In short: Step-by-step setup of the four Online Scheduling tabs — Visit Purpose, Referral Sources, Providers, Preferences — covering appointment type availability, calculation, per-provider overrides, the new and existing patient booking links, and Charge for Visit failed payments. Notes that combination appointment types break availability calculations.
Introduction
Online Scheduling allows new and existing patients to book appointments 24/7 without calling or texting your office. It reduces front desk workload, automatically creates new patient records in your EHR when new patients book, and gives you full control over which appointment types, providers, and time slots are available.
This article explains how to configure all Online Scheduling settings so patients see only the options you want them to book.
What's new in this release
We've rebuilt the Visit Purpose and Providers tabs. Settings that used to be spread across cards and pop-up windows are now visible and editable directly in each row, so you can see your whole configuration at a glance instead of opening one appointment type at a time.
Three changes are worth knowing before you start:
Jaz AI settings now live here. Jaz AI used to have its own separate Providers and Visit Purposes pages with their own on/off switches. Those pages have been retired and their settings merged into these tabs. Anything you make available for online scheduling is now automatically available to Jaz AI as well.
⚠️ If you use Jaz AI, please review your coverage after this update. If you previously turned a provider or appointment type off for Jaz AI while leaving it on for online scheduling, that separate opt-out no longer exists. Those providers and appointment types will now be bookable by Jaz AI. Open your Visit Purpose and Providers tabs and confirm everything available for online scheduling is something you're comfortable having Jaz AI book.
Availability is now set per provider. Instead of one global "Available for online scheduling" checkbox per appointment type, each provider has their own setting for each appointment type: Available, Change Only, or Not Avail. Changing one provider never affects another.
The CALC toggle controls what appears under each provider. See Step 1 below.
Important notes before you begin
TrackStat uses one shared link for all new patient appointment types and one shared link for all existing patient appointment types.
You must explicitly define providers and visit purpose settings. If you do not, patients may book times you did not intend to offer.
Appointment types (Visit Purposes) must already exist and have been used at least once in your EHR before they appear in Online Scheduling Settings.
Extras (3 dots icon) → Scheduling → Online Appointments is a list of all patients that have scheduled an appointment online through the web based online scheduling application, Scheduler Pro mobile app for patients, or through the Jaz AI assistant.
Audience: Office managers, administrators, and staff members with permission to manage Online Scheduling settings.
Navigation: Go to Extras (3 dots icon) → Scheduling → Settings
You will see four tabs: Visit Purpose, Referral Sources, Providers, and Preferences.
Step 1: Configure Visit Purposes (Appointment Types)
The Visit Purpose tab is now a table. Every appointment type is a row, and every setting is a column you can edit in place — no pop-up window required.
Everything is already here
Every appointment type that exists in your EHR now appears on this tab automatically. There is no Add Visit Purpose step — you no longer need to add an appointment type before you can configure it.
Because the full list is here, use the search and filters below to find what you need.
Finding what you need
Three controls sit above the table:
Search — type any part of an appointment type name to filter the list instantly.
Calculation — show All, only those with calculation On, or only those Off.
Available For — show All, or narrow to Existing Patients (EP) or New Patients (NP) only.
The page opens sorted by most recently used appointment types at the top, so the ones you're actively working with are immediately visible. Click any column header to sort by that column instead. The Total Appts column shows how often each appointment type has been booked, which makes it easy to spot types you set up once and never used.
How to edit a row
Everything on this tab is edited in place — there is no Edit button and no pop-up window.
Settings that offer a choice show a small ⌄ arrow. Click the arrow, or the value next to it, to open the list of options.
The arrow is not always in the same place. For most columns it sits directly beside the current value. For columns that can hold several values at once, it sits at the far right edge of the column, away from the values, because the values themselves can be several tags wide.
Column | Where to click |
Calc, Show Price, Show Duration | The toggle itself |
Display Name, Description | Click the text and type |
Duration, Available For, NP Case Type, Room | The ⌄ arrow beside the value |
Case Type, Intervals | The ⌄ arrow at the right edge of the column |
Price | Click the field and type |
If you can't find an arrow next to a value, look across to the right-hand edge of that column.
Clicking anywhere else in the row does nothing. Only the arrows, toggles, text fields, and buttons respond — this is deliberate, so you can't change a setting by accident while scrolling.
The CALC toggle
CALC controls whether an appointment type is included in availability calculation — and whether it appears in each provider's appointment type list on the Providers tab.
CALC on — The appointment type appears under every provider, where you can set it to Available, Change Only, or Not Available. By default, it is set to Not Avail.
CALC off — the appointment type is removed from every provider's list.
So if you want an appointment type to be Change Only, or you simply want it counted in availability calculation without being bookable online, CALC must be on so the row is there for you to configure.
Your settings are safe. If you turn CALC off and later turn it back on, every provider's settings for that appointment type — availability state, interval overrides, custom hours — are retained and restored exactly as you left them. Nothing is lost.
Configuring an appointment type
For each appointment type, set the following directly in its row:
Note: A red asterisk (*) indicates a required field that must be completed to enable the appointment type.
Display Name — what patients see. If left blank, the original EHR name is shown.
Duration in minutes. This must match the default duration set in your EHR.
Available For — New Patients, Existing Patients, or All.
Case Type(s) — the case types allowed to book this appointment type.
New patient types (e.g., New Patient) usually use one default case type (such as "TBD").
Existing patient types can have multiple case types selected.
NP Case Type — the case type assigned when a new patient books this appointment type.
Intervals (optional) — control allowed start times (e.g., only on the hour and half-hour). Options include 0:00 on the hour, 0:05, 0:10, 0:15 on the quarter hour, 0:30 on the half hour, 0:45 on the three-quarters hour. For example, to allow a New Patient appointment only at 9:00 AM and 9:30 AM, select 0:00 on the hour and 0:30 on the half hour. Start times can also be controlled per provider on the Providers tab.
Room (optional).
Price — requires a Fortis or CashPractice merchant processor integration to charge patients.
Prep Time in minutes, if you want patients to arrive early for paperwork or setup. Most practices use 0 minutes. Example: a 45-minute New Patient appointment with 15 minutes of Prep Time means the system shows availability at 1:00 PM even if another short appointment exists from 1:00–1:15 PM. The patient arrives at 1:00 PM, but the provider's hands-on time begins at 1:15 PM.
Description (max 200 characters) — use this to guide patients, for example: "If you have not been seen in more than 6 months, please select Re-Exam or call the office." The system cannot automatically block a patient from scheduling a standard visit based on how long it has been since their last appointment.
Show Price and Show Duration (optional) — so patients see this information.
Step 2: Set Referral Sources (New Patients Only)
Go to the Referral Sources tab.
Check the boxes next to the referral sources you want new patients to see.
Click the edit icon on any row to change the Display Name patients will see.
Click Save
Step 3: Configure Provider Availability
All your providers are already here
Every active provider now appears automatically. There's no "Add Provider" step and no manual online scheduling toggle to remember.
You work on one provider at a time. Use the Provider dropdown at the top of the tab to switch between them — click the ⌄ arrow beside the provider's name to see the full list. Each provider's status dot appears next to their name in that list, so you can see at a glance who is bookable before you select them.
Note: A provider must be assigned as the primary provider to at least one patient in your EHR to appear in the list.
The status dot
Next to each provider's name is a status dot, calculated automatically:
Green — this provider has at least one appointment type set to Available. Patients can book with them online.
Red — this provider has no appointment types set to Available. Patients cannot book with them online.
Worth being precise about the red case: a provider whose appointment types are all Change Only or Not Avail shows a red dot, even though patients can still reschedule and cancel their Change Only appointments. The dot answers one question — can a patient book a new appointment with this provider? — and for that provider, the answer is no.
If you expected a provider to be bookable and they're showing red, check their appointment type list for at least one set to Available.
Provider-level settings
Select a provider to set:
Display Name (what patients see) and optional Description. The Description field has a 200-character limit — if your changes do not save, try shortening the text.
Alternate Names — other ways patients might refer to this provider (e.g. "Doctor John", "Dr Smith").
Max Appts / Block if needed. Use "--" for none. This setting overrides the individual settings for Visit Purposes. It may not be necessary if you're using groups and the Weight Strategy.
Prov Appt Interval — the time between appointment start times (5, 10, 15 and up to 120 minutes in steps of 5).
Weight Strategy — opt in if you plan to use appointment grouping. This allows more flexible mixing of different appointment types in the same time block.
Providers Hours — the provider's regular hours for each day of the week. You can set broad blocks (e.g. 8:00 AM–12:00 PM and 2:00 PM–5:00 PM) or specific slots. Keep in mind the end time of an appointment cannot exceed the end of the availability block. If a 30-minute new patient appointment's last block ends at 5:00 PM, the last bookable slot is 4:30 PM.
Set exceptions for specific days — block holidays, time off, or conferences (click a date and choose "All day" or specific times).
Appointment type settings, per provider
Below the provider's hours is the list of appointment types (every type with CALC on). Each row is configured inline:
Avail or Change — set to Available, Change Only, or Not Avail.
Group — assign the appointment type to a purpose group.
Ovrd Int. — turn on to give this appointment type different start-time intervals than the provider's default, then set them in the Intervals column.
Ovrd Avail — turn on to give this appointment type different hours than the provider's regular schedule, then set them in the Avail Hours column. This is commonly used for new patient appointment types.
Where to click on each row:
Column | Where to click |
Avail or Change | The ⌄ arrow inside the colored label |
Group | The ⌄ arrow at the right edge of the column |
Ovrd Int., Ovrd Avail | The toggle itself |
Intervals | The ⌄ arrow at the right edge of the column |
Avail Hours | The hours themselves |
As on the Visit Purpose tab, some arrows sit beside the value and others sit at the right edge of the column. If you can't find one next to the value, look across to the right. Use the Filter buttons above the table (All Groups, Unassigned, and your own group names) to narrow the list while you work.
These settings are specific to each provider.
Available, Change Only, and Not Avail
Setting | What patients can do |
Available | Book new appointments, reschedule, and cancel |
Change Only | Reschedule and cancel existing appointments — but not book new ones |
Not Avail | Nothing online |
Change Only is useful when you're phasing out an appointment type, or a provider's schedule is full for that service. New patients won't see it as a bookable option, but patients who already have that appointment on the books can still move or cancel it themselves instead of calling your front desk.
Change Only respects your clinic-wide settings. If you've disabled online cancellations in the Preferences tab, Change Only won't override that.
Opening the hours editor
The Avail Hours column works differently from the rest of the row. There is no Edit button — the hours themselves are the button.
Turn on Ovrd Avail for that appointment type.
Look at the Avail Hours cell:
If no hours are set yet, the cell shows Set hours…. Click that text to open the editor.
If hours are already set, they appear as one label per day, for example Wed 6:00 AM–10:00 PM. Click any one of those labels to open the editor.
If there are more days than fit in the cell, a +2 more label appears. Click it to see the rest.
Set the hours, then Save.
If you've turned on Ovrd Avail and nothing seems clickable, click the words Set hours… in that row.
Editing hours
Each time range in the provider hours and the per-appointment-type hours has a red X next to it. Click it to remove that range — the first one, one in the middle, or the last one. You no longer need to blank out fields or rebuild a day from scratch.
Removals take effect when you click Save. If you remove a range by mistake, close the window without saving and nothing changes.
Use Copy to all days (provider hours) or Copy to all (per-appointment-type hours) to apply one day's hours across the week in a single step.
Best Practice: Always define explicit time slots. Leaving broad availability can result in patients booking times you did not intend to offer.
Step 4: Configure Preferences
This tab controls the patient experience, links, notifications, and behavior.
Online Scheduling Links
New Patient Online Scheduling Link — copy this link and add it to your website (as a button or redirect) and to your Google Business Profile. It creates a new patient record and appointment in your EHR. Sample:
https://clinic.patienthealthcenters.org/book?clinic=PRACTICEIDExisting Patient Online Scheduling Link — copy this link for existing patients and add it to your website. It allows them to schedule, view, reschedule, and cancel appointments (based on your settings). Sample:
https://clinic.patienthealthcenters.org/schedule?code=PRACTICEID
Both links are also available in Account Settings (click the triangle icon in the upper right).
Note: The New Patient and Existing Patient Online Scheduling Links, along with the Scheduler Pro mobile app link, are system-generated and cannot be edited. We do not have an integration with Google's "Reserve with Google" feature.
Embed Scheduling on Your Website Copy the <iframe> embed code and paste it into your website. You can also add the prefill script (starts with <script> function configure()) before the </body> tag to pre-populate first name, last name, email, phone, or birth date.
Scheduling Preferences
Choose Capture Information First or Show Appointments First (most clinics and marketing agencies prefer Show Appointments First).
Check the boxes to allow patients to cancel and/or reschedule appointments online.
Set How far can patients reschedule appointments? (up to 60 days).
Set How far in advance can patients book? (up to 90 days).
Set How much advanced notice time do you require? (from 1 hour to 3 days).
Check Receive an email notification when patients book an appointment online and add additional email addresses by clicking the plus button.
Create appointment when online payment fails (Charge for Visit) — when enabled, failed payments still create the appointment in the EHR with a "payment failed" appointment note. When disabled, the clinic is only notified of the failed payment. Requires merchant processor integration.
Make Patient cell phone required and Mobile opt-in required (recommended/required by law).
Select which statuses trigger patient notifications (commonly "cancelled" and "rescheduled").
Choose your primary and accent colors for the scheduling pages.
Request Appointment Mode (Optional) Check New patients can only request appointments and/or Existing patients can only request appointments. When enabled, appointments go into a queue (Extras → Scheduling → Online Appointments) for staff to manually accept or reject instead of being added directly to the schedule.
When a patient submits a request, staff receive a notification in the TrackStat Inbox. On the final confirmation page, the patient sees a message indicating their request has been received and that they will receive an email shortly confirming whether it was accepted.
If accepted: the appointment is added to the schedule and the patient receives a confirmation notification. If rejected: the appointment is not added and the patient receives a notification that the request was rejected.
Provider Display Options Choose whether to:
Always show the provider
Enable "First available provider" and show providers
Enable "First available provider" and mask (hide) providers
Thank You Page
Customize the confirmation message, or
Redirect patients to a custom thank-you page on your website. To remove the default mention of forms, delete the form merge field from the Instructions (Confirmation Page) section and save.
Tracking Scripts Add Google, Facebook, or other conversion tracking scripts. These fire on the scheduling and thank-you pages.
QR Code Download your custom QR code (for existing patients) and display it in your office or on materials.
Best Practices & Important Warnings
Always save after making changes.
Explicitly define availability windows and use Ovrd Avail when an appointment type needs different hours than the provider's regular schedule.
Combination appointments (multiple purposes selected on one appointment in your EHR) can break availability calculations. Create dedicated single-purpose appointment types instead.
Tags (including "not qualified") only affect whether patients receive automated drip campaign invitations. They do not prevent a patient from booking if they have the direct scheduling link.
For ChiroTouch Classic (server) users: your server computer must be powered on and connected to the internet for Online Scheduling to work.
Appointment Notes are retained when an appointment is rescheduled online.
Completion Criteria
You have successfully configured Online Scheduling when:
The correct Visit Purposes appear for patients
Providers you expect to be bookable show a green dot
Providers show the intended availability
Patients can successfully book (or request) appointments
The confirmation message or redirect page displays as expected
Notifications are received when appointments are booked
If you use Jaz AI: the providers and appointment types Jaz can book match what you intend
Test it using your own patient record or a test patient after updating the settings
Keywords: online scheduling setup, configure online appointment booking, scheduling settings, online scheduling configuration, patient self-scheduling, new patient online scheduling, change only appointment type, CALC toggle, provider status dot