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Overview
Online booking allows your clients to book appointments independently at any time of the day. By offering online booking, you can also save your clinic's time for other tasks.
With the Provet online booking feature, you have detailed control over your clients' access to appointment booking. You can decide which services or treatments are included and choose the time slots that are available for online booking. You can also add treatment-specific instructions to inform your clients about how to prepare for the appointment.
Note
A new design for Online Booking is available. Read more about the new design or learn how to enable it for your clients.
Online Booking Setup Steps
After the online booking feature has been added to your system, you can edit the online booking settings and complete the required setup:
Online Booking Workflow for Your Clients
Below is a description of how your online booking form looks to your clients and how they use it.
The text you added to the Information field in the general online booking settings is shown below the page title (a).
Depending on your form selections, the client may have to select a clinic location.
Depending on the clinic location settings, the client may have to select the Species of the patient.
Client selects a reason group.
Client selects a reason. Reason-specific instructions set in the reason settings are displayed below the reason (b).
Days with available appointment times are shown in the calendar in green. Client selects a day in the calendar.
The available times for the selected day are listed below. Available times depend on the reason settings as well as the Available time slots and Required time before appointment start settings in the general online booking settings. Clients can use the filters to view available times for the whole day, morning, afternoon, or evening. If selected, the attending vet is displayed in the time slot cards.
Client selects the Choose button to select an appointment time.
A new page opens. Appointment details shows a summary of the appointment. The duration and responsible employee's name may be hidden or shown depending on the general online booking settings.
Client fills in their information. Required fields marked with an asterisk (*).
Client fills in their pet's information. Only single-pet appointments are available in online booking. Information added in the text field will be shown in the appointment details and in the consultation general information section. Note that clients will be asked to verify their mobile phone number using a one-time SMS code before confirming the appointment. For full details on how verification works, see Online Booking Verification and Security.
Client can select the Remember me checkbox if they want their browser to remember the information they have entered. This is useful if they regularly book online.
Client selects Confirm appointment to finalise the booking. The appointment is added to your appointment calendar and the selected confirmation messages are sent. A summary page opens.
Online Booking (new design)
Note
Only single-pet appointments can be booked through online booking. Multi-pet appointments must be booked by the clinic staff.
The online booking process for clients follows the same flow and use cases as the current design, with several usability improvements.
The client workflow in the new online booking portal is as follows:
The client defines the appointment criteria. Depending on your general settings, this may include selecting a clinic location and the patient species. A warning is displayed if the client time zone does not match the clinic time zone.
Reason groups are shown in an expandable accordion. The client expands a group and selects a specific reason. Reason-specific instructions, set in the reason settings, are displayed below the reason.
Days with available appointment times are shown with a dot under the date on the calendar. The client selects a day.
The available times for the selected day are listed below the date. If selected, the attending vet is displayed in the timeslot cards. The client selects an appointment time from the available times.
The client is prompted to enter their email address for verification.
The appointment details form dialogue opens. A 10-minute countdown is displayed, showing how long the slot is reserved once the client begins the booking.
The client fills in their and their pet's information. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*). Only single-pet appointments are available in online booking. New clients may be asked to verify their identity via email, and in some cases also via SMS, before confirming the appointment. For full details on how verification works in the new design, see Online Booking Verification and Security.
The client selects Book appointment to finalise the booking.
The appointment is then added to your appointment calendar, and the selected confirmation messages are sent.
Rules for Matching Client Data with Existing Data in Provet
When Provet receives the client and patient details from the online booking, it automatically tries to match the submitted details with existing clients in your system to avoid client and patient duplicates.
Client Matching
A client is considered a match if:
The first name matches exactly.
The last name matches exactly.
At least one of the following matches:
Phone number
Email address
Address
Based on the matching result, Provet displays a message in the appointment and consultation views to help you proceed:
If a single matching client is found, the client is automatically linked to the booking and, and a message is shown to confirm the match.
If multiple potential matches are found, a message is shown listing the matching details (e.g., name, email, or phone number). Select Show potential matches to open a list of suggested clients. You can then:
Create a new client using the pre-filled online booking information, or
Select an existing client and click Proceed with the selected client to continue.
If no match is found, a new client can be created using a form that is automatically pre-filled with the online booking data.
Example: if there is a client that has the same first name, last name and phone number, but a different or missing email address in your Provet, the client is matched. Note that the different data (in this case, email address) is not automatically updated from the online booking data to the client details in the system. If there are existing client duplicates in your Provet based on these details, the match fails even if other details (for example, client ID) of one of the clients matches with the online booking data.
Patient Matching
After a client match is confirmed, Provet attempts to match the patient details. A patient is considered a match if:
The client matches.
The patient name matches exactly.
The species matches exactly.
How Match Results Are Displayed
If the client is matched but no matching patient is found, a message is shown indicating that the patient needs to be selected or created. You can then either select an existing patient manually or create a new one. The form will be pre-filled using the information provided in the online booking.
When you open an online appointment in the calendar, Provet displays a message at the top of the appointment details view to indicate whether the client and patient have been matched with existing records:
No client or patient match:
"The client and patient from the online booking were not matched in Provet. Edit the appointment to select an existing client or create a new one."
Client matched, patient not matched:
"The client was matched successfully, but no matching patient was found in Provet. Edit the appointment to select an existing patient or create a new one."
Client and patient matched:
"The client and patient from the online booking were successfully matched in Provet."