Scheduling settings

Scheduling settings are the clinic's own rules for cancelling, changing, showing and closing appointments. They apply to every discipline.

Open Setup > Scheduling settings. Anyone with access to Setup can see them; changing them needs permission to manage schedule settings. After you change the panels at the top, click Save Changes in the bar at the bottom of the page; the cancellation reasons below them save on their own.

Cancellation reasons#

The Cancellation reasons list holds the reasons staff pick when they cancel an appointment. Each reason Counts as one of the fixed categories (by patient, by clinic, weather, illness or other). The category decides whether a cancellation inside the late-cancel window is a late cancel: reasons on the patient side (by patient, illness or other) can be, reasons on the clinic side and weather never are. Reports group cancellations by the reason and its category.

Every clinic starts with one reason per category. You can rename a starter reason or hide it, but not delete it.

1. Click Add Reason.
2. Enter a Name, for example No transportation.
3. Choose what it Counts as, and an Order for where it appears in the list.
4. Click Add Reason.

To stop offering a reason, open its menu, click Edit and turn off Offer this reason. Past cancellations keep it. A reason you added can be deleted only while no appointment uses it.

Turn on Require a cancellation reason so every cancellation must name one of your reasons. When it is off, a cancellation without a reason counts as Other.

Late-cancel window#

Late-cancel window (hours) sets how close to the start a patient may cancel before it counts as a late cancel. It starts at 24 hours. A patient cancelling less than that many hours before the appointment, for a reason on the patient side, is recorded as a Late cancel; so is a cancel a patient sends from a reminder. Enter 0 to never count a cancellation as late.

A payer can set its own window on its rule set (Late-cancel window (hours) under Billing rules); its patients follow that window instead. A late cancel can carry your clinic's missed-visit fee.

Change notes#

Change notes decides whether editing, moving or rescheduling a booked appointment asks why:

• Off: no note is asked for.
• Optional: the edit and reschedule windows offer a Change note field.
• Required: the change saves only with a note. Dragging an appointment on the calendar asks for the note before it moves.

Notes appear in the appointment's History and in the Cancellation detail report.

Initials on calendar blocks#

Turn on Show initials on calendar blocks so blocks show the patient's initials and the appointment type instead of the full name, for everyone in the clinic. Each user can also hide patient details on their own screen with the eye button in the top bar (see Hiding patient details).

Rooms#

Turn off Schedule by room if your clinic books providers only. The calendar then drops its Providers and Rooms column switch, appointments offer only Equipment, a copied appointment brings no room, and the printed schedule has no room pages or Room column. Rooms already on an appointment stay on it (shown but not changeable), and room records under Locations are kept, so you can turn rooms back on at any time. New clinics start with rooms on.

Lock the schedule#

Once billing and payroll close a period, enter the last day of that period in Schedule locked through. The date can be today or earlier, never a future day. Appointments on or before that date, in their location's time zone, can no longer be booked, moved, edited, cancelled, marked or voided, except by users whose role allows changing locked appointments. On the calendar those appointments can no longer be dragged. Clear the date to unlock the schedule.