Quick Start
A ten-minute walk-through taking one patient from booked-in all the way to paid.
In about ten minutes you'll walk one real patient from "booked in" all the way to "paid" — book an appointment, check the patient in, open the consult, add a note and a charge, finalise it, then take the money.
The app is hard to break, and nearly everything here can be changed or undone afterwards — we'll point out the few exceptions as we go. Follow the steps in order, top to bottom, and you'll have done a complete day's-work loop by the end.
Tip — If a word here is new to you (consult, finalise, draft, allocate), see the Glossary. For what the little messages and indicators mean, see How the app talks to you.
Can't see a button we mention? Your account may not have permission for that action — ask whoever set up your clinic.
The journey at a glance
We're following one visit through six small steps:
| Step | What you'll do | Who usually does it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Book an appointment | Front desk |
| 2 | Check the patient in when they arrive | Front desk |
| 3 | Open (start) the consult | Vet / nurse |
| 4 | Add a clinical note and a charge | Vet / nurse |
| 5 | Finalise the visit | Vet / nurse |
| 6 | Generate the invoice and take payment | Front desk |
Quick version (whole journey) — Schedule → click a slot → pick patient → Create Appointment → Check in → Start consult → type notes (autosaves) → Billing Items + → Add to bill → Finalise → patient's Financials tab → Generate Invoice → Finalise → Payment → Record Payment. Done.
Step 1 — Book an appointment
Usually: front desk
Quick version — Schedule page → click an empty time slot → choose patient → set type → Create Appointment.
Step by step
- In the left sidebar, click Schedule. You'll see today's calendar — a grid of time slots, with a column for each vet or nurse.
- Find the time you want and click once on an empty slot in the right column. A panel slides in from the right with the date, time and column already filled in for you.
- At the top of the panel is the Patient box. Start typing the patient's name (or the owner's name) and pick them from the list that appears.
- No patient record yet? Click the + next to the search box to create one without leaving this panel. (Full details are in the Patients section.)
- Choose the appointment Type (for example, Consult).
- If you like, add a short Reason — the chief complaint, such as "limping on left hind".
- Click Create Appointment at the bottom.
The new appointment now appears as a coloured tile on the calendar. You've booked your first visit.
If something looks wrong
- You see a red "One of these required" message on the Patient, Reason and Notes fields. This just means you need to fill in at least one of them — choosing a patient is enough. Pick the patient and the warning clears.
- You only see Date and Type, no column to choose. That's normal if your clinic runs a single column — there's nothing to pick, so the field is hidden.
Step 2 — Check the patient in
Usually: front desk
When the patient and owner walk through the door, you mark them as arrived. This is just a status change — it tells everyone the patient is here and waiting.
Quick version — Click the appointment tile → Check in.
Step by step
- On the Schedule, click the appointment tile for the patient who has arrived. The detail panel opens.
- Near the top you'll see a small status pill and an action button. Click Check in.
- The status changes to Checked In straight away. You can close the panel.
That's it — the patient is now marked as here, ready for the vet.
Step 3 — Open the consult
Usually: vet or nurse
Now we start the actual visit record — the "consult" (also called a visit). This is where clinical notes, vitals and charges all live for this one appointment.
Quick version — Open the checked-in appointment → Start consult. It creates the visit and takes you straight there.
Step by step
- Open the appointment again (click its tile on the Schedule).
- Because the patient is checked in, the action button now reads Start consult. Click it.
- Wattle creates the visit record and opens it for you automatically. The appointment quietly moves to In Progress in the background — you don't need to do anything about that.
You're now on the consultation page. The left side is for clinical work (your notes); the right side is for vitals and billing.
Step 4 — Add a note and a charge
Usually: vet or nurse
This is the heart of the visit: write what happened, and record what the owner is being charged for.
Write a clinical note
Quick version — Click the Clinical Notes box, type. It autosaves after a couple of seconds. Cmd+S saves instantly.
Step by step
- On the left, click into the Clinical Notes box (it reads "Enter clinical notes here...").
- Type your note as normal.
- You don't need to look for a Save button. After about two seconds of not typing, Wattle saves automatically — watch the little indicator near the card title change to Saved. If you want to be sure, press
Cmd+Sto save right away.
Add a charge
Quick version — Billing Items card → + → pick an item → set Quantity → Add to bill.
Step by step
- On the right, find the Billing Items card. Click the + button.
- A picker opens. Search or browse the catalogue and click the service or product you want to charge for (for example, a consultation fee).
- An Add item dialog opens with the price and a Quantity box. Set the quantity (it defaults to 1 — bump it up for tablets, vials and so on).
- Click Add to bill.
- The charge drops into the list with its line total, and the running Total at the bottom updates. Add as many as you need.
If something looks wrong
- I added the wrong charge. While the visit is still a draft (not yet finalised), click the trash icon on that row, confirm Remove, and it's gone. Easy.
Step 5 — Finalise the visit
Usually: vet or nurse
Finalising means "this visit is done and ready for payment." It locks the visit so the front desk can bill it.
Quick version — Header → Finalise.
Step by step
- At the top of the consultation page, find the Finalise button (to the right of the status).
- Click it. A short message confirms Visit finalised — ready for payment, and the visit moves to its Ready to pay state.
A couple of friendly things to know:
- Your clinical notes stay editable even after finalising — you can keep adding to them.
- The trash icon on charges still works after finalising, but it now voids the charge instead of deleting it. That's on purpose: once a visit is finalised, charges are kept in the record (and struck through) rather than removed, so there's always a trail. The confirmation will tell you "the audit row stays on the ledger".
If you finalised by mistake
- No harm done. The Finalise button has turned into Revert to draft. Click it to unlock the visit and carry on editing.
Step 6 — Generate the invoice and take payment
Usually: front desk
Last step. The charges you added during the consult are now waiting to be billed. We'll pull them into an invoice, issue it, and record the payment.
Quick version — Patient → Financials tab → Generate Invoice → confirm in the dialog → open the new draft from the Invoices list → Finalise → Payment → enter amount + method → Record Payment.
Generate the invoice
Step by step
- Go to the patient's record: click Patients in the sidebar, find the patient, and open them. (The fastest way back is from the consult — but Patients works fine too.)
- Click the Financials tab.
- You'll see an Uninvoiced Charges section listing the charges from your consult. Click the Generate Invoice button (it's at the top of the tab, next to Record Payment).
- A short dialog appears so you can confirm what's being billed. Click Generate Invoice in the dialog. Wattle creates a draft invoice with those charges on it, and it appears in the Invoices list further down the tab.
Finalise the invoice
- Open the new draft invoice by clicking its number in the Invoices list. Check the lines look right, then click Finalise in the header.
- The invoice is now issued. It's official and ready to be paid.
Take the payment
- On the finalised invoice, click the Payment button in the header.
- In the Record Payment dialog, enter the Payment Amount, choose the payment method (cash, credit card, debit card, cheque, bank transfer or other), and add a reference or note if you like.
- Click Record Payment.
The invoice balance drops to zero and the badge updates to Paid. You've taken this patient from booked-in to paid — the full loop.
If something looks wrong
- I recorded the payment but the invoice still shows a balance. A payment has to be allocated to the invoice to reduce its balance. If you took the payment straight from the invoice's Payment button, it's applied to that invoice for you. If it was recorded against the account without being allocated, it's sitting as account credit — open the invoice's payment again to apply it. There's more on this in the Billing section.
- I issued the invoice with a mistake on it. Open it and click Unfinalise to drop it back to a draft you can edit, then finalise again. It's safe to do this even if a payment is already attached.
You did it
That's a complete visit, start to finish:
- Booked the appointment
- Checked the patient in
- Opened the consult
- Added a note and a charge
- Finalised the visit
- Generated the invoice and took payment
Everything you touched here has its own fuller chapter when you're ready to go deeper — see Appointments & the schedule, Consultations (visits), Patients, and Billing. But the loop you just learned is the one you'll run most days. Nicely done.