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Online Booking
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Online booking lets pet owners request appointments through your clinic's booking portal without calling. Bookings land in a queue for your staff to review and act on. This keeps the process organized while giving clients the convenience of self-service scheduling.
Online booking is included in every viggoVet plan.
Booking at the client's location? This page covers standard clinic booking. For mobile and ambulatory practice, house calls, farm visits, and mobile specialists who travel to other clinics, see Remote Booking, which arranges each provider's day as a route with driving times and a map.
The client's booking flow
Clients book through your clinic's public portal in a short, guided sequence. The booking page is titled "Book Your Appointment Online In Simple Steps" with a progress bar across the top.
Step 1, Choose the appointment details. The client completes the selection for the appointment type and selects from a Provider dropdown. Only providers available for that area appear (for remote booking, this is driven by each provider's base location and radius).
Step 2, Choose the day and time. A calendar lets the client pick a date; available time slots for that day appear as selectable chips. An Appointment Details panel on the right confirms the selected provider and the chosen date and time.
Step 3, Enter client details. The client fills in their details; their first and last names, email and phone number, and a tick for confirming the client is above age.
Step 4, Enter pet’s details. The client fills in their details and the pet's information: Client Name, Client Email, Mobile Number, Pet Name, Complaint, Pet Birthday, Breed, Sex, Chip, Appointment Type, and a Note.
A confirmation screen will appear once the booking is done! The client will receive an email with the appointment details.
How it works
- A client visits your clinic's online booking portal (your clinic's public URL).
- They complete the four steps above: location, provider, day and time, then pet and client details (optionally uploading previous records).
- If your clinic requires payment at booking, the client completes a payment step through Stripe before submission.
- The booking appears in your team's Online Requests list with a pending status.
- Your team reviews the booking and takes action: confirm it, reject it, reassign the provider, or change the time.
- On confirm, your team chooses which calendar category the appointment lands in, and it appears on your calendar in that column.
Online booking payment (Stripe) is a $20 a month add-on on Professional and Elite, and included in Enterprise. Without it, online booking works fully, without payment collection.
Payment at booking: When configured, clients pay for a specific item during the booking process. The client receives an invoice by email and assigned staff receive a notification. If the client's email is not found in the system, a new client and patient record are created automatically. See Administration and Settings > Online Booking Configuration for setup.
Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
Client requests | Standard in-clinic appointments |
Remote requests | Incoming client and business booking requests awaiting your action |
My appointments | Your own visits |
All appointments | All appointments regarding a provider. Select provider from a dropdown |
Online Requests layout
At the top of the tab, you have sorting and search controls:
- Sort by dropdown: defaults to "Created At"
- Ascending / Descending toggle: controls the sort order
- Search Here field: find a specific booking by client name or other text
Each booking appears as a card with the following fields:
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Client | Client name and phone number, with an initials avatar |
Patient | Pet name, or "---" if none specified |
Complaint | Reason for the visit |
Provider | Requested provider, or "---" if unspecified |
Appointment type | Appointment type, like a consultation |
ID | Unique booking reference number |
Entity | The business that booked, if applicable |
Address | The visit location, with an icon to open it in Google Maps |
Time range | Requested start → end |
Taking action on a booking
Each card has four action buttons:
Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Confirm | Accepts the booking and schedules it (you then choose the calendar category) |
Reject | Declines the booking (the client may be notified depending on your notification settings) |
Assign to | Changes the assigned provider for this booking |
Change time | Moves the appointment to a different date or time before confirming |
Confirming a booking
Click Confirm. A Select Category dialog opens with a Category dropdown (defaults to Online Booking). Choose which calendar column the appointment should land in, then click Confirm in the dialog. The appointment moves onto your calendar in that category.
Rejecting a booking
Click Reject. The booking is removed from the active list. Depending on your clinic's notification configuration, the client may receive a message that their request was declined.
Reassigning the provider
Click Assign To to open the assignment option. Select a different provider from the list. This is helpful when the requested provider is fully booked but another has availability.
Changing the time
Click Change Time. A form opens where you can adjust the date and time before confirming. Use this when the client's preferred slot conflicts with your schedule but a nearby time works.
The client and business dashboard
Clients and partner businesses manage their own bookings from a dashboard in the portal, titled Online Booking, "Manage your appointments and invoices." Across the top, summary cards show the counts that matter to them:
Card | What it counts |
|---|---|
Upcoming appointments | Confirmed visits still to come |
Completed visits | Visits already carried out |
Appointment requests | Requests submitted and awaiting the clinic's action |
Cancel | Cancelled requests |
Below the cards, three tabs organize their view: Appointment Requests, Appointment History, and Invoices & Payments. The Appointment Requests tab lists each request as a card (date, time, complaint, provider, client, patient, and the visit location), with Cancel and Reschedule controls and a Book New Appointment button. The Invoices & Payments tab is where a client or business sees invoices and, when Stripe is active, pays online.
This dashboard is the same portal used for both standard and remote bookings. It matters most for businesses, for example a first-opinion clinic that books a visiting specialist, because one business account can manage many appointments and invoices in one place.
How online bookings appear on the calendar
Once confirmed, online bookings show up on the calendar like any other appointment. Before confirmation, they're visible in:
- Agenda view: Bookings from clients show a CLIENT BOOKING badge (medium blue) so you can distinguish them from internally created appointments.
- Category view: The "Online Booking" category column shows any appointments that were booked through the portal and assigned to that category.
The CLIENT BOOKING status badge indicates the appointment originated from the online portal. Once you confirm and check the client in, the badge changes to CHECKED IN (dark purple).
Appointment Attributes (online booking form fields)
Your clinic can configure custom fields that appear on the online booking form. These fields are filled in by the pet owner when they book.
Appointment Attributes are managed in Settings > Configurations > Appointment Attribute.
What attributes do
- They add custom questions to the online booking form (only the online form, not your internal appointment creation form)
- Responses from the client appear on the appointment card
- The information is added to the patient profile for clinical reference
Attribute settings
Each attribute has these configuration options:
Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
Name | The field label visible to the client |
Type | Data format: date, string, medical note, numeric, or checkbox |
Multiple | Whether the client can enter more than one value |
Required | Whether the field must be filled before submitting |
Virtual | Marks the field as virtual (for specific workflow use) |
Attributes are organized in sections. Your administrator can create, edit, or reorder them to match your clinic's intake process.
Tip: Common attributes include "Previous medical history," "Current medications," "Reason for visit (details)," and "Has your pet been seen elsewhere for this issue?" These save time during the consultation because the vet already has context before the appointment starts.
What to do if something goes wrong
No bookings appear under Online Requests. Verify that your online booking portal is active and that the URL is accessible. Check with your administrator that the booking configuration is enabled in Settings.
A confirmed booking doesn't show on the calendar. Check the Categories filter on the calendar. You may be filtering to a different category than the one assigned to online bookings. Reset to All Categories.
Client booked with wrong provider or time. Use the Assign to (person icon) or Change Time (clock icon) buttons before confirming. If already confirmed, edit the appointment directly on the calendar.
You accidentally rejected a booking. The rejection cannot be undone from the list. Contact the client and manually create an appointment from the calendar using + Add Appointment.
Custom attribute responses don't appear on the appointment. Confirm the attributes are correctly configured in Settings > Configurations > Appointment Attribute and that the "Required" or field type settings are correct.
Note: Contact the viggoVet help if any of these problems persist after following the instructions.