Glossary

A plain-language A–Z of the words you'll meet in Wattle Clinic — both the vet ones and the app ones. Each entry is one or two sentences, with a link to the section that explains it in full.

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A

Account balance — The total a client owes you (or that you owe them), across all their invoices and payments. A positive balance means they owe money; a negative balance means they're in credit. See Clients.

Acuity — How urgent a patient's condition is, scored 1 to 5 (1 is most urgent, an emergency; 5 is least). You set it when an animal arrives so the most serious cases are seen first. See Arrivals & check-in.

Admit / admission — Moving a patient into the hospital for ongoing care, rather than sending them home after a visit. Admitted patients get a ward and a cage. See Hospital.

Allocation — Deciding which invoice a payment pays off. When a client pays, Wattle "allocates" the money to one or more invoices; unallocated money sits as credit on their account. See Taking payments.

Appointment — A booked time slot for a patient with a staff member. Appointments move through statuses (scheduled, checked-in, in-progress, completed). See The schedule.

Archive — Hiding a record from everyday lists without deleting it. Archived things still exist and can be brought back — unlike deleting, which is permanent. See "Archive vs delete" below.

Archive vs delete — Archive tucks a record out of sight but keeps it (reversible, safe). Delete removes it for good (permanent — use with care). When in doubt, archive. See Patients and Clients.

Audit log — A permanent, read-only record of who changed what and when, kept for compliance. You can filter and export it but never edit it. See The audit log.

B

Breadcrumb — The little trail of links near the top of a page (for example Clients › Jane Smith › Bella) showing where you are and letting you click back up. See The lay of the land.

C

Cage — A specific spot within a hospital ward where an admitted patient stays. Each admitted patient is assigned to a cage. See Hospital.

Catalogue — Your price list: every service, product, and medication you can charge for, with its price. American spelling "catalog" may appear in code, but the screen says catalogue. See The catalogue & prices.

Charge — A single billable line — one service or item added to a patient's visit (for example "Consultation" or "Vaccine"). Charges gather up and become an invoice. See Charges vs invoices.

Charge vs invoice — A charge is one line of work or product; an invoice is the finished bill that groups charges together for a client to pay. You add charges during a visit; they roll up into an invoice. See Charges vs invoices.

Cheque — A paper payment method (the Australian spelling of "check"). One of the payment types you can record. See Taking payments.

Command palette (⌘K) — A quick-search box you open with ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) to jump to any screen or action by typing. A shortcut for confident users; you never have to use it. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Consult / consultation — A single patient visit where the vet or nurse records notes, vitals, prescriptions, and charges. The app labels it visit, but "consult" means the same thing. See The consult.

Controlled drug — A medicine the law tracks tightly because of its potential for misuse — Schedule 8 (and some Schedule 4) drugs. These must be recorded in the controlled-drug register. See The Schedule 8 register.

Credit — Money a client has paid that isn't yet attached to an invoice — it sits on their account and can pay future bills. Shown as a negative account balance. See Taking payments.

D

Dashboard — Your home screen after signing in: today's appointments, pending invoices, and key numbers at a glance. See The dashboard.

Delete — Permanently removing a record. Unlike archive, this can't be undone, so the app usually asks you to confirm. See "Archive vs delete" above.

Dialog — A small window that pops up over the page to ask for something or confirm an action (for example "Take payment"). The page behind it dims; finish or close the dialog to carry on. See How the app talks to you.

Discharge — Sending an admitted patient home from the hospital once treatment is done. See Hospital.

Dispensing fee — A small charge added when you supply medication, covering the work of preparing and handing it over. It appears as its own line on the bill. See The catalogue & prices.

Draft — A record you're still working on that hasn't been locked in yet — most often a draft invoice or estimate. Drafts are fully editable and can be deleted. See Invoices.

E

Estimate — A quote you give a client before doing work, so they know the likely cost. It can be turned into an invoice later. See Estimates.

Export — Downloading your data as a file (CSV or JSON) to keep, back up, or move elsewhere. See Exporting & backing up your data.

F

Feature flag — A switch that turns a feature on or off for your clinic. Some features are optional and only appear when the flag is on — that's why your screens may differ from a colleague's. See Settings — a guided tour.

Finalise — Locking in an invoice (or visit) so it becomes the official record and can be paid. A finalised invoice isn't editable in the normal way — but you can unfinalise if you need to fix something. See Invoices.

G

GST — Goods and Services Tax, the 10% Australian tax shown on invoices where it applies. Wattle works it out for you. See Invoices.

H

Hospital — The section for patients admitted for ongoing care, organised into wards and cages. See Hospital.

I

Invoice — The bill for a client: a grouped set of charges they need to pay. It starts as a draft, then you finalise it. See Invoices.

K

Kinde — The service that handles signing in securely. You log in through it; you don't need to think about it beyond that. See Signing in.

L

Ledger — The running record of every charge, payment, and credit on a client's account, used to work out their balance. See Charges vs invoices.

Lock screen — The full-screen PIN prompt that appears when a signed-in computer sits untouched for a while (15/30/60 minutes, clinic-wide). You stay signed in — your PIN puts you straight back where you were. See Your PIN & the lock screen.

N

Notification — A business alert (overdue invoice, bounced email, product news) shown under the bell icon in the top bar. See Notifications.

O

Onboarding — The one-time guided setup you go through the first time you sign in, before reaching the clinic. See Setting up a new clinic.

P

Paddock — An outdoor area on a property where a horse stays. Wattle tracks which paddock each horse is in and when it arrives and leaves. See Paddocks.

Patient — An animal in your care. Each patient is linked to a client (their owner). See Patients.

Payment — Money received from a client, recorded against their account and allocated to invoices. See Taking payments.

Pending (S8) — A controlled-drug movement captured during billing that's waiting for a vet to finalise it into the register. Until sign-off it can be edited or discarded. See The Schedule 8 register.

PIN — Your personal 4-digit code, set at first sign-in. It unlocks the lock screen and acts as your signature on controlled-drug register actions. Forgotten PINs are reset from Settings → Team. See Your PIN & the lock screen.

R

Reconcile / reconciliation — Counting the physical stock of a controlled drug and matching it against what the register says you should have, to catch any discrepancy. See The Schedule 8 register.

Reminder — A prompt for preventive care that's due (a vaccination, a check-up), so clients can be followed up. See Reminders & follow-ups.

Role — What a team member is allowed to do. Wattle has four: Admin (shown as Practice Manager — runs the clinic and its settings), Vet (clinical work plus management access), Nurse (clinical day-to-day, including editing notes and capturing Schedule 8), and Staff (front-desk day-to-day). Your role decides which screens and actions you see, and an Admin or Vet can fine-tune what each role can do in Settings → Roles & Permissions. See Team & permissions.

S

Schedule 8 / S8 — The legal category for the most tightly controlled drugs, which must be recorded in a controlled-drug register. See The Schedule 8 register.

S4D — Schedule 4 (Appendix D) — prescription drugs that need extra record-keeping, sitting a step below S8 in control. See The Schedule 8 register.

Sent — A manual flag on an invoice showing you've sent it to the client. Binary (Sent / Not sent) and separate from payment — an invoice can be paid but not sent, or sent but unpaid. You set it yourself with Mark as sent. See Invoices.

Sheet — A panel that slides in from the side of the screen for longer forms and multi-step jobs (like booking an appointment). Like a dialog, but roomier. See How the app talks to you.

Sidebar — The menu down the left side that takes you to the main sections (Schedule, Patients, Clients, Billing, and so on). See The lay of the land.

Stocktake — A formal count of controlled-drug stock recorded in the register, sometimes done "blind" (without seeing the expected number first). See The Schedule 8 register.

T

Toast — A small message that slides in briefly (usually bottom of screen) to confirm something happened — "Invoice saved" — then fades away. You don't need to dismiss it. See How the app talks to you.

Triage — The arrivals queue where animals are logged by urgency (acuity) and moved along as they're seen, treated, admitted, or discharged. See Arrivals & check-in.

U

Unfinalise — Reopening a finalised invoice or visit so you can make a correction, then finalising it again. The safe way to fix a locked record. See Invoices.

V

Visit — What the app calls a consult: a single patient appointment record with notes, vitals, prescriptions, and charges. See The consult.

Void — Cancelling a finalised invoice so it no longer counts, while keeping a record that it existed. Used when an invoice shouldn't have been raised — unlike deleting a draft, which leaves no trace. See Invoices.

W

Ward — A grouping of cages in the hospital by purpose: ICU, Isolation, General, Recovery, or Boarding. See Hospital.

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