Once an appointment is booked, Heltio schedules two reminders on its own: the first at the time the practice sets (24 hours before by default, anywhere from 3 to 96 hours) and the second 2 hours before it starts. You do not trigger them per appointment — you set them once, for the whole clinic, in Settings → Notifications.
Do not confuse these with the Reminders in the top bar. Those are notes for you and the team; these go to the patient.
How to do it
Turn on a channel for both reminders
The Notifications screen is one table: notifications down the rows, Email, SMS and Push across the columns. The table is on the Channels tab. In the Appointments group you will find First reminder and Reminder — 2 hours before.
Flip the toggle in the column you want. Heltio confirms with Channel updated. In a new clinic, SMS is on for the first reminder and off for the 2-hours-before reminder — the confirmation and the day-before reminder are usually enough, and every SMS costs money. You turn it on with the same toggle.
Under 1 are the screen's tabs — the channel table is on the first one, Channels, and both appointment reminders sit in its Appointments group. Under 3 is a single row: one event and three channels side by side. What separates those three columns is covered in the section below — and it is the most important thing on this screen.
Check what the patient will see
Click Show preview & template. Under the Patient will see heading sits the finished text with a sample appointment's data filled in — for the first reminder it reads "Reminder: your appointment on [date] at [time] at [practice name]. Reception: [number]". The line with the number appears only when the practice profile has a phone number.
The text can't be edited — the reminder always goes out in this form. If you want it changed, get in touch with us.
Send a test message to yourself
Send test SMS takes a number in E.164 format, +48600000000 for instance. The limit is five tests per clinic per day.
Keep an eye on the SMS balance
SMS reminders draw credits from the SMS wallet. When it runs low, a SMS balance is low banner appears above the table with an Open SMS wallet link. With an empty wallet the message is marked Wallet exhausted (reminder held) and does not go out — Heltio does not send it by email instead, as the SMS wallet exhausted banner also says. Top up the wallet.
Know the rules that save SMS
- No reminder right after a confirmation. When a confirmation or a reschedule notice reaches the patient less than 6 hours before the appointment, the 2-hours-before reminder is skipped; less than 24 hours before (or, with a longer lead time, less than the lead time set) — the first reminder. The patient has only just been given the time.
- Moving an appointment several times adds up to one message. The reschedule SMS goes out after 3 minutes. Further moves within that time produce a single SMS with the latest time, moving it back to the time the patient already knows sends nothing, and a cancellation within that time sends only the cancellation SMS.
- A series of appointments gets one confirmation — reminders still arrive before each appointment separately.
- A patient can get appointment messages by email instead of SMS. Reception sets this in the patient card (communication tab, Appointment message channel), or the patient does it in the portal, under Appointment messages. Email uses no SMS credits. A patient without an email address keeps getting SMS.
What the other columns actually control
The three columns are three different mechanisms. Worth knowing before you decide something is broken.
- SMS — the only channel this table genuinely drives. The message is scheduled at booking and goes out at the appointed time.
- Push — the 24 h and 2 h notifications reach the patient in the mobile app and travel independently of this table. The patient turns them on and off on their side; see push notifications.
- Email — the switch in this column is disabled, with a hint that email sending from it is not enabled yet: Heltio does not send an email reminder from here. The exception is a patient who chose email instead of SMS themselves (see above). You send email by hand: in the calendar list view select the appointments, click Send reminder and pick the Channel — SMS, Email or SMS & Email. The same appointment accepts another reminder an hour later at the earliest.
When something doesn't work
Could not update channel — please try again.
What this means: The toggle never reached the server.
Daily test-send limit reached (5 per 24h).
What this means: The clinic has already sent five test messages within a day.
SMS wallet exhausted
What this means: The balance fell to zero, so further reminders cannot be sent.
Opt-out (blocked)
What this means: The patient replied STOP, or sending is blocked on their patient card.
Who has access
Clinic AdminThe notification table, the templates and the test sends are handled by the clinic owner and the admin only. Other roles see Admin access required. Blocking sending for one patient is set on the patient card and needs the same rights.
Related
- SMS to a patient — sender name, segments, the STOP and START keywords.
- SMS wallet and packs — where the balance comes from.
- Reminders for the team — the ones in the top bar, not for patients.
Related features
SMS to a patient
How Heltio sends SMS to patients — content and channels, message length, a custom sender name, and the STOP and START keywords.
Email to a patient
Which emails Heltio sends patients on the clinic's behalf, how to turn them on and off, and what you can change in them.
SMS wallet and packages
The clinic's SMS balance — how much is left, where it comes from, how to buy a package and how to switch on auto top-up.
Push notifications
Browser push for the team and mobile-app push for the patient — who gets what, who turns it on, and what push does not cover.