The basics
Appointment types are the visits patients and admins book (initial assessment, follow-up, and so on). Each type needs a duration and a set of who can host it.
You can also add rules so open times only show for the right patient and clinician (state, payor, capacity, and so on). Rules are optional.
For how types sit on published shifts, see Patient booking overview. For activities more generally, see Getting started with activities in Planbase.
Managing appointment types
Go to the Scheduling screen.
Open the settings cog (upper right) and choose Activities.
Choose Appointment Type to create a new type, or open an existing one to edit.
Create or edit an appointment type
Name - what your team and patients will recognize (for example "Initial Assessment - NP").
Duration - length in minutes. Required. Planbase only generates open times using this length. Missing duration means empty booking calendars for that type.
Description (optional) - can show on the patient booking page.
Who can do this - teams, roles, people, and licenses allowed to host the visit. Everyone else is excluded.
Save the type before generating booking links. Links use the saved appointment type ID.
Booking links
Click the link icon next to the name to generate a patient booking URL.
These are two booking link modes, not two appointment types.
| Round robin | 1:1 with provider |
Clinician in link | No | Yes (one) |
Times shown | Any eligible free host | Only that host |
Feels like | Best available | Named clinician |
Round robin - patients see open times across anyone eligible to host this type (still filtered by rules).
1:1 with provider - same type, locked to one clinician. Only their open times appear.
If the type has required hosts that need more than one person, use Choose providers and pick people for each role.
More detail: Patient booking links.
Booking rules
On the appointment type, use Add rule to control how slots are offered. Rules are optional. You can use duration and eligibility alone if that is enough.
Availability
Controls when a scheduled provider counts as open for this type:
Unless busy - free time on a published shift can be offered, as long as nothing else on the shift is blocking that window.
Only if explicitly marked available for this appointment type - the shift alone is not enough. Someone must place availability on the shift (an availability group that includes this type, or this appointment type directly).
If the second option is on and calendars look empty, check the shift for marked availability, not only hours and publish status. See also Getting started with activities.
Max capacity
How many patients may attend the same appointment. Leave unset for normal one-patient visits. Raise it for group sessions. When capacity is higher than one, open seats can remain on an existing appointment until the limit is reached.
Booking limit
Caps how many times the same patient can book this appointment type within a period (day, week, or month, including multi-unit periods like every 2 weeks). Once they hit the limit, further bookings of that type are blocked until the window moves on.
Required hosts
Require specific roles free at the same time (for example 1 NP and 1 RN). Booking looks for an overlapping slot across those roles, not just one eligible provider. Multi-person booking links can also require choosing people for each required host.
State licensure
The host must hold an active license matching the patient's state (or your chosen state list). Patient address/state on the record and what the patient enters on the public form both matter. If no free licensed provider matches, the patient sees no times.
Payor enrollment
The host must have active enrollment for the patient's insurance / payor. Keep patient coverage and provider enrollments up to date or this rule will empty the calendar quickly.
Provider match
When the patient has a primary provider:
Only - always use the primary provider.
When available - use the primary when they have open time; otherwise allow another eligible host.
If you choose "only" and the primary is full or off, the patient may see no times even when the rest of the team is free.
Patient attribute match
Route by attributes such as age or language, matching providers who hold a related skill or license. You can require the match at all times, or allow a fallback when no matched providers are available. On the public booking page, date of birth and language are available even if you do not force them in the link's field list.
Slot availability alerts
Notify your team (Slack and/or email) when the next open slot for this type is farther out than a threshold you set, optionally scoped by state.
Types and the schedule
Creating a type does not by itself put open times on the calendar. You still need:
Eligible providers with published shifts (see Publishing schedules in Planbase)
Marked availability when the type's availability rule requires it
No block covering the whole window you expected to book