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Reminders & letters

Bring clients back when they are due, and send letters and emails that look like they came from your practice.

Reminders bring patients back on schedule — vaccinations, parasite control, medication reviews. This topic also covers one-off letters and texts.

Setting a reminder#

Reminders are usually set during a visit. A consultation or a hospital or boarding stay can carry several — a recheck in a week and a booster in a year are two separate reminders.

  1. In a consultation, press Reminder in the footer. On a hospital or boarding stay, press Add Reminder in the Stay Summary.
  2. Set when it falls due: enter a number and choose Days, Weeks or Months. The date is shown underneath.
  3. Choose Client Reminder or Doctor Reminder.
  4. Type the Reminder Message — this is what the client reads.
  5. Press Save.
Setting a reminder on a patient.
Setting a reminder on a patient.
ChoiceWho it is forWhen it falls due
Client ReminderThe owner.FastVet emails and/or texts the client, if automatic reminders are switched on.
Doctor ReminderThe vet who set it.The email goes to you, not the owner, and it is never sent as a text. Use it for your own follow-ups, such as “chase the histology”.

The line under the two buttons shows exactly who the current choice will reach.

Tip
Set next year's vaccination reminder when you give this year's, as a Client Reminder.

When a reminder falls due#

  • If automatic reminder emails are switched on, FastVet emails the client. For a business account it goes to the contacts ticked Receives reminders, or to the business itself if nobody is ticked.
  • If text reminders are switched on, it also sends a text: the message the vet typed, followed by your practice name and phone number.
  • Reminders stop for a patient marked deceased.
Note
Both are switched on under Email & notifications. Email only goes to clients with an email address on file, and texts only to those with a mobile number FastVet can read — the SMS settings show how many that is.
Tip
If you text reminders, keep the message short. A standard text is 160 characters; a longer one costs more credits.

Sending a letter#

Home›Settings›Send Letter

Composing a letter.
Composing a letter.
  1. Choose Send Letter.
  2. Type the Recipient email and a Subject.
  3. Write the letter. Today's date, a greeting and a sign-off in your practice's name are filled in already — edit any of them.
  4. Press Preview to see it on your letterhead, then Send.

From the Settings menu the letter goes to any address you type, so you can write to people who are not clients — a breeder, a shelter, another practice. To write to a client, open their account and press Letter: the address is filled in, the greeting uses their name, and the letter is recorded in the email history under their name.

The letterhead is your Letter Header, or your Referral Header if the Letter Header is blank.

Texting a client#

Who can do this
Needs an SMS account. Without one the button does not appear.

Home›Search Client›a client›Send Text

The Send Text screen, with the credit counter under the message.
The Send Text screen, with the credit counter under the message.

Use this for one-off messages — "your medication is in", "we are running an hour behind".

  1. Open the client and choose Send Text.
  2. Check the number shown at the top — that is the number that will be texted.
  3. Type the message. The counter underneath shows how many credits it will use.
  4. Press Send.
Note
The text is sent straight away, so you see at once whether it worked. Everything sent appears on the Text Messages screen.

If the client has no mobile number, or one FastVet cannot read, the screen says so and you cannot send. Correct the number on the client record.

Texting an owner about a patient in your care#

Who can do this
Needs an SMS account.

Home›Hospital Patients›a patient›Text Owner

Text Owner is in the Stay Summary of a hospital admission or boarding stay. It opens the Send Text screen for the patient's owner, with starting wording you can pick:

Starting pointOffered onFor
Hospital updateHospital staysA progress note. It stops mid-sentence for you to finish: "…she is awake and eating".
Ready to collectHospital and boarding staysThe animal can go home.

The starting wording is your practice's own — see What the texts say. Edit it before you send. For anything else, type your own message.

Letterheads and automatic emails#

Who can do this
Administrators only.

The letterheads on everything your practice sends, the codes that fill in client details, and the switches for automatic emails are covered in Templates & letterheads.

Discharge sheets#

Who can do this
Administrators only.

Home›Settings›Discharge Sheets

Discharge sheets.
Discharge sheets.

Discharge sheets are standard client advice — post-operative care, dental aftercare, puppy socialisation — kept as files (PDF or picture).

  1. Press Add, upload the file and type a Description.
  2. Press Save.

To give a client a sheet, press Information in the price picker of a consultation, hospital day or boarding day.

What has been sent#

The email history report.
The email history report.

The email history report lists everything FastVet has sent, with the recipient and whether it went.