Your own appointment and follow-up types

BusinessCopilot comes with a fixed set of appointment types and follow-up types. If your business does something they don't cover — wound dressing, blood pressure checks, a diabetes clinic, a delivery call-back — add your own.

You need View on Patient Engagement (Appointments) to see the list, Create to add a type, and Edit to rename or switch one off.

The built-in types

The built-in types can't be changed or removed.

Adding your own

1. Go to the Types tab on any Appointments page (Web and Desktop), or the Types chip on the mobile app.
2. In Appointment types, select Add appointment type (or Add follow-up type under Follow-up types).
3. Type a Name — for example "Wound dressing".
4. For an appointment type, set the Usual length (minutes) — for example 45. This is filled in whenever the type is picked; you can still change the length for any single booking.
5. Select Add.

Your type now appears at the end of the Type list when you book an appointment, add a follow-up, or add someone to the waitlist, marked Custom on the Types page.

Rules for names

• 2 to 60 characters.
• It can't repeat a built-in name ("Consultation") or another of your own, in any capital letters.
• The same name may exist once as an appointment type and once as a follow-up type — they're separate lists.
• You can have up to 50 custom types of each kind.

Using a custom type

• Booking: pick it from the Type list. The length fills in from the type's usual length. It works everywhere a type is chosen — the calendar booking form, recurring appointments, the waitlist, and turning a follow-up into an appointment.
• On screen: its name is shown on the calendar, in lists, on the patient record, on the patient's confirmation page and in Insights → By appointment type.
• In messages: reminders use your name in lower case — "…your wound dressing with Ade Bello is booked for…".
• Follow-up types work the same way. (Only the built-in Refill request shows the Medication and Quantity boxes.)

Renaming

1. On the Types tab, select Edit next to your type.
2. Change the Name (and, for an appointment type, the Usual length).
3. Select Save.

The new name shows everywhere straight away — on old appointments too, because they point at the type, not a copy of its name. Changing the usual length only affects future bookings.

Switching a type off

You can't delete a type, because appointments and follow-ups already use it. Instead, select Deactivate:

• It disappears from the pick-lists, so nobody books it by mistake.
• Everything that already uses it is unaffected — you can still open, reschedule and complete those appointments, and a recurring series that uses it carries on.
• It stays on the Types tab, marked Inactive, and Reactivate brings it back.

Good to know

• Types are per workspace. Other businesses never see yours.
• Nothing changes for your existing appointments when you add types. They keep their original type.
• If someone deactivates a type while you have its booking form open, you'll get "appointment type … is not valid" when you save. Pick another type.

Related

• Booking an appointment
• Follow-ups
• Insights