Introduction
TrackStat’s Online Scheduling feature lets patients book appointments easily via your website or patient app while giving your clinic full control over availability.
The Appointment Type Grouping and Standalone Group features help prevent overbooking by letting you define how different appointment types affect schedule availability. The Prep-Time option improves patient flow by building in early arrival time without blocking the full slot.
These tools are especially useful for chiropractic and multi-provider practices that need to separate new patient visits (longer, more complex) from routine adjustments while still offering convenient online booking.
Appointment Type Grouping
Most clinics create groups to manage availability properly. For example:
Group A (Limited): New Patient, Day 2/ROF (Report of Findings), Re-Exam - often limited to 1 at a time because they require more time and focus.
Group B (Higher Capacity): Wellness Adjustment, Adjustment, Laser - often allowed up to 3 simultaneously.
How Grouping Works
Grouping tells the system to count selected appointment types together when checking availability. This minimizes overbooking while keeping longer or specialized visits separate from quick adjustments.
You can also add internal-only appointment types (not offered online) to a group. The system will still consider them when calculating open slots, ensuring realistic availability for online patients.
Stand Alone Group Feature
Use a Standalone Group when you want the system to ignore all appointment types outside that group. This is ideal for:
Shared columns with multiple providers or team members
Specific rooms or resources that should only consider certain appointment types
In a Standalone Group, the system looks only at the appointment types you enable within the group. All others are completely ignored for availability calculations.
How to Set Up Appointment Groups and Standalone Groups
Add your Appointment Types Go to Extras (3 Dots) > Scheduling > Settings > Visit Purpose and select Add Visit Purpose to add all the types you offer (e.g., New Patient, Adjustment, Re-Exam, etc.). Set duration, Available For and whether they are available for online scheduling.
Create a New Group Navigate to Provider Availability and click Edit for a specific provider. Click Create Group (or edit a previously created Group) and give it a clear name (e.g., “New Patients” or “Existing Patients”).
Edit Group Type
Select Appointment per Time Block from the dropdown
Check Standalone box if you want the system to ignore everything outside this group.
Save changes
Add Appointment Types to the Group Drag and drop the relevant appointment types from the Unassigned group into each Group. For internal-only types that should affect availability but not appear online, add them here as well, but do not select them.
Enable for Online Scheduling Click the appointment types you want patients to see and book online. They will be highlighted in yellow. Appointment types not available online will have a white background. Only highlighted or yellow appointment types will appear to patients, but all types in the group (visible to patients online or not) will be considered for availability.
Save and Test Save the group. Test by attempting to book different combinations of appointments online to verify availability rules work as expected.
Prep-Time Appointments
Prep-Time is perfect when you want patients to arrive early (for paperwork, vitals, or setup) while keeping the initial portion of the slot available for other scheduling.
Example: A 45-minute new patient appointment with 15 minutes of Prep-Time .
There is a rule that you only have one appointment at a time.
The appointment is 45 minutes, but we allow overbooking for the first 15 minutes of the appointment.
If there is an appointment from 1:00 PM - 1:15 PM but availability from 1:15 PM - 1:45 PM, it will show availability at 1:00 PM for the new patient appointment with 15 minutes of prep time.
The first 15 minutes are ignored when calculating provider availability for online scheduling.
Now the patient will arrive arrive by 1:00 PM, and you could treat a patient for the first 15 minutes of the appointment.
To set Prep-Time:
Edit an existing Visit Purpose.
Enter the Prep-Time duration (in minutes).
Save the changes.
The system will automatically handle reminders and availability calculations.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: I selected multiple appointment types (combo appointment), but the schedule doesn’t behave as expected. I use Room View.
A: In Room View with combo types over longer ranges, it can be hard to see exactly which type occupies which slot. Switch to Provider View or a simpler group setup for easier visibility.
Q: Why isn’t my new appointment type showing online?
A: Make sure it is (1) added to an active group, (2) enabled for online scheduling, and (3) assigned to the correct provider(s).
Q: Can I have a Standalone Group active at the same time as another Group? A: Yes. Standalone groups are independent and only affect the columns or providers they are assigned to.
Keywords: online scheduling TrackStat, appointment grouping, standalone group, prep time appointments, prevent overbooking, chiropractic scheduling, patient self-booking.