This article explains the online booking settings, including how to configure time slots, set the minimum lead time before bookings, and send a copy of confirmation emails to the clinic, along with other key options.
General Online Booking Settings
The general, clinic location level online booking settings are defined in Settings > General > Clinic location > Online booking.
Tip: When updating the settings, it is useful to have the online booking preview open so that you can see how your changes affect your online booking page. Right-click on the Preview online booking button to open the online booking preview in a new browser tab.
To edit the settings, select the pen button next to the section title. When you have made your changes, select Save.
Enabled: Select this setting to enable the online booking feature for your clinic location. If this setting is not selected, you cannot add online booking for shifts and make online booking available to your clients.
Patient portal visibility: Use this setting to control whether the clinic location appears in the Provet Patient Portal search results. This option can be useful if a department is created only for internal testing and should not be visible to clients in the Patient Portal.
Online Booking URL: In this field, you can define the URL used for the online booking page. This value can be used as a placeholder ([[onlinebooking_url]]) in email and SMS templates. If the field is left empty, the system automatically uses the clinic’s Patient Portal URL. If you prefer to link directly to your own website’s booking page, you can enter that URL here.
Available time slots: If your calendar uses smaller time slots (15 minutes is the default), you can select whether to offer all slots, full and half hours, or only full hours in online booking.
Information: In this field, you can add general information that is shown at the beginning of your online booking form.
Required time before appointment start: Using this setting, you can limit online booking times so that bookings cannot be made too close to the appointment starting time. For example, if you add 120, clients cannot book appointments less than two hours (120 minutes) before the appointment starts.
Maximum new client bookings per day: Using this setting, you can define the maximum number of bookings new clients can make per day before additional SMS verification is required. This setting does not block bookings. When the limit is exceeded, an additional SMS verification step is added to help prevent spam or automated booking attempts.
Summary information: In this field, you can add information that is shown on the online booking summary page.
Default label for "Notes for vet": In this field, you can add a title for the field that clients can use to add additional information for the appointment's responsible employee.
Set "Notes for vet" as a mandatory field: When this setting is selected, clients must add additional information for the appointment's responsible employee.
Enable client ID field: When this setting is selected, the client ID field is included in the online booking form.
Set "Client ID" as a mandatory field: This option is available when Enable client ID field is selected. When this setting is selected, clients must add their ID.
In Settings > General > Clinic location > Booking, you can set a preliminary booking time for online bookings:
Preliminary booking time: In this field, you can define in minutes for how long a time slot will be reserved when a client is making an online booking. For example, if you set the preliminary booking time to 10, the time slot will be reserved for 10 minutes after the client has selected a time slot in online booking. If the client does not confirm the online booking in 10 minutes, the time slot is automatically freed.
In Settings > General > Clinic location > Client interactions, you can manage client cancellation permissions:
Allow client to cancel appointment: Select this setting to allow clients to cancel their appointments through the booking portal. If this setting is not selected, clients cannot cancel appointments online.
Appointment Confirmation and Reminder Settings
To edit these settings, go to Settings > General > Clinic location > Online booking.
Do not show duration to clients: When this setting is selected, the duration of the appointment is not shown in the confirmation and reminder messages. Only the start time is included.
Do not show veterinarian's name to clients: When this setting is selected, the name of the appointment's responsible veterinarian is not shown in the confirmation and reminder messages. Note that if the Exclude from appointment reminders and confirmations setting is selected in appointment reason-specific settings, the field is still included, showing 'Veterinarian' instead of the name. To completely remove the veterinarian information from the message, deselect the appointment reason -specific setting.
Confirm online bookings by default: When this setting is selected, appointments created through online booking are automatically marked as confirmed. If this setting is not selected, appointments created through online booking remain unconfirmed until they are confirmed manually by clinic staff.
Email message: In this field, you can add a message that is used in confirmation email messages sent to clients when they book an appointment online.
Send SMS confirmation: When this setting is selected, an SMS confirmation message is sent to clients when they book an appointment online. The message text is defined in the default settings or appointment reason-specific settings.
Send email copy to clinic location: When this setting is selected, a copy of the client's confirmation email message is sent to your clinic location's email address.