How to Configure the Client Portal

The Client Portal allows your existing clients to securely manage their appointments online, including viewing, changing and cancelling appointments without needing to contact your practice directly.

Client Portal settings can be configured separately from Online Booking 2.0, allowing you to choose whether to use one feature or both. 

Before you begin

To configure the Client Portal, you must be a Site Administrator.

The Client Portal is included as part of the Online Booking 2.0 add on. This feature is not supported with Classic Online Booking.

• Learn how to add Online Booking to your subscription

• Learn how to switch from Classic OB to Online Booking 2.0

Accessing the Client Portal settings

To configure the Client Portal:

1. Go to Main Menu → Integrations & Add Ons → Online Booking
   
   
   
2. Open the Client Portal tab
   
   

From here, you can configure how clients access and manage appointments online.

Turning Client Access on or off

The Client Portal ON/OFF switch setting controls whether clients can access the portal.

Enable Client Access

When the Client Portal is turned on, clients can:

• Authenticate themselves to access the Client Portal
• View their appointments
• Change appointments
• Cancel appointments
• Book appointments online (if Online Booking 2.0 is also enabled)

Disable Client Access

When the Client Portal is turned off:

• Portal login is disabled
• Clients cannot access appointment management features
• Existing portal links will no longer allow access

Below the ON/OFF switch, you can enter the message that should be displayed when the Client Portal is turned off. Note: If both the Portal and Online Booking are switched off, the Online Booking disabled message will be shown instead.

Configure Appointment Change and Cancellation Restrictions

On the Client Portal tab, you can control how close to an appointment time clients are allowed to make changes or cancellations online. Cancellation and appointment change windows are configured separately, so you can set different rules for each.

Restriction options

Available options include:

• No restriction
• No cancellation/changes allowed
• 1 hour
• 2 hours
• 3 hours
• 4 hours
• 5 hours
• 6 hours
• 1 day
• 2 days
• 3 days
• 1 week

For example:

• If set to 1 day, clients will no longer see the Change or Cancel options once they are within 24 hours of the appointment start time.
• If set to 'No restriction', clients can manage appointments online until the appointment begins.

These restrictions can be applied to both appointment changes and cancellations.

Configure the Cancellation Status

When a client cancels an appointment through the Portal, WriteUpp can automatically apply a selected appointment status.

To configure the cancellation status:

1. Locate the Cancellation Status setting under the Client Portal tab
2. Select the status you would like applied to client cancelled appointments

The dropdown contains the appointment statuses configured for your site. The default Cancelled status is typically recommended.

Configure a Cancellation Policy

You can optionally display your cancellation policy within the Client Portal.

This appears before a client confirms the cancellation of an appointment and can be used to explain:

• Fees for late cancellations
• Contact instructions for urgent changes and refunds
• Cancellation terms

To enable a cancellation policy:

1. Enable the Show Cancellation Policy option on the Client Portal tab
2. Enter your policy text into the provided text field

Clients will then see this information when cancelling appointments online.

Handling Refunds

Currently, refunds are not automatically processed through the Client Portal, although automatic refunds are planned for a future update.

We recommend including clear refund information within your cancellation policy so clients understand how refunds are handled before cancelling an appointment.

When an appointment is cancelled through the Client Portal, you will receive a notification of this in WriteUpp. If the appointment was already paid for online, you can then manually process any refund in line with your refund policy.

Client Portal and Online Booking 2.0

The Client Portal and Online Booking 2.0 can work independently from each other.

This means you can configure them in different ways depending on how your practice operates.

This flexibility allows practices to offer appointment management without opening online bookings to new clients, for example.

Controlling Appointment Rebooking Availability

The available dates and times clients can rebook into via the Client Portal, including how far ahead appointments can be booked and any booking offset restrictions, are controlled by your Online Booking 2.0 settings.

These settings are configured under Integrations & Add Ons → Online Booking → Configure → Online Booking tab

As with Online Booking, available appointment times in the portal are based on your working hours, or your timetable if multiple locations are enabled.

You can learn more about configuring Online Booking 2.0, working hours, and timetables using the links below.

• Configuring Online Booking 2.0
•  How do I set availability in Online Booking 2.0 (Single location site) 
•  How do I set availability in Online Booking 2.0 (Multiple locations) 

Appointment Update Email Notifications to Users

You can choose to receive email notifications when clients make changes to appointments through the Client Portal. 

The following notification settings are available on each user profile:

• Notify of own Client Portal appointment updates – Receive email notifications when a client changes or cancels an appointment with you.
• Notify of all users' Client Portal appointment updates – Receive email notifications when a client changes or cancels an appointment with any user on the site.

Notification emails will clearly indicate whether an appointment has been changed or cancelled and include relevant details such as:

• The client's name
• The appointment date and time
• The user the appointment is with
• The previous appointment date and time (for appointment changes)

Note: These settings are only available when the Client Portal is enabled.

Suggested Rollout Approach

When first enabling the Client Portal, consider:

• Testing the Client Portal first using a test client and test appointments before making it known to patients.
  Set up a test client using your own contact details so you can fully test the portal experience, including appointment change and cancellation triggers.

• Adding the portal magic link variable to your confirmation emails and/or SMS templates to allow clients to access and manage that specific appointment directly from the message they receive.
• Reviewing cancellation policies before enabling online cancellations
• Ensuring your appointment ‘Cancellation’ status is configured correctly
• Reviewing your existing appointment change communication triggers. You can configure these to notify clients when an appointment is changed, such as a date or time update, or when the appointment status changes (for example, if it is cancelled). These notifications work nicely alongside the Client Portal to help keep clients informed of any updates to their appointments. 
  How do I let my patients know if an appointment has been changed? 
  How do I let my patients know if an appointment has been cancelled? 

Important: Clients will not be able to access the Client Portal unless both a Date of Birth and postcode have been entered on their record in WriteUpp. This is because as part of the authentication process which helps keep appointment information secure, they will need to enter a correct Date of Birth and postcode.

If either detail is missing, the client will be shown a message on the authentication screen and asked to contact the clinic. Once both their Date of Birth and postcode have been added to their record, they’ll be able to authenticate and access the Client Portal.

Therefore, when creating new client records directly in WriteUpp, we recommend entering the client's Date of Birth and postcode at the time of creation wherever possible. This will help ensure the client can access the Client Portal without any issues when needed. If a client books online, both Date of Birth and postcode are mandatory fields, so this information will already be recorded for them. 

More articles

• What is the Client Portal?
• How to add the Client Portal link to appointment communications
• How clients authenticate via the Client Portal
• How to change appointments in the Client Portal
• How to cancel appointments in the Client Portal