Appointment types define the services your practice offers. Every booking in Tacklit is based on an appointment type, which controls the session duration, delivery mode, location, billing rules, and which practitioners can deliver it. Getting these right is important because they determine what clients see when booking online and how invoices are generated.

Only Superusers can create and manage appointment types. These are configured at the account level and apply across the service. Individual practitioners can view their assigned appointment types but cannot create new ones.

1. Go to Control Panel and select Appointment Types.

2. Click Create new appointment type.

3. Enter a name that clearly describes the service (e.g., "Initial Assessment", "Follow-up Session", "Group Therapy - Anxiety"). Clients will see this name when booking online, so make it understandable from their perspective.

4. Set the duration. Common options include 50 minutes for standard sessions, 90 minutes for initial assessments, and 30 minutes for brief check-ins. The duration controls how much calendar time is blocked when the appointment is booked.

5. Choose the delivery mode: in-person, telehealth, or both. If you select "both", the client can choose their preference when booking. Telehealth appointments will automatically include a video call link.

6. Set the location. This can be a clinic address, an outreach location, or telehealth-only. If your practice operates across multiple sites, you can assign different locations to different appointment types. For more on location setup, see the article on setting up locations for appointment types.

7. Configure billing. Set the fee amount and, if applicable, the Medicare item number or DVA item number. The billing configuration determines how invoices are generated for this appointment type. If you use automatic invoicing rules, the appointment type is what links a completed session to the correct invoice template.

8. Assign practitioners who deliver this service. Only assigned practitioners will have this appointment type available in their calendar. Clients booking online will only see the appointment type if at least one assigned practitioner has a matching working schedule with available slots.

9. Click Save.

Once saved, the appointment type becomes available for booking. If online booking is enabled and a practitioner with a working schedule is assigned, clients will see this appointment type in your digital front door. Admin staff can also use it when creating manual bookings from the calendar.

You can edit an appointment type at any time from Control Panel. Changes apply to future bookings only and will not affect existing appointments. If you need a variation of an existing type (e.g., a shorter version of the same session), use the Duplicate option to copy the configuration and adjust what you need. You can also set an appointment type to Draft if you want to temporarily remove it from availability without deleting the configuration.

For a detailed guide on editing, duplicating, deleting, and drafting appointment types, see the article on Managing appointment types.

Standard therapy practice: Create an "Initial Assessment" (90 min) and a "Follow-up Session" (50 min) as your two core types. Most practices add a "Brief Check-in" (30 min) for medication reviews or short follow-ups.

Multi-disciplinary service: Create separate appointment types per discipline (e.g., "Psychology - Initial", "Counselling - Follow-up", "OT Assessment") so that each type links to the correct practitioners and billing rules.

EAP or funded care: Create appointment types that match your funder's session categories. This ensures invoices align with contract terms and session caps are tracked correctly against the funding source.