When a booking confirmation was held back
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Very occasionally, a patient books online but does not get their confirmation email. The booking itself is fine and sits in your diary as normal. This article explains why it happens and how to send the confirmation yourself.
Why a confirmation is held back
For online bookings that confirm without a payment, automatic confirmation emails are capped at ten per email address per hour. Confirmations following Stripe payment do not use this cap. It is rare to reach that, but it can happen when someone books several family members under one email address, or makes lots of bookings in a row.
When that limit is reached, the booking still goes through. A clinic notification is still attempted if you have set your contact email. Only the patient's confirmation email is held back.
Sending it yourself
- Open the appointment on the Calendar.
- Look for the note saying the booking confirmation could not be emailed when this was booked.
- Press Resend confirmation.
When it has gone you will see Sent: the confirmation has been emailed to the patient. The note identifies confirmations held back by this limit. If you do not see it, that does not prove the email arrived: check the patient's messages or contact support if you need help.
If it will not send
The drawer tells you why. The usual reasons are:
- The appointment has since been cancelled.
- The patient has no email address on their record.
- Booking confirmation emails are switched off in your messaging settings.
- The patient does not receive automated emails.
- The confirmation has already been sent. A held confirmation can be sent successfully only once for each appointment.
- The resend-attempt limit has been reached: a five-minute appointment cooldown or twelve per patient per hour. The message tells you how long to wait.
- The email could not be delivered just then. If a send attempt fails, check the patient's message history and contact support if the resend button disappears or says the confirmation has already been sent.