Appointment Reminders & SMS

Forgotten appointments cost time and money. TheraTap automatically reminds your clients by email and optionally by SMS – at booking, before the appointment, when changes are made, and even on the animal’s birthday. You define the text, TheraTap takes care of sending it.

At a Glance

Automatic Emails

Booking confirmation and 24-hour reminder are sent automatically – without you having to do anything.

7 SMS Templates

Reminder, confirmation, change, cancellation, appointment request, birthday, and anamnesis form reminder – each template individually customizable.

Custom Text

Design templates for emails and SMS with placeholders. Name, date, and time are inserted automatically.

Channels Per Type

Decide per notification type whether it goes out by email and/or SMS – plus per-appointment and per-animal control.

Email Notifications

TheraTap automatically sends emails for all important appointment events. Each email is personalized with your practice branding (name, logo) and contains a calendar file (ICS) that your clients can import directly into their calendar.

Email	When Is It Sent?
Booking confirmation	Immediately after the appointment is booked
Appointment request received	When an open appointment request comes in (not yet confirmed)
Appointment confirmation	When you confirm an appointment request
24-hour reminder	Automatically one day before the appointment
Appointment change	When an appointment is rescheduled
Appointment cancellation	When an appointment is cancelled
Birthday message	On the animal’s birthday
Anamnesis form reminder	3 days after an anamnesis form was sent but not yet completed

Customizing Templates

Under Settings → Communication & Templates (section Practice), you manage all appointment notifications in one place. For each type you edit email and SMS side by side – including the “Send via email” and “Send via SMS” toggles. Use placeholders like {{contact:name}} or {{datetime}} (all available placeholders can be found below).

Activating & Configuring SMS

Not everyone reads emails in time. With SMS reminders, you reach your clients directly on their phone – fast, reliable, and with significantly higher open rates.

Open Communication & Templates

Navigate to Settings → Communication & Templates.
Enable SMS

Activate the SMS feature with the toggle in the SMS settings section. Once enabled, SMS fields appear for each appointment type.
Set Sender Name

Enter a sender name (maximum 10 characters) that will be displayed to the recipient – e.g., your practice name or abbreviation. If you leave this blank, your practice name is used automatically.

Customize Templates

In the Appointments section you’ll find email and SMS templates side by side for each occasion:

Template	Occasion
Appointment reminder	24 hours before the appointment
Appointment confirmation	Upon booking or confirmation
Appointment change	When an appointment is rescheduled
Appointment cancellation	Upon cancellation
Appointment request received	For open appointment requests
Birthday message	On the animal’s birthday
Anamnesis form reminder	3 days after an unfilled anamnesis form

Using Load Default Template, you can restore the original text at any time.

Controlling Channels Per Notification

You decide for each notification type individually whether it goes out by email and/or SMS – the toggles are right next to each template on the same page.

If both channels are off for a type, TheraTap shows a subtle hint that no notification is currently sent for that event – but nothing is blocked. By default both channels are enabled for every type, so nothing changes about the previous behavior until you adjust something.

Anamnesis Form Reminder

The anamnesis form reminder is a new type: if a client hasn’t completed an anamnesis form three days after it was sent, TheraTap reminds them automatically. This type also has its own email and SMS template along with channel toggles.

Available Placeholders

In all email and SMS templates, you can use placeholders that are automatically replaced with the actual data when sent.

Appointment

Placeholder	Description
`{{date}}`	Date of the appointment (e.g., “Monday, January 15, 2024”)
`{{time}}`	Time of the appointment (e.g., “2:30 PM”)
`{{datetime}}`	Date and time combined
`{{title}}`	Title of the appointment
`{{description}}`	Description of the appointment
`{{notes}}`	Notes for the appointment

Contact (Pet Owner)

Placeholder	Description
`{{contact:name}}`	Full name
`{{contact:phone}}`	Phone number
`{{contact:email}}`	Email address
`{{contact:address}}`	Street and house number
`{{contact:zip}}`	Postal code
`{{contact:city}}`	City
`{{contact:country}}`	Country

Animal (Patient)

Placeholder	Description
`{{patient:name}}`	Name of the animal
`{{patient:type}}`	Animal type (e.g., horse, dog, cat)
`{{patient:chip_number}}`	Chip number

Therapist

Placeholder	Description
`{{user:name}}`	Name of the treating person

Additional in Birthday Templates

Placeholder	Description
`{{patient:age}}`	Age of the animal in years
`{{patient:birthday}}`	Birthday of the animal
`{{patient:race}}`	Breed of the animal
`{{owner:name}}`	Full name of the owner
`{{owner:firstname}}`	First name of the owner
`{{owner:lastname}}`	Last name of the owner
`{{team:name}}`	Name of your practice

Controlling Reminders

Per Appointment

When creating or editing an appointment, you can specify whether a 24-hour reminder should be sent. This is convenient when an appointment was scheduled on short notice and a reminder is not necessary.

Per Animal (Birthday)

In the patient record, you can individually configure for each patient whether birthday reminders should be sent. This way, you avoid unwanted messages – e.g., for animals that are no longer in treatment.

Automatic Logic

Appointment cancelled before reminder time: If an appointment is cancelled before the reminder is due, no reminder will be sent.
SMS only with mobile number: SMS are only sent when the contact has a valid mobile number on file. International numbers are recognized automatically.
Balance check: Before every SMS is sent, TheraTap checks whether there is sufficient balance available.

SMS Costs & TheraTokens

SMS are billed through your TheraTap balance (TheraTokens):

1 SMS segment = up to 160 characters
Longer messages are automatically split into multiple segments
Costs are deducted from your balance after successful delivery
You receive an automatic notification when your balance falls below 50 TheraTokens

You can view your current balance at the top of Communication & Templates; top up in Subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to activate email reminders? No. Email notifications are active by default and included in every TheraTap plan.

Are SMS sent to international numbers? Yes. TheraTap automatically detects the number format and sends SMS worldwide. Make sure the mobile number is stored in international format (e.g., +49 170 …).

What happens with short-notice appointments? The 24-hour reminder is only sent if the appointment is at least 24 hours in the future. For shorter-notice appointments, the booking confirmation serves as the notification.

Can I disable the reminder for individual appointments? Yes. In the appointment details, you can deactivate the reminder on a per-appointment basis.