The Confirmations page shows which upcoming appointments are confirmed and which still need a nudge. Open it from Schedule → Confirmations.
Read the list
The tabs above the table filter it and show a count each:
- All
- Unconfirmed: Pending and No response together
- Pending: not confirmed yet
- Confirmed: the patient confirmed
- Declined: the patient can't make it
- No response: a confirmation call from Tasks didn't reach them
The date menu offers All upcoming, Today only, Tomorrow only, Next 7 days and Past 7 days, and the search box finds a patient by name or phone. Each row shows the patient, appointment, service, provider, status and the reminders sent.
Automated reminders
Open the ⋯ menu and choose Settings (the screen is titled Appointment reminders):
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When we reach out: one row per reminder, set in hours before the appointment, each with Send by chips for Text, Email and Call.
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What we say: click a channel to edit its wording (email has a Subject line).
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When patients reply: the texts sent back when they confirm, when they cancel, and when they ask for a new time (leave one blank to use the standard wording). The same section has:
- Mark the appointment confirmed automatically: off, a YES waits in the Inbox for a person and the visit stays as it was.
- Add them to the waitlist when a reply cancels: the client goes on the waitlist for that service, from the day after the cancelled visit.
- Counts as confirmed and Counts as a decline: your own words, on top of the built-in ones (YES/Y/C/CONFIRM/1 confirm, R/RESCHEDULE asks for a new time, CANCEL cancels, and a plain NO follows your reminder's wording). A word of yours confirms as the whole reply or its first word; a decline word cancels only when it is the whole reply, because a cancel can carry a late fee.
To stop the texts back altogether, turn off Answer replies automatically under Settings → Client Notifications → Reminder reply responses: the visit still changes, and nothing is texted back. Replies to a waitlist offer follow it too: the offer is still booked or declined, and a YES waits in the Inbox for your team to tell the client. See Configure appointment reminders for exactly what each reply does.
The Auto-confirm switch in the ⋯ menu is the same setting as Mark the appointment confirmed automatically. Run now processes any reminders that are due right away.
A reply only acts on a visit when the last text you sent that number was that visit's reminder (FrontDesk's own auto-replies and notices are looked past). A YES or NO sent after a booking confirmation, a text after a call, or a payment link the AI sent goes to the Inbox for a person to answer instead, and doesn't change an older reminded visit.
For the full reminders walkthrough, see Configure appointment reminders.
Handle each appointment
From the actions menu on any row:
- Mark confirmed or Mark declined. Mark confirmed on a declined visit puts it back on the calendar, which reverses its late-cancellation fee: a Mark confirmed dialog offers a Reverse fee switch so you can keep the fee instead. If the fee was charged to the card, it stays, and a note says to use Refund and waive on the visit. Mark declined cancels the visit: inside your cancellation window a dialog shows the late-cancellation fee first, with an Apply fee switch to waive it. A declined visit that was still to come offers its time to your waitlist automatically. If the client answered after the page loaded (they replied NO, confirmed, or asked for a new time), nothing changes: the page says what happened and reloads, so a visit they just cancelled isn't put back by mistake.
- Reset to pending.
- Call with AI: opens the quick-call panel set up for a confirmation call to that patient. The AI calls only between 8am and 9pm in the patient's local time; at other hours the panel tells you their time and doesn't call.
- Send reminder now. Between 9pm and 8am in the patient's local time the text waits until 8am their time, unless the visit starts before then, and you are told when it will go. Until then the row shows Held until 8am (with their time zone when it isn't yours). A scheduled reminder that would also go at 8am, because its own time fell in that night or is between 8:00 and 8:14 that morning, doesn't: the patient gets one text, yours.
- Reschedule: pick a new date, time and provider, with a reason and notes. Let the client know (on by default) texts the patient the old and new time, when they have a mobile number, allow texts and haven't turned off Appointments notices. The text waits for 8am to 9pm in their local time. A patient who can't be texted is emailed instead, from your verified practice email sender. Never both. Untick it to move the visit quietly. Their reminders start over for the new time. Rebooking a no-show (for example with the reason No Show (rebook)) leaves the missed visit a no-show, with its fee, so your reports still count it. For athenahealth appointments the move is made in athenahealth and nothing goes from FrontDesk.
- Add to waitlist: useful for a decline you'd like to backfill.
Export
⋯ → Export CSV downloads the current view: patient, phone, email, date, time, service, provider, confirmation status, how they confirmed, reminders sent and the last reminder.