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Your first week

This page gives the order in which to set up a new account. The order matters because many settings screens pick from lists that other screens fill. If you set up a reminder setting before its location exists, you’ll have to go back and add the location later.

Why this matters

A well-structured account makes booking faster and less error-prone. Staff see only the options that apply, and each appointment gets the right reminder without anyone having to think about it. Most setup is done once. The order below saves doing it twice.

Before you start

  • Most Settings screens need Account Owner, Account Administrator or Change Settings.
  • Adding users needs Account Owner or Account Administrator. Change Settings isn’t enough.
  • Account Policies can be changed by the Account Owner only.
  • Decide whether your account is standalone or synced with another system. See Standalone or Synced. The steps are the same up to step 6.

Steps

1. Foundations

These screens don’t depend on anything else, so set them up first. All are optional, but later screens can only offer what exists here.

  1. Departments (Settings → Departments): add these if you want to report by department, or let colleagues see each other’s appointments. See Departments.
  2. Locations (Settings → Locations): add these if you work from more than one site, or want the address and directions in reminders. See Locations.
  3. Waiting Rooms (Settings → Waiting Rooms): add these if clients wait in a named room, or you want to limit how many appointments share it. See Waiting Rooms.
  4. SMS Send IDs (Settings → SMS Send IDs): apply for a sender ID if you’ll send SMS that clients can’t reply to. Do this on day one, because a new sender ID shows Pending until it is approved. See Sender IDs.

2. Reminder settings

Settings → Reminder Settings. A reminder setting decides when and how clients are reminded. Each one can use a Physical Location from step 1.2.

  • If Enable Replies is off for SMS, you must choose a Sender Id from step 1.4.
  • Letter By SMS always needs a sender ID.

See How Reminders Work.

3. Users and work hours

Users → User List. See Users and Permissions.

  1. Add each user. Department (step 1.1) and Use Reminder (step 2) are optional choices on the user record. A user’s Use Reminder is selected automatically on appointments where they are the first or only service provider.
  2. Turn on Can Take Appointments for everyone clients will be booked to see. Only those users can be chosen on an appointment.
  3. Each user sets their own Work Hours under Settings → My Profile → Work Hours. See Work Hours.

4. Resources and schedules

These use the locations from step 1 and the users from step 3.

  • Resources (Settings → Resources): rooms or equipment booked alongside an appointment, optionally limited to a location or to selected users. See Resources.
  • Schedules (Settings → Schedules): leave, meetings and other times users are unavailable. See Schedules.

5. Appointment types

Settings → Appointment Types. A type can set a default Department, Waiting Room, Default Reminder and Physical Location, so this step comes after all of those exist. When staff pick the type on an appointment, those values fill in automatically. See Appointment Types.

6. Getting appointments in

This is where the two modes differ.

Standalone

  1. Add your clients, or import them in bulk. See Importing Clients.
  2. Start booking. See Adding an Appointment.

Synced

  1. Agree the clinic codes with Diarybook. See Integration Overview.
  2. Go to Settings → Automatic Syncing and add one record per clinic code. Each record picks a Reminder Setting, an Appointment Type and a User, so steps 2, 3 and 5 must be done first.
  3. Add the Email Addresses that should receive the daily sync report.

7. Account policies

The Account Owner reviews Settings → Account Policies. See Policies. Turn on Mandatory Waiting Rooms only once the waiting rooms from step 1.3 exist and your appointment types select them.

Minimum path for a synced account without replies

A synced account that doesn’t take client replies needs very little:

  1. An approved sender ID (step 1.4).
  2. A reminder setting that uses it (step 2).
  3. A user (step 3).
  4. An appointment type (step 5).
  5. An Automatic Syncing record for each clinic code (step 6).

Everything else is optional. After that, staff don’t need to use the screens day to day. See Standalone or Synced.

What to watch for

An Automatic Syncing record points at the wrong reminder or user The Reminder Setting, Appointment Type and User lists on a syncing record have no blank option, so the first item is selected automatically. Check all three before saving, especially if you create syncing records before the correct reminder setting or type exists.

A reminder setting won’t save If SMS replies are off, a Sender Id is required. Apply for one in step 1.4, and allow time for approval. See Sender IDs.

An appointment type won’t save with a location If the type has both a Default Reminder and a Physical Location, the reminder setting must use the same location.

Staff can’t find a colleague in the appointment’s “To See” list That user doesn’t have Can Take Appointments turned on.

Saving an appointment fails with “Please assign a waiting room for this appointment” Mandatory Waiting Rooms has been turned on. Add waiting rooms and assign them to your appointment types, or turn the policy off.

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