Summary

When Cliniko is connected, Cliniko owns your availability — Grounded Scribe 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, the AI offers exactly your open Cliniko times — automatically working around appointments, leave, lunch, meetings and any other blocks. Every booking the AI takes 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 Grounded Scribe — it reads Cliniko live. The one thing worth setting in GS is telehealth vs in-person by day (Cliniko doesn't carry that) — see "Telehealth vs in person" below.

This guide assumes you've already connected Cliniko to Grounded Scribe. 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 AI will correctly tell callers it has none to offer. Switching everything on below is what lets the AI 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 the AI instantly stops offering those times — no second schedule to maintain in Grounded Scribe.

Step 1: Turn on online bookings for your practice

In Cliniko, go to Settings → Online Bookings
Tick "Allow your patients to book appointments online"
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.

Go to Settings → Business information
Under your business, click Edit information
Turn on "Display this business in online bookings"
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

Go to Settings → Users & practitioners (or My info → Edit your practitioner settings)
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. The AI uses an online-bookable type and its duration when offering times.

Step 5: Set your working-hours schedule

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

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

White space on that grid is bookable; grey is unavailable. This is what makes the AI'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. The AI never needs to know *why* you're busy.
Respects your rules — lead time, how far ahead you book, and appointment duration all come straight from Cliniko.
Brings every booking to you to approve — the AI captures the caller's name, contact, reason for calling and requested time, then surfaces it in your review console. You approve, adjust or decline. Only on approval is the appointment written into Cliniko (and a new patient created there if there's no match).

Your Grounded Scribe calendar mirrors all of this: synced Cliniko appointments, your unavailable blocks (shown as "Unavailable — Lunch / Meeting / Travel"), and shaded non-working hours.

Telehealth vs in person

Cliniko doesn't record whether a given time is telehealth or in person as a booking rule, so set that in Grounded Scribe: Schedule → Availability (shown as "Display & modality hours" when a PMS is connected). Mark each block as in-person, telehealth, or either. The AI uses this to offer the right modality — it 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, disconnect and reconnect Cliniko in Settings → Integrations, then try a free browser test call (Settings → Receptionist Setup → Test in Browser) and ask for your next available time.

Halaxy and Nookal

The same principle applies — your PMS owns availability and Grounded Scribe reads it live. In Halaxy or Nookal you'll likewise need online bookings enabled and a practitioner availability/roster set so the platform exposes bookable times. The exact menu names differ; 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 free or connect your PMS in Settings → Integrations.

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Set Up Cliniko Availability for Your AI Receptionist