Important: This change is currently in beta and rolling out to selected practices. If your practice has not been migrated yet, your existing setup in the Portal admin dashboard continues to work as normal.
This is Phase 3 of the online booking improvements. Phases 1 and 2 improved the patient booking experience. Phase 3 brings your practice appointment settings into Dentally itself.
What has changed in appointment settings?
Appointment reason configuration and online booking setup are now in one place inside Dentally, under 'Settings' > 'Appointments'.
Previously, you managed appointment reasons in 'Settings' > 'Diary' > 'Appointment Reasons', and configured online booking separately in the Portal admin dashboard on the Patient Portal. The new page combines both.
Has my configuration been migrated?
Yes. Your existing Portal admin dashboard settings have been migrated automatically into the new 'Appointments' page. You do not need to rebuild anything from scratch.
This includes:
All appointment reasons and their online booking toggles
Patient-facing names, categories, and descriptions
Practitioner assignments and booking zones
Prices, durations, and deposits
NHS appointment flags
What should I check after migration?
Open 'Settings' > 'Appointments' > 'Appointment reasons' and review:
Each appointment reason has the correct name, price, and duration
Online booking is turned on for the reasons you expect
The correct practitioners are assigned to each online-bookable reason
Patient-facing names and descriptions read well for your patients
Top tip: Use the 'Online' column in the table to quickly spot which reasons have online booking turned on (green 'On' tag) and which do not (red 'Off' tag).
Where is everything now?
Created appointment reasons - previously in Settings > Diary > Appointment Reasons; now in Settings > Appointments > Appointment reasons
Configured online booking per appointment type - previously in the Portal admin dashboard; now in Settings > Appointments > select a reason > Online booking section
Assigned practitioners for online booking - previously in the Portal admin dashboard; now in Settings > Appointments > select a reason > Assign online practitioners
What is still in the Portal admin dashboard?
In this release, the following settings remain in the Portal admin dashboard on the Patient Portal:
Payment plans and pricing (NHS practitioner locking, plan locking, deposits per plan, discounts)
Notification settings (booking confirmations, cancellation confirmations, site notifications)
Practice display name, portal web address, and privacy policy
Online cancellation settings
These will move into Dentally in a future release. Until then, continue to manage them in the Portal admin dashboard as you do today.
Do I need to do anything after migration?
For most practices, no action is required. Your configuration has been carried over. We recommend reviewing your appointment reasons once to confirm everything looks correct.
If anything looks wrong or is missing, contact Dentally Support.
Where can I learn more?
For a step-by-step guide to creating and editing appointment reasons, see How to set up your appointments for online booking
For an overview of all the online booking improvements, see Improved online booking patient experience details