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Online Appointments for Groups

Online Appointments for Groups is our first optional add-on, for an additional $15 per practitioner, per month. It is compatible with all plans and can be added to your subscription and cancelled at any time.

With Online Appointments for Groups, you can securely host unlimited online sessions for up to 12 related clients at once. This feature is meant for multiple clients who know each other and are joining virtually online from separate locations (or on separate devices). Examples of Group Online Appointments are family and couples therapy sessions.

All calls are HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR-compliant. To learn more, check out our Online Appointments and Privacy Laws guide.

This guide will go over:

Once you are done, you may also want to check out the other Online Appointments for Groups guides:

💡 Before we dive in, it’s important to note that Online Appointments for Groups cannot currently be used to meet with a group of unrelated clients who do not know each other (e.g., a fitness class or group therapy). This is a functionality that the team is actively exploring, and if this would make the feature more helpful to you, we’d love for you to share your feedback here.

Alright, let’s get started! ⤵️


Enabling Online Appointments for Groups

Psst…do you have any customized language in your account sharing an external link to a third-party video platform? Be sure to remove that language before enabling this feature for your practitioner to avoid your clients receiving two links.

The first step in using Online Appointments for Groups is to enable it for any practitioners who offer this type of service. Note:These steps will need to be completed by a Full Access user.

Start by heading to Settings and scroll down to Online Appointments for Groups.

From here, you can use the toggles to enable all the practitioners who will offer Online Appointments for Groups. As a reminder, a Group Online Appointment is any appointment where more than two related clients join virtually online from separate locations (or on separate devices).

💡 You do not need to enable Online Appointments for Groups for practitioners who only offer 1:1 Online Appointments. A 1:1 Online Appointment is where one practitioner and one client join the call. Jane’s 1:1 Online Appointments is available for all accounts at no extra cost.

Don’t forget to hit Save!

A pop-up will appear confirming the changes to your account and notify you of the per-practitioner charge for using Online Appointments for Groups. When you’re ready, click Confirm to save those changes.


Setting up a Group Online Appointment

To set up a Group Online Appointment, start by navigating to Settings > Sessions, Classes & Group Appointments > New Session. Note:These steps will also need to be completed by a Full Access user.

  • From the first drop-down, select Group Appointment.
  • Next, select the Capacity of the Group Appointment. This is the maximum number of clients that can attend the session. For example, here we’re creating an Online Family Counselling session type, and in this fake clinic, we typically see family units with up to 4 participants. So in this example, let’s choose a maximum of 4 participants.
  • You’ll also want to select Online Appointment to allow you to connect virtually with your clients.

And those are all of the unique fields you need to select to set up a Group Online Appointment! From here, you’ll want to finish filling out the rest of the preferences as you would a standard session. For an in-depth walkthrough on how to configure the remaining settings, check out our guide on Setting up Your Treatments.

💡 It’s important to note that Group Online Appointments can only be created for practitioners who have Online Appointments for Groups enabled. You may experience some error messages while creating sessions if you’re trying to assign a session to a staff member who is not enabled for Online Appointments for Groups.

If you are creating a shared session and no staff in the discipline are enabled, you may also receive an error. You’ll need to enable at least one staff member in the discipline to create the session successfully.


Scheduling a Group Online Appointment

You can schedule an Online Group Appointment the same was as all other appointment types. You’ll want to head to the schedule and click on the time when you’d like to book the session.

The Appointment window will slide out to right, and you can select the drop-down at the top and choose the Online Group Appointment you’re wanting to book.

You can learn more about managing (adding and arriving) clients in an Online Group Appointment, by reading our guide on Group Appointments.


Disabling Online Appointments for Groups for a Practitioner

If you’d like to disable this feature for a practitioner, you’ll first want to ensure they have no upcoming Group Online Appointments on their schedule. If there are upcoming Online Group Appointments on their schedule, you can move those to another practitioner with Online Appointments for Groups enabled, or choose to Cancel or Delete them and rebook as a one-on-one appointment.

Once there are no longer any upcoming Group Online Appointments, you can head to the Staff tab > click on the staff member’s name > Sessions, Classes & Group Appointments > disable the toggle next to any Online Group Appointments.

The final step is to head into your Settings > Online Appointments for Groups and disable the practitioner in the list. You’ll see the same pop-up confirming the changes you’re making to the account. Don’t forget to Save the changes.


If you have any questions about Online Appointments for Groups, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

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