Increased functionality for the automation of reminders
Go to: Clients menu > Reminder Schedule.
Enhanced functionality has been added to the Reminder Schedule in this version allowing you to automate the running of reminders.
In order to automate the running of reminders you must enter the details on the new Reminder Setup window.
A Setup button has been added to the Reminder Schedule button.
Reminder Setup window:
From this window you can enter:
Default Start Date Options - these relate to the From date on the Reminder Schedule window. Your choice of settings here will depend on how far in advance you send your reminders.
The options are:
None - No From or To dates will be displayed.
Next Monday - The From date will be displayed as next Monday's date. For example, if today is Friday, 13 January 2012, the From date will be displayed as 16 January 2012.
Next Monday + 1 week - The From date will be displayed as the date two Mondays from today. For example, if today is Friday, 13 January 2012, the From date will be displayed as 23 January 2012.
Next Monday + 2 weeks - The From date will be displayed as the date three Mondays from today. For example, if today is Friday, 13 January 2012, the From date will be displayed as 30 January 2012.
Next Monday + 3 weeks - The From date will be displayed as the date four Mondays from today. For example, if today is Friday, 13 January 2012, the From date will be displayed as 6 February 2012.
1st day of the Next Month – The From date will be displayed as the 1st day of the next month. For example, if today is Friday, 13 January 2012, the From date will be displayed as 1st February 2012.
Default End Date - this relates to the To date on the Reminder Schedule window. This setting is related to how often you send reminders, for example, use 7 days if you send reminders weekly or 14 days if you send them fortnightly.
Enter the number of days from the start date. In the example above, 7 was entered as the Default End Date, therefore, the To date is the last date included in the 7 day period starting with 16 January 2012, which is 22 January 2012.
Please note, if you select the 1st day of the next month option, VisionVPM automatically displays the correct end date for the next month, and displays zero as the Default End Date.
For example, if today was Friday, 13 January 2012, the From and To dates would be displayed as 1 FEB 12 and 29 FEB 12, being the first and last days of February 2012.
If the Default End Date is 0 and options other than None or 1st day of the next month are selected, VisionVPM will prompt the user to enter a Default End Date.
Contact Types - these are used to match the reminder output with each clients' Contact type and are based on the settings in Maintenance > Computer Defaults.
The options are:
Mail - you can select:
a) an adhoc report to print.
b) a default vet to print on the report
c) a default printer
Email - you can select an email letter to be sent.
Txt - you can select a txt letter to be sent.
Select Auto-merge Options. These are:
Automatically mark the reminders as being notified - VisionVPM will set the Notified date as today's date.
Automatically remove the reminder from the list once they have been sent - the reminder will be removed from the Reminder List window.
Automatically remove any reminders for deceased animals - VisionVPM will remove all deceased animals' reminders from the Reminder List window.
Include empty client contact types with clients setup as 'Mail' - for all clients with a blank Contact field, VisionVPM will add these to the Mail option.
Clear reminders from the list that have already been notified in the last x days - For example, if you enter 7, VisionVPM will remove reminders from the Reminder List window that have a Notified date seven days or less. This stops sending duplicate reminders.
Once you have all required details on the Reminder Schedule window, you are ready to run your reminders.
To run automated reminders
Once you have entered the details on the Reminder Setup window, VisionVPM will default to these settings whenever you run the Reminder Schedule. To change the settings, click Setup.
A Merge arrow has been added to the Reminder Schedule window and the Reminder List window.
The two options are:
Run and List Results - VisionVPM will display all selected reminder codes on the Reminder List window. This option has the same effect as if you had clicked the Run button.
Run and Auto-Merge Results - When you select this option, VisionVPM will display the following prompt:
Click Yes and VisionVPM will automatically print adhocs, email and txt reminders for all selected reminder codes according to the settings on the Reminder Schedule window.
A Merge arrow has been added to the Reminder List window.
The two options are:
Manual Merge - VisionVPM will display all selected reminder codes on the Reminder List window. This option has the same effect as if you had clicked the Merge button.
Auto-Merge Results - When you select this option, VisionVPM will display the following prompt:
Click Yes and VisionVPM will automatically print adhocs, email and txt reminders for all selected reminder codes according to the settings on the Reminder Schedule window.
No Reminder Setup settings
When you select the Run and Auto-Merge Results option from the Reminder Schedule window, and there are no automatic merge settings, one of the following prompts will be displayed:
This prompt will be displayed in the following circumstances:
You have never saved automatic merge settings on this workstation, and
automatic merge settings have been saved on another workstation.
Click Yes, and VisionVPM will display the settings of another workstation which you can change if required.
This prompt will be displayed in the following circumstances:
You have previously entered settings updated the Reminder Setup window, and then
you have removed settings and updated the Reminder Setup window.
Click Yes to display the Reminder Setup window and enter settings.
Consolidation
For automatic reminders, VisionVPM will consolidate animal names in adhoc reports and emails. VisionVPM will send multiple SMS text message for those clients with a Contact of Txt and multiple animals.
