# Notification Settings

Control the messages Veterian sends your clients — the channels, the switches that stop them, and how to check what was actually sent.

Veterian sends messages to your clients on its own — appointment reminders, vaccine reminders, invoice notices. This page is about what controls them.

It is worth reading before you start entering records, because these messages go to real people. More than one clinic has discovered the switches by sending a reminder to someone who did not expect one.

## The Three Levels

A message reaches a client only if nothing has switched it off. Three separate places can:

| Level | Where it lives | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| The clinic | **Clinic Admin** → **Notification Settings** | What your clinic sends at all |
| The client | The client's own record | Which channels that person accepts |
| The single record | The appointment or vaccination itself | Whether this one sends |

They combine, and the strictest one wins. If a client has SMS switched off, turning reminders on for one appointment will not reach them by SMS.

> **Note**
> When an expected message does not arrive, this is the order to check in: *Please make sure you have enabled the notifications in the clinic settings and customer settings.*

## The Channels

Veterian can reach a client four ways: **Email**, **SMS**, **Mobile App** and **WhatsApp**.

Which are available to your clinic depends on your setup. Whether a given client receives any of them is decided on their record.

## The Switches on a Client

Every client record carries one switch per channel, and **all four are on by default** on a new client.

Switch off any channel the client has opted out of. This is the setting to reach for when someone asks to stop being messaged — not deleting their record.

> **Caution**
> Switching a channel off stops **every** automated message on it, including appointment reminders. It is not limited to marketing.

See [Add a client](/patients/add-a-client) for where these sit on the form.

## The Per-Record Reminder

Individual records carry their own reminder switch, so you can suppress one message without changing the client's preferences at all.

- On an appointment, **Enable sending reminders to the customer for the appointment.** is on by default. Turn it off and Veterian tells you plainly: *Notification is turned off for this appointment. Your customer will not receive any notifications.*
- On a vaccination, **Send Reminders** does the same for that course.

Use this for the walk-in you are recording after the fact, or the client you have already spoken to.

## Which Actions Send a Message

Most things you do in Veterian send the client nothing. The ones that do are documented where the action is:

- [Appointment statuses](/appointments/appointment-statuses) — which status changes notify, and which are silent. The confirmation dialog also tells you before you commit; where it does not send, it says so: *Your customer will not receive any notifications for this action.*
- [Add a client](/patients/add-a-client) — the mobile app invitation, which sends the moment you save
- [Record a vaccination](/visits/record-a-vaccination) — the overdue notice, which asks you to confirm first
- [Write a prescription](/visits/write-a-prescription) — sending the issued prescription to the client

> **Tip**
> Anything that sends a real message asks you to confirm it first. If a screen is asking twice, that is why.

## Checking What Was Sent

You do not have to guess whether a message went out.

- A client's record has a **Notifications** section listing what they were sent.
- An invoice has its own: *All notifications sent to the customer for this invoice.*

Check here before re-sending. It is also the first thing to look at when a client says they were not told.

## Staff Notifications

Separately from clients, each staff account chooses whether **it** receives **Email Notifications** and **SMS Notifications**. These are notifications to your team, not to clients, and they are set on the user. See [Users and roles](/settings/users-and-roles).

## Related

- [Add a client](/patients/add-a-client) — where the client switches are set
- [Create an appointment](/appointments/create-an-appointment) — the per-appointment reminder
- [Appointment statuses](/appointments/appointment-statuses) — which changes notify the client