
• Care team: show only appointments of patients on the care team of the providers you pick, whoever the appointment is with. For example, pick a lead therapist to see every session of their caseload, including those run by assistants.
• Providers and Rooms (in Day and Timeline, when your clinic has rooms and schedules by room): show a column per provider or per room. In room columns, appointments and provider blocks booked without a room show in a No room column at the end; drag one onto a room to assign it, or drag a block onto No room to free its room.

Click Reset to clear the filters, providers included. To keep a combination, open Presets, click Save current view... and name it; pick it from Presets later to apply it, or delete it from the same menu. Saving under an existing name replaces that view.

Colors, hours and weekends#

Open Display in the toolbar to change how the calendar looks for you. Your choices stay with you on every device and do not change what anyone else sees.

• Color by picks what a block's color means: Appointment type (the clinic's type colors, the default), Status (for example, confirmed, arrived or no-show), Provider (each provider's calendar color), Discipline, Location or Patient. With Patient, each patient keeps the same color everywhere, so one patient's sessions stand out across providers; group sessions keep their type color. A legend under the calendar names each color in view.
• Hours shown sets the first and last hour of the grid in Day, Week and Timeline, such as 7 AM to 7 PM for a clinic that is closed overnight. Appointments outside those hours still count but do not show on the grid.
• Hide weekends in Week leaves Saturday and Sunday out of Week.
• Show color legend turns the legend under the calendar on or off. A long legend scrolls instead of pushing the calendar down.

Show only some patients#

The patient panel on the left of the calendar narrows it to the patients you pick: one, or several with the checkboxes. A group session shows when any picked patient is on its roster. While patients are picked, the calendar hides Busy blocks and anything else you could not open, so it never hints that a patient has an appointment you cannot see. Click All patients to see the whole schedule again. Presets never save the patients you picked.

Show only some providers#

The panel on the left has a Providers tab next to Patients. Click a provider to see only theirs, tick the boxes (or hold Ctrl, Cmd on a Mac) to pick several, or click All providers to see everyone. Search by name to find someone in a large team; the providers you picked stay at the top. Your pick is the calendar's provider filter, so presets save it and Reset clears it, and switching tabs keeps both your patients and your providers.

Book from the calendar#

Click an empty time, or drag down over several slots, to book an appointment there. The new appointment opens with the date, time, location and the provider (or room) of the column already filled in. See Appointments for the rest of the booking steps.

Copy an appointment#

To book the same appointment at another time or for another provider, hover over it and click Copy in its summary. A message above the calendar confirms the copy; then click an empty time in any column. A new appointment opens with the copied type, patient, location and length at that time, in that provider's (or room's) column. Check it and book it as usual; the booking checks run before it saves. To drop the copy, close the message. A clinic that does not schedule by room copies the equipment but not the room.

Move or resize an appointment#

Drag a block to another time, or to another provider's or room's column to reassign it. Drag its bottom edge to change its length. While NeatPractice saves the change, the block stays where you dropped it with a dashed outline. If the change is refused (for example, the appointment was already completed or the new time is not allowed), the block goes back and a message above the calendar explains why. NeatPractice runs the booking checks on the new time first; a warning you may override asks for a reason before the move is saved, and the block waits at the new time until you confirm or cancel. If that save fails, the window stays open with your reason and says why. Moving an appointment in a series first asks whether to move this date, this and following dates, or all future dates.

On a tablet, press and hold a block before dragging it.

With the keyboard#

1. Tab into the calendar and use the arrow keys to move between time slots and appointments.
2. Press Enter on an empty slot to book it, or on an appointment to open it.
3. Press M on an appointment to pick it up. Use the arrow keys to move it (left and right change the day or column), Shift and the up or down arrow to change its length, Enter to drop it and Escape to cancel.

Screen readers hear that the move is being checked when you drop it, then either the saved time or that the appointment was not moved.

Keyboard shortcuts#

While the calendar is open and you are not typing in a field, single keys get you around:

M on a focused appointment still picks it up to move it. Press ? anywhere to see every shortcut.

Range stats#

Click Stats in the toolbar (or press S) to open a panel beside the calendar for the dates in view. It counts the appointments by status and, per appointment type, the appointments, booked hours and units. It also shows the booked appointments and hours per provider, and how many booked patients are at each documentation stage (not started, visit started, ready to sign, signed or charged). Units are estimated in 15-minute units by the eight-minute rule; the visit's payer still decides what is billed. Cancelled, no-show and moved appointments count by status only, and the toolbar filters apply, so the panel always matches what the calendar shows. The panel opens on wider screens and stays open until you close it.

Booked hours#

When your clinic has the applied behavior analysis (ABA) module, the Providers tab shows under each name how many hours the provider is booked, and a line above the list names the day and week they count. In Day and Timeline it shows the hours for the day and for its week; in Week it shows the week. Weeks here run Sunday to Saturday. When a scheduling limit sets weekly hours for the provider, the week reads as booked hours out of the limit, for example Week 32.5 h of 30 h, with a bar that fills toward the limit and turns amber once the week is over.

The hours count every appointment that holds time, blocks included, at all locations; cancelled, rescheduled and voided appointments and all-day appointments do not count. Booked hours are not worked or paid hours. They need a location picked at the top of the menu and are read only.

Print and export#

Open the More actions menu (the three dots) at the top of the page and choose Print for a daily or weekly PDF per provider, room or location, or Export to Calendar to save the days in view as a calendar file. To keep your own appointments in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, subscribe to your calendar feed from your profile. See Print, export and calendar feed.

Live updates#

Bookings, moves and status changes made by anyone in your clinic appear on your calendar without refreshing the page.