Practice by Numbers can automatically send forms to new patients and patients with upcoming appointments, helping your team collect required forms before the patient's visit while reducing manual outreach.
There are two automation options:
New Patient Form — Automatically sends forms as part of your new patient workflow.
Upcoming Appointment Patient Form — Sends forms and reminders to existing patients before an upcoming appointment.
Each automation can be activated and configured independently.
Access Patient Form Automations
Navigate to Forms.
Select Settings.
Scroll to the New Patient Form and Upcoming Appointment Patient Form sections.
Use the Active toggle in the applicable section to enable or disable that automation.
New Patient Form Automation
Use the New Patient Form automation to automatically send forms to new patients.
Once the automation is active, configure the communication method, filters, and consent-form options described below.
This helps ensure new patients receive the forms they need without your team having to manually send them for each appointment.
Upcoming Appointment Patient Form Automation
Use the Upcoming Appointment Patient Form automation to send forms to existing patients before their appointments.
The main difference with this automation is that you can configure up to two reminder points.
For each reminder, select how many days before the appointment the form request should be sent.
For example:
First reminder: 3 days before
Second reminder: 1 day before
Choose reminder timing that gives patients enough time to complete their forms before arriving. Each reminder can use Email, SMS, or the communication options appropriate for your practice.
Configure Your Automation
The following options are available when configuring your patient form automations.
Email and SMS
Use Email and/or SMS to determine how patients receive the automated form request.
The available message controls include:
Test — Test the applicable message.
Preview — Review what the patient will receive.
Edit — Customize the Email or SMS template.
Preview your messages before activating the automation to ensure the instructions are clear and that patients understand what they need to complete.
Filters
Filters allow you to prevent automated forms from being sent when they are not needed.
You can exclude patients based on:
Services — Exclude patients when selected services are scheduled.
Chairs — Exclude patients scheduled in selected chairs.
Tags — Exclude patients with selected patient tags.
For example, if certain appointment types do not require your standard form package, use the Service filter to exclude those appointments.
Tip: Review your filters periodically, especially when your practice adds new services, chairs, or patient tags.
Include Consent Forms
Enable Include Consent Form when applicable consent forms should be included with the automated form request.
Consent forms containing custom merge tags are not supported in Patient Form Automations.
Merge Tags
Supported merge tags can automatically pull applicable patient or appointment information into a consent form, but the tag must match the supported syntax exactly.
For example, the supported tooth-number tag is: {{ teeth_numbers }}
Similar variations are not supported:
{{ tooth_numbers }}{{ teeth_number }}{{teeth numbers}}
If a tag does not exactly match a supported tag, Practice by Numbers treats it as a custom merge tag. The system will not display an error, but the expected information will not automatically populate.
Tip: Copy supported merge tags exactly as provided rather than typing or modifying them manually.
For more information about consent forms and merge tags, see Configuring Consent Form Settings.
Test Campaign
Use Test Campaign to test your form workflow before relying on the automation for patient communication.
Testing is especially helpful when:
Setting up an automation for the first time.
Changing reminder timing.
Updating Email or SMS templates.
Changing filters.
Adding or updating forms or consent forms.
Select the applicable form invite campaign or test workflow, then use Test to run the test. Review the results to confirm the automation is behaving as expected before using it with patients.
Troubleshooting
If a patient does not receive an expected automated form request, check:
Is the applicable automation Active?
Is the patient's service, chair, or tag excluded by a filter?
Are Email and/or SMS configured correctly?
If a consent form is expected, is Include Consent Form enabled?
Does the consent form contain a custom or incorrectly formatted merge tag?
Were your changes saved?
If you make corrections, test the workflow again before relying on the automation.
Before You Finish
Before activating your automation:
Confirm the correct automation is Active.
Review your Email and SMS messages.
Set reminder timing for Upcoming Appointment forms.
Review service, chair, and tag filters.
Include consent forms when appropriate.
Confirm supported merge tags are entered correctly.
Save your changes.
Test the workflow.