Clients & patients

Registering a new client#

There are four ways to register a client.

Home›New Client

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The short form, step by step#

Pressing New Client while you are queueing a walk-in, logging a call-back or making a booking opens a short form that captures the client and their first patient together.

Home›New Consultation›New Client

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1. Enter the client's first name, last name and cell number. These are required.
2. Add an email address if you have one. Without it the client cannot be emailed invoices, reminders or statements, or use the client portal.
3. Enter the patient's name and pick a species: Feline, Canine, Exotic or Production Animals. Both are required. Tap the male or female symbol if you know it.
4. Use Comment on Patient for something staff should know at every visit, such as “muzzle for nail trims”.
5. For a walk-in, fill in Reason for Visit. The vet reads it on the queue card.
6. Press Save in the footer.

Saving also completes the task you started: a walk-in goes onto the consult queue, a booking is made in the slot you chose, and a call-back is added to the queue. You land on the queue or the booking list.

Full client details#

The full form holds everything the practice needs for billing and emergencies.

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Business accounts#

A business account is for a client that is not a person, such as a farm, trust, security company or referring practice. It records the registered name, the people you deal with, and the order numbers their accounts department needs.

An administrator switches business accounts on under Settings → Features & Modules → Business accounts.

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1. On the full client form, press Business at the top. The form shows Who they are for the business and a Contacts section.
2. Enter the Registered Name (required) and, if they are known by another name, the Trading Name, which FastVet shows in lists and queues. Add the Registration Number and VAT Number if you have them.
3. Tick They need an order number on every invoice if their accounts department will not pay without one.
4. Under Contacts, add the people you deal with. Mark one as the Primary contact: emails greet them and invoices print “Attn:” with their name. Tick Receives invoices for whoever pays.
5. Press Sign Up (or Update).

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To find these clients, open Merge Clients and follow the link to clients that look like businesses. It lists clients whose names or numbers suggest a business and says why each is listed. Review opens that client's form for you to convert; nothing is changed automatically.

The client record#

Opening a client takes you to Account Details, which shows their patients and balance and is where most work on that client starts.

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Under the contact details is the balance, with a badge if it has been outstanding 30, 60 or 90 days, or Paid up. Under that, in a tinted box, is the staff-only Notes on Client. The note also shows on the account, Pay, Debit, and the patient panel during a consultation. Add or change it with Edit.

Across the top of the record:

• Statement opens their account, where you can print or email a statement, take a payment, or reverse a charge.
• Sale starts an over-the-counter sale on their account.
• Map opens their residential address in Google Maps, ready for directions. If the client has no address, the button is greyed out and a note under it says so, with an Add an address link.
• Delete marks the client as deleted. The button then becomes Undelete.

In the footer:

• Send Update Link opens WhatsApp with a private link the client can use to update their own contact details, without a portal login.
• Send Text sends an SMS, if your practice has text messaging set up.
• Edit changes the client's details.
• New Patient adds another animal to this client.

Tap … on a patient's row to show its actions:

Patients with a date of death stay on the list, greyed out, with their history intact.

Adding and editing a patient#

Each animal has its own record with species, breed, colour, date of birth, microchip number and a photo.

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1. Open the client, then press New Patient, or tap … on an existing patient and choose Edit.
2. Fill in the name, species, breed and colour. Species, breed and colour come from lists; choose Other to type one that is not listed.
3. Enter the date of birth if known, or pick an approximate age from Auto and FastVet works out the date.
4. Add the gender, whether the animal is sterilised, and the microchip number.
5. Press Save.

Setting a reminder for a patient#

A reminder puts a patient on the follow-up list on the day it is due. Vets usually set one at the end of a consultation or stay, but you can also raise one directly on the patient, for example for a six-month weight check.

Home›Search Client›the client›the patient’s …›Reminder

1. Open the client who owns the animal.
2. Tap … on the patient's row, and under Manage choose Reminder.
3. Set when it is due: a number, then Days, Weeks or Months.
4. Choose Client Reminder to contact the owner, or Doctor Reminder for a note to the vet.
5. Type what it is for in Reminder Message, and press Save.

Moving a patient to another client#

When an animal is rehomed, move it to the new owner rather than creating it again, so its clinical history goes with it.

Home›Search Client›the client›the patient’s …›Move owner

1. Open the client who currently owns the animal.
2. Tap … on the patient's row, and under Manage choose Move owner.
3. The patient you opened is ticked. If the client has other patients, they are listed too: tick any that are moving, or use All and Just this one.
4. Search for the new owner by name, phone number or ID and tap them.
5. Press Move Patient (or, for several, for example Move 6 Patients).

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Documents and photographs#

Patient Data holds files kept against the animal, such as referral letters, x-rays, consent forms and insurance paperwork.

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1. Open the client, tap … on the patient's row, and choose Patient Data.
2. Press Add, choose one or more files, and type a short description under Please enter comment. Staff see this description in the list.
3. Press Add again to upload. All the files you chose are saved under that one description.
4. Tap a row to open the file, or the red bin to remove it. Press Done to close the screen.

Clinical history#

History on a patient row opens everything that has happened to the animal in date order, newest first: visits and notes, lab results, medication, vitals, weight and files, with filters and a search box.

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See Clinical history for more.

Merging duplicate clients#

Merge when the same person has two client records, for example after being registered twice or with a misspelled surname. The duplicate's patients, account entries and history move to the record you keep, and the duplicate is marked as deleted.

Home›Search Client›Merge Clients

1. On the client search screen, press Merge Clients in the footer.
2. Under Client to KEEP, search for the record you want to keep and tap it. Deleted clients are included in the search.
3. Under Duplicate client to MERGE FROM, search for the duplicate and tap it.
4. Read the summary of what will move.
5. Press Merge Clients in the footer and confirm.

Find potential duplicates in my practice finds likely duplicates for you. It groups clients that share an ID number, the same name and cell number, or the same name and email address, and shows which matched. The client with financial history (then the most patients) is selected to keep; change it if needed, then press Merge into kept on the others.

If the two clients share no phone number, email address or ID number, FastVet warns you and offers to move a patient instead. You can still merge if they are the same person.

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