Clinic reception software: the front desk's day, from the first call to the closed cash box
Clinic reception software must keep pace with a day that rarely goes to plan: the phone rings during check-in, a patient walks in unannounced, someone books online at midnight, and the drawer must still add up at closing. This guide follows a front desk through that day in OPALEVI, including what it leaves to other tools.
Key takeaways
- Book into one calendar that knows each clinician's own week, so the desk never promises a time nobody can keep.
- Calls, walk-ins, website bookings and referrals belong in one list of requests, oldest first.
- Marking a patient as arrived starts the waiting clock and puts them in the clinician's waiting room.
- Desk money is three things: a receipt per payment, a drawer that holds only cash, and a list of debts.
Where a front desk loses track, and what it must record
Many clinics run reception on a paper diary, a phone, a cash drawer and someone's memory. It holds until a second doctor starts and the hours change on Thursdays. Then the same things go wrong:
- Impossible bookings. The diary forgets that a doctor leaves at noon on Fridays.
- Callers never called back. The 09:15 sticky note is still on the monitor at 17:00.
- A waiting room nobody can read. Who came first, and does the doctor know?
- A drawer that does not add up, because cards and cash were counted together.
| Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Each clinician's working hours | Only then can the calendar refuse an impossible booking. |
| Patient, clinician, service, start and end | The service's length sets the end, so the next slot is real. |
| Status and time of arrival | Waiting is measured, and cancelled rows stay on file. |
| Every request, with its source | Nothing waits outside the list until it is booked or closed. |
| Each payment: amount, method, who took it | Receipt, day report and balance come from one line. |
| The cash counted at closing | A short day is written down, not argued about. |
The front desk is where a clinic makes its promises. Good software makes sure each one can be kept.
Clinic reception software starts with one calendar
In OPALEVI the desk works under Calendar: Appointments, Requests and Quick admission. Appointments has Day, Week, Month and List views. In the day view each clinician's column shows their hours, and the hours they do not work are shaded.
Those hours are set under Settings → Opening hours, where Hours for switches between the clinic's week and one person's; anyone without a week of their own follows the clinic's.
Booking a caller
A click on a free slot opens Add appointment with the time and clinician filled in:
- The patient. An Existing patient, or a New patient with a name, surname and phone; look-alike files show before a duplicate is made.
- The service. Its length sets the end time.
- The check. A clash, or a time outside the clinician's own week, is flagged and refused on saving.
- The reminder. Tick Email the patient a reminder the day before for a patient with an email address on file.
- A course. Course of treatment books 2 to 30 sessions at the same hour, or none if one clashes.
Give part-time clinicians their own week
Clinic opening hours never refuse a booking on their own; only a clinician's own week does. Enter it before the desk starts booking.
Confirmed, arrived, seen
Bookings move through Confirm, Arrived, Seen and Did not attend. The filters (Expected, Unconfirmed, In the clinic, Completed, Missed) reshape the day; Unconfirmed is the morning's phone list. Move reschedules, Cancel keeps the row on file, Restore brings it back while the hour is free, and Undo arrival fixes a wrong click before any visit starts.
Calls to return and bookings from the clinic's own page
Some requests cannot be booked on the spot: the caller must check a shift, or a message asks for “any morning next week”. They wait in Requests: Add a request records who is asking, how it came in (phone, walk-in, website or outside referral) and what they want. Open requests sit oldest first, with Mark as contacted, Book an appointment and Close, which asks for a reason.
Online booking
Each clinic can publish its own page, set up by an administrator under Clinic website. In Publishing and booking, Accept online bookings turns booking on, and Earliest booking and Furthest booking set the notice and the horizon. Only services ticked Bookable online, given by a clinician shown on the page, can be booked.
Visitors choose a service, a clinician or Anyone available, and a free time from the desk's own calendar, then leave a phone number or an email.
With Confirm bookings automatically off, bookings land in Requests and reception is told in the bell; booking one emails a confirmation to a visitor who left an address. With it on, the time goes straight into the calendar as confirmed. Either way, at check-in the desk attaches the right file with Booked online — link a patient. Under Address and QR code, the page's QR code downloads as an image to print for the counter.
Walk-ins, arrivals and the waiting room
Quick admission admits a walk-in on one form: Find the patient by name, phone or code, or Register a new patient. When a typed name matches existing files, OPALEVI asks Which file is it? with each candidate's code, birth date and last visit, and the desk presses This is them instead of creating a duplicate.
Then Start the visit opens the visit, or Add to the queue marks the patient arrived in the clinician's first free half hour and tells the clinician. The Reception department page shows how the desk fits with the other departments.
The day on one screen
Today, the desk's first screen, shows reception these sections, among others:
- In the waiting room, longest wait first, red after twenty minutes.
- Arriving soon, the next two hours.
- To confirm, the week's unconfirmed bookings, each with Confirm.
- Appointment requests still open.
- Unpaid at the desk, today's visits that still owe money.
- Did not come, including bookings that ended over fifteen minutes ago with no arrival.
Above them, The clinic's queue counts who is waiting and who is with a clinician, beside a Walk-in patient (no appointment) button; the screen refreshes every 20 seconds. Send to the clinician puts an arrived patient on the clinician's list, and a nurse who has taken vital signs presses Mark ready for the doctor.
What reception may read
The default Reception role books, cancels, opens visits and takes payment, but cannot record vital signs or write the clinical record, and reads none unless the clinic switches on Reception may see patients' visit history under Settings → Other settings. Specialty privacy is covered in gynaecology software.
Payments, receipts, the cash box and what is still owed
A receipt for every payment
Take a payment on the visit with Pay, or on the patient's file, where one amount covers the oldest unpaid visits first; Prepayment accepts money before the work. Print receipt gives a Payment receipt with the clinic's business number, the visit, the method and the total, also as a PDF or by email. A refund, by someone allowed to give one, is a new line with a reason; nothing is deleted.
The cash box holds only cash
The Daily cash box starts with Open the day and an Opening amount; Add money in or out records cash handled by hand. Close the day asks for the Counted cash and shows whether the drawer balances, is short or is over, with the X report, Z report and Daily report to print. Only cash enters the drawer: card and transfer payments appear on every report under their method, so card takings never make the count come up short.
Who still owes the clinic
Outstanding balances lists what patients owe, oldest debt first, with anything over 30 days marked overdue. Search by name, code, phone or invoice number and press Collect; Take payment records it and offers the receipt. Half an hour with this list each Friday beats most reports.
Not a fiscal system
OPALEVI's receipt is the clinic's own record. It prints no fiscal receipts, connects to no fiscal printer or card terminal and sends no insurance claims; keep the fiscal device or service your country requires.
Invoices are on from the start: a visit's Next steps offer Invoice this visit beside Book a follow-up appointment. A clinic that does not invoice turns the module off under Settings → Application menus.
Questions to ask before choosing reception software
The full buying checklist is in how to choose clinic software. For the desk, put every program through one real morning:
| Test | What good looks like | OPALEVI |
|---|---|---|
| Book outside a doctor's hours | Refused, person by person. | Yes, once the clinician has a week of their own. |
| Book two patients at one time | Refused on screen and on saving. | Yes. |
| Admit a walk-in | One screen, with a duplicate warning. | Yes: Quick admission. |
| Let patients book online | Your services and notice period, confirmed or not. | Yes: the clinic's own page. |
| Remind a patient | A reminder the patient agreed to. | Yes: an email the day before. |
| Close the drawer | Only cash counted. | Yes. |
| Keep reception out of clinical notes | A role that only books and takes money. | Yes, by default. |
| Print a fiscal receipt or send an insurance claim | Whatever your country requires. | No: keep your fiscal device or service. |
| Charge a card | A terminal integration, or a plain no. | No: card payments are recorded, not charged. |
Running a dental practice? See dental practice software. Treating animals? Read veterinary practice software. These desk tools are part of OPALEVI for clinics; the rest is on the features page, and the price per staff member on the pricing page.
The desk's first week in OPALEVI
After you register, First steps on Today ticks off the setup:
Set the hours
The clinic's week, then each part-time clinician's under Hours for.
Add the services
With prices and lengths, so bookings end when treatments do.
Invite the desk
Each receptionist with their own account and the Reception role.
Open the first day
Take every payment in OPALEVI, then close the cash box with a real count.
Publish the page
Tick bookable services, show your clinicians and print the QR code.
Keep two diaries for one week
Book every call in OPALEVI and on paper for five days. If OPALEVI holds every appointment and the drawer balanced each evening, retire the paper.
Frequently asked questions
What is clinic reception software?
A program for a clinic's front desk: the appointment calendar, requests from callers and the clinic's website, check-in and walk-ins, the waiting room and the money taken at the counter, kept in one record the whole team shares instead of a diary, sticky notes and a cash book.
Can reception see patients' clinical notes?
Not by default. The Reception role in OPALEVI books, opens visits and takes payment, never writes the clinical record, and reads clinical records only when the clinic turns on “Reception may see patients' visit history”. Roles can be tuned permission by permission.
Can patients book an appointment online?
Yes. A clinic can publish its own page where visitors pick a service, a clinician or anyone available, and a free time from the real calendar. The clinic decides whether bookings are confirmed at once or wait at the desk as requests.
Does OPALEVI remind patients of their appointments?
Yes. A patient can be emailed a reminder the day before: tick “Email the patient a reminder the day before” when booking someone with an email address on file. The box starts ticked or not, as the patient's file says.
Does it work on a tablet or a phone?
It does, in the browser of any computer, tablet or phone, with nothing to install. Small screens get a bar along the bottom in place of the top menu.
How is OPALEVI priced, and can we try it?
Per staff member using OPALEVI; patients, appointments and departments do not change the price. The free trial needs no card, and a clinic that does not subscribe pays nothing: its records turn read-only, with nothing deleted. Figures are on the pricing page.
