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Users often asked how to view their ClinicOffice diary on a smartphone or tablet.
Although this isn’t recommended for the main application, it is possible if you’re on the Hosted Edition of ClinicOffice. Of course, running a full Windows application on a mobile device isn’t always the best solution, so we would recommend using the Online Diary which is well suited for use with mobile devices. It’s also compatible with both the Local Install and Hosted Edition of v6. For v5 customers, you’d need to be on our support plan.
Besides this, there are other calendar Sync options available. These are discussed in more detail below.
[1] Google Calendar Sync
You can synchronise your diary with a Google Calendar account. Once you’ve synchronized your ClinicOffice diary to a Google Calendar, you can then use an “app” on your mobile device to view that Google calendar.
You can then make changes to the calendar on your mobile device (e.g. moving appointments, or creating new ones) and then you can synchronize those changes back to ClinicOffice later on.
[2] The Online Diary Add-On
The ClinicOffice Online Diary add-on gives you full access to your ClinicOffice diary in real-time via your web browser (whether on a PC, MAC, Tablet or Phone).
It also (optionally) provides a portal for your patients to logon so that they can book their own appointments, view their past/future appointments, cancel future appointments (depending on whatever cancellation policy that you configure), pay for their appointments, and much more.
Please see here for more details:-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/online-servicesWhich is better? Google Calendar Sync or the Online Diary?
To some degree, it depends on your requirements. All things considered, the Online Diary is usually a much better solution for viewing your diary from a mobile device.
It accesses your database directly and reads your diary in real-time, so you will always see up-to-date information. With Google Calendar Sync, you need you to synchronize your diary back-and-forth which means you’re actually maintaining 2 separate diaries (one in ClinicOffice the other in Google) so when the 2 are not synchronized, problems can arise.
The Online Diary also fully integrates with your database and is aware of Patients, Appointment Types, Appointment Statuses etc. and it works in the same way as ClinicOffice (but in a web browser).
Google Calendar, however, is only a simple calendar program. It doesn’t know about your Patients, Appointment Types, Appointment Statuses etc. For example…
Say you’re using a tablet and Sue Smith (a patient) calls you asking for a consultation tomorrow morning.
With the Online Diary, you look at tomorrow’s calendar and you have a slot free at 09:00. You double tap on the slot, select “Sue Smith” from your list of patients, select “Consultation” from the list of appointment types and then click SAVE. Job done.
With Google Calendar Sync, you look at tomorrow’s calendar and 09:00 is clear (as long as nobody else has booked that slot since your last sync!). You create a new appointment in Google, but you have to manually type in “Sue Smith for Consultation”. Bear in mind that Google only allows you to use simple text-based labels for appointments. It can’t link to Sue Smith’s patient record, nor can it link the appointment type record. So… after your next sync, an appointment will appear in ClinicOffice with the text label “Sue Smith for Consultation” and you will then need to go in to that appointment to manually link it to Sue Smith’s patient record and to select the correct appointment type.
As you can see, the Online Diary makes things much simpler!
Are there any occasions when Google Calendar Sync is more suitable?
If you’re mainly interested in just viewing your diary from a mobile device and won’t be entering any appointments (or perhaps just the occasional one)… and if you don’t mind that your Google Calendar may not always be 100% up-to-date, then Google Calendar Sync will most likely work well for you.
If you have any follow-up questions or queries, please feel free to post your comments below!
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