2026.10.4 a suggested order for your referral list, a same-day reply goal, and signed notes

This release is about getting through a long referral list without missing anyone. Suggest best order ranks your in-progress referrals and says why, the Reply inbox shows which patients are Due today or Late against a same-day reply goal, and a new Suggestion impact page shows how it is going each week. Notes on a prospect now say who wrote them and when, partners can be booked into the same appointment, and booking confirmations are shorter and name your clinic properly. A five-minute training video walks the intake team through the new routine.

Suggest best order on the In-Progress tab

On Intake, Prospects, In-Progress, press Suggest best order. It reads each referral's history (how old it is, how many times you have reached out, and what the patient wrote back) and puts it in one of four groups, with a one-line reason you can check before acting:

• Respond now: the patient is waiting on the clinic.
• Follow up: it's time for the next attempt.
• Wait: you just reached out, or the patient asked to be contacted later.
• Likely close-out: months without a reply, or the patient said no. Patients who said no carry a Patient said no label. A referral younger than 60 days is never suggested for closing, because many patients still book late.

Buttons above the list show one group at a time, with counts. Nothing about a record changes; closing a referral is still your decision through Returned or Withdrawn. Back to normal order returns the list to how it was. See Suggest best order.

Suggestion impact: is it working?

The Suggestion impact link next to the button opens a page that measures the suggestions against what happened next: how quickly staff contacted each group, how many patients replied, booked or were closed within 30 days, and how many referrals flagged as likely close-out booked anyway (that number should stay close to zero). It also shows, week by week, how fast patient messages get a reply. See Suggestion impact.

A same-day reply goal in the Reply inbox

The clinic's goal is to answer every patient the same business day: a message that arrives on a weekday before 4 pm gets a reply that day, and a later or weekend message by the end of the next weekday. Each waiting conversation in the Reply inbox now shows where it stands: Due today in amber, Late in red. Hover over the waiting time to see the exact deadline. Conversations the assistant handed over to staff count too.

The Suggestion impact page has a Replies and the inbox section: the share of messages answered the same business day against the 90% goal, how many conversations were marked Done without a reply, and which screens replies were sent from. See The same-day reply goal.

Notes that say who wrote them

General Notes on a prospect is now a Notes list. Type a note and press Add note: it saves straight away, without the page's Save button, and shows your name and the date and time. Only the person who wrote a note can edit or delete it, and an edited note says so. Notes written before this change are kept, read-only, under Earlier notes. See Notes.

Partners booked together

When a referral's couple is confirmed, the two prospect records are linked, and the partner shows on the patient's record. Booking the patient's appointment books the linked partner into the same appointment by default; you can untick it to book them separately. A partner who is already booked, withdrawn or returned is left as they are, with the reason on both timelines. See Partners booked together.

Editing the referral date

The referral date can now be corrected after a referral is confirmed: with the pencil in the Referral date column of the list, or on the record. Use it when the date on the letter is stale and you want the date you received it. Each change is recorded on the prospect's timeline. See Correcting the referral date.

Patient details by email, sent with the first consult

Patients can be emailed a link to review and update their own and their partner's details, matching the clinic's paper form. Staff send it with Send details update link on the prospect's Details tab. The form now shows any problem with a value already on file (for example a health card number that fails its check) as soon as it opens, and the patient's status page says "Your first appointment is booked" once it is. See The patient details email.

A booked nurse intake keeps the referral in progress

Booking a Nurse Intake Call no longer moves the referral to Completed. It shows a new Intake booked status and stays on the In-Progress tab until the consultation is booked. See Nurse intake first, then the consultation.

Easier sorting

On the prospects list and the referrals inbox, the sort icons are easier to see, and clicking anywhere in a column heading sorts by that column.

Shorter, clearer booking confirmations

Booking confirmation texts now fit in a single message, start with your clinic's name, and use the brand name set under Settings, Branding rather than the account code. A confirmation also respects SMS consent wherever it was recorded for that person (the prospect, the referral or the patient record), so a patient who agreed to texts gets one. See Booking confirmations.

Phone line in strict mode

With approved replies set to strict, the short "one moment" while the assistant looks something up is now always the approved phrase. If a caller asks again about something the clinic has not covered, the assistant says it has added that to their message for the care team instead of repeating the same line. A caller's previously confirmed identity is also checked again against the clinic's current records before it is reused. See Approved wording on calls.

Website assistant

Answers from the assistant on your website arrive faster, and each answer can link to the page on your own site it came from (Learn more) instead of showing a file name. If a lookup is slow, the assistant says it can't check right now and gives your clinic's contact details. See Answers on your website.

Training: your daily intake routine

A five-minute video and checklist for the intake team: answer patients first in the Reply inbox, work referrals with Suggest best order, and check the impact page once a week. See Your daily intake routine.