Practice Guide
How your practice management system works, from scheduling to billing.
System Overview
This is your Practice Management System for Lasting Language Therapy. It handles patient scheduling, dose tracking, Google Calendar sync, patient messaging, billing through QuickBooks, and your AI scheduling assistant Dakota.
The system is built around your treatment plan workflow: patients come in with authorized dose counts, you schedule them week by week until their plan is complete, and the system handles coordination and notifications automatically.
Patient Roster
Every patient is either Adult or Myo. This controls which Google Calendar their appointments are written to and how they appear throughout the app.
Patients are assigned to Sandy Springs, Woodstock, or Virtual. Location controls which days they can be scheduled. Woodstock patients default to Tuesdays only. Day rules are configurable in Settings under Availability.
The notes field accepts plain-language scheduling constraints like "prefers mornings" or "Wednesdays only after 2pm." The scheduling algorithm reads and honors these. A yellow warning badge on a patient card means a note is on file.
The clinical context field stores practice-specific background shared with Dakota so it can answer patient questions accurately. This is separate from scheduling notes.
Doses & Extensions
The dose code tells the system how many sessions a patient is authorized for. The format is frequency × weeks. A patient with 2x6 is seen twice a week for 6 weeks — 12 sessions total.
Patients stay in the scheduling queue until all their authorized sessions are booked. If a patient is not scheduled in a given week, they carry forward automatically to the next week. No action is needed. When you navigate back to a past week, unscheduled patients appear greyed out to indicate they have carried forward.
Click the dose pill on any patient row to open the dose selector. When a new dose is assigned, the system records the change date as the new scheduling anchor so only sessions after that date count toward the new prescription.
Scheduling
The left panel on the Schedule page shows all patients who still need appointments for the current week, grouped by section. Drag any card onto the calendar grid to place them.
The Generate button attempts to fill the current week automatically, respecting each patient's location rules, PT schedule, personal calendar blocks, and notes constraints. It fills gaps but will not move appointments you have already placed manually.
Amanda's personal Google Calendar is read automatically. Any event blocks the corresponding slot on the scheduler with a 15-minute travel buffer before and after, preventing double-booking around personal commitments.
For patients shared with physical therapy, the scheduler only places them on days when PT has them scheduled. A purple PT badge on a patient card means an active PT schedule is on file.
Click the red × on a placed appointment to remove it. Removed appointments return to the patient queue. You can also remove appointments from within the patient detail modal.
Sending Schedules & GCal Sync
The Send / Print button opens a modal with all placed appointments. Text & Email sends an SMS and email to each patient with their appointment details. A confirm step appears before sending. Sending also updates each patient's last appointment date automatically.
The Sync GCal button pushes all current draft appointments to the Adult or Myo Google Calendar. A spinner shows while syncing, and a timestamp records when the last sync ran.
Locations
Location day rules are configured in Settings under Availability. Removing a day from a location's allowed days means no patients from that location will be placed on that day, by auto-schedule or manual drag.
PT Coordination
Some patients are seen in coordination with a physical therapist. These patients have a PT schedule on file listing specific dates and times they are with PT. The scheduler uses this to ensure Amanda's sessions happen on the same days.
Go to PT Schedules in the sidebar to upload or manage PT schedule files. Once linked to a patient, a purple PT badge appears on their card in the queue.
PT schedules have a valid-through date. When that date passes, the patient is treated as having no PT constraint and can be scheduled freely. The Schedule Analysis page flags patients whose PT schedules are about to expire.
Dakota — AI Scheduling Assistant
Dakota is an AI assistant that handles inbound patient messages automatically. When a patient texts or emails about their appointment, Dakota reads the message, checks the patient's record and available slots, and replies on your behalf.
Appointment confirmations, reschedule requests, general scheduling questions, and standard intake Q&A. Dakota uses a knowledge base written specifically for your practice.
Dakota pauses for a conversation when you reply directly in the Conversations page. An override is set automatically so Dakota does not reply over your message. It resumes after the override expires.
Dakota replies up to a configurable number of times per day per patient. This limit is set in Settings under Availability.
Billing
The Billing page connects to QuickBooks Online to sync invoices and payments. Once connected, invoices generated in the system appear in your QuickBooks account automatically. Connect or reconnect in Settings under Integrations.
Settings
Add or remove Google Calendars. Scheduling targets receive bookings; conflict sources block time slots. The Adult and Myo therapy calendars should be set as scheduling targets.
Block out dates for vacations, holidays, or any day the practice is closed. Blocked dates are respected by both the auto-scheduler and manual drag-and-drop.
Set clinic hours and working days. Per-location day rules control which days each location's patients can be seen. Dakota's daily reply limit is also configured here.
Manage your QuickBooks Online connection. If the connection expires, reconnect here to resume invoice syncing.