Manage appointments

Book appointments from the clinic calendar or a patient’s Appointments tab. Dates and times use the selected clinic’s timezone. The Bright Smile example uses Asia/Baghdad.

Check who you can schedule for

• Admins and doctors create and change appointments on their own schedules. They can view another doctor’s calendar only when they have permission to do so; those bookings remain read-only.
• Receptionists choose an active doctor or admin when scheduling. They can manage appointments for the selected clinician.
• Assistants select a doctor linked to them. An admin grants Appointments access separately for View, Create, Update, and Delete; each action needs its matching permission. Adding a patient while booking also requires Patients: Create.

An admin manages these settings in Users.

The selected doctor must have edit access to the patient. Sharing only Can view access is insufficient for scheduling. Ask an admin to update access; see Patient access.

Book an existing patient

In Month view, hover over a date and select its + action to start an appointment for that date. The calendar header’s Add appointment button opens the form without choosing a date first.

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1. Open Appointments in the sidebar. If a doctor selector is available, confirm the intended doctor.
2. Select Add appointment. You can also start from an available calendar time or use Add appointment in a patient’s Appointments tab.
3. If the Doctor field is shown, choose the doctor before searching for a patient.
4. Search Patient by name or phone and select the correct result. Check the name and phone before proceeding.
5. Set Date, Starting time, and Ending time. Ending time must be after starting time.
6. Choose Room if you need one. The room is optional.
7. Choose Status. A new appointment starts as Pending unless you choose another status.
8. Select Add note to enter optional Notes.
9. Select Add appointment and wait for the success notice. Confirm the booking in the calendar.

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An existing patient’s View action opens their record. Where editing is permitted, Edit beside the patient lets you correct their basic details; those changes affect the patient record when the appointment is saved.

Add a new patient while booking

1. In the appointment form, select the doctor first if the doctor field is present.
2. Select Add patient beside the Patient field.
3. Enter Full name and Phone number, including the country dial code. Email is optional.
4. Review Private patient when available. Its default follows the assigned user’s patient-privacy setting.
5. Complete the appointment’s date, times, optional room, status, and note.
6. Select Add appointment. The patient and appointment are saved together.

Select Use existing to return to the patient search before saving. Search carefully first to avoid creating another record for a patient who already exists. Learn more about patient privacy.

Reschedule or change an appointment

1. Select the appointment in the calendar, or open it from the patient’s appointment table.
2. In Edit appointment, change the date, starting time, or ending time. Update the patient, room, note, or doctor when your role allows it.
3. Select Save.
4. Check the appointment on its new date and under the correct doctor.

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If the screen is titled Appointment and has no save controls, you can view the booking but cannot change it. Select your own doctor again or ask a team member with permission to make the change.

Update appointment status

Open the appointment, choose its Status, and select Save.

Cancelled appointments are retained and shown in the calendar’s cancelled-appointment area in day and week views. They no longer reserve the patient’s, doctor’s, or room’s time. Changing a cancelled appointment back to an active status checks that time for conflicts again.

Appointment status is separate from the patient’s overall status and the status of a dental procedure. Update those records separately when needed.

Delete a booking

1. Open Edit appointment and select Delete, or use the delete action in the patient’s appointment table where available.
2. Review Delete appointment? and confirm.
3. Check that the booking has disappeared from the calendar or list.

Deletion cannot be undone. Use Cancelled when you need to retain the booking in the patient’s history.

Resolve booking problems

• Patient not found: enter at least two letters from the name or four phone digits. Check the selected doctor and clinic, and confirm that the doctor can open the patient.
• Selected doctor cannot access the patient: give that doctor edit access to the patient, or choose the correct doctor. Do not create a duplicate patient.
• Doctor, patient, or room already booked: choose another time; if only the room conflicts, choose a different room. Otherwise, correct the conflicting appointment. Active appointments cannot overlap for the same patient, doctor, or assigned room.
• End time rejected: set it after the start time and recheck the date and clinic timezone.
• Add patient is unavailable: your appointment permission does not necessarily include patient creation. Ask an authorized colleague to add the patient first.
• Save or Delete is missing: the appointment may belong to another doctor, or your role may allow viewing without that action.
• No doctor is available to select: ask a clinic admin to check active doctor and admin memberships. A receptionist must choose one before searching for a patient.
• No room is available: a room is optional. Ask an admin to add or activate a clinic room if this booking needs one.