Carepatron lets you manage the physical things your practice uses alongside a practitioner's time. Set up a resource once, attach it to a service, and every appointment for that service automatically reserves it.
Online booking only offers time slots where both the practitioner and the required resource are free, stopping double-bookings before they happen.
Who this applies to: Workspace admins set up and manage resources. All practitioners can view resource reservations on the calendar and add resources to individual appointments. The feature is dormant until a resource is added, so existing workflows are unaffected.
Terms used in resource management
Here are the essential terms you need to know:
Resource: A finite physical thing that the practice uses alongside a practitioner, such as a treatment room, a chair, or a piece of equipment
Resource group: A collection of interchangeable resources. Booking against a group automatically picks whichever member is free at that time
Resource requirement: A resource or group attached to a service, so every appointment for that service reserves one automatically
Reservation: The hold an appointment places on a resource for its time window. Both online booking and the calendar read from reservations.
Busy: A resource already reserved by another appointment in the same time window. Practitioners are warned but never blocked from selecting it.
Location: The clinic is a resource based in. A resource is only offered for appointments at its own location.
Creating a resource
Resources are created and managed under Scheduling Settings. Workspace admin access is required.
Go to Settings> Scheduling> Resources.
Select New resource.
Enter a name and choose the location it is based in.
Click Save.
Repeat for each resource.
Location is required to attach a resource to a service. A resource saved without a location can only be added manually to individual appointments by practitioners, not set as a service requirement.
Creating a resource group
A resource group lets a service require "any treatment room" rather than one specific room, keeping every slot bookable instead of only those where a named room is free.
Go to Settings> Scheduling> Resources.
Select New group.
Name the group and choose its location.
Add resources by typing their names. They inherit the group's location.
Click Save. The group is now available as a resource requirement on any service.
How group booking works: When a group is required, whichever member is free at the booked time is reserved automatically. Practitioners can also swap to a specific member of the group for individual appointments.
Adding a resource requirement to a service
Once a requirement is set, every appointment and online booking for that service reserves the resource automatically with no per-appointment effort required.
Go to Scheduling>Settings>Services.
Open the service.
Find the Resource requirements panel and add the resource or group the service needs.
Save the service. From this point, every booking of this service reserves a resource.
What clients see when booking a service with a requirement
Online booking calculates availability from both the practitioner's schedule and the required resources. A time slot is only shown to a client when both are free.
Slots where the resource is busy are hidden: Clients can only book times the practice can actually deliver.
Availability is rechecked at the moment of booking: If a slot was taken while the client was selecting, they are returned to choose another time.
Group resources are assigned automatically: When a resource group is required, the free resource is reserved without any action from the client or practitioner.
Three ways to see resource reservations on the calendar
Resource badge on appointment cards: The reserved resource is shown on each appointment card in the calendar view.
Resources filter in the left rail: Filter the calendar to show only appointments that include a specific resource.
Group by resource calendar view: Switch to a view with one column per resource to see the whole day's room and equipment utilisation at a glance.
What happens when you deactivate or delete a resource
Deactivating: Stops the resource from being chosen for new appointments. Existing bookings and configuration are untouched.
Deleting: Removes the resource and its reservations. Deleting a resource never deletes the appointments it was reserved against.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to set anything up to use Resource Management?
No setup is required to access the feature. It becomes active as soon as you add a resource and attach it to a service. Until then, nothing about your existing schedule changes.
What happens if a practitioner tries to book a busy resource?
A warning icon and a Busy chip appear on the resource picker, but the practitioner is not blocked. They can still save the appointment using that resource if the situation requires it.
Can a practitioner add a resource to an appointment that is not required by the service?
Yes. Practitioners can add resources to any single appointment independently of what the service requires, and can swap a group requirement to a specific member of that group.
Can resources be shared across locations?
No. A resource is only offered for appointments at the location where it is based. This prevents a room in one clinic from being reserved for an appointment at another.
How do resources work with programs?
A standard program applies one set of resources across every session. A custom program lets each session choose its own resource, so a six-week program can hold the same room throughout or a different room each week.
Our team is here to help with any questions or concerns. Just open a conversation through the Help channel in your workspace.