You have the same number of hours in a day as Beyoncé.

Now that I’ve got the token inspirational quote out of the way, I can get down to telling you that managing your calendar has become a lot easier thanks to the many advancements in technology made available within coreplus.

At coreplus we debate many a thing (Android or IOS, pineapple on pizza or no pineapple on pizza) one thing we do agree on is; being the master of your calendar can empower you to better understand your practice, make more informed decisions and of course, better manage your time.

Here are 7 tips for practitioners, practice managers and using coreplus (or thinking of using it – untimed free trial people!) and how to make the most of it.

Schedule time for admin

In-between clients, at the start or end of your work day or while you’re multi-tasking. This may seem like a pointless exercise; you do it everyday, why would you need to schedule, right? What you are doing is keeping track of how much time you are spending on admin and what you are really doing during this time.

Review it. Weekly, monthly. Are you spending that much time on admin that warrants hiring a receptionist? Ask yourself if the mind numbing, repetitive admin tasks are worth your time or is it better spend elsewhere building your business.

Optimise appointment types

This is a great way to get a visual overview of your day ahead. Setup your appointment types and colour code them to differentiate between new and existing clients, home visits, programs you are running, treatment types, admin/meetings and whatever else you may need. The best part? Report on your appointment types to get insight of trends in your business.

Set appointment limits

Keep on top of your Medicare subsidised sessions with our appointment limit feature. Manually using booking notes to keep track is a sure-fire way to forget where your client is at or simply, just get it wrong. Let the beauty of automation work for you and set these from your client’s file. Watch the reminder come to life when your client has reached the appointment limit you’ve set. All you need to do is remember to set them!

Keep on top of your availability

A 9 to 5 schedule with an hour break for lunch is what the private practice life is all about, right? Sadly, no. Especially not if you’re just starting out and building your client base. Keep your availability fluid and adjust it when you need to. Book outside of your ‘scheduled’ available time if it means you welcome a new client to your practice. Listen to what your clients are requesting. Are you getting booked out for after-hours appointments? Maybe it’s time to hire a contractor to help you with the after-hour appointment demand. And guess what? We have a booked appointments report to help you determine that.

Reporting

Whether you love it or hate it, reporting is a powerful tool that can help you understand what is going on in your business. Our seven calendar reports show you information based on your appointments and schedules (and that of your practitioners if you have them!).

Not sure where to start? Give the calendar statistics report a go and look at how many of your appointments cancelled and didn’t reschedule or how many attended. Or, are you manually checking that your practitioners have billed their clients before you pay them? Run the unbilled report and see which of your practitioner’s clients have outstanding invoices. Look into your practice performance for any given time.

We’ve all head the adage, if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Reporting is a great way to structure your thinking around the key things you measure and manage.

Empower your clients

Your practice may not be open 24/7, but your schedule can be (how about that, Beyoncé). Our client portal enables you to publish your schedule to your website, allowing clients to book themselves into your practice. This enables greater access for new clients seeking appointments and is a fantastic way to let your existing clients know of their booking options. It also minimises your administrative workload and is simply; good customer service.

Don’t let it overwhelm you

While its worth investing the time exploring and getting to know what our different calendar functions can do for you, it can very easily become overwhelming, especially when you’re learning how to use a new piece of software.

Our Customer Success Team is here to help, guide or teach you how to get the most out of coreplus. Our schedule is set to: Monday to Friday, 8:45am – 5:15pm Melbourne time and we’re contactable by phone on 1300 668 988 or live chat. Otherwise, you too can send your questions 24/7 to support@coreplus.com.au and our team will respond to you as soon as they can.

If you’ve mastered your calendar and have a suggestion or feature you’d like to see implemented, post it on our Ideas Portal and check out some of the other ideas the coreplus community has submitted and voted on.

P.S. Android and definitely NO pineapple on pizza!