Creating Event Types

Event Types are used for scheduling appointments, identifying the type of medical charts, and billing for services. Examples include ‘Initial Consultation’, ‘Follow-Up Visit’, ‘Acupuncture’, or ‘IV Session’. Regardless of your OutSmart account type, setting up these events is an important first step.

Event Types are created and modified using the Event Manager, which is located within the Calendar Module.

Creating a New Event Type

To create a new event type, follow these steps:

1. Open the Calendar Module by clicking on the purple calendar icon in the top toolbar.
2. Click on the “gear” icon just above the calendar to open the settings menu.
3. Click on Event Manager in that menu.
4. In the Event Manager, click the +New Event Type button at the top. This will open the Event Type Editor.
5. Fill out all the relevant options in the editor and click the blue Save button at the bottom.

The Event Manager

Event Type Editor Options

The event type editor contains all the configuration options for your specific event type, but the minimum needed is the Title and the Duration. Here are all of the configuration options you will have access to:

Note

All of these options help you configure one specific event type, like a “Initial Consultation” or a “Follow-Up Visit”. So each event type in your account can be configured with a completely different set of rules and properties.

Basic Details

Creating a new event type: Basic details.

• Title: The name of your event, which will be visible to patients when they book online.
• Category: Choose the category of your event (Patient, Non-Patient, or Background).
  • Patient Events: These events involve a patient in some way, such as a first visit or an acupuncture session.
  • Non-Patient Events: These are events that do not involve a patient, such as meetings, lunch breaks, or vacations.
  • Background Events: These are used for organizational purposes to add colored areas to your calendar. They do not have any functional effect on the system, such as billing or charting.
• Appointment is associated with: Select either Practitioner or Office. Check here for some tips on what is best for your situation.
  • Practitioner Events: These events are unique to a specific practitioner. For example, if you are the only acupuncturist in a multi-disciplinary clinic, “Acupuncture First Visit” would be a Practitioner Event since no one else in the office offers this service.
  • Office Events: These are events offered by several practitioners in the office. All data about the event, including price, duration, and description, is shared and common. On the online booking page, Office Events can be presented as being offered by a group of practitioners rather than a single one.
• Description: The description of your event that patients will see.

Note

If you want patients to know the price of your event, include it as part of the description, as we do not show pricing by default.

• Is this an OutSmart Meet online appointment: Turn on this setting if this is meant to be an online virtual appointment. All e-mail reminders sent out to the patient will include a link to join the OutSmart Meet video session for their appointment. The reminders will also emphasize that that patient should not come into the clinic for this virtual appointment.
• Duration: The length of your event, not including any buffer time.
• Interval (overrides global settings): This setting is only relevant if you have Magnetic Booking turned off. It determines the specific time intervals at which this event will be offered for online booking (e.g., every 30 or 60 minutes).
• Buffer (overrides global settings): The amount of free time you want after this event type before another booking is allowed. For example, when a patient is booking a 30 minute appointment online which has a buffer time of 15 minutes, there will need to be a 45 min spot open in your calendar to allow this booking. 30 minutes for the event, and 15 minutes after the event.
• Price: The cost of the event, excluding taxes.

Cancellation Policy & Location Details

Cancellation policy and location details settings for an Event Type.

• Allow patients to cancel online (overrides global settings): Choose if you want to allow patients to cancel this appointment from their patient portal without requiring them to contact the clinic.
• Minimum notice to cancel online (overrides global settings): Set up the minimum required notice for cancellation through the patient portal. If a patient attempts to cancel the event within this time frame, they will be directed to contact the clinic.
• Select all possible rooms for event: This allows you to specify a room where the booking will take place. This is useful in clinics where rooms are being shared between practitioners and you want online bookings to honor Hours of Operation tied to a specific room. Specifying the room will ensure the room as well as the practitioner are both available in order for a booking to take place, which will help to prevent double bookings of the room.

Booking Confirmation

Booking confirmation options

Note

The Email Confirmation Message is required if you want to send attachments or questionnaires. Do not leave it empty if you want your patient to receive the attachments you select in this section.

• Email Confirmation Message: This message is sent to patients automatically when they book online. This message is required in order to send attachments and questionnaires. If you do not enter a message here, your attachments and questionnaires will not be sent.
• Include Questionnaires: Choose any SmartForms (e.g., intake forms) that you want to be automatically included in the confirmation message.
• Include Attachments: Select documents you have uploaded to your OutSmart Documents Module to attach to the confirmation email.

Appointment Reminders

Appointment reminders configuration

• Reminder Type & Schedule: You can set up reminder rules for this specific event type.
• Email Reminder Message: Unlike the ‘Confirmation Email Message’, reminder messages are not required. Even if you do not enter any custom reminder message, a generic message is always sent to the patient as a reminder for their appointment if you configure a reminder schedule above.

Note

A patient who clicks the confirmation button on a reminder marks the appointment confirmed and stops receiving any further reminders for it. If you want to send a far-out reminder (a week or two ahead) without losing the closer-to-appointment ones, set the “only show confirmation button within X days” option in the Reminders section — see Controlling the Confirmation Button. Far-out reminders go out as a heads-up without the button; close-to-appointment reminders include the button so patients can confirm when it actually matters.

Online Booking Payments

Configure online booking to register credit card or take payments and deposits at the time of booking

Note

To start registering and charging credit cards, you will need to sign up for Outsmart Pay.

• Do you want to collect credit card information during online booking of this event type: Turning this on after you have signed up with Outsmart Pay will allow you to include credit card registration as part of the online booking process for your patient. If all you select is this opeoin, and not the deposit option, then your patients will only be asked to register their credit card, but will not be charged.
• Select dispensary (required if collecting credit card information): Select the dispensary tied to your OutSmart Pay registration.
• Do you want to take a deposit: Optionally ask for a deposit, up to the full amount of the visit.
• Select Item (required if taking a deposit): When taking a deposit, we will be generating an invoice for the patient. This option allows you to select which item or service they are being billed for.
• Payment amount: The payment amount here is how much of a deposit you want to take:
  • Leave blank or enter the full payment amount of the item: you will be charging the patient the full price of the selected item/service.
  • Enter between $0 and $1: An equivalent of $1 USD will be charged to the patient as a deposit.
  • Enter a number below the cost of the item, but more than $1: You will be taking a deposit on the invoice generated, and there will be a balance owing for the patient to pay later.

Note

If you are taking any payment at the time of booking, an invoice or receipt will be automatically sent to the client immediately after their payment.

Active Campaign Integration

Active Campaign integration settings

Note

To access the Active Campaign integration, you will need an existing Active Campaign account, and setup the integration on OutSmart.

• Remove from Active Campaign list upon booking: This will remove the booked patient from specific lists in Active Campaign immediately upon booking this Event Type.
• Add to Active Campaign list upon booking: This will add the patient into specific Active Campaign lists immediately upon booking.