Appointments
Booking, the appointment lifecycle from scheduled to completed, reminders, recurring series, and handling absences.
The lifecycle
An appointment moves through: scheduled → confirmed → arrived → in progress → completed. Two exits: canceled (by staff or by the patient) and no-show.
- Scheduled — booked, not yet confirmed by the patient.
- Confirmed — the patient said yes, usually with one tap on the WhatsApp reminder.
- Arrived — checked in at the desk; the patient is in the waiting room and the doctor can see they're here.
- In progress — the visit has started.
- Completed — done; if a visit was charted it links from the appointment.
Booking
Book from the Appointments calendar or straight from a patient's chart (the form comes preselected). Appointments are per-doctor and respect each doctor's schedule. An appointment is in-person or a video visit — see Video visits.
If the slot conflicts, Angel says so — and still lets you book anyway when the desk knows better (walk-ins, squeeze-ins). Double-booking is a choice, never an accident.
Reminders and confirm/cancel
Patients get a WhatsApp reminder before their appointment, with Confirm and Cancel buttons — one tap updates the appointment for everyone, no phone call needed. This needs WhatsApp set up: see WhatsApp messages.
Doctors don't get pinged per appointment. Each practitioner gets one evening digest — "You have 6 appointments tomorrow — first at 9:30 AM" — as an in-app notification.
Recurring series
For treatments on a rhythm (sessions, dressing changes, physiotherapy), book a weekly or biweekly series in one step. Each appointment in the series stands alone afterwards — cancel or move one without touching the rest.
When a doctor is absent
Block a day or a date range for a doctor, and Angel walks you through what to do with the appointments already booked in it: reassign them to a colleague or cancel with a WhatsApp notice to each patient. No appointment silently falls through.
No-shows
Mark a no-show from the appointment, or let Angel do it: with auto no-show on (Clinic Settings), appointments still unarrived a set time past their start are marked automatically. No-shows feed the recalls loop so the patient gets a nudge to rebook.
Deposits at booking
If your clinic takes booking deposits, the policy (optional or required, and the amount) is set in Clinic Settings and applies to your public booking page — see Payments & deposits.
Still stuck?
If you already use Angel, ask from inside it — Help & support carries your clinic, screen and app version with the message, so nobody has to describe their setup. Otherwise write to us and a human will answer.