Please Note: This guide is only relevant for Online Booking version 5. Please contact the PPS Support team if you are unsure of which version you should be using.
When a client books an appointment via your PPS Online Appointment Booking service the appointment slot is reserved in your diary and any details the client entered during the booking process are recorded. At this point, no client record is added to your PPS system or linked to the appointment.
When you first interact with the appointment you will be prompted to match the client details associated to the booking with an existing client in your PPS database or to create a new client record if there are no appropriate matches. This guide will take you through this matching process.
Please Note: Client matching currently works differently for PPS Hosted systems. If you are PPS Hosted user please read both sections of this guide.
Section 1 - Matching Online Booking Clients to Appointments
a. In order to match the client for an appointment booked online locate it in your appointments diary. Double click on the appointment to open the Match screen or select the appointment with a single click and open any of the PPS client screens, e.g: Client Log, Client Details, Create A Charge.
b. The client information that was entered at the time of booking the appointment is displayed at the top of the screen. Any clients found within your PPS database to have matching details will be listed in the lower section of the screen. All matching entries are listed in yellow. If multiple clients with matching information are identified then those with the most matches are displayed at the top of the list.
c. To accept a suggested match for a client double click the entry within the possible matches list. If the client entered details during the booking that differ from those held within your PPS system these will not be automatically added into the client details however, a critical note will be added for each differing piece of information for that client. Critical notes can be viewed in the 'Notes' section of the Client Details screen.
d. If the booking is for a new client rather than one that already exists within your PPS Database the New button will allow you to create a new client record using the details that were entered during the process of booking the appointment online.
Section 2 - Client Matching in PPS Hosted Systems
If you are a PPS Hosted user you will also see a notification of any new online bookings in the top right-hand corner of your appointments diary.
a. The notification will display the number of online appointment bookings which are yet to be matched. See the list of bookings to be matched by double-clicking this display.
b. A new window will then pop up containing a list of all un-matched online bookings. Select the booking you would like to match from the list on the left-hand side of the window which displays the client name and the date and time of the booking. The booking details and any potential matches will then be displayed on the right-hand side of the window.
c. You can then match to an existing client or create a new client record as per the details in Section 1.
d. Once a booking has been matched it will be removed from the list. Once the list is clear the diary notification will disappear until a new online booking is made.
Section 3 - What if the incorrect client is matched to an appointment?
Tip: If an online booking is matched to the wrong client accidentally this can be resolved.
a. If a new client that has booked an appointment online is matched to an existing client in the system you can still find the new client's details that they used to book the appointment within the appointment screen by selecting More. The details will show under the Updated Notes.
You can make note of the details that the client booked with and simply add a new client. You can then go back to the appointment in the diary and use the search function to find the newly created correct client.
b. If an existing client that has booked an appointment online is matched to another existing client in the system this can be corrected by finding the correct client's details in the appointment details Updated Notes and the appointment can then be modified by searching for the correct client.