FrontDesk sends clients a lot on its own: reminders, booking confirmations, a text after a missed call, document nudges, invoices, waitlist offers. Settings → Client Notifications lists every one of them in one place, so when a client asks "why did I get this?", the answer is here.
Open the list
Go to Settings → Client Notifications (under Client Care). The page shows the messages for the location you're in; switch location to see another one.
- The line at the top counts how many messages are sending automatically and how many are turned off.
- The pills All, Email, Text and Voice filter the list by channel, with a count on each.
- Each row shows the message, the channels it uses (envelope, speech bubble, phone) and its status.
Click a row to open it. You see when it goes out, a note where something affects it (for example "Reminders are turned off for this location."), a preview with sample details (a tab per channel, and per version such as In person and Video visit), and the switches and wording you can change. A button at the bottom takes you to the page that owns the rest of its settings, such as Send times & channels for reminders.
Clients only get a message when their own settings on their record allow it. See Why a client didn't get a message.
What the status means
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| On | Goes out automatically when its moment comes. |
| Off | Turned off for this location. Nothing is sent. |
| Always sent | Goes whenever its event happens. There is no switch here, or it's on. |
| When your team sends it | Goes only when someone presses send (an invoice, a video visit link, a welcome email). |
| Couldn't load | Its settings didn't load. Reload the page. |
Appointments
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment reminders | Before each visit, at the times you choose. Clients can answer a reminder text to confirm, cancel or ask for a new time. | Send appointment reminders. Times and channels are under Send times & channels. See Configure appointment reminders. |
| Reminder reply responses | When a client's answer to a reminder text confirms, cancels or asks for a new time (and when they answer a waitlist offer). | Answer replies automatically, on. Off, the visit still changes and nothing is texted back. |
| Reminder copies to guardians and contacts | A copy of each text and email reminder to a minor's guardians with portal access and to contacts marked "Gets appointment reminders". | Send reminder copies to guardians and contacts, off. See Copies to parents, guardians and contacts. |
| Video visit reminder | 10 minutes before a video visit, with the client's private join link, by text and email on the channels your reminders use. Only while reminders are on. | Send the 10-minute reminder, on once telehealth is on. |
| Video visit link | When your team sends a client their join link from the visit. | When your team sends it. |
| Appointment booked | When your team books and ticks Let the client know, and right after the AI receptionist or the client portal books. By email when the client can't get texts. | Send this text, on. Start with "Let the client know" ticked, on. |
| Appointment moved | When the AI receptionist or the portal moves a visit, or your team moves one and ticks Let the client know. | Send this text, on. |
| Appointment cancelled | When the AI receptionist or the portal cancels, or your team cancels or deletes a visit and ticks Let the client know. Deleting a recurring series sends one message for the whole series. | Send this text, on. Call when a client can't get a text or email, off. |
When your team ticks Let the client know, the client gets one message by one channel: a text when they can be texted, otherwise an email when they can be emailed, never both. With Send this text off for that kind, your team's bookings, moves and cancellations go by email instead when the client has an email, and the AI receptionist's and portal's send nothing.
Call when a client can't get a text or email places a short recorded call when your team cancels with Let the client know and the client can't be texted or emailed. It reads the cancellation twice (so a voicemail gets all of it), asks them to call to rebook, goes only between 8am and 9pm their time and only when their settings allow calls, and uses your calling minutes.
Online booking
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Booking request received | As soon as a client submits your online booking form. Versions for Needs your approval and Booked instantly. By email when the client can't get texts. | Confirm requests to the client, on. |
| Booking request confirmed | When your team confirms a request. Email. | Always sent. |
| Booking request declined | When your team declines a request, with the message you write in the decline window. | Always sent. |
| Booking request expired | When a request isn't confirmed in time and closes on its own. Email. | Always sent. |
Calls & messages
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Missed call text | After a call to your practice that nobody answered, the AI receptionist included. Once per call. | Send this text, on. |
| Message received | After the AI receptionist takes a message for your team. A line is added when the message was marked urgent. | Send this text, off. |
| Website contact form reply | When someone sends a message through the contact form on your FrontDesk website. At most once a day to the same address. | Show a contact form on your website's Contact page, off. Owner or admin only. |
| Out of office reply | When a client sends a secure message while their provider has Out of office on the calendar. Once per client per absence. | Email clients when their provider is out, off. |
The Missed call text says "Hi, you just tried calling [practice]. Sorry we missed you!" and then offers your online booking link, or your phone number when online booking is off. It isn't sent when the caller left a voicemail, when the call rang your team and the caller hung up without leaving a message, or when there's no caller number. See Follow up on missed calls.
The Out of office reply goes to clients whose provider (their primary provider, else the one they last saw) is out. It needs secure messaging on in the client portal and a verified sending email; turned on without one, the row says "Turned on, but these emails won't go out until your practice's sending email is verified (Settings → Email)." See Out of office.
Client portal & documents
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Client portal invitation | When your team invites a client. With Invite new clients automatically on, also when your team adds a client with an email. | Invite automatically is off. |
| Documents to complete | When your team sends documents, and automatically when the AI receptionist books a new client if your intake package is set to send on booking. | When your team sends it, unless the package sends itself. |
| Document reminder | Every 3 days while documents are still open, up to 3 times, at 9am the client's time. Skipped the day before a visit, since the appointment reminder goes then. | Send document reminders, on. |
| Questionnaire request | When a scored questionnaire (a PHQ-9, say) is due on a client's schedule or your team assigns one. One reminder a day later. | Always sent. |
| New secure message | When your team sends a client a message in the portal. A notice that a message is waiting, never the message itself. | When your team sends it. |
| Welcome email | When your team sends a welcome from the New clients list. | When your team sends it. |
When the client portal is off for the location, these rows read Off. See Send documents to clients and Secure messaging.
Billing
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | When your team sends an invoice, and each morning for daily invoices when Send to clients is set. | When your team sends it. See Invoices. |
| Past-due invoice reminder | Once per invoice, the set number of days after its due date, while it still owes money. | Email clients about past-due invoices, off. Days after the due date, 3 (1 to 30). |
| Payment request | When your team, or the AI receptionist on a call, sends a client a link to pay. | When your team sends it. |
| Superbill | When your team emails one, and early each month for clients set to a superbill every month. | When your team sends it, or by the client's billing profile. |
| Monthly statement | Early each month for clients set to a statement every month who owe something. | Always sent, by the client's billing profile. |
| Payment receipt | When a client pays in the client portal. | Always sent. |
| Payment plan reminder | Before each payment plan installment is due. | Always sent. |
| Payment didn't go through | When an automatic card charge is declined or the client's bank asks them to confirm it. | Always sent. |
When someone else pays a client's bill, billing messages go to that person. See Guarantors. For the past-due email and daily invoices, see Bill past visits automatically.
Reviews & waitlist
| Message | When it goes | Default and switch |
|---|---|---|
| Review request | A set number of hours after a completed visit (2 by default). | Ask for reviews after visits, off. Send by: Text, Email, or Text and email. |
| Waitlist opening | When a visit is cancelled, the best matches on your waitlist are texted the opening. | Text openings automatically, on. Off, nobody is texted automatically; your team can still offer openings from the Waitlist page. |
See Collect patient reviews and Manage your waitlist.
Turn a message on or off
- Go to Settings → Client Notifications and open the row.
- Flip its switch. The texts after calls and visit changes (Send this text) save as soon as you flip them ("Text turned on" or "Text turned off"). Other switches sit in the message's editor: flip them and press Save.
Settings are per location. A row with no switch is either always sent or sent only by your team.
Change what a message says
Open the row and type your own words in the boxes under the preview (Text message, Email opening line, Email subject, or the reminder and reply texts), then press Save. The note under the boxes lists the placeholders that message fills, such as {{patientFirstName}}, {{appointmentDate}}, {{appointmentTime}}, {{providerName}}, {{practiceName}} and {{practicePhone}}. Spaces inside the braces are fine. Portal invitation and documents emails use single braces instead, like {practice_name} and {portal_link}.
- Leave a box blank to send the standard wording.
- Texts can be up to 600 characters (reply texts 320), an email opening line 1,000, and a subject 200.
- Some parts are always added for you: a video visit's join link, a line for recurring appointments, the "Reply YES to claim this spot" line on a waitlist offer, the questionnaire link, and the amount, due date and Pay now button on a past-due email.
- Keep the reply instructions in a reminder text ("Reply YES to confirm") so replies still confirm.
- Rows that say "Standard wording. Sample details shown." can't be reworded.
Copies to parents, guardians and contacts
Turn on Send reminder copies to guardians and contacts (row Reminder copies to guardians and contacts, off by default). Then each text and email reminder also goes to:
- guardians your team gave client portal access to a minor's account, and
- contacts on a client's record marked Gets appointment reminders (a partner, a parent without a portal login).
Each copy goes to that person's own number or email, on their own clock and under their own contact settings, and reads "For Jamie: …". Someone who shares the client's number or email gets no second copy. Reminder calls aren't copied.
When your team books a client who has no phone of their own (a young child), the visit takes a family number instead: a guardian with portal access first, then a contact on their record, then the head of their household, then their guarantor. That number gets the visit's texts. With none of those, booking stops with "This client has no phone number, and no parent, guardian or contact with one."
Bills are different: they go to the client's guarantor when someone else pays. See Guarantors.
Quiet hours: when texts reach a client
Automated texts and reminder calls reach a client only between 8am and 9pm in the client's own time zone.
How the client's time zone is picked: the state or province in their address first; without one, their phone's area code (every US, US territory and Canadian code); without that, your location's time zone. For a state with two time zones FrontDesk uses its main one, unless the client's area code sits in the other zone (an El Paso number in Texas is on Mountain time).
What happens to a text due at night:
- Scheduled reminders move to 8am, or to about 8:45pm the evening before when 8am would be less than an hour before the visit. See Configure appointment reminders.
- Texts your team sends at night (a reminder, documents, a secure-message notice, Let the client know, an invoice text, a pay or video link) are held and go at 8am the client's time. Your team sees "It's night for this client, so the text will go at 8am their time." A text about a visit that starts before that morning goes right away instead, since it would arrive too late. A text typed in the Inbox goes when you send it.
- Document reminders go at 9am the client's time. Daily invoices go at 9am your location's time, and a text that would reach the client before their 8am waits.
When a held text comes due it's checked again. It's dropped when it no longer applies (the visit was cancelled, moved, seen or has started; the form or questionnaire was completed; the invoice was paid or voided; the account closed) or when it has waited more than 36 hours (24 for billing texts). A text the client can no longer get (they replied STOP or turned texts off) isn't sent; a held Let the client know text is emailed instead when the client can get email.
Not held: emails, which go when they're due, and texts that answer something the client just did: the Missed call text after their call, the confirmation after the AI receptionist or the client portal booked, moved or cancelled, the answer to their reply to a reminder, and the confirmation of an online booking request.
Why a client didn't get a message
Check, in this order:
- The message's row under Settings → Client Notifications: is it On for this location?
- The client's own settings on their record: marked do not contact, not allowing texts or email on their phone or email, or with that kind of notice (appointments, documents, cancellations) turned off. See Find your way around a client chart.
- The number: they replied STOP, the number is blocked, it can't take texts, or it's outside the US and Canada. See SMS isn't sending.
- The practice: texting registration, texting allowance, and for some emails a verified sending email under Settings → Email.
Every automated text that did go shows in the client's Inbox thread, marked automated. See Send and receive SMS.
Who can change these
Anyone at the location except a view-only member. The Website contact form is for an owner or admin only; others see "Only an owner or admin can change the website contact form." and the row is read-only.
Good to know
- The previews use sample details ("Jamie", "Dr. Rivera", "Wednesday, October 7") and your location's real name and phone.
- A closed or archived account sends clients nothing.
- Automated texts never mark a thread unread in the Inbox.