Clinic-Wide Settings

These settings control how your clinic appears to patients, how communications are sent, and how the system behaves by default. They apply to everyone in your organization, not just to you. Each group of settings has its own page in the settings directory, and every section below says where to find it. Open Settings in the left sidebar to browse them all, or use the search box at the top of that page.

​

Set the Default Timezone

The Default Timezone is applied to new locations by default. Existing locations keep their individually configured timezone, so changing this value does not retroactively update them.

​

Configure Communication Templates

Decoda sends automated messages to patients at various points in their journey. Customize each template below to match your clinic’s voice and policies. The Reply-To Email — the address patients see when they reply to an automated email — is not here. Set it under Settings > Patient Experience > Emails, on the Domain tab. See Emails.

• CC Email: An email address that receives a copy of all outgoing patient communications. Useful for compliance or administrative oversight.
• Manual Invoice Text: The message included in manually sent invoices. Supports variables: {first_name}, {tenant_name}, {url}.
• Quote SMS Text: Message sent to patients along with price quotes. Variables: {first_name}, {tenant_name}, {url}.
• Reservation Cancellation Text: Template for text messages sent when an appointment is cancelled. Variables: {appointment}, {start_time}, {first_name}, {tenant_name}.
• Successful Payment Text: Message shown to patients after a payment is processed.
• Call Tags: Click Manage call tags to open a window that lists the labels the AI assistant applies when tagging patient calls. Add a new label, click a label to rename it (the change saves when you click away), or use the trash icon to remove a label you no longer use. These labels also show up as filter chips on the Calls page so you can slice call activity by topic.

​

Configure Invoicing Rules

Control when and how often invoices are delivered to patients.

• Max Invoices Per Day: Limit the total number of invoices sent per day across your organization. This prevents overwhelming patients with multiple invoices in a short period.
• Max Invoices Per Minute: Rate limit for invoice delivery (this prevents the system from sending too many at once). Helps manage system load during bulk invoicing.
• Invoicing Hours: Set the start and end time window for when invoices can be sent (e.g., 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM). Invoices queued outside these hours are held until the next eligible window.
• Allow Invoicing on Weekends: Toggle whether invoices are delivered on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Exclude Holidays: Toggle whether recognized holidays are skipped for invoice delivery.

​

Customize Receipts

Tailor the look and delivery method of payment receipts.

• Receipt Logo: Upload a separate logo specifically for receipts. This can differ from your practice logo if needed.
• Automatically Send Receipts: Toggle whether receipts are sent to patients immediately after a payment is processed.
• Default Receipt Communication Method: Choose SMS or Email as the default delivery method for receipts.
• Receipt Text: Message displayed on payment receipts. Variables: {tenant_name}, {url}.

​

Configure Payment Settings

These options control how payments and billing items are presented to patients and staff.

• Processing fee handling: Pick how the card-processing fee shows up to patients. Surcharging and the Cash Discount Program can’t both be on — pick one:
  • Absorb the fee — the clinic pays the card-processing fee and patients see one price. This is the default.
  • Surcharging — the card-processing fee is added on top of the listed price when a patient pays by card. For example, a 3% fee on a $100 charge adds $3 to the patient’s bill. Not permitted in every state.
  • Cash Discount Program — listed prices are treated as card-inclusive. Patients paying by cash (or any other method you tick under Discount-eligible payment methods) get a discount off the sticker price. See the Cash Discount Program section below for the payment-method picker that appears when this is selected.
• Hide Patient Payment Plans: Toggle to hide the payment plan option from patient-facing pages. Use this if your clinic does not offer payment plans.
• Sold By Attribution: Who checkout fills in as the “Sold By” provider on new items. Pick one of:
  • Today’s appointment provider — the provider the patient saw today. This is the default. Items are left blank when the patient has no appointment.
  • Today’s appointment provider, then whoever is checking out — same as above, but walk-in sales with no appointment go to the staff member running the register.
  • Whoever is checking out — always the staff member running the register, even when the patient saw someone else today.
  • Nobody — staff choose every time — nothing is filled in; staff pick the provider on each item.
  Two rules apply no matter which option you pick. If the patient saw more than one provider today, items are left blank so staff can choose. And the options that use whoever is checking out only fill in a name for staff who are set up as providers — for front desk staff, those items stay blank.
• Item Sort Type: Choose how services and products are ordered in billing views. Options include: Category, Usage, Defined Order, Name, or Price. When Defined Order is selected, a list appears so you can drag items into the order you want. This one sits on its own page — Settings > Catalog > Checkout Item Sort Order.
• Show $0 Items in Checkout: When on, services and medications priced at $0 appear in checkout’s product search and Today’s Items. Off by default, so free items stay hidden unless you opt in.

​

Tips

Control how tip percentages are calculated when a patient picks a tip on the customer display or the tip screen.

• Tip Before Discounts: When on, tip percentages are calculated from the item subtotal before discounts are applied. Off by default — tips are calculated on the discounted total.
• Tip Scope: Which items count toward the tip-percent calculation. Pick All Items, Services Only, Products Only, or Specific Categories.
• Tip Categories: Appears when Tip Scope is Specific Categories. Pick one or more categories whose items count toward the tip calculation. The setting won’t save until you pick at least one.

​

Cash Discount Program

When you pick Cash Discount Program under Processing fee handling, an inset picker appears right below the selection.

• Discount-eligible payment methods: Tick the payment methods that qualify for the cash discount. When a patient pays with one of these, they’ll see a discount off the listed price at checkout. Payment methods are managed under payment settings; only the ones you’ve set up show up here.

​

Set the Default Home Page

The Home Page dropdown sets the default page users land on after they sign in. The list is filtered to pages enabled for your tenant — for example, if Marketing is on, Growth-related routes appear; if it’s off, they don’t. This is an organization-wide default. Individual users can still navigate freely once they’re signed in.

​

Configure Patient Settings

Define rules for patient registration.

• Create Patient Form: Lay out the form staff use to create a patient. The editor shows the form as staff will see it, with hidden fields listed underneath as Add more details buttons — click one there to put it on the form for everyone. Click any field to move it between three states:
  • Required — on the form and must be filled in.
  • Shown — on the form, can be left blank.
  • Hidden — off the form. Staff can still pull it in for one patient from Add more details at the bottom of the form.
  First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number are always required and can’t be moved. Everything else is yours to arrange: Middle Name, Email, Date of Birth, Gender, Pronouns, Preferred Name, External ID, Lead Source, Preferred Provider, Address, Marketing Preferences, and Credit Card on File. Setting Marketing Preferences to required means staff must pick Opted In or Opted Out for SMS and email marketing rather than leaving them unset. Primary Location sits below the rest and can only be required or not; it appears only when your clinic has more than one location.
• Hide appointment memos by default: When on, the patient chart Memos section starts with appointment-tied memos hidden. Staff can still flip the Hide appointment memos switch on the chart for that visit. Turn this off if your clinic usually wants appointment memos visible right away.
• Show Social History in Sidebar / Show Family History in Sidebar: Off by default. Turn either on to add that section to the patient sidebar so staff can review it without leaving the current tab. Social history still appears in the chart’s Additional Health Information section either way.

​

Configure Scheduling

Control how providers are surfaced when staff are picking who performs a service.

• Filter Providers by Service: When on, the provider list on the staff calendar only shows staff who are attached to the selected service. When off, every provider is offered, even ones who do not perform that service. Use this if your clinic offers services that only some providers are trained or licensed to perform — it stops the wrong provider from being booked by mistake.
• Calendar event title format: Choose how appointment titles read on the calendar. Each provider’s lane shows only the service(s) they are performing. Options are Patient – Services, Services – Patient, Services only, Patient name only, Initials – Services, First name – Services, Patient (preferred name) – Services, and Custom (enter manually). An example of the format you pick shows under the dropdown. Patient (preferred name) – Services uses the preferred name from the patient’s profile in place of their first name, and keeps their last name — so Katherine Smith shows as Katie Smith. Patients with no preferred name show their first name as usual. Choose Custom to type a title on every appointment yourself instead of having it built automatically.

​

Analytics

• Default Accounting Basis: Choose Cash or Accrual as the basis the analytics dashboards open in for everyone. Individual users can still switch their own view for the session without affecting anyone else. See Cash vs. Accrual Accounting for what the two bases mean and when to pick which.

​

Manage Patient Tags

Create and manage tags used to categorize patients across your organization. From this page you can add a new tag, edit an existing tag’s name or color, or delete tags you no longer use. Tags created here become available everywhere patients are tagged in the app.

​

Personal Preferences

Per-user settings like theme, calendar display options, notification sounds, and auto sign-off live on a separate page. See Personal Preferences for those settings. Your own Google Calendar connection is managed in Google Calendar.

​

Advanced Configuration