Setting Up and Allocating Client Types

Set up and allocate client types in Zanda to categorize clients, improving billing accuracy, marketing, and reporting with custom classifications.

In your clinic, you deal with many different types of clients. Categorizing them based on their type would help you serve them more effectively. For example, if you’re a health provider, you might want to sort your clients into the following client types: ‘Medicare’, ‘Worker’s Insurance’, ‘Private Health Insurance' and more.

In Zanda, you can easily do this by creating Client Types. Doing so will help you bill your clients more accurately, improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and generate reports based on client types.

Setting Up Client Types

Here’s how you can easily create new client types in Zanda:

Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Clients > Client Types.
Click on Add Client Types.
Enter the name of the client type and click Save.

Allocating a Client Type to a Client

The new client types you created will be visible inside a client’s profile.

Go to the client’s profile and navigate to Profile > Details.
Select the Client Type from the dropdown box.
Click on Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Is There a Default Client Type for New Clients?

No. A new client is created with no Client Type until someone chooses one, and there is no account setting that applies a Client Type automatically. This is true however the client is created: added by a user, created inline from the appointment panel, self-registered through the Client Portal, or brought in by a data import where the Client Type column was left blank.

Having no Client Type is a normal, supported state rather than an error. You can find those clients at any time: in People > Clients > Advanced Search, the Client Types filter includes a None Allocated option.

Client Status works the same way. There is no configurable default for it either.

Why practices expect a default, and what those other settings actually do

Zanda does have several settings that fill in a field on a new client automatically, which is usually why the question comes up. None of them touches Client Type, and it is worth knowing which is which.

Default practitioner. The Default for New Clients switch on a practitioner, under User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Practitioners. This one genuinely applies to new clients, including clients who register through your Client Portal without making a booking. There can be only one per account. See Setting The Default Practitioner For New and Existing Clients.
Default Flag Applied to Bookings. A Client Portal setting that applies an appointment flag to every booking made through the portal. It flags the appointment, not the client, and it exists so you can report on where a booking came from.
The type selector in the Create Client window. When you add a profile, you choose between Client, Shared Profile, Contact, Referrer and Third Party, and that selector does default to Client. That is the kind of profile you are creating, not the Client Type list you set up in Account Settings. The two are unrelated despite the similar wording.

Automations do not help here either. Client Type is available in automations as a condition, so you can target a message at clients who already have a given type, but an automation cannot set a Client Type on a client.

How to categorise clients when there is no default

Set the Client Type as part of your normal intake, on the client’s profile under Profile > Details, or update clients in groups afterwards:

Go to Tools > Bulk Update.
Use the advanced search filters to select the clients you want, for example everyone with None Allocated as their Client Type.
Choose Update Client Type and select the type to apply.
The change is recorded in your account’s log file, listing the client numbers that were updated.

Bulk Update needs the Setup and Configure Zanda, Communication Menu and Can Add and Search Clients permissions. See Updating Profiles in Bulk.

Tip: If you are working with the Zanda API rather than the interface, Client Type is exposed there as Custom Category. It behaves the same way: the field is optional on create, and nothing is filled in for you.

If a default Client Type would help your practice, let us know through the Customer Ideas Portal (Help menu > Submit an Idea).

Checking a Client’s Type in Your Zanda Calendar

The Client Type is visible in the calendar when you hover your mouse over a client’s appointment. This way, you can quickly check what type of client you have - and invoice that client based on their type.

Searching for a Client Based on Their Client Type

When searching for clients, you can filter them based on their client type. This will give you a list of clients who fall under that client type only. Here’s how you can do that:

Go to People > Clients.
On the Search page, click on Advanced Search.
Click on the dropdown menu under Client Types and select your preferred client type.
Add other filters if you want and click on Show Filtered List at the bottom-right corner of the page to bring up the list of clients with your preferred client type.

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