What You Need to Know
Appointment Requests and Direct Booking requests appear in different places.
Appointment Requests appear under Schedule > Requests. Direct Booking appointments land directly on the Shepherd calendar.
New client requests do not automatically create a Shepherd client or patient record. After reviewing a new client's request, staff must create the client and patient records manually.
Deposits paid through the portal create a credit balance — they do not automatically apply to an open invoice.
Staff must manually apply the credit to the correct invoice after a deposit is received.
A medication only appears in a client's refill list when the prescription has available refills, is still valid, and the product is active in Shepherd.
If a client reports a medication is missing, check all three before escalating.
Appointment Requests
Shepherd supports three scheduling workflows through the Pet Portal. The active mode is set in Admin > Client Communication > Pet Portal > Client Settings.
Appointment requests appear in Shepherd under Schedule > Requests. A red dot on the Schedule menu alerts you to new or pending submissions.
1. Appointment Request
The client submits a request with their preferred days, times, and reason for visit. Staff review the request and suggest an available time.
To suggest an appointment:
Navigate to Schedule > Requests and locate the appointment request.
Click the dropdown arrow on a request to view the details.
Click Suggest Appointment.
Select an available time slot from the calendar view.
Fill in the remaining appointment details (type, optional note).
Click Suggest Appointment again to apply it to the schedule and trigger an email notification to the client.
Suggested appointments move to Pending Confirmation until the client responds.
2. Direct Booking with Appointment Request + Confirmation
The client selects a specific available time slot, but staff must confirm before the appointment is officially scheduled. These requests also appear under Schedule > Requests and follow the same review process as Appointment Requests.
3. Direct Booking
The client selects and books an appointment directly without staff confirmation. These appointments appear directly on your Shepherd calendar, marked with a direct booking icon for quick identification. No staff action is required unless a change is needed.
After You Suggest an Appointment
Once staff suggest a time, the client can respond in three ways:
Confirm — The client selects Schedule if the suggested time works. The appointment moves to Scheduled and is marked Upcoming. No further action is needed.
Reschedule — The client selects Reschedule and suggests alternate availability. The appointment returns to the Requests tab for staff to suggest a new time.
Cancel — The client can cancel at any point. The appointment moves to the Canceled section in Shepherd.
Appointments submitted by new clients include an indicator badge on the appointment block in your calendar for easy identification.
Prescription Refill Requests
Prescription refill requests appear on the Shepherd dashboard under Rx Refill Requests. From there, you can approve or deny the request.
To approve a refill:
Locate the request under Rx Refill Requests on the dashboard.
Review the prescription details.
Click Approve Refill.
Once completed, a prompt will appear to notify the client by email or text that their medication is ready for pickup.
To deny a refill:
Select Deny Refill from the request. The request will be removed from the queue.
If a client reports a medication isn't showing up in their portal refill list:
A medication only appears when the prescription has available refills remaining, is still within its valid period, and the associated product is active in Shepherd. Check all three. If all three are confirmed and the medication still isn't appearing, contact Shepherd support.
Online Payments and Deposits
Clients can pay outstanding invoices or leave a deposit through the portal. This feature requires Shepherd Pay.
Deposits and invoices work differently. When a client leaves a deposit through the portal, the payment is added as a credit balance on their account — it is not automatically applied to an open invoice. Staff must apply the credit to the correct invoice manually.
To find portal payments and unapplied credits:
Check the Shepherd Pay Batch Report
Run the Accounts Receivable Report filtered by Credit Balance to identify unapplied funds
To apply a credit balance, open the client's account and apply the credit from their payment history to the appropriate open invoice.
For more help with Shepherd Pay, read:
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to Shepherd records when a new client submits a request?
When a new client submits a request or uses Direct Booking, the appointment request appears in Shepherd but a client and patient record is not automatically created. Staff must create those records after reviewing the request.