Appointment Feature & Appointment Lists

Below you will find instructions on how to utilize the appointment feature within Link2Feed as well as manage appointment lists. 

This article covers the following topics: 

• Appointment Feature
  • Caseload Feature
  • How do I set up the Automatic Appointment Status Change feature?
• How do I create an Appointments List?
  • Bulk changing statuses 
  • Changing individual client statuses 
  • Viewing Consent Status in Appointment Lists
  • How to add Identification details to Appointment Lists
• How do I create a Packing List?

Appointment Feature

This type of visit is used to schedule a visit or delivery that will occur in the future, setting the status as Pending. It will allow you to create an appointment. This will not be saved as an actual visit unless the status of the appointment is changed to confirm the provisions were picked up. This status is Collected. Appointments can be set for any program, including generic ones. Additionally, these visits will only show on reporting or exports if they have the status Collected. 

In order to set up an appointment you can follow these steps for a program that has appointments enabled:

1. Click on the Services page within your client's profile. See How do I search for clients? to learn how to find your client's file. 
2. Click on the New Appointment button to schedule an appointment. Please note that the New Appointment button may not necessarily be labeled New Appointment, but instead will be the name of the program you are adding the Appointment Feature to. To learn more about programs see Program Types & Program Names.
3. A pop-up window appears when entering the pickup time when creating an appointment. It also has bigger up/down arrows to make it easier to enter the time. If your user settings are set to AM / PM for time preferences, an additional box will be available to select AM or PM. 
4. The following fields will need to be filled out:
    
   • Pick-Up Date: automatically set to the current date. This can be changed manually if the pick-up or delivery date will be at a future date. This CANNOT be a date in the past unless the Status is set to Collected before entering the date and time information. 
   • Pick Up Time: can be added upon request; the time of the appointment. 
   • Location: automatically set to the location the user is currently linked to. This can be manually changed if the pick-up or delivery location is another agency that the user has access to. 
   • Status: automatically set to Pending. This can be changed during the different stages of product pick-up. Other statuses include Packed, Shipped, Collected, Not Collected, Rescheduled, and Cancelled. 
   • Quantity: enter how much food supplied was given out. This word can vary from days, lbs, kgs, money, points, hamper, or items. 
   • Provisions: enter or check off provisions listed that were provided to the household. 

Customizable statuses

The appointment statuses can be customized. This includes: 

• deactivating statuses that don't apply to your network. 
• renaming statuses. 
• creating statuses with the same parent type. 

Network Administrators click here for more information on how to modify this information within lists. 

Why can't I select a status? You cannot record a visit if no appointment statuses have been set. They need to be added to the Appointment Statuses on the Administration > Lists page. We recommend setting a minimum of two statuses, with a parent type of Pending and Collected. This will ensure that your appointments can be recorded and collected. 

Recording a visit

• To have the appointment recorded as a visit, go back to the client's profile and click the edit icon beside the appointment you want to change. 
• From the dropdown list of the status, change it to Collected and save your changes. 
• An appointment will only be recorded as a visit if its status is changed to Collected. No other status will count as a visit. 

Tips: You can find blue question marks at the top of certain sections. Clicking on it will provide a small reference of more information on how to complete the area you are filling out.

Caseload Feature 

If using the appointment module, you can set your own caseload by weight or time. This is something done at the program settings level click here for information on how to customize program settings. 

How do I find appointments? 

When recording a new appointment, you can search for open/available appointments by location using the Appointment Finder by following these steps: 

1. When entering an appointment for a program with the Caseload Feature enabled you will have the option to search between a start and end date or you can leave these blank to see all available appointments. 
2. The dropdown under Appointments will generate a list. 
3. The number in brackets indicates how many appointments can be set at that date and time. 
4. You also have the option to select See More to see the full list in a table. 
5. When the table is open you can click on Select to choose the Pick Up Date and Time. If you are just selecting from the dropdown list you can simply click the Date and Time you would like. 
6. Continue the rest of the appointment details as usual, see the above section Appointment Feature for more information on how to add an appointment. 

If you try to add an appointment to a day and time that is already at its capacity, a pop-up will appear notifying you but will allow you to add the appointment anyway. This is a setting that can be changed to force the caseload restrictions to be enforced. When this setting is on, workers will not be able to create appointments over the caseload limit.

Statuses: Statuses that are Rescheduled, Not Collected, and Cancelled will not count toward the caseload capacity for that time period.

How do I set up the Automatic Appointment Status Change feature?

In order to be able to set this up at the agency level a Network Administrator will need to enable this within their Case Management settings under Appointments.

The Automatic Appointment Status Change feature allows you to have appointments in a Pending parent type status to be automatically changed to the Not Collected parent type status after a set amount of days indicated in the setting itself. 

When this setting is enabled each agency will have the ability to change this within their Case Management settings by following these steps:

1. On the left-hand side of the screen select Administration. Then select Settings. 
2. Under the C MGMT SETTINGS tab, scroll down to the Appointments section. 
3. Beside Track Appointment Status Change After X Days enter the number of days you would like to pass before an appointment is automatically changed from Pending status to Not Collected. 
4. Click on Save Changes. 

Pending and Not Collected represent the Parent Types of the status, not the label name. After the number of days indicated for this setting, the system will look at all appointments that have a status with the Pending Parent Type and will change it to the status with the Not Collected Parent Type. If your appointment status list has more than one status with those parent types, it will use the first status listed alphabetically.

How do I create an Appointments List?

This list creates a detailed list of client information, including the household size, pick-up date, and provisions. For a general breakdown of how many hampers of each size/type were distributed by each organization, please see How do I create a Packing List?

In order to create an Appointment List please follow these steps: 

1. On the left-hand side of the screen select Clients then select Appointments List. 
2. At the top you will see a Filters section, here you will define the following:
   
   • Location: the location where the clients will be picking up their provisions.
   • Status: the status of the appointment; Any includes all statuses. 
   • Program Type: the program type the appointments were booked under please review Program Types & Program Names for more information on these. 
   • Start Date / End Date: the date range of when provisions are to be picked up. 
3. Click on the Filter button to generate the pick-up list. 
4. Click on the Folder icon to view more details about the appointment. 
5. At the top of the Filters section, you will also see various options to export the details: 
   • Copy: copies the list. 
   • CSV: Downloads a CSV file of the list.
   • Mail Merge: downloads a CSV file of the list that includes client addresses.
   • Print: Prints the list. 

Bulk changing statuses 

Users can update multiple appointment statuses at once. By selecting one status, users can check off several appointments and update them with one click. If changing the appointment status to Collected and the appointment requires a signature, the system will show a pop-up notification to still capture that signature for that client. 

Changing individual client statuses 

With this feature, client statuses can be updated individually. In the same spot where you would normally see a status, you will now see a drop-down menu so you can action client appointment statuses individually. 

Viewing Consent Status in Appointment Lists

Intake users and above can view the consent status within the Appointment List. This will allow agency managers to contact their clients to follow up on appointments and visits. 

This information will be displayed within its own column titled Consent Status for the Appointment List.

For more information on enabling these consent to contact options please click here. 

How to add Identification details to Appointment Lists

You may notice that when you download an appointment list as a .CSV you will see an extra column listed with no details titled Identity Documents.

By following the steps below you can enable this field to show the ID Type and Confirmation entered within the clients Personal tab. This information will also appear beneath the Full Name of the client within the Appointment List.

To enable this setting:

1. Navigate to the Network.
2. Select Administration then Settings.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the Intake Settings section and toggle Identification on Appointment List On or On Optional (if only some agencies will utilize this).
4. Select Save Changes or Save and Next.

How do I create a Packing List?

This list creates a general breakdown of how many hampers of each type/size were distributed by each organization. For a list including client household information and dates of pick-ups, please see How do I create an Appointments List? above.

To create a Packing List please follow these steps: 

1. On the left-hand side of the screen select Clients then select Appointment Packing List. 
2. Choose your filter(s):
    
   • Location: the location where the clients will be picking up their provisions.
   • Status: the status of the appointment; Any includes all statuses. 
   • Program Type: the program type the appointments were booked under please review Program Types & Program Names for more information on these. 
   • Start Date / End Date: the date range of when provisions are to be picked up. 
3. Click on the Filter button to generate the packing list. 
4. At the top of the Filters section, you will also see various options to export the details: 
   • Copy: copies the list. 
   • CSV: Downloads a CSV file of the list.
   • Print: Prints the list.