# What Diarybook does

Diarybook manages appointments and client communication for health and care services. It provides:

* automated reminders across SMS, email, voice call and letter
* scheduling across multiple practitioners, locations and appointment types
* attendance status tracking and DNA (Did Not Attend) recording
* client file management and secure document sharing
* waiting list management, including the ExcelSend module
* opt-out management, GDPR compliant

## Why this matters

Missed appointments waste clinical time. Reminders, confirmations and attendance records in one
place show a service where its capacity goes, and let staff act on a cancellation while the slot
can still be offered to someone else.

## Standalone or alongside another system

Diarybook can be the whole scheduling system, or it can sit alongside an existing patient
management system and handle messaging for it. The screens described below are the same either
way. See [Standalone or Synced](/docs/start-here/standalone-or-synced/) for what differs.

## The Dashboard

The **Dashboard** is the first screen you see after signing in. It shows:

- the account you are signed into and its **Level**
- a calendar
- the **Appointments** and **Calendar** buttons, and **Switch** if you belong to more than one
  account
- a **Shortcuts** list: **Getting Started with navigation**, **Today's appointments**, **Clients
  waiting for me**, **Appointments for my department**, **Clients waiting for my department** and
  **All clients waiting**

<!-- NEEDS CAPTURE: screenshot of the Dashboard, demo dataset (dataset itself not yet defined —
     see product-context.md). -->

## Getting around

The icons down the left-hand side are the **areas**. Select one, and a second column of icons
appears beside it: the screens in that area. The first icon in that column,
**Expand** , shows the screen names next to the icons.

| Area | What it holds |
|------|---------------|
|  **Appointments** | The appointments list, plus **Rooms**, **Rooms Calendar** and **Received** (client replies) |
|  **Calendar** | The same screens as Appointments, opening on the calendar view |
|  **Clients** | Client records, **Client Groups**, **Waiting Lists**, and **Deleted** clients |
|  **Messaging** | Messaging **Jobs**, logs of everything sent (**SMS**, **Letter**, **Emails**, **Calls**), **Received** messages, and the **Stop List** |
|  **Users** | **User List** and **User Groups**. Shown only to account owners and administrators |
|  **Settings** | **My Profile**, and the account settings: locations, appointment types, reminder settings, and so on |
|  **Billing** | **Overview**, payments and **Charges** |
|  **Reports** | Appointment, client, message and waiting list reports |
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What you see depends on your permissions. Most of the account settings need an administrator.

## Related

- [Key Concepts](/docs/start-here/key-concepts/)
- [Standalone or Synced](/docs/start-here/standalone-or-synced/)
- [Welcome Tutorial](/docs/start-here/welcome-tutorial/)

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Source: https://diarybook.com/docs/start-here/what-diarybook-does/