Clients

A client is a pet owner — the person who pays the bills and gets the phone calls. Here you'll learn how to find a client, create one, fix their details, add helpful alerts (like "always pays cash" or "hard of hearing"), see what they owe, take a payment, and tidy up duplicate records.

Clients are closely tied to their animals. To learn about the pets themselves, see Patients (the animals). For anything money-related, see Charges vs invoices, Invoices and Taking payments.

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Getting around the Clients area

There are two main places you'll spend time:

• The Clients list — a big table of every client, with a search box. This is where you look people up.
• The client file — one person's full record, opened by clicking their row. It has tabs across the top (Linked Patients, Details, Estimates, Financials) and a handy sidebar down the right with their contact details, alerts, and account balance.

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Find a client

Usually: front desk

Step by step

1. Click Clients in the main menu on the left.
2. Click into the search box above the table.
3. Start typing — a name, an email address, or a phone number. Even part of a name works.
4. The list narrows as you type (it waits a fraction of a second after you stop, so don't worry if it pauses).
5. Click the row you want to open that client's file.

Show only people who owe money

Usually: front desk / admin

1. On the Clients list, find the dropdown above the table (it says All Clients by default).
2. Click it and choose Outstanding Balance.
3. The table now shows only clients with money owing.

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Create a new client

Usually: front desk

Step by step

1. Go to Clients.
2. Click the New Client button (top of the page).
3. Fill in the form (it's grouped into Contact, Address and Account sections):
   • Client type — Person (the usual) or Organisation (a rescue group, a council, a company you bill). Leave it on Person unless you're entering a business.
   • Status — sits next to Client type. Leave it on Active for a new client.
   • Contact: First name and Last name (for an organisation, use its name), Email address (optional, but needed if you want to email them later) and Phone number — Australian format (see the note below)
   • Address: Street address, City, State, Postcode
   • Account: Account terms (days) — how long this client has to pay (see the note below)
4. Click Create client.

Other ways to do this

• ⭐ From the Clients list (above) — keeps you in context so you can find the new person straight away.
• Go straight to the address /clients/new if you like typing URLs.

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Open a client's full record

Usually: everyone

Step by step

1. Go to Clients and find the person (search if needed).
2. Click their row. Their full file opens.

That's it. You'll land on the Linked Patients tab, with the sidebar of contact details, alerts and balance on the right.

Other ways to do this

• ⭐ Click the row — fastest and most obvious.
• Open the row's dropdown menu (the ⋯) and choose View Client.

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See a client's animals

Usually: everyone

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Linked Patients tab.
3. You'll see a card for each pet, with a status badge.
4. Click any pet card to jump to that animal's record.

More on the animals themselves in Patients (the animals).

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Edit a client's details

Usually: front desk

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Change whatever you need — name, email, phone, address, account terms.
4. Click Save at the bottom of the form. (Or Cancel to throw away your changes.)

Editing happens inline on the Details tab of the client's file — there's no separate "Edit client" page any more. (Summary stays the default tab; Details is second.)

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Add an extra contact (spouse, carer, and so on)

Many clients have a second person who should be reachable — a spouse, an adult child, a carer, a property manager. These are stored as additional contacts.

Usually: front desk

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Scroll to the Additional contacts card.
4. Click Add contact.
5. Fill in the dialog (titled Add contact):
   • First name and Last name
   • Phone number
   • Email address (optional)
   • Relationship (optional — e.g. "Spouse", "Carer")
   • Notes (optional — a good spot for an overseas phone number)
6. Click Save.

Edit or remove an extra contact

1. On the Details tab, find the contact in the Additional contacts card.
2. Click Edit to change their details, or Delete to remove them.
3. If deleting, a pop-up asks "Remove this contact?" — click Remove to confirm, or Cancel to back out.

Make an extra contact the primary contact

Sometimes the "main" person on the account changes — perhaps a spouse now handles everything. You can promote an additional contact to be the primary.

Usually: front desk / admin

Step by step

1. On the Details tab, find the contact in Additional contacts.
2. Click Make primary.
3. A confirmation appears explaining that the current primary contact will move down into Additional contacts (they're not deleted — just swapped).
4. Click Make primary again to confirm.

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Add an alert to a client

Alerts are short, important notes that show up prominently so nobody misses them — things like "prefers phone over email", "account on hold", or "deceased pet, handle with care". They work just like patient alerts, with a severity level.

Usually: everyone

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. In the right-hand sidebar, find the Client Alerts card.
3. Click the + button (top-right of the card).
4. Fill in the dialog (titled New Alert):
   • Severity — Low, Medium or High
   • Message — the short headline (this is what everyone sees)
   • Description (optional) — extra detail
5. Click Save.

The alert now appears in the sidebar, with the most serious ones at the top.

Edit or delete an alert

1. In the sidebar Client Alerts card, click the alert you want to change.
2. The dialog opens (titled Edit Alert). You can:
   • Change the severity, message or description
   • Click Delete (bottom-left) to remove it completely
3. Save your changes.

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See what a client owes (financials)

The Financials tab is your one-stop view of a client's money: their balance, charges that haven't been invoiced yet, their invoices, and recent payments.

Usually: front desk / admin

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Financials tab.
3. From top to bottom you'll see:
   • Account balance — a figure with a coloured dot and a label: Outstanding Balance (they owe you) or Account Credit (you owe them / they've prepaid). When money is owing, a small line underneath shows when it's due (e.g. "Due in 5d", or Overdue in red).
   • Record Payment, Generate Invoice and Add Charge buttons.
   • Uninvoiced Charges — things done but not yet put on an invoice (you can tick charges here and invoice them in one go).
   • Invoices — every invoice with its number, date, pet, status, total and balance due.
   • Recent Payments — the last 10 payments, with date, amount, method and reference.
   • View full ledger — a collapsible link that opens the complete history of every money movement.

The same balance also shows at a glance in the sidebar Account Balance card — there it carries a coloured pill (Outstanding, Credit or Clear) — so you don't always have to open this tab.

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Record a payment

Usually: front desk

Step by step

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Payment button in the page header (the prominent button near the top).
3. In the dialog, choose the payment method (cash, card, cheque, etc.), enter the amount, and add a reference if you have one.
4. Click Save.

The balance updates straight away, and the payment appears under Recent Payments on the Financials tab.

Other ways to do this — both open the exact same dialog and do exactly the same thing, so use whichever is in front of you:

• ⭐ The Payment button in the page header — the most obvious.
• The Record Payment button on the Financials tab (in the Account Balance card at the top).

For everything about payments — methods, allocating money to invoices, refunds — see Taking payments.

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View and create estimates

Usually: vet / front desk

See existing estimates

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the Estimates tab.
3. You'll see a table of every estimate for this client, newest first, with its number, date, pet, status, total and valid-until date.
4. Click a row to open that estimate.

Create a new estimate

1. Open the client file.
2. Click the overflow menu (⋯) in the header.
3. Choose Create Estimate. The estimate form opens with this client already filled in.

Full details in Estimates (quotes).

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Email a client

Usually: front desk

The simple way (always available)

1. On the Clients list, open a row's dropdown menu (⋯).
2. Click Email. Your computer's email program opens with their address ready.

You can also click the email address in the sidebar Contact Details card to do the same thing.

The full way (if your clinic has it switched on) If your clinic uses Wattle's built-in emailing, you'll also see a Send email option in the client file's overflow menu (⋯), and a Communications tab showing the history of emails to and from this client.

Everything about emailing is in Emailing clients.

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Merge duplicate clients

Sometimes the same person ends up with two records — maybe they were added twice. You can merge them into one. This is powerful but permanent, so the app walks you through it carefully.

Usually: admin / experienced front desk

Step by step

1. Go to the Clients list.
2. Tick the checkboxes next to exactly two clients — the two you believe are the same person.
3. A bulk-actions bar appears. Click Merge selected.
4. In the dialog:
   • Choose which record to keep (the "survivor") — each option shows the client's name, client number (e.g. #1042) and creation date. The older record is pre-selected, but you can change it.
   • Read any warnings (they appear under the keep-which-record choice).
   • If any fields differ (say, two different phone numbers), a small table lets you pick which value to keep for each.
5. When you're happy, click Merge — this can't be undone.

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If something looks wrong

A few honest heads-ups about this screen:

• The Archive and Delete buttons don't do anything yet. You'll spot Archive and Delete options in the Clients list — both in the row dropdown (⋯) and in the bulk-actions bar when you tick clients. These are not finished yet. If you click them, nothing happens — no error, no change. That's not your fault and you haven't broken anything. To remove or hide an old client for now, please contact support / whoever set up your clinic. Don't keep clicking expecting it to work.

• Can't see a button you expected? Some actions depend on your account's permissions, and a few (like Add Charge) are optional extras not switched on for every clinic. If a button is missing or greyed out, that's usually why — ask whoever set up your clinic.

• The list jumped back to page 1. This happens every time you search or change a filter. It's intended; nothing is lost.

For more general help, see If something looks wrong — troubleshooting & FAQ. For the meaning of any term, see the Glossary. For what every button and symbol means, see Buttons & symbols cheat sheet.