Appointments calendar

Open Appointments in the sidebar. The calendar opens on today, in the view the practice chose as its default (usually Week). Weeks start on Monday.

• Today jumps back to today, in the view you are on.
• The arrows step back and forward: a day in Day view, a week in Week and Agenda, a month in Month.
• The indigo line across today’s column is the time now.
• To find a patient’s next visit, use the magnifier beside New appointment and type at least two letters of their name. Picking a result opens that day.

Show lets you hide appointments, tasks or Google events for a while. A small dot on the button means something is hidden. This choice is remembered on each computer separately.

1. Click an empty spot in Day or Week view, at the time you want. Or click and drag down to choose the start and the length together. New appointment at the top of the page works too.
2. Under Patient, search by name, AMKA or phone and pick the patient. For someone new, switch to New patient and fill in their details right there.
3. Check the Date, Time and Duration, choose the Type, and add any Notes.
4. Press Save.

Times snap to quarter hours, and clicking the grid books only inside the practice’s working hours. The patient is the only thing you must fill in; everything else starts with a sensible value.

A new patient needs a first and last name, a gender, their AMKA (or a tick on Patient has no AMKA) and a phone or an email. The patient is created when you save the appointment.

healcraft never refuses a double booking. If a visit goes over the number of Simultaneous appointments the practice allows, you will see a warning and the overlapping cards get a thin amber outline, so you can decide whether that is what you meant.

Click an appointment to open it. You can change the date, time, length, type and notes, then Save. The patient cannot be changed on an existing appointment: cancel it and book a new one instead. The folder button at the top opens the patient’s chart.

• Move a visit by dragging its card to another time, or to another day in Week view. It is saved as soon as you let go.
• Make it longer or shorter by dragging the bottom edge of the card with the mouse. On a tablet, change Duration in the form instead.
• Mark no-show when the patient did not come. The card stays on the calendar with an amber dotted border. Undo no-show puts it back.

Each card shows the patient as surname then first name, the start time and, when there is room, the type. The colour comes from the appointment type.

Rest the mouse on a card for a moment to see the patient’s phone numbers, with a button to copy each one, the notes, and a link to the patient’s record.

Open tasks with a due date appear on the calendar for the whole practice. A task with only a day sits in the strip under that day’s name; a task with a time sits in the grid at that time. Red text means it is overdue.

• Click a task to open it.
• Drag it into the grid to give it a time, into the strip to keep the day without a time, or to another day to move it.
• Tasks never count as a double booking.

Day events say what a day is, for example Clinic, Surgery or Away. Click a day’s name at the top of its column to add one. It can cover the whole day or a few hours, and it can repeat every week. Day events colour the day’s background and never block bookings.

When you change or delete a day event that repeats, healcraft asks whether you mean This day only or All of them.

A doctor or the owner can connect their own Google Calendar in Settings, under Google Calendar. Their Google events then appear on the healcraft calendar as dashed light blue cards marked G, so the team can turn them into real appointments. Nothing is ever written back to Google.

Click a Google event to choose what it becomes:

• Make appointment opens a new appointment with the event’s date, time and length filled in.
• Create patient adds the person as a patient first, then offers the appointment.
• Create task turns it into a task instead.
• Dismiss removes it for good.

When events are waiting, a badge such as 3 from Google appears beside the date. Click it for the full list, grouped by day, with the same four choices on each row.

• A phone opens on Day, with a strip of the week’s days under the toolbar. Tap a day to open it, or swipe the strip for the next or previous week.
• Phones offer 3 days instead of Week.
• Tap an empty time to book it, or use the round + button at the bottom right.
• To move a visit, press and hold it for a moment, then drag. A quick swipe scrolls the day.
• To change a visit’s length, open it and change Duration.

The owner sets these in Settings, under Appointments, for the whole practice: