Adding 'buffer time' between appointments
If you need admin, setup or cleaning time between patients, you can ask WriteUpp to include a "buffer time" in your appointments when they are booked. This is non-chargeable time outside of the time you spend with a patient, but will be included within the length of the appointment when it is booked into your diary, to ensure a gap is left. It is an entirely optional setting, if you would prefer that gaps between patients are more visible within your diary, you can use a non-patient appointment type to block time after each booking is made.
Buffer time is added to your appointment types within Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types, and can be applied when either creating a new or editing an existing type:
Buffer time cannot be applied to either non-patient or hourly rate appointment types
The Duration of an appointment entered here should be the total length of the appointment, to include any buffer time.
For example, if you routinely spend 45 minutes with your patients, and would like a 15 minute buffer time to be added to the end of each booking, you would enter:
Duration = 60 minutes
Buffer time = 15 minutes
This tells WriteUpp that the treatment time for this particular appointment is the duration minus the buffer time, so 60 minutes - 15 minutes = 45 minutes.
In the areas where patients might see a duration displayed for this appointment type, they will see 45 minutes, so that it is clear how long they can expect to spend with you. This could be:
Within online booking
Within the video platform (if the appointment type is a video appointment)
For billing purposes if displayed on an invoice
If you use the variable for appointment duration in your confirmations and reminders
Buffer time should only be used if you apply the same gap after every instance of an appointment type booked into your diary. If you don't need or want this time after every patient, we'd recommend that you manually block off time as and when you need to.
Buffer time is added to your appointment types within Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Types, and can be applied when either creating a new or editing an existing type:
Buffer time cannot be applied to either non-patient or hourly rate appointment types
The Duration of an appointment entered here should be the total length of the appointment, to include any buffer time.
For example, if you routinely spend 45 minutes with your patients, and would like a 15 minute buffer time to be added to the end of each booking, you would enter:
Duration = 60 minutes
Buffer time = 15 minutes
This tells WriteUpp that the treatment time for this particular appointment is the duration minus the buffer time, so 60 minutes - 15 minutes = 45 minutes.
In the areas where patients might see a duration displayed for this appointment type, they will see 45 minutes, so that it is clear how long they can expect to spend with you. This could be:
Within online booking
Within the video platform (if the appointment type is a video appointment)
For billing purposes if displayed on an invoice
If you use the variable for appointment duration in your confirmations and reminders
Buffer time should only be used if you apply the same gap after every instance of an appointment type booked into your diary. If you don't need or want this time after every patient, we'd recommend that you manually block off time as and when you need to.
Updated on: 26/06/2023
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