> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decodahealth.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# General Preferences
> Configure communication templates, invoicing rules, receipts, and clinic-wide defaults.
**First-time setup:** General Preferences is typically one of the first pages to configure when setting up a new organization. Complete this before inviting staff or scheduling appointments.
This is where you customize patient-facing messages and configure invoicing behavior — it's typically one of the first pages you set up. Your practice name, logo, and brand colors now live on the separate [Brand](/modules/settings/brand-colors) page.
The General Preferences page controls organization-wide settings that affect how your clinic appears to patients, how communications are sent, and how the system behaves by default. Navigate to **Settings > General** to access these options.
Changes auto-save about a second after you stop editing — there's no Save button on this page. A save indicator at the top shows when an update is in progress.
**Looking for your practice name, logo, or introductory text?** Those moved to the dedicated [Brand](/modules/settings/brand-colors) page (**Settings > Brand**), alongside your brand colors.
## 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.
* **Reply-To Email:** The email address patients see when they reply to automated emails from your clinic.
* **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}`.
* **Receipt Text:** Message displayed on payment receipts. Variables: `{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.
* **Quote SMS Text:** Message sent to patients along with price quotes. Variables: `{first_name}`, `{tenant_name}`, `{url}`.
## Configure Payment Settings
These options control how payments and billing items are presented to patients and staff.
* **Pass Fee to Patient:** When enabled, the credit card processing fee is added to the patient's total instead of your clinic absorbing it. For example, a 3% fee on a \$100 charge adds \$3 to the patient's bill.
* **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.
* **Auto-Assign Sold By Provider:** When enabled, the provider from today's appointment is automatically set as the "Sold By" provider during checkout. Turn this off if you want staff to pick the selling provider manually each time.
* **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.
* **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.
### Dual Pricing
If your clinic uses dual pricing (a separate cash price for certain settlement types), a **Dual Pricing** panel appears below the payment settings.
* **Cash Settlement Types:** Tick the settlement methods that should bill at the item's cash price instead of its regular price. Settlement types are managed under payment settings; only the ones you create show up here.
Dual Pricing only appears if it has been enabled for your organization. If you do not see this panel, contact support to discuss whether dual pricing is right for your clinic.
## Set the Default Home Page
Under the **Navigation** section, 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.
* **Required Patient Fields:** Select which patient profile fields are mandatory when staff create a new patient. Options include email address, phone number, date of birth, external ID, address, gender, first name, last name, lead source, **Marketing Preferences** (require staff to pick **Opted In** or **Opted Out** for SMS and email marketing instead of leaving them unset), and credit card on file.
## 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**, and **Custom (enter manually)**. A live example updates as you pick. Choose **Custom** to type a title on every appointment yourself instead of having it built automatically.
**Filter Providers by Service** applies to manual booking from the staff calendar. Provider-to-service assignments are managed in **Settings > Services** on each service's **Providers** tab.
## 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](/guides/cash-vs-accrual) 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 the Patient Tags section at the bottom of the General 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](/modules/settings/preferences) for those settings. Your own Google Calendar connection is managed in [Google Calendar](/modules/settings/google-calendar).
## Advanced Configuration
The Google Calendar integration on the General page connects a single, centralized Google account for the whole organization. Decoda uses this account for appointment events, meeting links, and patient invitations.
1. Scroll to the **Google Calendar Integration** section in General Settings.
2. Click **Connect Google Calendar** and sign in with the Google account you want to centralize on.
3. Authorize Decoda to read and write calendar events.
Once connected, the section shows a green dot and the email address that's linked. To switch accounts, click the button again and sign in with a different Google account.
**Choose which calendar to use.** If the connected account has more than one calendar, the **Sync calendar** dropdown lets you pick which one Decoda creates and updates appointment events on. It defaults to the account's primary calendar. Changing it affects appointments going forward.
**Disconnect everyone.** Click **Disconnect** to remove the centralized connection and every staff member's Google Calendar link at once, and stop sync for all of them. Events already in Google stay in Google, and anyone can reconnect later. Only admins can connect, choose a calendar, or disconnect.
Individual staff members can connect their own personal Google Calendar from [Settings > Google Calendar](/modules/settings/google-calendar). The centralized account is used for appointment events when it is connected. Provider calendars can be used for appointments in clinics that do not use a centralized calendar.
The **Idle Sign-out Timeout** setting controls how long a user can remain inactive before being automatically signed out. Shorter timeouts improve security for clinics where multiple staff share workstations. Toggle it on under **Authentication & Session** in General Settings, then enter the timeout duration. Turn the toggle off to disable automatic sign-out.
For organizations that require strict network security:
1. Add allowed IP addresses or CIDR ranges to the list under the **IP Blocking** section.
2. (Optional) Use **Exempt Users** to pick staff members who should be able to sign in from any IP address — useful for owners or remote admins who travel.
3. Toggle **Enable IP Blocking** on. Once enabled, only users from allowed IP addresses (or those on the exempt list) can sign in.
Use caution when enabling this feature. If your office IP changes or is entered incorrectly, staff may be locked out. Contact support if you need to reset IP restrictions.
**Restrict clock-in to clinic network** is a separate switch in the same section. When on, staff can only clock in from an allowed IP address (for example, the clinic Wi-Fi) — every other action is unaffected. It uses the same allowed-IP list, so add at least one address before turning it on. Staff who try to clock in from elsewhere see a prompt to reconnect to the clinic Wi-Fi.
Viewing and editing the General page is gated by the broad workspace settings permissions:
* **View Settings** — Required to open the General page.
* **Manage Settings** — Required to edit any field on the page. Without it, the page is read-only.
Admin users have full access by default.
Some sub-areas of Settings (for example, payment settings, scheduling settings, tags, locations, and developers) have their own more granular read/write permissions. If a teammate can open General but not a sibling page like Locations or Developers, check those role-specific permissions in **Settings > Roles**.
The following variables can be used in communication templates. The system replaces them with actual values when messages are sent.
| Variable | Description | Available In |
| --------------- | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| `{first_name}` | Patient's first name | Invoice text, Cancellation Text, Quote SMS |
| `{tenant_name}` | Your organization's name | Invoice text, Receipt text, Cancellation Text, Quote SMS |
| `{url}` | Payment, receipt, or quote link | Invoice text, Receipt text, Quote SMS |
| `{appointment}` | Appointment details | Cancellation Text |
| `{start_time}` | Appointment start time | Cancellation Text |