Admins can enable Direct Booking in Instinct EMR to let pet owners schedule appointments through the Pet Owner Portal. This article covers how to turn on the feature, configure which doctors and appointment types are available, set up a standalone public booking link, and disable the feature if needed.
Before you begin
Direct Booking must first be enabled for your practice by Instinct support. Contact [email protected] to request access.
To manage Direct Booking settings, you must have the admin_manage_pet_owner_portal permission.
Users with admin_view_pet_owner_portal can view Direct Booking settings, but cannot make changes to them.
Direct Booking is currently supported only for single-location practices.
Configure Direct Booking settings
Go to Admin → Pet Owner Portal → Settings.
Toggle Enable Direct Booking on.
Review and configure each setting based on what you would like to be bookable by pet owners.
Add at least one doctor to Allowed Doctors and at least one appointment type to Allowed Appointment Types. Both options must be configured for pet owners to see any available slots.
Select Save at the top right of the Pet Owner Portal settings page.
Setting | What it controls |
Enable Direct Booking (toggle) | Shows or hides the booking option in the Pet Owner Portal |
Allowed Doctors | Which doctors appear as options during booking |
Allowed Appointment Types | Which appointment types pet owners can book |
Enable Patient Creation | Allows pet owners to register a new pet during booking |
Enable New Client Booking | Activates a standalone public booking link for guests without a portal account |
Note: Doctors not added to the Allowed Doctors list will not appear in the portal, even if they have availability blocks in the calendar. Doctor filtering is optional for pet owners during booking, but the allowlist must be configured. |
Allow pet owners to add new pets during booking
To let pet owners register a new pet as part of the booking flow:
Go to Admin → Pet Owner Portal → Settings
Toggle Enable Patient Creation to on.
Select Save.
Pet owners will see an Add a Pet option at the patient selection step and can enter the pet's name, species, and breed. The pet is created in Instinct immediately.
Note: Pet owners cannot edit pet details after they are created. Staff must make any corrections in Instinct. |
Set up a shareable public booking link
The booking link lets anyone, including clients without a portal account, book an appointment. When enabled, Instinct generates a shareable URL and an embeddable iframe snippet.
Go to Admin → Pet Owner Portal → Settings.
Toggle Enable New Client Booking to on.
Select Save. Copy the link from the settings page to share on your website or directly with clients.
Guests who complete a standalone booking will have a new client record, pet record, and confirmed appointment created in Instinct automatically. Guests who already have a portal account (linked via email) are directed to sign in instead.
Warning: Enabling the standalone link allows anyone with the URL to book an appointment without an existing portal account. If you see unexpected new client records appearing in Instinct, check whether this setting is active. |
Disable Direct Booking
Go to Admin → Pet Owner Portal → Settings.
Toggle Enable Direct Booking to off.
Select Save.
The change takes effect immediately. Pet owners can no longer access the booking option in the Pet Owner Portal. Any in-progress slot holds will expire within 30 minutes. All settings are preserved, so re-enabling the toggle restores the feature without requiring any reconfiguration.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t Direct Booking appear in my Admin settings?
The feature must be enabled for your practice by Instinct support. Contact [email protected].
Direct Booking is enabled, but pet owners can't see any available times.
Check that at least one doctor and one appointment type are on their respective allowlists. Both must be populated. Also, confirm that availability blocks have been configured in the Instinct EMR calendar and are tagged with the selected appointment type.
Why isn’t the Add New Pet option showing up for pet owners?
Confirm that Enable Patient Creation is toggled on in Admin → Pet Owner Portal → Settings.
Why isn’t the standalone booking link appearing in settings?
Confirm that Enable New Client Booking is toggled on. If the toggle is on for New Client Booking and the link is not appearing, please contact Instinct support.
Unknown new clients are appearing on the Appointment Calendar.
The standalone booking link may be active and allow guest bookings. If this is unwanted, disable Enable New Client Booking in settings.
A pet owner's appointment time was taken after they selected it.
The 30-minute hold either expired or a staff member booked the same time in Instinct. When scheduling an appointment in Instinct, staff will see a prompt if a pet owner is actively booking that time slot online. They can choose to proceed and overwrite the pet owner's reservation, or cancel and select a different time.
Still need help?
Contact support via live chat or email [email protected]