Collections

Optomate practices: Collections needs your Optomate API updated to version 2.12.17 or later. Spectacle collections are booked with your dispensers, and dispenser bookings aren't available below that version.

What It Does

Instead of "give us a call to arrange a time", the patient is told their order is in — and where a time is needed, the message carries a booking link they tap once.

• Staff work from a Collections tab: patients whose order is ready, with a Send button.
• Spectacles normally carry a booking link: the patient picks a time, and Your Booking assigns a free dispenser from your pool when it books — not an optometrist's clinical column, so it doesn't eat into eye-exam capacity.
• Contact lenses normally don't. Most are collected over the counter, so the message just says they're in — and you can attach a booking link per patient when one is needed, for a fit, teach or aftercare.
• The same link lets the patient reschedule or cancel later, so you're not fielding phone calls for changes.
• What you sent is written onto the order in your practice software, so the record lives where your staff already look.
• Your Booking never stores patient details centrally — the ready list is read live from your practice software each time.

How It Works

1. An order arrives and is marked ready in your practice software.
2. The patient appears in the Collections tab on the staff dashboard, with their spectacles or contact lenses shown as separate rows.
3. A staff member checks what the message will carry — a collection link, a specific appointment, or no link — and clicks Send. The patient gets an SMS or email on their preferred channel.
4. If the message carries a link, the patient opens it, sees your available times, taps one, and it's booked.
5. Your practice gets the booking in the appointment book, the patient drops off the Collections list, and the message you sent is written onto the order.

If a patient rings to arrange a time instead of using the link, that's fine — once the collection appointment is in the book, Your Booking sees it and won't send them a duplicate.

Before You Start

Spectacle collections use a dispenser pool: patients book collection visits with your dispensing staff, kept separate from your optometrists' clinical diaries. Three things need to be in place — the setup steps below walk through each:

1. Your dispensers set up as bookable staff — so collection visits land in their appointment books. Dispensers never appear on your normal booking page.
2. A collection appointment type — a short visit type (e.g. "Spectacle Collection") used only for these bookings.
3. Your Booking able to read your orders — so it knows whose order is ready. What this takes depends on your practice software (see step 3). If the access isn't there, Your Booking tells you what's missing when you turn the feature on.

Contact lens collections need none of the first two. There's no pool and no collection appointment type, because the usual case is a counter pickup. Turn them on separately, and set a default appointment type only for the times you do attach a booking link.

Setup

Step 1: Set up your dispensers as bookable staff

Collection visits are booked against your dispensers. Dispensers are only offered where you choose them, so they never show up on your public booking page.

• Optomate — you need the Optomate API on version 2.12.17 or later and the Users permission for Your Booking's API user. Keep each dispenser set up as a Dispenser with their appointment book on and a roster.
• Sunix — give each dispenser the profession code DISP.

See Dispenser bookings in the setup guide for the details, including appointment lengths.

Your Booking assigns a free dispenser automatically when the patient books — you don't manage individual diaries.

Step 2: Create a collection appointment type

Add a short appointment type for collections — for example "Spectacle/CL Collection", 10–15 minutes. Give it a friendly public description (this is what the patient sees on their booking and confirmation, e.g. "Glasses collection").

You don't need to add it to your public booking page — Your Booking hides the collection type from normal bookings automatically once you select it in step 5.

Step 3: Give Your Booking access to your orders

Your Booking needs to read your orders to know whose is ready. Set this up before turning the feature on — the switch checks the access and won't enable without it.

Optomate — in Optomate's API access list, alongside the standard booking permissions:

Only add the contact-lens rows if you want contact-lens collections.

Sunix: no extra step — Your Booking reads and writes what it needs directly, so you can go straight to step 4.

Not sure how to enable the access? Send us a message and we'll walk you through it.

Step 4: Turn the feature on

1. Go to Messaging → Collections.
2. Turn on Enable spectacle collections — and Enable contact lens collections if you want those too — and save.

Each switch checks its own access first. If something's missing it won't enable, and it'll tell you which permission to fix. The two are independent: you can run spectacles alone, contact lenses alone, or both.

Step 5: Choose the appointment type and dispensers

Spectacles. With the feature on, the card shows a few more settings:

• Collection appointment type — pick the type you made in step 2.
• Staff patients can book collections with — tick whoever does collections, usually your dispensers. The list shows your dispensers first, then your optometrists.

Save. Patients will be offered times across whichever dispensers you tick, and assigned a free one automatically.

Contact lenses. One optional setting: a default appointment type for the times staff attach a booking link — a fit, a teach, an aftercare. Leave it unset and staff pick the type on the row instead. There's no pool: a link like this offers whoever your booking page would, or a person the staff member names.

Step 6: Set up your messages

Collections send the patient an SMS or an email. Your Booking seeds a sensible default for each the first time you enable a collection type, so you can start straight away — but you can edit them or write your own in the Templates tab (choose the Collection scope, which covers both spectacles and contact lenses).

• Use {ITEM} for what's ready — "glasses", "contact lenses" — with {IS_ARE} for the verb beside it, so one template reads correctly either way. Write "your {ITEM} {IS_ARE} ready" and Your Booking makes it agree, however many are waiting.
• {COLLECTION_LINK} is the booking link. It's optional: a message with no link still sends, which is what a counter pickup needs. Where a link is attached and the template doesn't mention it, Your Booking adds it at the end.
• Spectacles and contact lenses each have their own SMS and email template setting, so the two can read differently. Leave them unset to use your first active collection template.

Day to Day — the Collections Tab

Once it's on, staff get a Collections tab on the dashboard (glasses icon), listing what's ready newest first. Running both item types adds Spectacles / Contact lenses / All buttons to switch between them.

Each row shows what the message will carry before it goes: a Collection link (the patient books a time to come in), Book appt (a particular appointment type, with anyone or a named person), or No link (just tells them it's in, to collect over the counter). Your Booking suggests one and staff can change it per patient — for contact lenses the suggestion reads the order, so a rigid or Ortho-K lens leans towards booking an appointment. Full details are in the Staff Dashboard guide.

Things to Know

• It doesn't touch your exam capacity. Spectacle collection visits book against dispensers in the pool, not your optometrists' clinical columns.
• Contact lenses show what's actually waiting — per eye, because the two eyes can be different products in different quantities. Supply is shown in months where the catalogue gives a pack size, and never for a trial pair.
• The link is the patient's for the whole journey. Before they book it offers times; after they book, the same link lets them reschedule or cancel — right up until the appointment.
• Phone bookings are safe. If a patient rings to arrange collection instead of using the link, Your Booking sees the appointment and won't double-book or nag them.
• SMS is billed per message, like your reminders and recalls. Email is included. There's a separate line for collection SMS in your account so you can see the cost.
• Marking an order collected stays in your practice software. Your Booking shows what's ready and books the visit; recording the actual hand-over is done where you do it today.
• The message is written onto the order. What was sent, and when, goes onto the order in your practice software (Optomate's practice comments; the Sunix order's comment), so staff see it where they already look. It also bumps Sunix's own notified count, so its “ready for notifying” screens stay right.
• No patient details are stored by Your Booking. The ready list, names and contact details are read live from your practice software each time and never kept centrally.