# Cancelling a day of appointments

## Why this matters

When a clinic has to close at short notice, for an emergency, staff illness or industrial action,
every client needs to hear about it before they travel, and none of them should receive a reminder
for an appointment that is no longer happening. Doing the two steps in the right order means a
single, clear cancellation message reaches each client and the appointment record shows who
cancelled and why.

## Before you start

- You need the **Send SMS** permission to message clients from the appointments list. See
  [Users and Permissions](/docs/setting-up/users-and-permissions/).
- To change appointments belonging to other service providers you need permission to edit them:
  **Can edit All Appointments**, or **Can edit Department Appointments** for your own department.
- Agree the wording of the message before you start. Once the appointments are cancelled, the
  SMS is the only notice the client receives.

## The order: cancel first, then send

Cancel the appointments **before** you send the SMS.

Automatic reminders are not sent for cancelled appointments. If you send your SMS first and leave
the appointments open, a scheduled reminder can still go out afterwards, so a client may get "your
clinic is closed" followed by "reminder: your appointment is tomorrow". Setting the confirmation
status to **Cancelled by User** first stops that, and the selection stays in place for the SMS.

## Steps

![Email Reminders](/img/dbdocs/scr-appt-cancel-sms.png) 
{.db-image}


### 1. Find the appointments

1. Open the **Appointments** area and select **Appointments List**.
2. Move to the affected day using the calendar at the top of the sub-menu, or the left and right
   arrows in the toolbar.
3. If only some service providers are affected, select **Filter**, then **Users**, choose the
   users whose appointments are cancelled, and select **Apply**.
4. Check the list. Every appointment shown is about to be cancelled.

### 2. Cancel the appointments

1. Select the tick box in the toolbar to select every appointment in the list, or tick individual
   appointments.
2. Select **Appointments Menu**. The menu shows how many appointments are selected; check the
   number matches what you expect.
3. Select **Change Confirmation Status**, then **Cancelled by User**.

Diarybook shows "Confirmation status changed" when it is done. Each cancelled appointment shows a
red user icon in the list.

> [!NOTE]
> Use **Cancelled by User**, not **Cancelled by Client** or **Unable To Attend**. Those two record
> that the client cancelled, which would be wrong in your attendance reporting.

### 3. Send the SMS

Keep the same appointments selected.

1. Select **Appointments Menu**, then **Send SMS**. The **Send SMS** screen opens with the clients
   from the selected appointments as recipients. For a group appointment, every client in it is
   included.
2. Under **Sender ID**, choose the sender ID. If clients may reply, use the reply option rather
   than an alphanumeric sender ID. See [Sender IDs](/docs/setting-up/sender-ids/).
3. Under **Compose your text message**, type the message. Say what has happened, that the
   appointment is cancelled, and what the client should do next: whether they will be contacted
   with a new date, or who to call.
4. Under **Options**, set **Send When:** to **Now**. Use **Later** only if you have a reason to
   hold the message back.
5. Select **Create Preview** and check a few of the messages.
6. Select **Next**. The **Send** screen shows **Total messages:** and **Total price:**. If any
   messages are rejected, the number is shown under **Rejected messages:**.
7. If the message is long enough to cost more than one part, tick **I accept some or all messages
   are large and will cost extra**.
8. Select **Send**.

Diarybook confirms the job number. Select **Open Job #** to follow delivery in the **Messaging**
area, under **Jobs**.


## What to watch for

**A reminder went out before you cancelled**
Reminders already sent can't be recalled. This is why the cancellation should happen as soon as the
closure is known: a reminder setting with an **Hours before appointment** trigger can send on the
day itself. Check the reminder icons in the list before you send, and make sure your message reads
sensibly to a client who has just received a reminder.

**Clients received an extra message after you cancelled**
An [Additional Messaging](/docs/reminders/additional-messaging/) schedule item can target the
**Cancelled By User** confirmation status. If one of your reminder settings has such an item,
cancelling the appointments triggers it, and the client receives that message as well as yours.
Check your reminder settings before a planned closure such as industrial action, and decide which
of the two messages you want clients to get.

**Some clients didn't get the SMS**
Clients with no mobile number, or who have opted out of SMS, are not sent the message. Look at the
**Rejected messages:** count on the **Send** screen, and phone those clients instead.

**Some appointments weren't cancelled**
The tick box selects only what the list is showing. If a filter was left on from earlier, or you
filtered by user, appointments outside that filter are untouched. Clear the filter and check the
day again before you finish.

**Synced appointments**
If your appointments arrive from another system through Automatic Syncing, cancel them in the
source system as well.
<!-- NEEDS CAPTURE: whether the next sync file overwrites a confirmation status set in Diarybook -->

**Clients who reply to the SMS**
If replies are enabled, a client's reply can change the confirmation status. A reply that matches a confirmation keyword
can set the appointment back to **Confirmed**, even though it was a reply to a cancellation. Ask clients not to reply,
or use an alphanumeric sender ID so replies aren't possible, and check the **Received** screen
afterwards. See [Synced Appointments](/docs/appointments/synced-appointments/) for how replies are
read.

## Related

- [Attendance and DNA](/docs/appointments/attendance-and-dna/)
- [Additional Messaging](/docs/reminders/additional-messaging/)
- [Sender IDs](/docs/setting-up/sender-ids/)
- [Users and Permissions](/docs/setting-up/users-and-permissions/)

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Source: https://diarybook.com/docs/appointments/cancelling-a-day/