A new clinic opens with enough in place to book a patient and send them a confirmation before you've touched Settings. Most of it is generic on purpose, so the job is renaming and pruning rather than building from nothing.
You can book a patient on day one
A new clinic isn't empty. Along with your owner account and one location named after the business, ClinyPal adds a working set of defaults, so you could add a patient, book them in, send a confirmation and invoice them without opening Settings. The defaults are deliberately generic, though, so plan to rename or replace most of them with what your clinic does.
Nothing here is locked. Every item can be renamed, edited, archived or added to on the settings page named in the table, the same as anything you create yourself.
What's already set up
| Where to change it | What you start with | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment types | Consultation 30 min, Follow-up 15 min and New Patient 45 min, all in person, one patient each, with a calendar color. | Each one is already linked to the four message templates below, so confirmations and reminders send for it without any further setup. A type you add yourself needs its templates chosen. |
| Payment types | Cash, Card and Bank Transfer. ClinyPal also keeps a system type Account credit that staff can't pick as a way of paying; it's used when an invoice is settled from the patient's credit. | Remove the ones you don't accept so staff can't pick them when taking a payment. |
| Unavailable block types | Lunch (60 min), Day Off (8 h) and Sick Leave (8 h). | |
| Recall types | 3 Month Recall, 6 Month Recall and Annual Recall, at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. | Recalls can be created automatically when a visit is completed, so check the intervals match how you follow up. |
| Concession types | Senior, Student and Health Care Card. | A concession only changes a price once you give it a concession price. |
| Referral sources | Google, Walk-in, Patient Referral and Social Media. | These feed the New patients by source report, so keep the list short and real. |
| Taxes | GST 10%, VAT 20%, HST 13% and Sales Tax 0%. | Keep the one you charge, archive the rest, and check whether your prices include tax before the first invoice. |
| Message templates | Appointment Confirmation (Your appointment is confirmed), Appointment Reminder (Reminder: upcoming appointment), Appointment Cancellation (Your appointment has been canceled) and Appointment Follow-up (Thanks for your visit), each as an email and as an SMS. | They greet the patient by name and print your business name, address and contact details from Business Information. Until that's filled in, those lines are blank. SMS versions don't send until you have SMS credit. |
| Patient form templates | New Patient Intake and Consent to Treatment. | Send it before a first visit; the answers land in the patient's record. |
| Treatment note templates | SOAP Note, which prints with the title Clinical Note, and Progress Note. | |
| Consent form templates | Consent to Treatment (the default, renewed every 12 months), Privacy and Information Handling and Telehealth Consent (renewed every 12 months). | Consent to Treatment is offered first when staff request consent. |
| Invoice settings | Default numbering and due days. | Set these before the first invoice is issued. |
| Online booking | A booking address for the clinic. | Set up what can be booked before you share the address. |
| Pinned report figures | Revenue collected, Uninvoiced appointments, Rebook rate and SMS balance. | These are the figures pinned at the top of the reports page. Change them there. |
The appointment types list in a brand-new clinic: Consultation 30 min, Follow-up 15 min and New Patient 45 min.
What's empty until you add it
- Your location's address and phone number. Every message template prints them, so this is the first thing to fill in, under Business Information.
- Practitioners and their hours. Your own account isn't a practitioner until you switch that on, and nobody has working hours yet, so the calendar shows no availability and online booking offers no times.
- Letter templates, custom patient fields and body chart templates.
- SMS credit. SMS confirmations and reminders are set up but won't send until you top up. Email versions send as soon as the templates are linked, which they already are.
- Products, stock and expenses.
- Your logo. Invoices and letters print without one until you upload it.
Set up your clinic
The order to work through these in.