Admin Scheduler Help

Open ACU is a schedule and health records online software for acupuncturists. The Open ACU admin is the main hub for all things Open ACU.

Getting Started

All the setup and preparation for opening a new Open ACU account.

Getting Started

Getting Started Checklist

Your Open ACU account has a main portal for the administrative and practitioner staff to enter and maintain a clinic's locations, practitioners, patients, appointment schedule and health records. This article overviews the steps to get your clinic up and going with these steps. (Follow the links for more)

Checklist for getting started with your new Open ACU account:

Basics
Schedule
EHR
Patient Portal

Using Open ACU:

Open ACU has many features designed to integrate scheduling, health records and accounting into one seamless platform. You'll want to familiarize yourself with some of these basic features when you first start using Open ACU:

Schedule Management
Patient Managment
Transactions
Health Records
Tokens and Credits
Reports

 

Getting Started

Settings and Templates

Your settings page is where you set your application preferences, templates and rules for your account, and your patient portal logo and colors. You can get to the Account Settings page but clicking Account —> Settings on the sidebar menu, or by clicking on your clinic’s name at the top of the page. 

Logo and colors

Upload your clinic logo and edit colors buy clicking the Edit Logo, Colors button next to your clinic name:

logo-colors.png

Basics

From the basics menu you can set the following preferences:

Settings basics.png

Scheduler Site Settings

In this section you’ll store your contact information, website, and the text for your email templates.

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The text in the Slogan field will appear under your clinic's logo on the patient portal login page: 

Slogan.png

The New Account Instructions field is where you’ll save the instructions patients will see on your website for creating their account:

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The Email sent to new patients will automatically be sent to a new patient once their account is created:

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The Reminder/Disclaimer Instructions will go at the end of appointment reminder emails:

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The Cancelation Notice is where you’ll add text for the email a patient can receive when an appointment is canceled. 

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Waiting List Settings

If you want to allow patients to add their names to the daily waiting list via the patient portal, check the Allow Patient Portal Waiting List box and click Save to save your preference.

Waiting list pt.png

New Patient Settings

This is where you’ll save settings related to when new patients can schedule appointments. You can: 

new patient.png

Slot Time Settings

In this section you can add and delete your options for slot duration. To add an option, enter the number of minutes and click return. To delete an option, simply click on the number in the box on the left. 

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Time Settings

This is where you’ll save basic time and fee settings for your scheduler:

time-settings.png

Text Reminder Settings

Note: Only available if you have opted in to the text message reminder feature for an additional $5 per month.

Complete the following steps to activate SMS reminders:

  1. Check the Send SMS Reminders box
  2. Select your preference for when text messages are sent - they can be sent either 24 or 48 hours before the appointment. 
  3. Enter your verbiage for your text message - click the Key to Verbiage Codes button for options to customize your messages.
  4. Click Save Texting Preferences and you're done!

See this reference for the text code variables you can use or click the Key to Verbiage Codes button on your admin page.

SMS 6.png

Getting Started

Users

To add or manage a User, click on the Users page from the main menu. 

Different user types have different permissions:

Users.png

Admins can make appointments and edit patients. Admins cannot view EHR records or intake responses.

Super admins have the same permissions as admins, plus they can edit templates and intakes. Super admins cannot view EHR records or intake responses.

Practitioners have the same permissions as admins, plus they can view EHR records and intake responses, and create and edit EHR notes. 

Owners have full access to all schedule and EHR features.

To add a user, click the plus sign, complete the information and click Add when you’re done. 

To change user settings or to delete a user, click their name on the list of Users.

Getting Started

Locations

Open ACU gives all accounts 2 free active locations. You can add a location to your account for $10 a month. If you need more than 10 locations contact us for bulk location pricing.

Adding A New Location

If you don't need to purchase more locations you can add one at anytime. Just go to Locations and click the [+] Plus sign to the right. If you need to add locations to your account click "Add A Location". 

Each location has these options

To edit your locations

  1. Go to Locations in the main menu on the left.
  2. Select one of your locations in the left column by clicking or tapping.
  3. Edit the location details and click save.

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Getting Started

Services

Every schedule block is required to be assigned one or more Service choices; therefore you will need to create at least one Service choice in your Open ACU account. 

To add a Service, you’ll go to the left-hand side menu and click Appointments —> Services: 

Service 5.png

Service choices

Service choices will allow patients to select which service they'd like to schedule. You will choose patient restrictions for each service: 

Adding a Service

To add a new Service, click the Add a New Service button:

New Service.png

You will then create your Service in the Service Editor box. Add the following details for each service: 

Service editor.png

Click Save to save your new Service.

Key Tips on Service Titles

Giving your Service a proper title will give clarity to both you and your patients when scheduling appointments. So choose a Service title wisely! Here are some tips:

  • On the patient portal, patients will see the Service Title but not the slot length. So choose a title that helps them easily identify which Service they are scheduling.
    • Example: If you are offering 30- or 60-minute massages, include the length of time in your title. Don't just title both of them "Massage." One should be titled "30 minute massage" and the other should be "60 minute massage."
  • The Service Title will also appear on the patient invoice, which they might submit for an insurance or legal reimbursement. So again, choose a descriptive title.
    • Example: "Acupuncture" is a better title than "Acu"
  • If a Service is only for new or existing patients, include that in your title. That way all admin users will easily know if there are any restrictions on who can be scheduled for a specific service.
    • Example: If you are only offering reiki to existing patients, a good title is "Reiki - existing patients"
  • You can offer combination services that will allow patients to book multiple services per block.
    • Example: You could create a Service called "Acupuncture + Cupping" and designate an appropriate slot length to  allow enough time for both services. 

Editing a Service

To make changes to an existing Service, find your Service on the list on the Services page, and click Edit. 

The Service Editor box will open on the right hand side of the page. In the Service Editor box, you can change the Service title, duration, who can book, and telehealth options:

Service editor 2.png

Click Save to save the changes to your Service.

Deleting a Service

To make changes to an existing Service, find your Service on the list on the Services page, and click Edit. 

The Service Editor box will open on the right hand side of the page. Click the red Delete button to delete your service. Once you delete a Service, it will not be available for any future schedule blocks. It will still appear on existing blocks that have already been scheduled. 

Viewing Service choices

The Service choices will appear at the top of every schedule block, and the slot duration will appear next to every Service name. This will tell you which Services are available for a given block.

On the admin portal

The Service options will appear at the top of every block: 

Service 2.png

On the patient portal

On the patient portal, the Service options will appear in one of two ways:

If only one Service is available 

If there is only one service option for a given block, the Service name will appear at the top of the block:

Service 3.png

If multiple Services are available

If a block has multiple Service choices, they will appear as a drop down menu at the top of the block:

Service 4.png
Getting Started

Add Practitioner Bios to Patient Portal

You can add your practitioners (and owners) biographies to your patient portal site. 

To add Bios to your patient portal:

  1. Log into your Open ACU admin account as an owner.
    1. No other users have access to the other user profiles.
  2. Go to the > Users page.
  3. Select an owner or practitioner profile from the list of users on the left.
    1. Only owners and practitioners can have their bios added to the practitioner page.
  4. The user profile editor shows up on the right.
  5. Scroll to the Bio section for that user.
  6. Add text for the bio and check Include Bio on Patient Portal. 
  7. Click Update Bio 

edit_bio.png

Once any one owner or practitioner is included the patient portal will add a link to a page named "Our Practitioners". The link will appear in the header banner at the very top of the page and the footer.

Our Practitioners Page on the Patient Portal

The owners will be listed first in alphabetic order, the practitioners next and in alpha order. Depending on what's been entered for each listing they will include the profile image, the name, the license and designation, contact information and the text bio. It will look something like this:

pracsonbio.png

Scheduling

Creating blocks and appointments on your schedule.

Scheduling

Blocks

Blocks are the shifts within your schedule. When you create Blocks, you'll assign a practitioner, location, services, and start and end times. You can also set up Blocks at repeating intervals. Here's a video overview:

Adding a block blockicons.png

Go to the day and location where you want to create the Block, then click the plus sign [+] in the group of block icons to the top right of the page. A form will popup in a modal window. You can either use a Saved Block or Create A New Block:

Saved block 4.png

Using a Saved Block:

Saved block.png

Create a New Block:

Service 6.png

Create Block.png

Repeating blocks

When adding a block to the schedule, you can repeat that block on future dates. To repeat a block, click on the Repeats dropdown menu to select your interval. You can repeat a block on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Then select the number of times you want to repeat that block. 

You can use the Repeat function when you are adding a new block or adding one from your saved blocks:

Repeating block 1.png

Repeating block 2.png

Edit a block blockedit.png

Block editor.png

Editing or Deleting saved blocks

Click on Saved Blocks under Appointments on the main menu: 

saved-blocks.png

From here you'll select the saved block you want to edit or delete. Select your block to edit the title or delete the block:

Saved block 6.png

Private Blocks

Private blocks are visible to schedule admins but do NOT appear on the patient portal, so patients are unable to schedule an appointment in a private block. Only admins can schedule an appointment in a private block.

If a patient has an appointment scheduled in a private block, the appointment WILL show up in their list of appointments on the patient portal. 

To make a private block, click the "Private?" checkbox in the block options when creating a block: 

Private block 10.png

The top of a private block will be highlighted in blue on the schedule:

Private block 11.png

 

Scheduling

Saving Block Styles and Using Them

Any block can be used as a template of sorts, saving that block as a block style. Block styles include the practitioner, the service options, the start to finish times and any coffee breaks included. This is intended to make it easier to make blocks and to have fewer errors.

To create a block style

Saved block.png

You can save any existing block to be used again on any other day or location. This includes the practitioner, Service options, start and end times and all coffee breaks. 

To Save a Block for Later Use

Saved block 2.png

To Use a Saved Block

Saved block 3.png

To View Your Saved Blocks

Under the Appointments tab on the left-hand side of the page, click Saved Blocks. This will bring up a list of your saved blocks. From here, you can change the title of a saved block or delete a saved block.

view saved block.png

To Delete a Saved Block

From your Saved Blocks page, click on the name of the block you want to delete. The details of the saved block will appear to the right. Click Delete to delete the saved block. 

Saved blcok 5.png

To Edit a Saved Block

You can edit the title of a Saved Block but not any of the details. From your Saved Blocks page, click on the name of the block you want to edit. The details of the saved block will appear to the right. Enter your new title in the Title field and click Save. 

 

Scheduling

Scheduling an appointment

If you have not created any blocks, please do so prior to scheduling any appointments. Open ACU lets you create appointments on a Block or shift based on the preset parameters of the block.

Here's a video overview of how to schedule an appointment:

Schedule an appointment on a block

Find the slot you want to add the appointment to. It will have the time on the left and two icons on the right. The coffee cup icon is for adding a coffee break to the block. Click the [+] sign.  

Sched appt 1.png

A popup form modal will appear. This is where you'll enter the appointment details:

Sched appt 2.png

Sched appt 3.png

Sched appt 4.png

Scheduling

Checking In

Once an appointment is set by placing it on a block you are ready for patients to arrive. Upon arrival, in Open ACU you will check them in. This does two important things to your schedule and your patient's data. First it records a successful appointment, confirming the patient arrived. Second you can add transactional information to the appointment an therefore the patient.

Checked In

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Clicking the check icon at the far right of the appointment slot not only opens the transaction form modal, it records the fact that the patient showed up for their appointment. In your reports and in the patient record, plus on the schedule grid, it is clear which patients have shown up or not. 

The check in also timestamps the checkin and the user who did so. All a part of the appointment log.

Go to the next part of Checking In “The Checkin Transaction”.

In Open ACU you cannot edit transactions, checkins or otherwise.

Scheduling

The Checkin Transaction

In Open ACU you cannot edit transactions, checkins or otherwise.

When you checkin a patient into the schedule you are confirming their arrival and creating a financial transaction for their visit. This transaction is a standard debit and credit system that is associated with a patient. Let's look at the basic checkin window. (Click on the image to enlarge)

checkin window.png

Quick Checkin Tip checkin_icon.png

  1. Enter the amount to charge for treatment (or leave it your default amount)
  2. Tab once to total field and hit return.

Checkin Transaction Fields

Adding Items to a Transaction

Sometimes you sell something other than a treatment to a patient when they visit. Open ACU allows a non-treatment transaction for when patients arrive and want to purchase something without having a treatment appointment. See the non-treatment transaction help for more. The transaction popup form allows additional lines to the transaction.

treatment_line.png

Click the plus sign at the right of the treatment amount to add lines. This will add a new line. You can add a description and price. Click the red minus sign to delete the line from the transaction.

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These lines add to the total due. Using a token for the transaction will only apply to the treatment amount.

Use Patient Token to Pay For Treatment

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If a patient has at least one token they can use one to pay the treatment amount as entered in the transaction. This will adjust the balance of the transaction. Added line items total will remain and will need to be paid. Clicking Save will reduce the patient's tokens by one.

Use Patient Credit to Pay

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If a patient has credit it will appear in the transaction. Credit can be used to pay for the entire transaction including extras and the treatment. If the credit is less than the total it will reduce the total transaction by the amount of credit and the rest will need to be paid.

When a Patient Has a Debit

Patients may have accumulated debit on their account when they were either unable to pay (as noted above) or from a no-show cancellation. When this happens a debit amount appears in the transaction. The transaction amount is increased accordingly. 

checkin window 2.png

 

 

Scheduling

Check in without recording a transaction

You can check in a patient without recording a transaction by enabling the checkin without transaction feature. 

Getting started

To turn on this feature, go to your Settings page. In the Basics section, click the Allow Checkin without a Transaction box:

checkin only 3.jpeg

Note: the default setting is to require a transaction at the time of checkin. If you’d like to check in patients without a transaction, you’ll need to opt in to this feature. 

Be sure to click Save Basics when you’re finished.

How to check-in without recording a payment

First, click the checkbox next to the patient’s name on the schedule. The popup that appears will show two options: Check In + Payment or Check In Only:

checkin only 1.jpeg

Click Check In Only—this will eliminate the payment and transaction boxes from the popup window. Then click the green Checkin Only button in the bottom right hand corner of the popup box: 

checkin only 2.jpeg

The checkin check box next to the patient’s name will now appear in RED—this is your reminder that you still need to collect and record the patient’s payment: 

Checkin only 4.png

When you’re ready to collect and record payment, click the red check box. This will bring up the popup window, where you can record the transaction (you also have the option here to reverse the checkin, if you checked in this patient by mistake): 

Checkin only.png

Once you’ve recorded and saved the payment, the patient will appear in yellow on the schedule:

Checkin only 6.png

Here's a quick screen recording showing how it works: 

Scheduling

Canceling Appointments

Appointments can be cancelled by an admin under the following rules:
Patients can also cancel appointments via the patient portal

But, they are restricted by the number of hours the clinic has set in the preferences. This time is from 4 hours to 36 hours prior to the appointment.

How to cancel an appointment

Click the red cancel button next to the patient's name on the schedule:

CNX appt 5.png

When the admin cancels an appointment the cancel popup appears.

CNX appt 2.png

To charge the patient a no-show fee enter a dollar amount in the first field. A note is first for the appointment log and may also be used to send the patient an email. Checking the box sends that email with the details of their appointment cancellation. You may use the default values, no charge and the log note without sending an email.

When you charge a patient a cancelation fee, it will appear as a negative credit on their account. You can view their credit balance and history from their Patient Profile page: 

CNX appt 3.png

The negative credit balance will appear as a red dollar sign next to their name at future appointments, until the credit balance is paid: 

CNX appt 4.png

How to charge the cancellation fee to a patient's credit card

If you're using our payments integration via Stripe, you can automatically charge the cancellation fee to a patient's credit card on file. 

When you click the cancellation button and the cancel popup appears, you'll see an option to charge the card on file:

CNX appt.png

Select that option, then click Confirm. Their card has now been charged, and a negative credit balance will NOT show on their  account. 

Using tokens or credits to pay a cancellation fee

Tokens and credits can also be used to pay a cancelation fee. 

Use Patient Token to Pay Cancelation Fee

Check the "take a token" box in the cancel popup - this will deduct one token from their account:

token-cancel.png

Note: You should only check this box if the patient has tokens in their account. Otherwise you'll give them a negative token balance. 

Use Patient Credit to Pay Cancelation Fee

If a patient has a positive credit balance, the cancelation fee will automatically be deducted from their account when you confirm the cancelation and charge. The patient's credit history on their Patient Profile page will show when credit has been used to pay for treatments, cancelation fees, etc:

credit-hx.png

Scheduling

Waiting Lists

Each day / location combination can have a waiting list.

Adding a patient to the waiting list

First, click the plus sign next to Waiting List, located at the bottom of the left hand sidebar menu:

Waiting list 1.png

waiting_modal.png

 

This will create a waiting list under the button, menu.

When deleting a block with appointments in it all those appointments will be cancelled but also added to the waiting list with a note stating who they were to see and what time.

waitinglist.png

When one or more patients are on the waiting list for a given day, the number of patients on the waiting list will appear in gold at the top of the schedule, next to the date: 

Waiting list 2.png

Adding appointments from the waiting list

Once there are patients in the waiting list you can easily add them to open slots on any block for that day / location.

If the slot is occupied with an appointment and you cannot select the slot to add from the waiting list as a squeeze, you will have to add that squeeze appointment conventionally.

Allowing patients to add themselves to the waiting list

You can enable the waiting list feature on the patient portal from your Settings page. If you want to allow patients to add their names to the daily waiting list via the patient portal, check the Allow Patient Portal Waiting List box and click Save to save your preference:

Pt waiting list.png

Patients will see a Wait List button at the top of the schedule: 

Pt wait list 2.png

They can then add a note about their preferred appointment time. Their name will then show on the waiting list on the admin schedule. 

 

 

Scheduling

Squeeze Appointments

Sometimes you have your schedule set, full of appointments and someone calls. What do you do? Squeeze them into your schedule. That's the idea behind Open ACU Squeezes. There are a number of scheduling strategies that utilize squeezing appointments which are outlined below. But first to how you create and manage squeeze appointments.

Adding A Squeeze Appointment

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Squeeze Appointment Management

Squeeze appointments show up as a tab to the right. Clicking on the expand icon (not the checkin icon) expands the appointment slot view. 

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Clicking the "X" or hitting the escape key closes the slot view. 

The expanded view works just like a regular appointment. You can cancel or checkin the patient. 

Using squeezes in scheduling strategy

If your block slot times allow 6 appointments in an hour (10 min slots) you can expand that to more per hour using squeezes.

Since squeezes aren't available for patients to schedule through the patient portal you can add squeeze appointments for phone call ins or walk in patients. This leaves the regular slots available for the patient portal. 

Scheduling

Day Notification

You can use the Day Notification to alert your patients and staff to any pertinent information that is specific to that day. For example, if the road in front of your clinic will be closed due to an event, use the Day Notification to communicate this. 

The Day Notification does two things:

To add a Day Notification, click on the bell icon next to the date on the calendar:

Day-notice-1.png

Enter your subject and message:

Day-notice-2.png

Click Save Notice to save your message. 

Once you’ve saved your message, it will appear at the top of the day’s schedule:

Day-notice-3.png

Simply click the bell icon next to the notification subject to see the full message. 

Scheduling

Recording a note prior to checkin

If you want to record a note on an appointment prior to the check-in, you'll click on the check-in icon next patient's name on the schedule as if you were going to check them in. However, don't enter any payment info. Instead, you'll add a note in the "Add note only" box at the bottom and click save: 

note-only-2.png

Once you add the note and click Save, the checkin icon next to the patient's name on the schedule will turn yellow: 

note-only-3.png

When you check in the patient, your recorded note will appear in the "Add a note only" box, and in the box above the payment method:

apples.png

Here's a quick video showing how it works:

Scheduling

Text message appointment reminders

Your clinic has the option to send SMS/text message appointment reminders in addition to email reminders. Patients will need to opt in to receive text messages. They can opt in by logging in to the Patient Portal, or you can do it for them via the Patient Profile Page. 

This feature does NOT include two way texting. If a patient replies to a reminder text with anything other than STOP, they'll receive a message directing them to call your clinic phone number for further assistance (see below for an example).

Setting up SMS reminders

To activate the SMS reminders feature and enter your settings, go to your Settings and Templates page. On the top right hand side you'll see a box for Text Reminders:

SMS 6.png

Complete the following steps to activate SMS reminders:

  1. Check the Send SMS Reminders box
  2. Select your preference for when text messages are sent - they can be sent either 24 or 48 hours before the appointment. 
  3. Enter your verbiage for your text message - click the Key to Verbiage Codes button for options to customize your messages.
  4. Click Save Texting Preferences and you're done!

See this reference for the text code variables you can use or click the Key to Verbiage Codes button on your admin page.

Next, patients will need to opt in to receive text message reminders. They can opt in by logging in to the Patient Portal, or you can do it for them via the Patient Profile Page. 

How to opt in via Patient Portal

The patient will need to log in to their account and click Your Account in the upper right hand corner:

SMS 5.png

On the Account page there is a box under their name where they can enter the phone number where they'd like to receive messages:

SMS 4.png

Once they enter their number they'll get a confirmation code via text message:

Confirmation.jpeg

They'll need to enter the code to complete the process:

Confirmation 2.png

They'll see a confirmation message once they enter the code:

Confirmation 3.png

How to opt in via Admin Portal

You can opt in for the patient via the Admin Portal on their Patient Profile Page. Under their name you'll see a box for SMS reminders. Enter the phone number where they'd like to receive message:

SMS 1.png

Once they enter their number they'll get a confirmation code at that number via text message:

Confirmation.jpeg

Enter the code to complete the process:

SMS 2.png

You'll see a confirmation message once you enter their code:

SMS 3.png

How your text messages will appear

Example of appointment reminder message (this will vary based on your saved verbiage):

SMS example.jpeg

If a patient tries to reply to a text, they'll receive this message listing your clinic's phone number:

SMS reply.jpg

When a patient replies STOP to end messages, they'll receive this text:

Stop.jpg

Opting back in after opting out

If a patient STOPs text messaging by replying STOP to their Open ACU appointment reminders and want to turn text reminders back on follow these steps:

SMS opt back in.png

 

Scheduling

Text Reminders: Codes Key

If you have text reminders with your Open ACU account you can edit the verbiage in the messages sent to your patients to your preferences. These messages can contain a combination of fixed text and variables that depend on the recipient and their appointment. Think of it like mail merge.

An Example of Text Reminder Verbiage:

Hi [[NAME]]! It's [[CLINIC]] with a reminder of your [[BLNAME]] appointment with [[PRAC]] [[APPTIME]]. Visit [[URL]] to make changes. Reply STOP to end msgs.

Use the codes with double brackets "[[]]" and all caps when inserting specific variables.

Text Reminder Codes Reference:

Code Description
[[NAME]] Patient's first name
[[APPTIME]] Appointment Date and Time
[[URL]] Your Patient Portal URL
[[CLINIC]] Your clinic's name
[[PRAC]] The appointment's practioner's name
[[BLNAME]] The Block Name
[[LOC]] Location Name
[[LOCADD]] Location Address
[[LOCPHONE]] Location Phone Number
Scheduling

Reverse A Checked-In & Paid-For Appointment

An Open ACU appointment is either checked-in or not checked-in. The payment for an appointment is typically done at the same time. So a reserved appointment is either not yet checked-in, checked-in without payment or checked-in with payment. 

You can go to Account > Settings and turn on the ability to check-in patients without payment. You would then add the payment later.

Sometimes you may have mistakenly checked-in an appointment and you need to reverse that checkin status. Or you need to cancel an appointment that you accidentally checked-in. 

Here's how to reverse a Checkin that has a payment

  1. Click the appointment pencil icon.
  2. This opens the appointment editor.
  3. Tick the checkbox at the top "Checkout this appointment"
  4. Click the button "Remove Checkin/Refund" near the bottom of the editor.

reversechin.jpg

This will create a refund for the transaction for the appointment, so now there are two transactions. One for the original checkin and another for the refund. If you are using Stripe Payments this will also issue a refund to the patient on the payment method they used. Your patient will see both the original charge and the refund on their credit card statement.

If you end up checking the patient back in they will be charged a new transaction. If you are using Stripe there will be a new charge on their credit card.

If you choose to checkin only, without payment (you must change the setting for this feature) you can reverse that checkin as well. Since there is no transaction yet there is no refund. 

Reverse a Checkin Only Appointment 

  1. Click the red checkin icon to open the appointment editor
  2. Click "Reverse Checkin at the top.
  3. The appointment is now not checked in and can be checked in again.

reversecionly.jpg

Scheduling

Move an appointment with drag and drop

If you want to move an appointment to a different time within the same Block, you can do so through drag and drop.

Here's a video overview:

Step by step instructions: 

  1. Highlight the preferred appointment time by clicking anywhere in the space next to the time on the schedule
  2. Click the arrow buttons next to the name of the patient whose appointment you want to move:

drag and drop 1.png

3. A popup box will appear, asking you to confirm the change:

drag and drop 2.png

4. Click Move the Appointment, and voila! The appointment has now been moved to a new time. You also have the option of emailing the patient a notice of the change.

 

Scheduling

Telehealth

To create a Telehealth Service, you’ll add it on your Services page. Check the “Telehealth” checkbox, and then enter your telehealth URL in the Telehealth Link box. Open ACU does not provide a telehealth URL. You will need to provide your own from a service such as Zoom or Doxy.

Telehealth.png

When a patient is scheduled for a Telehealth service, the link where they will join the telehealth session will appear in their confirmation and reminder emails:

Telehealth 2.png

Scheduling

Patient Portal: No Available Indicator

There is a feature on the patient portal that indicates days that have no available appointments. 

When a patient pulls down the dropdown menu the days with available blocks are still links. Days whose blocks are all full, therefore no appointments available, are red.

small_cal.png

Page without any blocks

If a patient loads the portal on a day you are closed (no blocks) a calendar to choose a date replaces where the blocks normally show up.

bigpatcal.png

Patients

Everything regarding the patient for editing and interacting with the information. You can download all patients from the patients page using the download icon in the top right of the table of patients.

Patients

The Open ACU Patient Portal

Your patients can interact with their account and your clinic through the Open ACU Patient Portal. This is a secure website specific to your clinic. 

The Patient Portal URL

The specific URL for your patients is based upon your account name. You can derive your account name from the URL of your admin. If, for example, you login to your admin at https://ACCNAME.openacu.net "ACCNAME" is your account name. 

The patient portal URL is https://ACCNAME.openacu.me , where ACCNAME is your account name.

Go to the Patient Portal directly from your admin

Once you've logged into your Open ACU admin, you can go directly to your Patient Portal from the user menu in the top right. 

userdropdown.png

Patients

Creating New Patients

A patient remains "New" until they checkin to their first appointment. Or you uncheck the "new" in their profile. "New" patients can be restricted in various ways in their portal.

There are three places you can create new patients.

From any page go to Patients : New Patient. OR

From the Patients: All Patients page use the "New Patient" button at the top right. This will open a new modal window form for creating a new patient.

newpatmodal.png

Also from the patients list page you can import a group of patients by uploading a CSV (comma delimited values) file. The popup modal window explains how to format the CSV. 

importpats.png

Download all patients in your database from the Patients : All Patients page. Click the dlbtn.png download icon to the top right of the patients listing table.

 

Patients

Importing Patients

You can import patients if you have a CSV file of the patients you wish to add.

To Import Patients From a CSV File

  1. Go to the Patients > All Patients page using the menu on the left.
  2. Click the "Import Patients" button found in the top right of the list.
  3. Click "Browse Files" to and navigate to your CSV file.
  4. Click Import.
  5. The next screen will show you a summary of all the patients that will be imported.
  6. If there are any problems it will highlight them. You will need to correct these errors and try again.
  7. Click "Import" to finish.

Screenshots

Find the "Import Patients" button on the All Patients page.

import 1.png

The import modal with an example of the columns required. How to create a CSV from an Excel, Open Office or Google Sheet document. How to create a CSV file from an Apple Numbers document.

import 2.png

Once you've uploaded your CSV data Open ACU checks your file for any errors. You must correct these errors to complete the import.

import_errors.png

Patients

Patient Profile

Each patient has an extensive profile page with a lot of interactive information available. The profile page has a several sections to edit, capture information or use to create entries. Click the image below to enlarge and for and overview of all the sections. The patient profile page is designed to be printed. Simply open and load all patient records (appointments, EHR records or Transactions) then print from the browser. In most modern browsers you can save the printable pages as a PDF. See the image at the bottom of this section for an example of printing.

profileover.png

Going from the top left, down and then the top right and down the sections are as follows.

  1. The patient overview
    This section is a quick overview of the patient.
    1. Their ID is top right.
    2. The image can be changed, just click the image and use the upload form.
    3. To add or view tokens simply click.
    4. Same for credits or debits, click to see entries and make and entry
  2. Patient Details
    This section is all the important information about the patient like their name and contact information.
    1. Click the Edit tab at the top of the section to reveal the edit form. 
    2. Make any changes you need and click saved details
      Inactive patients cannot make an appointment.
    3. For emergency contact information make changes and click Save Emergency/Insurance
    4. To change a patient's password enter the new password twice and click Save Password
      Patient passwords can not be seen in Open ACU as they are double encrypted. You can only reset their password. Patients are able to change their own password.
  3. Electronic Health Records
    1. If you are logged in as a user with permission to view EHR records you can see the patient's records by expanding the list via the expand icon to the right.
    2. If you do not have permission you will not see this section on the patient profile page.
  4. Patient Log
    1. Click the expand icon to load the log.
    2. This log shows any changes made to the patient and by what user. 
    3. This is a raw log so it shows every detail when something changes.
  5. Patient Notes
    1. Simply enter a note and hit return to save a new note.
    2. Start the note with a "!" to make that note private.
      1. Only users with EHR permission can add private notes
      2. Without permission users cannot see private notes
      3. All notes are encrypted.
    3. Any note can be deleted at anytime.
    4. Any note can be "pinned" to the top using the pin icon.
  6. Intake
    1. Here you can create an intake form for a patient and have it emailed to them.
    2. If you have EHR permissions you can see a patient's answers.
    3. Otherwise you only see if they've filled out a form or not.
  7. Appointments
    1. As may be obvious, this section displays the patient's appointments. There are three tabs to choose from.
      1. By default it shows appointments in the past.
      2. Click "Future" to see upcoming appointments.
      3. "Cancelled" for a list of every appointment this patient has cancelled.
    2. Clicking the magnifying glass will show you a log of the appointment's activity, including:
      1. When and who made the appointment 
      2. If it was cancelled, when and who cancelled.
      3. If a reminder email was sent
      4. If that email was delivered
      5. If that email failed
        1. If it failed a note will appear in the notes section stating their email bounced
        2. Email failure will also OPT-OUT the patient from any further emails.
      6. If they were checked in
      7. If a checkin was reversed
      8. If it was cancelled
    3. Clicking the printer icon (only if a transaction has occurred for the appointment) opens a new window for a printable receipt of the transaction. Patients have access to this in their account as well.
  8. Transactions, click the expand icon to load the patient's transactions
    1. Transactions are any financial transaction with your clinic. 
    2. Appointments can have transactions. 
    3. Open ACU also offers non-appointment transactions. They will show up here.

An example of a printed patient profile page.

printedpatientrecord.png

 

Patients

Patient Icons

On the schedule grid or the All Patients page each patient can have a number of icons displayed with their names that have significance. These are available as a way of seeing information at a glance for patients on your schedule. Here are all the possible icons (double sized here for clarity). These are shown in the context of an appointment.

allicons2x.png

madebyadmin.png Key to the left. Appointment made by an Admin. (Look into the appointment log to see which admin)
madebypat.png Person to the left. Appointment made by the Patient.
first.png Block 1. This is the patient's first appointment
redflag.png Red flag. This patient has a red flag. (Use this feature however you wish)
caution.png Yellow Caution. This patient has a caution. (Use this feature however you wish)
hasintake.png Paper clip. This patient has a completed intake form.
startedintake.png Sideways Paper clip. This patient has an intake that hasn't been completed. (Intakes expire so you may need to generate a new one.)
tokens.png Token. This patient has at least one token. See the patient profile page or the checkin popup for the most accurate token total.
credit.png Green Dollar. This patient has at least $0.01 of credit.
debit.png Red Dollar. This patient has at least -$0.01 of a debit. 
note.png Yellow Note. This patient has a note. When you mouse over this icon the most recent or pinned note will display.

note_popup.png

Patient Info Popup.

In the schedule and the patient list on All Patients mousing over the patient's name gives you an info window with useful information about the patient. Here is an example where much of what is available from the patient's profile pops up.

claribell_info.png

Patients

Include or Omit Insurance Fields on Patient Portal

When a patient logs into the patient portal they are given a profile to manage. This profile enables them to update contact information, their password, appointments and other things specific to their account. A group of items that patients can enter or change themselves in their insurance information. Your clinic may not take insurance as payment so you may wish to omit those fields in the patient portal.

To change the preference for including or omitting insurance fields do the following:

  1. Log into your Open ACU account if you haven't already.
  2. Go to the settings page
    1. Only ownership users can see the settings page. If you are not an owner ask the owner of your clinic to do this for you.
    2. You can also click your clinic's name in the header of any page to go to the settings page.
  3. Find the New Patient's settings on the left side of the settings page.
  4. Check or Uncheck "Include Insurance" checkbox and click save to change your setting.

newpatins.png

Patients will either see or not see the insurance information fields in the patient portal.

 

Patients

Duplicate Patients

The Duplicate Patients page shows a list of patients with duplicate names. You can get to this page by clicking Duplicate Patients under Patients on the sidebar menu:

Duplicate pts.png

When two patients share the same name

When two or more patients share the same name, we recommend adding a middle name or initial to identify each patient. This can be done from the Patient Profile page. 

When one patient has created multiple accounts with their name

Sometimes a patient will create multiple accounts with their name. When this happens, you'll need to merge the accounts. To do so, first navigate to the Duplicate Patients page. 

You'll see a list of duplicate patient names, including their number of past treatments, credit balance, and whether they've completed an intake form: 

Alice.png

When you mouse over each patient's name, you'll see their email address, phone number, and other demographic info:

Alice 2.png

Alice 3.pngSelect the patient you want to KEEP by clicking anywhere on the line next to their name. This will highlight the patient you want to keep:

Alice 4.png

Click Merge. All appointments from both patients will be merged into the patient you selected, and you'll see this confirmation message:

Merge.png

 

Patients

Inactive Patients

Sometimes you need to prevent a patient from making appointments or for your receptionist from doing so. You can do this by making them "Inactive". Inactive patients cannot log in. Some patients will create a new account. They will not be able to use the same email address as an inactive (or active) patient. 

To make a patient inactive

inactive button.png 
The button to see all inactive patients

inactivepatients.pngShowing the inactive patients.

pattoggles.png
Patient Toggle Switches

 

Patients

Patient activity logs

All patient activity is logged on the Patient Profile page. 

Patient Log

The Patient Log shows all activity related to a patient's account: account creation, changes to account information, creation of intake forms, and account password reset activity.

patient log.png

Appointment Detail Log

appts log 1.png

A popup window will appear showing all activity related to this specific appointment:

appts log 2.png

Intake Log

Before a patient's intake form is completed, all activity related to their intake is logged in the Intake section on their Patient Profile Page. This will show you when intakes were created and sent, and if the intake forms failed to deliver. 

intake log.png

Once the intake form is complete, the log will be replaced by their intake form, which is visible only to users with Practitioner level access. 

Patients

Printable Transaction Statement for a Patient

From the patient's profile page you can print a styled and branded transaction statement for patients that includes transaction details. Transactions can be narrowed down by date range and the page prints to a printer or PDF for emailing. Unlike the transaction report this report is designed to be printed and has your clinic brand in the header. 

To Print Transactions for a Patient

  1. Log into your Open ACU Admin.
  2. Go to the patient's profile page for whom you'd like to report.
  3. Locate the "Transaction" section of the patient profile page. 
  4. Click the printer icon in the section header.

transprint_button.png

This will open a new browser window or tab. By default all year to date transactions are loaded. You can change the date range and reload the page to your preferred dates.

Printing from a web page in most modern browsers allows you to save the file as a PDF. Please refer to your specific browser's instructions for creating PDFs from a web page.

change_trans_dates.png

 

Patients

Appointment Notes on Invoices

When you check in a patient and record their transaction, any notes you record in the Add a Note field will appear on the printable invoice, which can be viewed by patients: 

appt notes 1.png

appt notes 4.jpeg

Hiding appointment notes

If you do NOT want these notes to appear on invoices, you can change this setting on your Settings page, in the Basics section - just click the Hide Appointment Notes on Invoices box:

appt notes 3.png

appt notes 2.png

 

Transactions

How to record and edit transactional information.

Transactions

Recording the check-in transaction

All transactional information related to an appointment can be recorded when you check in a patient. This is described in detail in the Checking In section. 

Transactions

Editing a transaction

In Open ACU you cannot edit transactions, checkins or otherwise.

To edit a transaction you’ve already saved, first you’ll need to reverse the check-in. Click the pencil icon next to the patient’s name. In the pop-up that appears, check the box next to “Check Out This Transaction?” then click Remove Transaction. This will remove the payment transaction. 

reverse-checkin.png

You can then check in the patient again and enter the correct transaction information. 

Transactions

Recording a transaction without a check-in

To record a transaction that isn’t connected with an appointment, you’ll use the Purchase Transaction option. Click on the blue dollar sign icon next to the date at the top of the day’s appointments:

purchase-1.png

A popup modal will appear, where you will select the location, enter the customer’s name, a description of the charge, the amount paid and the form of payment. 

purchase transaction stripe.png

Purchase transactions will appear on the day’s Transaction Report but not on the Appointment Report.

 

Transactions

Reversing a Transaction

Sometimes you create a transaction and there was an error or the credit card failed. In Open ACU you can reverse any transaction. Just be aware that this process may be connected to credit card processing and your account may charge a fee for reversals. This goes for reversing checkin transactions as well.

In Open ACU you cannot edit transactions, checkins or otherwise.

On the schedule page under the waiting list is a "Transactions" button. Click the button to the left to load a list of that day's transactions.

transbutton.png 

Blue items in the list are appointments. To reverse the transaction and un-check the appointment go to the appointment in the schedule to do so. 

Gray items in the list are transactions. Click the pencil to see the transaction. It will show the details in a modal window.

trans_moda.png

If you want to reverse the transaction, deleting it from the system, click "Reverse Transaction". This will remove the invoice and all its items from the records. It will also reverse any credit or token values for the patient.

Tokens and Credits

How to use the tokens and credits systems

Tokens and Credits

Tokens and Credits Overview

Tokens and Credits are a way to track account balances for individual patients.

Tokens

Tokens represent individual treatments, so 1 token = 1 treatment. The token system can be used when selling package deals or doing promotions. Let’s say you’re running a special deal of 5 treatments for $50. You’ll assign a patient 5 tokens when they buy the package deal. They can then use those tokens to pay for future treatments. For information on how to use credits to pay for a treatment, see The Checkin Transaction. 

When a patient has tokens, a blue ticket icon will appear next to their name on the schedule. You can mouse over the icon to see how many tokens they have.

tokens.png

Credits

The credits system tracks dollar amounts owed to or by a patient. Like tokens, a patient can use a specific dollar amount of credit to pay for treatment. For information on how to use credits to pay for a treatment, see The Checkin Transaction.

The credits tracking system will track money a patient owes to the clinic, by showing a negative balance. For example, if you charge a late cancellation fee, this will be tracked via patient credits and balances. For more information on how to use the credits system to track cancellation fees, see the Using Tokens and Credits for Payments and Fees. 

When a patient has a positive credit balance, a blue dollar sign icon will appear next to their name on the schedule. You can mouse over the icon to see the amount.

credits-pos.png

When a patient has a negative credit balance, a red dollar sign icon will appear next to their name on the schedule. You can mouse over the icon to see the amount.

credits-neg.png

The patient's credit history on their Patient Profile page will show when credit has been used to pay for treatments, cancelation fees, etc:

credit-hx-2.png

Go to the next section: Using Tokens and credits for payments and fees.

 

 

Tokens and Credits

Using tokens and credits for payments and fees

Using for payments

Patients have the option of using tokens and/or credits to pay for their treatments. 

Use Patient Token to Pay For Treatment

use_token.png

If a patient has at least one token they can use one to pay the treatment amount as entered in the transaction. This will adjust the balance of the transaction. Added line items total will remain and will need to be paid. Clicking Save will reduce the patient's tokens by one.

Use Patient Credit to Pay

use_credit.png

If a patient has credit it will appear in the transaction. Credit can be used to pay for the entire transaction including extras and the treatment. If the credit is less than the total it will reduce the total transaction by the amount of credit and the rest will need to be paid.

Using for Fees

Tokens and credits can also be used when a patient owes money to the clinic, for example for a cancelation fee. 

Use Patient Token to Pay Cancelation Fee

Check the "take a token" box in the cancel popup - this will deduct one token from their account:

token-cancel.png

Note: You should only check this box if the patient has tokens in their account. Otherwise you'll give them a negative token balance. 

Use Patient Credit to Pay Cancelation Fee

If a patient has a positive credit balance, the cancelation fee will automatically be deducted from their account when you confirm the cancelation and charge. The patient's credit history on their Patient Profile page will show when credit has been used to pay for treatments, cancelation fees, etc:

credit-hx.png

 

Go to the next section: Manually changing credit/debit and token balances

 

Tokens and Credits

Manually changing credit/debit and token balances

Note: to see how to add tokens, credits or debits to a patient account during a checkin or purchase transaction, please see Purchasing Tokens and Credits. 

You can manually add tokens, add credits and debits, and change account balances on a patient's account from the Patient Profile page. 

Manually changing account balances

You can manually change an account balance - for example, waiving a cancellation fee - from the Patient Profile page. Under their name, you’ll see Credits - click that to expand the credits window, which includes their credit history:

waive-fee.png

Enter your optional description, the dollar amount, and click Add: 

waive-fee-2.png

You’ll see the new credit balance under the patient’s name and the most recent entry for credits at the top of the history:

waive-fee-3.png

Adding tokens

Note: to see how to add tokens to a patient account during a checkin or purchase transaction, please see Purchasing Tokens and Credits. 

Here's how to manually add tokens to a patient account, outside of a checkin or purchase transaction. Under the patient's name on their Patient Profile page, you’ll see Tokens - click that to expand the tokens window, which includes their token history: 

Entering-tokens-1.png

Enter your optional description for tokens, the number of tokens, and click Add: 

Entering-tokens-2.png

You’ll see the new balance of tokens under the patient’s name and the most recent entry for tokens at the top of the history:

Entering-tokens-3.png

Deleting tokens

Note: if a patient chooses to pay for treatment with a token, the token will automatically be deducted from their account during the checkin transaction. For more information, please see The Checkin Transaction.

To manually delete tokens from a patient's account, follow the instructions above for manually adding tokens. Instead of entering a positive number (i.e., 5), you'll enter a negative number for the amount of tokens you want to delete (i.e., -5). Once you click Add, their account balance will be updated. 

Adding credits 

Note: to see how to add credits to a patient account during a checkin or purchase transaction, please see Purchasing Tokens and Credits. 

You can manually add dollar amount credits to a patient’s account from their Patient Profile page. Under their name, you’ll see Credits - click that to expand the credits window, which includes their credit history:

adding-credits-1.png

Enter your optional description for credits, the dollar amount, and click Add: 

adding-credits-2.png

You’ll see the new credit balance under the patient’s name and the most recent entry for credits at the top of the history:

adding-credits-3.png

Adding debits/money owed

Note: to see how to add debits/money owed to a patient account during a checkin or purchase transaction, please see Purchasing Tokens and Credits. 

You can manually add dollar amount that a patient owes from their Patient Profile page. Under their name, you’ll see Credits - click that to expand the credits window, which includes their credit history:

entering-debit-1.png

Enter your optional description for debit and the dollar amount. Be sure to enter a negative dollar amount, since this is an amount owed. Click Add: 

entering-debit-2.png

You’ll see the new credit balance under the patient’s name and the most recent entry for credits at the top of the history:

entering-debit-3.png

 

Go to the next section: Purchasing Tokens and Credits

 

 

Tokens and Credits

Purchasing Tokens and Credits

Tokens, credits and debits can all be added to a patient's account during the Checkin Transaction or using a Purchase Transaction. This is the most efficient way to add tokens, credits and debits to a patient account. 

If necessary you can also manually change credit/debit and token balances.

Adding tokens at checkin

Let's say a patient wants to pay for today's treatment plus 5 tokens for future treatments, all at $20 each. When you checkin the patient, you'll enter $20 in the Treatment field, then click the Buy Tokens button. You'll then enter 5 for the number of tokens and $100 for the amount. This will bring your payment total to $120. Once you save the transaction, the 5 tokens will automatically be added to the patient's account. 

purchase-tokens.png

Adding credits at checkin

Let's say a patient wants to pay for today's treatment plus add $100 to their account for future treatments or retail item purchases. When you checkin the patient, you'll enter $20 in the Treatment field, then click the Buy Credits button. You'll then enter $100 for the amount. This will bring your payment total to $120. Once you save the transaction, the $100 credit will automatically be added to the patient's account. 

purchase-credits.png

Adding debits at checkin

Let's say a patient comes in for treatment but forgot their wallet. You can add a debit to their account to prompt you to collect payment next time they come in. When you check in the patient, you'll enter the amount they should have paid in the Treatment field, then enter "0" for the payment total. You can also enter an explanation in the Note field. Once you save the transaction, a the negative balance will be added to their account.

forgot-wallet.png

Adding tokens or credits with a purchase transaction

Click on the Purchase Transaction icon - the $ in the upper right corner of the day's schedule. Once the popup modal appears, follow the steps for entering a token or credit purchase just like you would during a checking transaction.

 

 

Reports

Making sense of all your data in Open Acu.

Reports

Appointment Report

The Appointment Report shows all appointments for a given range. When running an appointment report, you can select for date, location and practitioner. 

So let's say you want to see how many treatments a practitioner did last month - select your date range, location, the practitioner name, and Appointments from the menu at the top, then click Search:

appt-report.png

The appointment report does NOT show detailed transaction information - for that you'll need to run a Transaction Report. 

 

Reports

Transaction Report

The Transaction Report shows all transactions for a given range. When running a transaction report, you can select for date, location and practitioner. 

This is the report you'll want to run anytime you want to look at financial transactions, whether for the day, week, month, etc. It differs from the Appointment Report in a few ways:

When running a transaction report, you'll select your date range, location(s), practitioner(s), and Transactions from the menu at the top, then click Search:

trans-report.png

The report will show detailed information for each transaction. Note that the total at the bottom of the Paid column may be different from the total at the bottom of the Balance column. This occurs when patients use credits or tokens as payment. The Paid total will always show the actual amount collected for the given date range.

The transaction report does NOT show check-ins for the date range. For that you'll need to run an Appointment Report. 

Detailed Transactions

There is a choice in the type of transaction reports that show all the details or line items for every transaction. Choose the "Detail TRXN" option for more details in your transactions. Note the gray lines separate transactions.

detailed transactions.png

 

Reports

Cancelation Report

The Cancelation Report shows all canceled appointments for a given range. To run a cancelation report, select your date range, location, the practitioner name, and Cancelation from the menu at the top, then click Search:

New CNX report.png

Reports

Practitioner Reports

There are two practitioner reports that can be accessed from the Dashboard: the Totals Summary and Patient Return Rate. 

Practitioners may view their own reports, but not the reports of other practitioners. Clinic Owners may view reports for all practitioners.

Totals Summary Report

This report shows a summary of a practitioner’s appointments for a given date range, including number of appointments, hours, busy rate and revenue. Click the pencil icon to select a preset or custom date range: 

practitioner-report.png

Patient Return Rate Report

This report shows the number new and returning patients for each practitioner. To run this report, click the pencil icon to select a preset or custom date range:

return-rate-1.png

The columns will show numbers of new and returning patients, and the number of past and future appointments for each patient:

return-rate-2.png

If you want to sort your data, you can use the arrow button at the top of the report to download your results to a spreadsheet. 

To calculate your new patient return rate:

Reports

Detail TRXN Report

The Detail TRXN Report is similar to the Transaction Report in that it shows all transactions for a given range. The difference is that the Detail TRXN report shows anything that was entered in the Description box on a transaction.

When running a Detail TRXN report, you'll select your date range, location(s), practitioner(s), and Transactions from the menu at the top, then click Search:

Detail TRXN.png

The report can be downloaded to a CSV if you'd like to sort your data. 

The Detail TRXN report does NOT show check-ins for the date range. For that you'll need to run an Appointment Report. 

 

Reports

The Appointment Log

Getting to the appointment log.

The appointment log opens as a modal window from the context of the appointment.
Here are the appointment popup boxes from the schedule. The first is when clicking the checkin icon. The second is the pencil icon on appointments already checked in. Click the magnifying glass icon to see the appointment log.

checkin_with_logbtn.jpg  appt_popup.jpg

From the patient's profile page you can load the patient's appointments in the bottom right section of the page. Load past or future or cancellation appointments and look for the magnifying glass icon.

appt_list_icons.jpg

Open ACU logs everything as it pertains to appointments.

Here is an example of a log with a Delay message.

delay_log.jpg

Delayed Messages are not the same as bounces, there is just a problem with the receiving or patient's email server. The sending part worked but the receiving server could not make the final push. The message will likely go through eventually. Our service does try 6 more times in a 72 hour period. 
Here is a FAQ on understanding delays and bounces from SparkPost our mail delivery service.

Bounced messages will make Open ACU opt-out the patient's email preference because the mailbox address is broken and we don't want to try that again. You will also see a note on the patient's account saying this.

Reports

Downloading Patient Email Addresses

You can easily download a list of patient email addresses from the Patient Return Rate report, located on the Dashboard: 

patient emails 1.png

Select your date range and Practitioner (or All Practitioners), and click Create Report. To download your results to a spreadsheet click the download button at the top of the report:

patient emails 2.png

Your patient names and email addresses will then export to a downloaded spreadsheet, where you can sort and arrange your data:

patinet emails 3.png

Reports

Service Report

The Service Report shows all appointments for a specific Service in given range. 

Here's a video overview:

Follow these steps to run a Services report: 

  1. From the left hand side menu, go to Appointments --> Reports
  2. Click Services Report at the top of the page
  3. Enter your date range and select your Service from the drop down menu, then click Apply
  4. Your report will list every appointment for that Service in your date range. The top of the report will show totals, including number of appointments, number of checked-in appointments, and revenue.

Services report.png

 

Taking Credit Cards

Taking Credit Cards

Start Taking Credit Cards

To take credit card payments within Open ACU you will need to add the feature to your account and then complete the Stripe onboarding process. These steps can all be completed from the Take Payments section of your account, which you can reach from the navigation menu on the left hand side of your screen:

take payments.png 

How to start taking credit card payments

  1. Go to Account > Take Payments
    only users with Owner status can see this page.
  2. Click "Getting Started" to create a Stripe Onboarding link specific to your Open ACU Account
    After a few moments you will see the link below. 

begin_onboarding.jpg

Stripe Onboarding must be completed by the business owner or someone with significant management responsibility of that business. What you will need 

Check your Stripe account status

Follow the steps on the Take Payments page to create and connect your Stripe account. 

You may need to go back for final authorization steps before your account is ready for payments.

Look for three green checkmarks for each of the steps to go live. If the account needs further information you can click the "Log into your Stripe Dashboard" to finish the necessary steps.

stripestatus.jpg

Optional: Set up your Stripe Reader

If you want to take in-person credit card payments, you will need to order a WisePOS Countertop Reader from Stripe. You can do this from the Take Payments page:

WisePOS.png

Once you receive your reader, you will need to complete the steps to set up and connect your reader:

  1. Follow the steps on the Take Payments page to set up your Wise POS reader
  2. Once the setup is complete, you will need to pair your reader with your account. You will also do this from the Take Payments page. 

Credit Card Settings

Switch the Require a Credit Card button to ON if you want to require patients to save a credit card payment method prior to booking an appointment:

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If you switch the Require a Credit Card option to ON, this will require that ALL patients save their credit card information online before scheduling an appointment. This will apply to both new and existing patients. If you choose to enable this option, we recommend notifying your existing patients of the change ahead of time. 

You also have the option to allow individual patients to make an appointment without requiring a credit card. You can do this from their patient profile page. 

Financial Policy

Enter and save your Financial Policy. Patients will agree to your financial policy when saving their credit card information online via the patient portal:

Financial policy.png

Accepting HSA and FSA cards

In order to accept HSA and FSA card payments, you need a certain Merchant Category Code (MCC). Your Stripe account is set up with an MCC code for Miscellaneous Personal Services, which is not an approved MCC for all HSA and FSA cards. Therefore, we recommend changing your MCC to one that is widely accepted for HSA and FSA cards.

To change your MCC, you will need to contact Stripe support through your Stripe dashboard. Tell them you need to change your MCC to 8099: Mental health, sports medicine, miscellaneous medical, so that you can accept HSA and FSA payments. They will probably ask you a few questions about your business to verify that this is the correct category, and they might not be able to do it immediately since this is not a typical request from merchants. But they do have the ability to change it for you, and it shouldn't take more than a few hours for the process to be complete.

Taking Credit Cards

Adding a Patient's Credit Card

You can save multiple credit card payment method for each patient for applying payments for appointments, non-appointment transactions and No-Show fees. There are a couple places that allow you to add payment methods. 

Note: Stripe currently does not allow you to save a payment method for Apple Pay, Samsung, or Google Pay.

Add a Credit Card Payment Method to a Patient's Profile

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How to Delete Payment Methods or Make them the Default Method

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From the patient profile page the default payment method is highlighted with a blue background. If there is more than one payment method you can choose the default method by clicking on Make Default.

To delete any payment method from the Patient's profile click Delete Card. This will permanently delete this payment method from the patient's profile. Any transactions or appointments paid using that card will remain and reference that card number.

Add a Credit Card Method at Checkin or Transaction Pay

When checking in a patient the usual choices for payment method are available: Cash, Check, and Other. CreditCard is no longer available if you have payments added to your account. This is replace by "Add A Credit Card". 

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Clicking on "Add A Credit Card" opens a credit card form just like the one on their profile page. Enter the card and billing information and click "Add New Card". If successful, after a few seconds the payment methods will refresh with the new card as a choice. Clicking "Check In and Pay" will charge the card the Payment Total if it is more than zero.

Add a Credit Card Payment Method via Patient Portal

Patients can also add a credit card payment method to their own account via the patient portal. Instructions are in the Patient Portal Help section. 

Taking Credit Cards

Taking Payments with Stripe

Using a stored card

A patient with a stored credit card will have a credit card icon next to their name on the schedule:

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When you check them in, you’ll see the last 4 digits of their stored card in the list of payment options (if they have more than one card stored, you’ll see multiple options). Click the Check In And Pay button to charge their stored card:

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You’ll follow the same process for a Purchase Transaction:

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You also have the option to use the Stripe reader to charge their card in person, even if they have a stored credit card. 

Using an in-person card

If the patient does not have a stored card, you’ll see an option for Charge In Person Card. 

If you have multiple locations, you’ll first select the card reader you want to use. If the patient wants to store this card for later use, you can save their card info by checking the box. Then click Charge In Person Card:

Stripe 10.png

The patient will then follow the instruction on the Stripe reader to complete the sale. 

While the Stripe reader is waiting for the patient to complete the sale, you’ll see this message on your screen:

Stripe 3.png

Once the sale is complete, the payment window will close.

 

Taking Credit Cards

Charging Late Cancellation Fees with Stripe

If a patient has a stored card, you’ll see the option to charge a cancellation fee their stored card. Enter the fee amount and click Confirm:

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Taking Credit Cards

Issuing Refunds with Stripe

Any refunds and checkin reversals are recorded as a new transaction that has a negative value. You will see references to the opposing transactions in reports and logs.

If you issue a refund on a date after the original purchase, the refund amount will show on the daily report for the date the refund was issued. For example is a patient buys herbs on a Monday, and returns them for a refund on a Tuesday, the refund will show on Tuesday’s Transaction report.

Issuing a checkin refund:

To issue a refund of a checkin, simply reverse the checkin. This will automatically refund the credit card used at checkin.

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Issuing a purchase transaction refund:

You can issue a refund of a Purchase Transaction in two ways: via the Transactions list on the schedule or via the Transactions report. 

Via Transactions list on the schedule:

Click the Transactions list at the bottom of the navigation menu on the left hand side of the schedule page. Purchase Transactions will be in yellow. Simply click the refund button to issue a refund back to the patient’s credit card:

Stripe 8.png

Via the Transactions report:

When you run a Transactions report, you’ll see a Refund button option for any Purchase Transactions. Simply click the refund button to issue a refund back to the patient’s credit card:

Stripe 9.png

Taking Credit Cards

Receipts

Send a receipt via email

You can send a credit card receipt via email directly from the schedule, or from the patient profile page.

Send a receipt from the schedule

After you've completed a checkin, click the pencil icon. This will bring up the Reverse Checkin popup modal. Click the Print Appointment button:

Print receipt 2.png

The invoice will open in a separate window. Click the Send Via Email button to email the receipt directly to the patient: 

Print receipt 3.png

Send a receipt from the Patient Profile page

Find the transaction list on the Patient Profile page, find the transaction you want to email. Click the printer icon: 

Print receipt 4.png

The invoice will open in a separate window. Click the Send Via Email button to email the receipt directly to the patient: 

Print receipt 3.png

Taking Credit Cards

Reader Unreachable?

If your Stripe Reader fails to take a payment and gives you this error.

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First check that the reader is on. Then open the settings by swiping right from the left corner of the screen. When asked the Admin PIN is 07139. Go to Network to make sure it is connected to your Wifi.

If both are true it may be an issue with Stripe. This is a rare occurrence that their server connecting to terminals is down. Wait 10 minutes and try again. These issues are typically resolved quickly.

How Open ACU Referrals Works

How to get a free month of Open ACU

Refer a friend to Open ACU using your clinic's unique referral code which you will find on Account > Referrals. This will take $55 off their cost at signup, meaning their first month is free! Once they've completed two months with Open ACU, you'll get a $55 credit to your account.

Here are the steps to copying your code and sharing as found on the Open ACU admin portal.

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The Details

To qualify, your referee must sign up for Open ACU using your clinic's unique referral link, and complete two months of service with Open ACU. You will receive a $55 credit to your account, which will be applied to the next month's service fee. If you refer multiple new customers and earn multiple $55 credits, those will be applied on subsequent months. Referee Terms: To qualify, you must sign up for Open ACU using a referral link. This will subtract $55 from the amount due at signup. The standard $75 signup fee will still be due at the time of signup.