Setup Guide

Accessing the Admin Dashboard

Open your practice's admin page in a browser:

https://yourpractice.yourbooking.au/admin

Log in with the admin username and password provided during onboarding.

Step 1: Sync Appointment Types from Optomate

Before patients can book online, you need to sync your Optomate appointment types and configure which ones are available.

1.1 Sync from Optomate

1. Go to the Appointment Types tab
2. Click Sync from Optomate
3. This pulls in all appointment types that have "Available for Online Appointments" enabled in Optomate

Synced appointment types are active by default but have no patient type flags set, so they won't appear in the booking flow until you configure eligibility (Step 1.2).

If you don't see an appointment type you expect, go back to Optomate and check that Available for Online Appointments is ticked for that type, then sync again.

1.2 Configure each appointment type

For each synced type, you can configure:

Understanding patient types

When a patient identifies themselves, the system classifies them based on their Optomate history:

• New — no record found in Optomate
• Recent — has visited within the inactive months threshold (default 36 months)
• Inactive — has a record but hasn't visited within the threshold

The inactive threshold can vary by patient age if the optional age-based cutover is configured (see Patient Registration settings below). For example, children might be classified as inactive after 12 months while adults use the standard 36-month threshold.

Each appointment type can be enabled for any combination of these patient types. For example:

• A "New Patient Comprehensive Exam" might only be enabled for new patients
• A "Review" might only be enabled for recent patients
• A "Comprehensive Exam" might be enabled for inactive patients (returning after a long absence)

Recall-only appointment types

An appointment type that is active but has no patient type flags set (N/R/I all off) will not appear in the standard booking flow. However, it can still be booked via a recall link if a recall mapping points to it. This is useful for appointment types that should only be available to patients who receive a specific recall.

Age limits

Use the age icon on each appointment type to set optional age restrictions. For example:

• A children's eye exam might have a maximum age of 14
• A VicRoads assessment might have a minimum age of 16

Follow-up emails

You can configure an automated follow-up email per appointment type. It sends after a patient books (or from the staff dashboard manually for walk-in / phone bookings) and can contain anything useful for that type: a link to an online intake form, "what to bring", pre-visit prep instructions, etc. Full walk-through: Follow-up Emails setup.

Note on per-type configuration. Per-appointment-type rules in YourBooking — follow-up emails, reminder template overrides, feedback filters, the manage-link ineligible list — can only target types marked Available Online in Optomate. The Optomate API doesn't expose staff-only types. If you have a staff-only type you want to include (e.g. a distinct walk-in type), mark it Available Online in Optomate and disable all New/Recent/Inactive flags here — it stays invisible to patient booking but gains access to all per-type features.

Step 2: Upload Optometrist Photos

1. Go to the Optometrists tab
2. Upload a headshot photo for each optometrist

These photos are shown to patients when choosing an available time slot, helping them recognise their optometrist.

Step 3: Configure Shared Resources (Optional)

If appointment types share physical equipment (e.g. a visual field machine that can only be used by one patient at a time), configure shared resources to prevent double-bookings.

1. Go to Appointment Types
2. Click the link icon (chain link) on any appointment type row to open the Shared Resources dialog
3. In the dialog, create a resource (e.g. "Visual Field Analyser") with a maximum concurrent usage count (usually 1)
4. Toggle the resource on for each appointment type that uses it

Resources are shared across all appointment types — once created, they appear in every appointment type's dialog. The link icon shows a count badge when resources are assigned.

Shared resources can also be used to reserve a room — for example, if a contact lens fitting requires a specific consultation room, create a resource for that room with max_concurrent: 1 and assign it to the relevant appointment type.

The booking system will then check resource availability when offering time slots, ensuring conflicts are prevented.

Step 4: Review Settings

Go to the Settings tab to configure booking behaviour.

Booking Rules

Patient Registration

Age-based cutover (optional)

If your practice uses different inactive thresholds for younger and older patients, you can configure an age-based cutover:

When all three fields are set, the system uses the age-appropriate threshold instead of the default. For example, with an age cutoff of 18, a young threshold of 12 months, and an old threshold of 36 months: a 10-year-old would be classified as inactive after 12 months, while a 40-year-old would need 36 months.

Booking Confirmation

Smart Availability — How YourBooking Chooses the Times Shown to Patients

The booking system doesn't just show every possible time slot. It intelligently places appointments to keep each optometrist's day compact and avoid fragmented schedules.

How it works

When a patient looks for available times, the system:

1. Finds gaps in each optometrist's schedule for the requested day
2. Generates preferred slots — times that keep the schedule tight:
   • Adjacent to existing appointments — immediately before or after a booked patient, so there's no dead time between appointments
   • Centred in large open blocks — if an optometrist has a 3-hour gap, the system offers a slot in the middle rather than at the edges, so the remaining time on each side is still usable
3. Generates acceptable slots — other valid times within gaps that respect the minimum gap rule but may leave smaller, less ideal spaces between patients
4. Filters out fragmentation — any slot that would create an unusable gap (shorter than the minimum gap setting) is excluded entirely

What patients see

Patients are shown preferred slots first. If they want more options, they can tap "Show more times" to see acceptable alternatives.

When "Preferred slots only" is turned on, the "Show more times" option is hidden — patients only see the schedule-optimal times.

Settings

Example

An optometrist's day with two existing appointments:

9:00 AM  +--------------+
         |  Patient A   |
9:30 AM  +--------------+
           (empty)


12:00 PM +--------------+
         |  Patient B   |
12:30 PM +--------------+
           (empty)

 5:00 PM

For a 30-minute appointment, the system would offer:

• Preferred: 9:30 AM (right after Patient A), 11:30 AM (right before Patient B), 12:30 PM (right after Patient B), and a centred slot in the large afternoon gap
• Acceptable: Other times in the gaps that don't create fragments

A slot at 10:00 AM would leave a 1.5-hour gap after Patient A and a 2-hour gap before Patient B — both usable. But a slot at 11:15 AM would leave only a 15-minute gap before Patient B — too small to be useful — so it's excluded.

Website Integration

To embed the booking system on your website, or to link directly to it, see the Website Integration Guide. It covers the iframe embed code, email link configuration, and optional short-domain setup for branded SMS links.

Alternatively, you can link directly to https://yourpractice.yourbooking.au/ from your website. The booking system runs as a standalone page with your practice branding.

Ongoing Administration

Adding new appointment types

1. Create and configure the appointment type in Optomate, ensuring Available for Online Appointments is ticked
2. In the admin dashboard, go to Appointment Types and click Sync from Optomate
3. Configure the new type's patient eligibility, description, and display order

Syncing practice information

If your practice changes its name, address, phone number, email, or default optometrist in Optomate, update the booking system:

1. Go to Settings tab
2. Click Sync from Optomate at the top
3. This pulls the latest branch name, address, phone, email, and default optometrist from Optomate

The email address (also shown as Reception email in the SMS Configuration card) is where booking notifications, recall summaries, patient SMS replies, and agent offline alerts are sent. It's also shown to patients in the booking page footer.

This information is used for creating new patients, in booking confirmation emails and in the map link.

Note: To prevent sync from overwriting a manually-set value, the practice phone and email are only filled by sync when they're empty in YourBooking. To force a re-sync after a change in Optomate, contact YourBooking to clear the field first, then click Sync from Optomate.

Monitoring bookings

The Booking Activity tab shows a history of all booking activity, including:

• Date/time of the action
• Action type (Booked, Cancelled, Rescheduled)
• Appointment date and time
• Appointment type and optometrist
• Booking source (standard or recall)

System overview

The Overview tab shows:

• Agent connection status (online/offline)
• Booking statistics (today, this week, this month, all time)
• Active patient sessions

Changing your admin password

Click Change Password in the admin header to update your login credentials.

Practice Email (Optional)

By default, patient emails — booking confirmations, reminders, recalls, follow-ups — come from obs@yourbooking.au with your reception address as the reply-to. If you want them to come from your own domain (e.g. info@yourpractice.com.au) so patients see your branding in the From line, you can plug in your own SMTP credentials. See the Practice Email Setup guide.

Going Live

Once you've configured everything and tested the booking flow, enable online booking:

1. Go to Settings > Booking Rules
2. Turn on Online booking enabled
3. Save

The booking page will immediately become available to patients. You can turn this off at any time to temporarily disable bookings (e.g., during holidays or maintenance).

Recalls & Reminders

If a Recalls & Reminders tab is visible in your admin dashboard, your practice has been enabled for the recalls and reminders module. This module automates:

• Appointment reminders — SMS and email reminders sent before appointments, with patient confirmation
• Recall notifications — automated recall messages to patients due for follow-up visits
• Follow-up sequences — multi-step recall sequences across SMS, email, letter, and telephone channels

Staff Dashboard

The staff dashboard is available at https://yourpractice.yourbooking.au/staff. Staff can log in with the same credentials as admin (or staff-role accounts if configured). The dashboard provides:

• Appointments — Today's appointments with one-click manage link and reminder sends
• Recalls — Preview upcoming recall runs before they send
• Sent History — View all sent reminders and recalls with delivery status and patient replies
• Call Queue — Phone call tasks for telephone recall follow-ups
• Print Queue — Letter printing tasks for letter recall follow-ups
• SMS Search — Search patient SMS history by phone number or patient ID