When your online booking page runs in Request mode, bookings come in as requests you approve rather than booking a slot instantly. Bookings made through web chat and requests from the client portal arrive here too. Open Online Booking → Requests.
The requests list
The page is headed Booking requests. The tabs filter it:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Pending | Waiting for you to confirm or decline |
| Confirmed | Approved and on the calendar, with the confirmed time |
| Declined | Turned down |
| All | Everything |
The list updates live, so new requests appear without refreshing. Each card shows the patient (with a New patient badge when they're new), the service and when it was requested. While anything is pending, a badge shows on Online Booking in the left navigation.
Confirm a request
- On a pending card, pick one of the times the patient chose.
- Click Confirm (with several times it reads, for example, Confirm 2:00 PM).
- The appointment books onto your calendar, and the patient is told once: by email when the request has an address and your email sender is verified, otherwise by text if they ticked the text box on the booking form (a text due between 9pm and 8am their time goes at 8am). A message tells you which, or that they weren't told and why, with their number to call. Their usual reminders follow.
Click a card to open Booking Request Details: patient information (name, email, phone, date of birth, address, insurance, SMS consent), appointment details, the times picked, notes and any extra form fields. A new patient's answers to your prescreener questions are in its Prescreener section. See Prescreener questions.
Decline a request
Click Decline and confirm. The request moves to Declined and nothing is booked. The patient is told the same way: a "Booking update" email, or a text saying the request couldn't be booked, with your booking link and phone number. Between 9pm and 8am their time the text waits and goes at 8am their time, and the message tells you so. To offer another time, call them; the card has their phone number.
In the FrontDesk phone app, Booking requests tells you the same after you confirm or decline. When the client wasn't told, that note stays at the top of the list until you dismiss it, so you can call them.
Requests from the client portal
A client who is signed in to the client portal can book from there when Book from the portal is on. Their request arrives in the same list, with the client already linked to their record, so there is no patient to match.
- With online booking set up, the client picked a real open time, and you confirm it like any other request.
- Without online booking, the client could not pick a time. The card reads No time picked · prefers Tue, Thu · morning, with their note underneath, and its button reads Pick a time. That opens Suggest a different time, a date and time picker; confirming books the visit and tells the client the time you chose. The request's detail view lists the preferred days and times. The notification reads "Appointment request: Ana Alvarez · Individual therapy · prefers Tue, Thu · morning · pick a time to confirm".
On an athenahealth practice, confirming writes the appointment into athenaOne first, as the client's own chart. If the request's visit type is not linked to an athena appointment type you are asked to pick one, and if athena needs a date of birth you are asked for it. If athena refuses, the request stays pending with the reason shown.
Don't miss one
Pending booking requests also appear in your Tasks list along with callbacks, voicemails and messages.
A request left pending expires on its own: 7 days after it came in, or once every day the client asked for has passed. An expired request frees the day (the client can request it again), shows Expired with the reason on its card, and can no longer be confirmed.
The client is told once, automatically: "Your request for Tue, Oct 6 at Bright Clinic wasn't confirmed in time. Please book again or call us at (555) 010-2000", with a link to your booking page. It goes by email when the request has an email address and your practice email sender is verified, otherwise by text if they ticked the text box on the booking form (never between 9pm and 8am their time; a text due overnight goes the next morning). Clients marked do-not-contact, or who turned off texts or email, aren't sent it, and a closed account sends nothing. If the client asks for the same day again before the request expires on its own, the old one is closed without a message. Call them if you still want to book them yourself.
If you click Confirm just as a request expires, you're told it expired and nothing is booked. If a teammate is confirming the same request at that moment, you're told someone is already confirming it and the list refreshes.
Prefer instant booking?
Request mode is optional. To let patients book confirmed appointments without a review step, set Booking mode to Instant booking on the Scheduling tab of Online Booking → Booking Settings. See Set up online booking.