Connect Cliniko

Connect Cliniko, and Fynn offers your patients the free times of your Cliniko online bookings in every conversation. After the patient's yes, the appointment is booked, moved or cancelled right in Cliniko. Your team sees each patient's next appointments next to the chat. Cliniko is part of the Business and Enterprise plans, and a 7 day trial of either plan includes it.

You need a Cliniko account with online bookings switched on, and an administrator in Cliniko who may add users. Each workspace connects one Cliniko account. Accounts set up for HIPAA compliance cannot be connected, because Deskwoot does not sign Business Associate Agreements.

Add a Cliniko user for Deskwoot

Deskwoot works with the API key of a Cliniko user, and a key has exactly the rights of its user. The Scheduler role is enough: it can book appointments and see basic patient details, but no treatment notes, forms or invoices.

1. In Cliniko, open Settings > Users & practitioners and click Add user.
2. Enter a name, for example Deskwoot Booking, and an email address you can read. Pick Scheduler as the Security role, leave Is this user a practitioner? at No and click Save user. Cliniko asks for your password and emails the new user an invite.
3. Open the new user in the same list, set Allow (their first name) to create and use API keys to Yes and click Save user. Only an administrator sees this switch.

Create the API key

1. Accept the invite and sign in to Cliniko as the new user.
2. Open My info, click Manage API keys and then Add an API key.
3. Name it Deskwoot, click Create API key and copy the key. Cliniko shows it only once, so keep it until you have pasted it in Deskwoot.

The key ends with your region, for example eu1, uk1 or au2.

Connect Cliniko in Deskwoot

1. Go to Settings > Integrations and click the Cliniko card under Bookings and appointments. It opens Booking software on the Appointments page.
2. Click Connect Cliniko, paste the key into Cliniko API key and click Connect.

Deskwoot checks the key with Cliniko right away and reads your locations, practitioners and appointment types. The section then shows your account with the last 4 characters of the key, and the line Region and Connected as with the key's user and its Cliniko role. A key of an administrator works too, but the section then advises a Scheduler, because Deskwoot needs no more. You need the permission to manage integrations in Deskwoot; administrators have it. Deskwoot stores the key encrypted.

Choose what Fynn offers

• Who Fynn books for lists each practitioner at each location that Cliniko shows in its online bookings, with the location's time zone. Switch off anyone Fynn should not book for. Fynn books for at most 20 practitioners and locations together.
• What Fynn offers lists your appointment types with their length. A group class, a type that needs an online payment and a type that is not bookable online show why and cannot be switched on: book those in Cliniko.
• New patients can book in chat: when it is off, requests from people Cliniko does not know go to your team.

Click Save. Fynn books nothing before you saved once. Then, under Fynn on the same page, turn on Fynn offers free times, pick who confirms new bookings, cancellations and moves (your team with 1 tap, or Fynn after the patient's yes) and click Save booking rules.

Cliniko decides the bookable hours, the appointment types, the notice and how far ahead patients can book, through its own online booking settings, so once you saved, the Appointments page shows no hours or rules of its own. Fynn offers exactly the times your Cliniko online bookings offer. While Cliniko is connected, Fynn books only in Cliniko; connected Google or Outlook calendars stay connected, but Fynn does not offer their times. Fynn also needs his access to contacts under Settings > Bots > Data Access; the section says so while it is off.

What Fynn does

• He asks which location and which appointment type when it is not clear, and offers up to 3 free times with the location's time zone, for example 1:00 PM (Berlin time).
• To book he asks for the patient's first and last name, nothing else. He never asks for a date of birth, an address, an insurance number, symptoms or the reason for the visit, and he never says whether someone is a patient.
• On his own he books only into the record your team linked to the contact, or for a patient whose email address Deskwoot verified, for example with the link Fynn sends to it or an email from that address: into the one Cliniko record with that address and the same first and last name, or as a new patient (name, email address and mobile number) while New patients can book in chat is on. Every other booking waits for your team, which picks the patient record where needed, and the patient hears the answer in the conversation. While your team confirms new bookings, every booking waits for its tap.
• Text messages never prove an email address, and Cliniko finds patients by email address and name, not by phone number. So on SMS, and on WhatsApp for a contact that is not linked yet, a booking always goes to your team.
• A verified patient can cancel or move their own appointments, also ones the practice made in Cliniko with a practitioner Fynn books for. A move keeps the practitioner, the location and the type. Closer to an appointment than the notice for patient cancellations you set in Cliniko, Fynn tells the patient that the practice will get back to them and hands the conversation to your team.
• Invoices, receipts, payments, insurance claims, treatment notes, letters, referrals and forms go to your team, and so do group classes and types that need an online payment. Fynn never judges how urgent a case is.

Each appointment Deskwoot books carries a short note in Cliniko: Booked in a Deskwoot chat, a reference and a link to the conversation. Cliniko emails the patient about a booking or a cancel only when your Cliniko confirmation and cancellation templates are switched on for that appointment type; Fynn confirms in the conversation either way.

What your team sees

An appointment shows as a card in the conversation, with the time in the location's zone and with the practitioner and location. While your team has to pick the record, the card says Choose the patient before you confirm: click Choose patient, pick one of the records Cliniko finds by the booking's email address and name (with the date of birth to tell namesakes apart) or Create a new patient, click Use this patient and then Confirm or Decline. Change patient picks another record before you confirm. A booked appointment has Open in Cliniko.

The Details tab of a conversation has a Cliniko section:

• The linked patient with Open in Cliniko, Next appointments and Earlier, each with its type, time, practitioner and location and whether it is Booked, Cancelled, Arrived or Did not arrive.
• Cancel on an upcoming appointment this conversation may cancel. Pick Cliniko's reason, add a Note for Cliniko if you like (only Cliniko gets it) and choose whether to Tell the patient in this conversation, then click Cancel appointment. Your team may cancel inside the notice too.
• Without a link: Possible match when exactly 1 record has the contact's email address, with Link and Not this patient; Find patient by email address or name; and Create patient, which sends the first and last name, the email address and a mobile number to Cliniko.

The contact page shows the same section in its Connected systems tab, without Cancel. Copilot knows a linked patient's next 3 appointments, never their date of birth, email address or phone number.

Changes made in Cliniko

Deskwoot checks the appointments it booked or took over every 5 minutes. When one is moved, cancelled or removed in Cliniko, or the patient arrived or did not arrive, the card says so, for example Changed in Cliniko or Cancelled in Cliniko. Deskwoot sends the patient no message about these changes. Click Refresh from Cliniko after you changed practitioners, locations or appointment types in Cliniko; Deskwoot also reads them once a day.

When the connection needs you

• Key refused: Cliniko no longer accepts the key, for example because it was archived or its user was deactivated. Fynn offers no times from Cliniko. Create a new key and paste it with Replace key.
• Missing permission: the key's user may not do everything Fynn needs. Give it the Scheduler role or a role with more rights in Cliniko, then click Check now.
• Nothing bookable online: Cliniko shows no practitioner with an appointment type in its online bookings yet. Add them in Cliniko's online booking settings, then click Check now.
• Cannot be used: the account is set up for HIPAA compliance. Disconnect Cliniko.

Disconnect

Disconnect in the Booking software section stops Fynn offering and booking times in Cliniko. Deskwoot deletes the key, its list of your locations, practitioners and appointment types, and every link between your contacts and their records in Cliniko. Appointments in Cliniko stay as they are. To end Deskwoot's access completely, archive the API key in Cliniko under My info > Manage API keys.

Frequently asked questions

Which plan do I need?

Business or Enterprise. A 7 day trial of either plan includes Cliniko. Connecting Cliniko costs nothing extra in Deskwoot.

What does Deskwoot never read?

Treatment notes, medical alerts, cases, forms, attachments, letters, invoices and payments. Deskwoot never asks Cliniko for them, and it never changes an existing patient record.

Why does a booking wait for my team?

On his own, Fynn books only into the record your team linked to the contact, or for a verified email address, so nobody can book into someone else's record by typing their address. Otherwise your team picks the record on the card, and Fynn never tells the patient whether a record was found.

Does Cliniko email the patient too?

Only when your Cliniko confirmation and cancellation templates are switched on for the appointment type. Then Cliniko emails the patient about bookings and cancels made through Deskwoot as well.

Can I connect more than one Cliniko account?

Each workspace connects one Cliniko account, with all of its locations.