Learn how to check patients in and out efficiently using the Reception Dashboard or Timeline. This ensures each visit is accurately recorded and patient flow through the practice runs smoothly.
From this module you'll learn how to:
Check patients in on arrival and update their visit status.
Track their progress through treatment and manage handovers.
Check patients out, process payments, and book follow-ups.
Maintain accurate daily records for patient movement and billing.
Contents:
Checking In a Patient
Steps to Check In:
Locate the patient’s appointment on the Reception Dashboard or Timeline.
Open the appointment card and confirm the appointment.
Click 'Check in patient' and update patient details as needed (medical history, consent forms).
The icon represents any Pre checklist items.
Once checked in, the patient’s status changes to Waiting in the Receptionist Dashboard.
From the Timeline:
From the Receptionist Dashboard:
You will be prompted to complete any pre appointment checklist items. These will need to be ticked off before the check in can be completed.
Once the treating practitioner has completed the appointment, during the In-appointment workflow, they will click the 'Ready for Checkout' option.
In the Receptionist Dashboard, the patient will then automatically move into 'Expected Departures' status and the 'Check Out' option will become available.
💡Tip: Keep the Reception Dashboard open throughout the day - you’ll see at a glance who’s waiting, in treatment, or ready to check out.
Checking Out a Patient
Checking out a patient can be completed from either the Timeline, or the Receptionist Dashboard.
When the treating Practitioner has completed the appointment, the 'Check Out' option will become available from the appointment card.
From the Timeline:
After opening the appointment card, the 'Check Out' option will become available.
From the Receptionist Dashboard:
The patients status will have moved to the 'Expected Departures' status and the 'Check Out' option will become available.
Completing the Check Out workflow
After clicking 'Check Out' from either the Timeline or Receptionist Dashboard, you will be prompted to complete the Check Out workflow. Here, you will be promoted to completed 6 steps before the patient is successfully checked out.
Step one will prompt you to schedule any appointments that have an enabled scheduling status in the patient's treatment plan, Or, set a Follow Up reminder.
You must either schedule the next appointment, or set a Follow Up before you can proceed to the next step.
Step 1a - Schedule upcoming appointments
You can select 'Schedule', or 'Create Appointment' during this step. This will prompt you to complete the details to create the patient's next appointment;
1 - Mandatory Patient Details:
Name, Date of birth, Email
Mobile phone: Enter the primary contact number here. You can save an additional number if needed
Gender
Referrer: Enter a referrer if applicable, this can help with reporting and marketing.
Primary Contact details
Click 'Next' to proceed to Step 2.
2 - Appointment Details:
Practice: Select your Practice.
Practitioner: Select the applicable treating Practitioner for the appointment.
Treatment: When clicking 'Schedule' during Step 1, the Treatment option will default to the next step of the selected Treatment Plan. When clicking 'Create Appointment' you will be prompted to select a Treatment.
Duration: This will be determined based on the Treatment, but can be amended.
Click 'Next' to proceed to step 3.
3 - Select a Time:
A list of appointment slots will be generated based on the Appointment Details.
Score: Use this as a guide when selecting an appointment timeslot. This acts like a traffic light system; Green being ideal | Yellow being acceptable | Red indicates conflict or overlap.
Sorting: You can sort appointment slots from each column shown: date, time, from now, duration, score, practitioner. Click for either ascending or descending order.
Select your appointment and click 'Next'.
4 - Waitlist:
Adding a patient to the Waitlist ensures that patients have the opportunity to be offered an earlier appointment based on their preferences.
By default, all patients get added to the Waitlist. This is to ensure that patients have the opportunity to be offered an earlier appointment, as well as having a database of patients to select from when filling available Gaps.
Step 1b - Set a Follow Up
If the patient does not want to schedule their next appointment, click 'Set follow up'.
Choose the appropriate date for next contact. This defaults to 2 weeks. You can select a predefined date, or a specific date for the Follow Up.
This patient will be included in your Follow Up list to be contacted at a future date. This workflow will be detailed in Module 6: Follow Ups.
Step 2 - Today's Invoice
This will show you a preview of the Treatments completed during the appointment.
You can add line items, such as Products, Deposits or Fees.
Review the invoice before clicking 'Approve and Continue'.
Step 3 - Pay Invoice
First, process any Healthcare Claims before adding any additional payments.
When clicking the Payment option, you can chose from the following:
Or you can;
Step 4 - Outgoing Checklist
Any post appointment checklist reminders relevant to the appointment (These are preconfigured depending on the treatment).
Step 6 - Automations
You can review and add a task or notification that is related to the appointment that may not already be created. For example, the patient could ask for a reminder text tomorrow or an email to be sent out after they leave.
After creating the automation or choosing not to, click next.
Step 7 - Summary
You'll now see the summary of the appointment. Click Finish.
The patient has now been successfully checked out.
You’ve now covered everything you need to know about checking patients in and out in Principle!
You’ve learned how to record a patient’s arrival, track their progress during treatment, and complete the check-out process - Including payments, and booking their next visit.
By following these steps each day, you’ll keep your practice running smoothly and make sure every patient’s visit is properly recorded from start to finish.
💡 Tip
Keep the Reception Dashboard open throughout the day - It’s your live view of what’s happening in the practice.
Checking it regularly will help you stay one step ahead of arrivals, waiting patients, and any check-outs that still need completing.