Please Note: This guide is only relevant for Online Booking version 3 which was made available from 20/10/2016. If you acquired Online Booking before this time or have not upgraded to version 3 please see the following guide: Setting Up PPS for Online Appointment Booking
Section One - Setting up your Practitioner, Appointment, and Location availability
You will need to make at least one Practitioner and at least one Appointment Type available for Online Appointment Booking.
Log in to your PPS system and go to Tools > Look-up Tables.
Select Appointment Type in the bottom right box and click Open.
From the list of your Appointment Types select one you wish to make available for online booking and click Modify. In the Modify window click More in the bottom right corner to expand the screen. Click Online Availability to manage the online appointment booking settings for this particular Appointment Type.
The next window which pops up will be blank the first time you access it; this is where you define what is available to your clients. Click New to add new options.
In this window you can select which locations this Appointment Type should be available for online by selecting a location from the drop down menu. If all locations are applicable choose ‘All Locations’.
You can also select which practitioners this Appointment Type should be available for by selecting a practitioner from the drop down menu. If all practitioners are applicable choose ‘All Practitioners’.
If only a select few of your practitioners or locations are applicable to this particular Appointment Type you will need to follow this process to add each practitioner and/or location until you can see all relevant options in your Online Profile list.
You will also need to tick the box titled ‘Available for Online Appointment Booking?’ on each profile that you set-up.
Section Two - Setting up your Appointments Diary
To make your appointment slots available for online booking you will need to go to Tools > Set Up Appointments Diaries. This guide will explain how to set up your availability and set your slots to available for your online booking clients
Section Three - Display Names
For your Practitioners, Appointment Types, and Locations you can set a Display Name to determine the text that will be displayed to your clients when they are booking their appointment online and making these selections.
This feature may come in handy if you need to add a little more description to your options to help guide your clients when booking via your website, especially for new clients.
To add a Display Name for your practitioner you will need to go to Tools > Set Up Practitioners and System Users. Double click your practitioner and select Modify. If you cannot see the other practitioners on your system listed here then you will need to log in as the System Administrator.
In the first screen under the User Set Up tab you will see Name to Display under Online Settings. You can add the online booking display name for this practitioner here.
To add a display name for your Appointment Types you will need to go to Tools > Look-up Tables > Appointment Types and click Open.
Highlight the relevant Appointment Type and choose Modify. In the bottom right corner click More to expand the screen. On the right hand side you will see the ‘Display Name’ field where you can add your alternative display name for online appointment booking.
To add a display name for your Locations you will need to go to Tools > Look up Tables > Locations.
Highlight the relevant Location and click Modify. At the bottom of your Diary Locations window you will see a section titled ‘Online Settings' where you can add the display name.
Once you are set-up
If you are a PPS Hosted user then that's it! You are all set up and ready to go.
Local PPS System Users: If you run a local version of PPS you will need to ensure the PPSv4 Sync Server program is running on your main database machine. This synchronises your local PPS diary with your hosted Online Booking service so you can see appointments booked online and ensure online availability is kept up to date.