The online appointment requests feature is integrated with your Availability schedule, which allows you to set specific times of the day when clients can request appointments. All appointment requests will need to be either approved or declined by you.
Note: Online appointment requests are only available on the Essential or Plus plan. If you'd like to learn more about our plans, see our Pricing page.
In this guide, we'll cover:
- Turning on the Client Portal
- Customizing your Client Portal web address
- Customizing your Client Portal
- Enabling online appointment requests for your practice
- Collecting information from new clients
- Using the Availability setup tool
- Refining online appointment request options
- Setting up a phone screening service for new clients
- Setting up clients for online appointment requests
- Requesting an appointment from the client's end
- Managing appointment requests
- Viewing archived requests
- Editing appointment confirmation/decline emails
Turning on the Client Portal
Clients can request appointments online through your Client Portal. You'll first want to make sure that you've enabled the Client Portal. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
- Toggle Client Portal on
- Click Save changes
Customizing your Client Portal web address
Next, you can customize your Client Portal URL, also known as your default domain. This is the link that clients will use to access your practice Client Portal to view your availability and request an appointment. Here's how you can do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
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Enter your desired URL for Default domain
- Click Save to update your domain
- Click the lock icon to lock your domain
We recommend locking your Client Portal URL before inviting clients to the Client Portal. To learn more, see Inviting clients to the Client Portal.
Important: If your Client Portal web address is locked, you won't be able to make changes to it directly. To unlock your Client Portal URL, please submit a help request to our team.
Customizing your Client Portal
Practice name
Your Client Portal header populates from the Practice Name at Settings > Practice > Practice details.
Office location
Your office name(s) and address(es) are populated from the office locations entered at Settings > Practice > Practice details.
Note: While you can choose to hide or display your exact address from the general public's view, it will be visible to clients that are signed in to the Client Portal. To learn more, see Adding office locations.
Enabling online appointment requests for your practice
Now that your Client Portal is set up, you're ready to enable online appointment requests for your practice. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
- Toggle Online appointment requests on
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- This will display additional customization options for your practice’s appointment request settings
- After selecting your preferences, click Save changes
Important: If you granted clients access to the Client Portal before enabling online appointment requests, you'll need to update each client’s permissions individually to Allow online appointment requests. To learn more, see Enabling Client Portal features for individual clients.
In the dropdown menu under Appointment start times, you can choose how available appointment times will appear for clients:
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Based on service duration
- Clients will see available appointment times based on the duration of the service they select.
- For example, if the service is 50 minutes and your availability block starts at 10:00 AM, they’ll see the following appointment times: 10:00 AM, 10:50 AM, 11:40 AM, etc.
- You can set your services to include buffer times before or after the appointment, which will affect the total duration of the service. For example, if a service’s Duration is 50 minutes with a 10-minute buffer after, clients will see available appointment times every 60 minutes. To learn more about managing your services, see Creating and using service codes and products.
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On the hour
- Clients will see available appointment times on the hour.
- For example, if your availability block starts at 11:00 AM, they’ll see 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM, and so on. However, if your availability block starts at 11:30 AM, they’ll see the first available session at 12:00 PM.
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On the half hour:
- Clients will see available appointment times every half hour.
- For example, if your availability block starts at 9:00 AM, they’ll see 9:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, 10:30 AM, and so on.
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On the quarter hour:
- Clients will see available appointment times every quarter hour.
- For example, if your availability block starts at 12:00 PM, they’ll see 12:00 PM, 12:15 PM, 12:30 PM, 12:45 PM, 1:00 PM, 1:15 PM, and so on.
Note: If you want to offer hour-long appointments starting at the half hour, we recommend allowing clients to schedule Based on service duration. This is also the recommended setup if you offer multiple services with different durations.
You can also customize these other appointment request settings from the Client portal permissions page:
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Limiting how far in advance clients can request appointments
- Clients will only see available appointments within the time period indicated
- Allowing new clients to request appointments online
- Allowing requests from new individual clients, couple clients, or contacts (on behalf of someone else)
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Choosing to have new clients complete a prescreener
- To learn more, see Collecting information from new clients
- Asking new clients if they’re self-pay or insurance
- Requiring a credit card from new clients
Tip: Make sure to click Save changes when you’re done updating your appointment request settings.
Collecting information from new clients
By default, new clients are required to provide basic information, including their name, date of birth, email address, and phone number, when they request an appointment. You can also choose to collect additional information from new clients. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
- Make sure that Yes is selected under Allow requests from new clients
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Under Information collected from new clients, you can choose Yes or No to:
- Show the new client prescreener
- Ask for preferred payment method
- Require credit card to request appointment
- Click Save changes
If enabled, these options will appear to new clients requesting appointments via the Client Portal, your Professional Website, your Monarch profile, or the appointment request widget. Below, you can learn more about each option.
New client prescreener
You can choose to have new clients complete a prescreener when they request an appointment. These questions are optional, and can be used to help you determine if the individual is a good fit for your practice. At this time, there’s no way to customize the prescreener.
Note: The new client prescreener is only available to clinicians with a Behavioral health therapy, Counseling, Marriage and family therapy, Psychology, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, Psychiatry, Social work, or Substance use counseling specialty. You can update your specialty from Settings > Profile > Clinical info.
The prescreener asks prospective clients the following questions about their reason for visit:
| Question | Answer |
| Why are you seeking care? |
Select up to 3 of the following options
|
|
What kind of care are you looking for? Note: The question only appears if the clinician has a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing or Psychiatry specialty. |
Select all that apply
|
| What is your history with mental health? |
Select all that apply
|
|
Is there anything else you would like the practitioner to know?
|
This is a free text field |
If enabled for your practice, the prescreener will appear on the prospective client's Overview page:
Payment method
If the payment method question is enabled, prospective clients will be asked how they plan to pay for care:
| Question | Answer |
| How do you plan to pay for care? |
Select one
|
Prospective clients who choose Insurance will be prompted to upload the front and back of their insurance card.
Note: To view the prospective client's insurance card, navigate to their profile > Edit > Billing and Insurance tab. For more information, see Setting up insurance billing for your clients.
Requiring a credit card from new clients
If this option is turned on for your practice, prospective clients will be required to enter their credit card details to hold their appointment.
Note: If you haven’t set up your Online Payments account, you won’t be able to request a credit card when new clients are booking appointments. For more information, see Getting started with Online Payments.
Using the Availability setup tool
Once you’ve customized your online appointment request settings, you can use our Availability setup tool to set up your availability. To get started:
- Navigate to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
- Click Manage availability
Note: If you already have availability blocks set up, clicking Manage availability will take you to your Availability schedule on your calendar, where you'll be able to edit or delete existing availability blocks and create new ones. To learn more, see Managing your Availability.
- Set your Scheduling preferences
- Click Next
- Set a start date for this availability block, as well as start time(s) and end time(s)
- If you'd like your Availability to repeat, click the copy blocks icon to select the days it should repeat on and Apply
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- Specify when you’d like it to end by selecting after, on date, or never
- Select the Location(s) you'd like this availability block to apply to
Note: A location is required to set up your availability. You can manage your locations from Settings > Practice > Practice details. For more information, see Adding office locations.
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Services that are enabled for online appointment requests will automatically populate under Services
- Click Add service to make additional services available to clients during this availability block
- Click the - next to a service to make it unavailable
- When you're finished, click Save
Note: You can edit your service codes in Settings > Services and products > Services. To learn more, see Creating and using service codes and products.
Refining your services for online appointment requests
With availability scheduling, you can determine which services are available for online appointment requests. This means your clients will have the ability to choose the specific service they need. Additionally, you can make appointments available for new clients to book online, or require clients to call to request an appointment.
Note: For online appointment requests, your services will appear in the order they were added to your account.
Designating a service for online appointment requests
You can choose which services are available for online appointment requests. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Services and products > Services
- Select a service
- Check Allow online appointment requests
- Click Save
After enabling a service for online appointment requests, you can create availability blocks to offer it at specific times. To learn more, see Managing your Availability.
Allowing new clients to book online
If you're accepting new clients and want them to be able to request appointments online, you can designate this for each specific service. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Services and products > Services
- Select a service
- Make sure that Allow online appointment requests is selected under Booking options
- Check the box to Allow requests from new clients
- Click Save
Note: If you’re accepting requests from new individual clients, couple clients, or contacts on behalf of someone else (ex: a guardian requesting an appointment for a minor), you can indicate this from Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions.
Requiring clients to call to request
If you want clients to call your practice in order to request a certain service, you can:
- Navigate to Settings > Services and products > Services
- Select a service
- Make sure that Allow online appointment requests is selected under Booking options
- Check Require call to request appointment
- Click Save
Note: Clients will be able to see all available times for this service, along with instructions to call to request the appointment. You can update the practice phone number shown to clients from Settings > Practice > Practice details.
Setting up a phone screening services for new clients
Many clinicians create a phone screening service for new clients to schedule an initial consultation before committing to a full appointment. This type of consultation is a way for you to assess a prospective client and set expectations and guidelines, while still giving therapy seekers the ability to request an appointment from your Monarch profile.
To do this, you’ll first want to set up a new service code for phone screening:
- Navigate to Settings > Services and products > Services
- Click + Add service
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Use the dropdown menu under Service to select 00000 - Initial Consultation - No Charge
- You can add your own service code and change the description of the service as needed
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Set the Rate and adjust the Default Duration
- Most clinicians set the Rate to $0 and the Default Duration to 15 minutes
- Check the boxes for Allow online appointment requests and Allow requests from new clients
- Click Save
Note: See Creating a new custom service code for more information.
Once your phone screening service code is created, you’ll want to either add this service to your existing availability blocks or create new availability blocks specifically for this service. To do this:
- Navigate to the Calendar
- Select the gear icon > Availability schedule
- Select an existing availability block to edit it, or click any empty spot on the calendar to add a new availability block
- Adjust the settings as needed
- Under Services, click Add service and select the new initial consultation service that was just created
- Click Save
Setting up clients for online appointment requests
New clients and existing clients can access your Client Portal in a few ways. For new clients, you have the following two options:
Option 1: Provide your client with your unique Client Portal web address, either by email or by embedding it on your website. To do this:
- Locate your Client Portal default domain by going to Settings > Scheduling > Client portal permissions
- Click the copy link icon or highlight your domain to copy the link
- Paste the domain into where you're providing the link to the client
When a new client navigates to your practice’s Client Portal, they'll need to click I'm a New Client to request an appointment.
Option 2: After you speak to a client via phone, you can add them as a client. After doing this, you’ll have the ability to send them a Welcome email, which will include a link to the Client Portal.
Existing clients need to be granted Client Portal access to schedule through your link. Once existing clients are granted access, they’ll be able to sign in to request an appointment. See Inviting clients to the Client Portal for more details.
Note: For more information on how to view, confirm, or decline appointment requests you receive in your account, see Managing appointment requests.
Requesting an appointment from the client's end
When a client accesses your Client Portal, they'll be prompted to indicate whether they're a new or existing client:
- A new client is one you haven't yet added to your SimplePractice account
- An existing client is one you have already added to your SimplePractice account
New clients will be given the option of requesting an appointment based on the availability you've created for new client services.
After selecting a date and time, they'll be prompted to provide information about themselves to complete their request.
Tip: See Collecting information from new clients to learn how you can collect information about a prospective client's reason for visit in addition to the basic information they submit with their appointment request.
After clicking Request Appointment, they'll see a confirmation page that lets them add the appointment to their personal calendar and notifies them that you'll still need to confirm the appointment.
Note: To help clients who need assistance with logging into your Client Portal, see Assisting clients with signing into the Client Portal. To provide a walkthrough to your clients of the Client Portal login process, see Logging in to the Client Portal.
You'll receive an email alerting you of the appointment request. The request will also appear in your SimplePractice account.
Managing appointment requests
When a client requests an appointment, you'll receive an email alert and a notification at the left navigation menu. You can click Requests to manage appointment requests.
Accepting appointment requests
To accept an appointment request:
- Click Requests in the left navigation menu
- Choose Accept
- Select the documents you'd like to send to the client, if any, and customize the confirmation email before sending
Note: When accepting an appointment request, you'll always see the option to send documents to a client, even if they're an existing client.
Declining appointment requests
To decline an appointment request:
- Click Requests in the left navigation menu
- Select the three horizontal dots next to the request
- Choose Decline
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Select your reason for declining
- If you select Other, you’ll be prompted to leave a comment
Note: The reason for declining and the comment won’t automatically be shared with the client. If you’d like to include these answers in your Appointment Declined emails, see Editing appointment confirmation/decline emails.
- Customize the email as needed, then click Decline & Send Now
If you decline an appointment request for a new client, an Inactive profile will be automatically created for the client. They’ll receive an email that declines the appointment request and includes a link to request a new appointment date and time.
Note: If you intend to see the client at a later date, you can set the client to Active by first navigating to your Clients list. Here, sort the list by Inactive clients, click the three dots within the Manage column, and then select Make active.
If you decline an appointment request for an existing client, they’ll receive an email indicating you declined the appointment request, along with a link to the Client Portal where they can request a new date and time.
Sending intake documents before accepting or declining a pending appointment request
To send intake documents to a client before taking action on a pending appointment:
- Click Requests in the left navigation menu
- Select the three horizontal dots next to the request
- Choose Send intake documents
- Select which forms you want to send
- Choose Continue to Email
- Customize the email as needed, then click Continue to Review
- Select Share & Send Now
The client will receive an email to sign the documents with the Client Portal link.
To see if the prospective client has completed their intake documents, navigate to the Requests page and you’ll see Documents completed under Status.
To view their responses:
- Click the client’s name to navigate to their Overview page
- Navigate to the Files tab
- Select a document to view their responses
You can then return to the Requests page to accept or decline the pending appointment request.
Filtering your appointment requests
If you’re an Account Owner or clinician with entire practice access, you can view appointment requests for your entire practice or only your requests. To only view your requests, click the All clinicians dropdown to select your name and Apply.
You can also sort requests by:
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Client status
- New or existing clients
- Location
- Request sources
Viewing appointment requests on the calendar
To view an appointment request on your calendar:
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Click the Pending appointment
- Pending appointments appear with diagonal lines on the calendar
- Review the appointment details on the flyout
- Choose to Decline or Accept
You’ll then be able to proceed with sending a decline email or a confirmation email.
Viewing archived requests
To view archived requests:
- Click Requests in the left navigation menu
- Navigate to the Archived requests tab
From here, you can view the details of each appointment request. You can also select the three horizontal dots next to a request to view the client’s profile or schedule an appointment for that client.
Note: On the Archived requests tab, you'll see all archived requests received in the last 90 days, after August 20, 2024. This is part of phased rollout, and may not be available yet in your account.
Editing appointment confirmation/decline emails
You can edit the default emails that client’s receive when you confirm or decline an appointment request. You’ll also be able to further personalize the emails at the time of confirming or declining.
To customize appointment confirmation emails on a practice-wide level:
- Navigate to Settings > Client notifications > Email
- Click the pencil icon next to Appointment confirmation
- Edit the Message as necessary
- Click Save
You can repeat these steps for these other appointment confirmation emails:
- Appointment confirmation with documents
- Video appointment confirmation with documents
To customize appointment declined emails on a practice-wide level:
- Navigate to Settings > Client notifications > Email
- Scroll to Appointment declined (new client) or Appointment declined (existing client)
- Click the pencil icon to edit
- Edit the Message as necessary
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If you’d like to include the reason for declining the appointment and the comment section, use the Appointment dropdown menu and select:
- Appointment Decline Reason
- Appointment Decline Note
- Click Save
For detailed information on using macros, see Explaining client email and reminder macros. To learn more about the different email templates included in your account, and when each type of email is sent, see When are different email templates sent to clients?
Important: Emails aren’t a secure form of communication, and these emails to clients aren’t encrypted. We do provide the option to include some patient health information (PHI) like a client's name, address, phone number, and more in these email messages. Please make sure that you use this feature appropriately based on your practice's HIPAA security requirements.