Guides

Set Up Cliniko Availability for Your AI Receptionist

Updated 6 October 2026

Summary

When Cliniko is connected, Cliniko owns your availability — Salutant reads it live and never keeps a separate copy. So your AI receptionist can only offer times that Cliniko itself would offer for online bookings. To switch that on, do five quick things in Cliniko:

1. Turn on online bookings for your practice

2. Enable the business ("Display this business in online bookings")

3. Enable the practitioner ("Show this practitioner in online bookings")

4. Make sure your appointment types are available for online bookings

5. Set the practitioner's working-hours schedule

Once those are on, your receptionist offers exactly your open Cliniko times — automatically working around appointments, leave, lunch, meetings and any other blocks. By default every booking comes to you to approve before it's written back to Cliniko: human-in-the-loop, the way AI should work in healthcare.

> If you've already done this in Cliniko, you don't need to set any hours in Salutant — it reads Cliniko live. The one thing worth setting in Salutant is telehealth vs in person for each clinician (Cliniko doesn't carry that) — see "Telehealth vs in person" below.

This guide assumes you've already connected Cliniko to Salutant. If not, do that first.

Why this matters

Cliniko exposes "available times" to any connected app the same way it does for its own online-bookings page. If online bookings aren't fully switched on, Cliniko returns no available times — and your receptionist will correctly tell callers it has none to offer. Switching everything on below is what lets it see your real openings.

The big advantage: you manage one calendar. Set your hours, block out lunch, add leave or a "Meeting"/"Travel" block in Cliniko, and your receptionist stops offering those times — no second schedule to maintain in Salutant.

Step 1: Turn on online bookings for your practice

  1. In Cliniko, go to Settings → Online Bookings
  2. Tick "Allow your patients to book appointments online"
  3. Set your lead time (how far ahead a booking must be — e.g. 12 hours) and how far ahead bookings are offered (e.g. 6 weeks)

This is the practice-wide master switch. It's necessary, but on its own it's not enough — you also need to enable the specific business and practitioner below.

Step 2: Enable your business for online bookings

This is the step most people miss — it's separate from the master switch above.

  1. Go to Settings → Business information
  2. Under your business, click Edit information
  3. Turn on "Display this business in online bookings"
  4. Click Update business

If this is off, Cliniko returns no available times for that business — even with everything else set up.

Step 3: Enable your practitioner

  1. Go to Settings → Users & practitioners (or My info → Edit your practitioner settings)
  2. Tick "Show this practitioner in online bookings"

Step 4: Check your appointment types

Make sure at least one appointment type is available for online bookings (in the appointment type's settings) and is offered by the practitioner. Your receptionist only books the types you show in Cliniko's online bookings — the Diary step in Salutant lists them.

Step 5: Set your working-hours schedule

This is the roster that defines when you're available.

  1. From the dashboard, click My info → Edit your practitioner settings
  2. Scroll to the schedule grid
  3. Tick the days you work and set the start/end times (e.g. 9:00–17:00)
  4. Add a break for lunch if you like (e.g. 12:00–12:30)
  5. If you work across multiple businesses, use the Choose a business dropdown to set the schedule for each
  6. Click Update practitioner

White space on that grid is bookable; grey is unavailable. This is what makes your receptionist's offered times real.

What the AI does with all this

  • Offers only genuinely open times — it reads Cliniko's live availability, so existing appointments, leave, lunch breaks, meetings and travel blocks are all excluded automatically. Your receptionist never needs to know *why* you're busy.
  • Respects your rules — lead time, how far ahead you book, and the appointment types you allow online all come straight from Cliniko, and the notice period you set in Salutant applies too.
  • Brings every booking to you to approve — with review mode on (the default), the caller hears you'll confirm and the request waits in To do until you say yes. Only on approval is the appointment written into Cliniko.

Your Salutant Calendar mirrors your Cliniko diary, read live and never stored; changes are made in Cliniko.

Telehealth vs in person

Cliniko doesn't record whether a given time is telehealth or in person as a booking rule, so tell Salutant for each clinician: Settings › Team, open the clinician, and choose Offers telehealth or In person only. This doesn't change which times are bookable (Cliniko still owns that).

Troubleshooting: "My AI says there are no available times"

Work down this checklist in Cliniko:

  • Online bookings on? Settings → Online Bookings → "Allow your patients to book appointments online" is ticked.
  • Business enabled? Settings → Business information → "Display this business in online bookings" is on (the commonly-missed one).
  • Practitioner shown? "Show this practitioner in online bookings" is ticked.
  • Appointment type online-bookable? At least one type is available online and offered by the practitioner.
  • Schedule set? The practitioner has working hours for the right business.
  • Within the window? The time isn't inside your lead time, and it's within how far ahead you allow bookings.

If all of these are set and it still isn't working, press Refresh from Cliniko in Settings › Receptionist › Diary, then make a free test call (Settings › Receptionist › Test call) and ask for your next available time.

Halaxy and Nookal

The same principle applies — your practice software owns availability and Salutant reads it live. In Halaxy, online bookings must be switched on so your free times can be seen. Nookal doesn't mark appointment types as bookable online, so setup lists all your active appointment types. See Connect AI Receptionist to Halaxy and Connect AI Receptionist to Nookal.

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Set this up once and your AI receptionist offers exactly the times you're genuinely free — and you stay in control, approving every booking before it lands.

Get started or connect your practice software in the Diary step.