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Scheduling & conducting sessions

How to schedule appointments, manage your calendar, and conduct therapy sessions — telehealth, in-person, and phone.

Written by Hashem Abdou
Updated today

This guide covers scheduling appointments, managing your calendar, and running therapy sessions on Oasys, whether by video, in person, or phone.

In this article:

1. Creating an appointment

  1. Go to the Calendar tab and click Create Appointment (or click directly on a time slot).

  2. Select a client from your caseload.

  3. Choose a service type (this sets the default duration, mode, and pricing).

  4. Pick a session mode: Telehealth (video), In-Person, or Phone.

  5. Confirm the date, time, and any pricing details.

The client receives an email notification with a calendar invite. For telehealth, a secure video link is included automatically.

2. Setting up recurring sessions

For clients you see regularly:

  1. When creating or editing an appointment, select a recurring pattern (weekly, biweekly, etc.).

  2. Set an end date or number of occurrences.

  3. Recurring sessions appear as a series on your calendar.

You can reschedule or cancel a single occurrence or all future sessions in the series.

3. Client self-booking

If you've set up your availability, clients can book their own appointments:

  1. The client selects a service type from your available options.

  2. They choose a session mode (if the service supports multiple).

  3. They pick a date and available time slot.

  4. The booking is confirmed instantly (or requires your approval, depending on your settings).

💡 Tip: If you want clients to book from your website, check out the Scheduling Widget which embeds directly on your site.

4. Calendar views

  • Calendar view — a weekly or monthly grid showing appointments color-coded by client.

  • List view — a chronological list with sortable columns, filters, and search.

Appointments are color-coded by status: upcoming, in progress, completed, cancelled, and no-show.

5. Rescheduling or cancelling

Click any appointment on your calendar to open the detail modal, then:

  • Reschedule — choose a new date and time. Optionally add a reason. The client is notified.

  • Cancel — select a cancellation reason. The client is notified immediately.

  • For recurring sessions, you can reschedule or cancel a single instance or all future sessions.

Clients can also request to reschedule, which you can approve or suggest an alternative for.

6. Starting a telehealth (video) session

  1. Click Start Session on the appointment (from your Dashboard, Calendar, or My Clients tab).

  2. Your camera and microphone activate. You can toggle them on/off.

  3. The client joins from their end and enters a waiting room until you admit them.

  4. During the call, you can: share your screen, use virtual backgrounds, toggle fullscreen, and use in-call chat.

⚠️ Important: Oasys does not record video sessions. Live transcription is available but temporary — transcripts are permanently deleted once you sign your note.

7. Starting an in-person or phone session

  1. Click Start Session and select In-Person or Phone from the session mode dropdown.

  2. A session timer starts automatically.

  3. You can enable live audio transcription (not recording) to help with note-taking.

  4. Use the floating notes panel to write notes during the session.

8. During any session

While a session is active, you have access to:

  • Floating notes panel — write notes in real time with auto-save.

  • AI session preparation — a pre-session summary of client history, health data, and previous session themes.

  • AI assistant — ask questions about health data trends, get intervention suggestions, or get help with documentation.

  • File attachments — drag and drop images (JPEG, PNG, PDF, HEIC) into your notes.

9. Ending a session

  1. Click End Session when the session is complete.

  2. Review and finalize your notes.

  3. Click Sign and Lock to create a permanent record. This also permanently deletes any temporary transcripts.

💡 If you have a supervisor, you'll see Submit for Review instead of Sign and Lock. This sends the note to your supervisor for approval before it's finalized.

10. Logging a previous session

To record a session that happened outside the platform:

  1. From the Calendar or My Clients tab, select Log Previous Session.

  2. Enter the date, time, duration, and session mode.

  3. Add your notes and sign when ready.

11. Blocking time on your calendar

Not everything on your calendar is a therapy session. You can block time for meetings, breaks, admin work, personal time, or anything else — and clients won't be able to book during those hours.

How to create a time block:

From the Calendar tab, create an availability override:

  1. Select the date and time range you want to block.

  2. Optionally add a title (e.g., "Team Meeting", "Lunch", "Out of Office") and details.

  3. Save. The block appears on your calendar and prevents client bookings during that window.

Recurring time blocks

For regular commitments (weekly staff meetings, daily lunch breaks, etc.):

  • Set a frequency: weekly, biweekly, or a custom interval.

  • Set an end date or leave it open-ended.

  • Manage the series later — you can extend it, cancel future instances, or delete individual ones.

Callout:

💡 These are not billable — they're purely for managing your availability. Think of them as calendar holds that keep your schedule accurate.

💡 If you've connected Google Calendar and enabled "Block Google Calendar conflicts" in SettingsSchedulingScheduling Policies, your Google Calendar events automatically block bookings too — no need to create separate overrides for those.

12. Sessions without an appointment

You don't always need a scheduled appointment to create a session in Oasys. There are two ways to document sessions that happen outside the normal booking flow:

Log Previous Session

Use this when a session already happened and you need to add it to the system retroactively — for example, a phone call you had earlier, a session at an external location, or a session from before you started using Oasys.

  1. From the Calendar or My Clients tab, click Log Previous Session.

  2. Select the client, service type, and session mode.

  3. Enter the date and time the session took place.

  4. Add your notes, upload files, or use dictation.

  5. Save the session. It will appear in the client's session history and can be billed like any other session.

💡 Logged sessions don't require a booking — they're completely standalone. They still support AI note generation (Scribe), billing, and all other session features.

Walk-in or ad-hoc sessions

If a client walks in without an appointment, you can log the session after the fact using the same Log Previous Session flow. There's no need to create an appointment first.

13. Scheduling policies

Control how clients book, cancel, and interact with your calendar.

Where to find it: Go to Settings → Scheduling → Scheduling Policies.

Booking policies

  • Allow direct booking — let clients book without requiring your approval.

  • Require booking approval — all client bookings need your approval before they're confirmed.

  • Block Google Calendar conflicts — automatically mark time slots as unavailable when you have events on your connected Google Calendar.

  • Minimum notice period — how far in advance clients must book (e.g., 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week).

  • Maximum advance booking — how far into the future clients can book (e.g., up to 3 months). Set to unlimited if you don't want a cap.

Cancellation policies

  • Allow client cancellations — if disabled, clients cannot cancel on their own.

  • Require cancellation approval — all client cancellations need your approval.

  • Late cancellation threshold — the window before an appointment where cancellations are considered "late" (e.g., within 24 hours). Cancellations inside this window may require approval and can incur late fees.

Client reminders

  • Enable reminders — automatically send clients a reminder before their appointment.

  • Reminder timing — choose when to send (e.g., 24 hours before, 2 hours before).

14. No-show and late cancellation fees

Fees are configured per service type, not as a global setting. This lets you charge different fees for different types of sessions.

Where to find it: Go to Settings → Scheduling → Default Services, then edit a service.

No-show fees

Set a fee that applies when a client doesn't show up for their appointment:

  • You can set a single no-show fee for the service, or set different fees per session mode (telehealth, in-person, phone) if the service supports multiple modes.

  • No-show fees are applied when you mark a booking as No Show from the calendar detail modal.

  • Once marked, the no-show fee is used during billing — it appears in the Bill Sessions tab like any other billable item.

Late cancellation fees

Set a fee for cancellations that happen within your late cancellation threshold:

  • Like no-show fees, late cancellation fees can be set as a single amount or per session mode.

  • When a client cancels within the late window (configured in Scheduling Policies), the system automatically flags it as a late cancellation.

  • If you approve the cancellation, the late cancellation fee is stored on the booking and becomes billable.

  • You can still approve a late cancellation without applying the fee — it's your choice.

💡 How it all connects: The late cancellation threshold is set in Scheduling Policies (e.g., "24 hours before"). The actual fee amount is set per service in Default Services. Both need to be configured for late cancellation fees to apply.

⚠️ Note: No-show and late cancellation fees are only billable if the client's billing type is set to Cash Pay or Insurance (not "Not Billed"). If a client is set to Not Billed, fees won't appear in Bill Sessions.


Frequently asked questions

  • Can clients see my calendar?
    Clients can only see your available time slots when booking — not your full calendar or other clients' appointments.

  • What happens if I have a conflict on my Google Calendar?
    If you've connected Google Calendar, those time blocks are automatically marked as unavailable. Clients won't be able to book during those times.

  • Are video sessions recorded?
    No. Oasys never records video or audio. Live transcription is temporary and is permanently deleted when you sign your note.

  • Can I create a session without a scheduled appointment?
    Yes. Use "Log Previous Session" from the Calendar or My Clients tab. It creates a full session record without needing a booking — including AI notes, billing, and all other features.

  • What if my client doesn't show up?
    Mark the appointment as No Show from the calendar detail modal. If you've configured a no-show fee on that service type, it becomes billable in Bill Sessions.

  • How do late cancellation fees work?
    First, set your late cancellation threshold in Settings → Scheduling → Scheduling Policies (e.g., 24 hours). Then set the fee amount per service in Settings → Scheduling → Default Services. When a client cancels within the threshold, you decide whether to apply the fee.

  • Can I charge different no-show fees for telehealth vs. in-person?
    Yes. When editing a service that supports multiple session modes, you can set separate no-show and late cancellation fees for each mode.

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