Setup the Cliniko Integration

Sync patients and appointments from Cliniko to send targeted e-mail and sms campaigns, and to trigger automated workflows within Oncord.

In this article:

Before you get started.
What data is synchronised?
Automation Triggers.
Marketing Send Conditions.
Connect Oncord & Cliniko.
Choose a Contact Sync Mode.
When Does a Sync Happen?
Add Online Bookings to Your Website.

Before you Get Started

The integration between Oncord and Cliniko is free, and can be enabled regardless of which Oncord plan you are running. It's worth noting that in order to get the most value from the Cliniko Integration, we recommend enabling Oncord's Marketing features - so that you can send email and/or SMS campaigns. 

An easy way to determine whether you have this plan enabled is to look for the "Marketing" heading in the left sidebar of your Oncord Dashboard.

Upgrading your Oncord plan is an easy and instant process, simply go to Settings > Features, and enable the marketing module (read more).

What Data is Synchronised?

The Cliniko integration works by synchronising the following information:

From Oncord	From Cliniko
Contacts Whether changes to a contact are sent to Cliniko depends on your Contact Sync mode. By default, Oncord links contacts to their existing Cliniko patient record but never changes anything in Cliniko. Deleting a contact will not delete them in Cliniko. Creating a contact will not create a patient in Cliniko (to ensure that your Cliniko patient list remains clear of all subscribers etc).	Patients All patients within Cliniko are pulled into Oncord. Changes to a patient will be reflected in Oncord (in Two-way mode, the most recently updated record wins). Deleting a patient will not remove them from Oncord.
Appointments The Cliniko online booking calendar can be embedded in your Oncord website, which allows contacts to book appointments. Alternatively, you may add a "Book Now" button to your website, which links to your online booking calendar.	Appointments Appointments are pulled into Oncord, and appear in the relevant contact's activity feed.

Note: Because deletions are not reflected in either system, you may need to delete entries in both systems.

Contact Fields Synchronised

When a contact is synchronized with Cliniko, a blue Cliniko logo will display, allowing you to view their patient record. The following contact fields are also synchronized with Cliniko:

When Oncord is allowed to update Cliniko (Two-way mode), only the fields that were changed in Oncord are updated on the patient record, and only for contacts already linked to a Cliniko patient.

First Name, Last Name.
Address, Suburb, Postcode,  State, Country.
Email Address.
Phone Number.
Email marketing consent and SMS opt-out status (managed separately). 
Date of Birth. 
Gender. 

Appointments Synchronised

Appointment data is pulled into Oncord, and will appear in the relevant contact's activity feed. The following appointment data is synchronized with Oncord: 

Appointment Start & End Times. 
Appointment Type.
Whether a patient arrived at the Appointment.
Whether a patient cancelled their Appointment. 
The Practitioner.

Automation Triggers

Note: Check each contact’s email subscription status and SMS opt-out setting before sending. These are synchronised separately from Cliniko.

Enabling the Cliniko integration will add the following automation triggers within Oncord: 

On an upcoming appointment: 
An automation triggers upon a specified number of hours or days prior to an appointment. You may further specify the appointment type and practitioner. Typically, this automation trigger is used as an appointment reminder or to send patients important information about their upcoming appointment.

When a contact cancels their appointment: 
Trigger an automation when a contact cancels their appointment. You may further specify the appointment type and practitioner.

When a contact did not arrive at their appointment: 
Trigger an automation in the case that a contact does not arrive at their appointment. You may further specify the appointment type and practitioner.

When a contact finishes their appointment: 
Trigger an automation in the case that a contact finishes their appointment. You may further specify the appointment type and practitioner.

When an appointment is created: 
Trigger an automation at the time an appointment is created. You may further specify the appointment type and practitioner.

When will automations start to trigger for appointments?

Only appointment activity that happens after your Oncord account goes live, and the Cliniko integration is enabled and syncing.

Appointment Types reflected in Oncord automations

Oncord needs to sync at least one appointment before the appointment's type will appear as a setting for automation triggers. If you've created a new appointment type within Cliniko, and it hasn't appeared in your Oncord account yet, try creating a test appointment in Cliniko first for that new appointment type, and then run a sync via Oncord Dashboard > Settings > Apps. After doing this, the new appointment type should appear in the Automations area.

Marketing Send Conditions

When sending an email or SMS campaign via Oncord, you can target your campaigns based on appointments.

When the appointment is booked (such as date).
The Appointment Type.
The Practitioner.

Note: Check each contact’s email subscription status and SMS opt-out setting before sending. These are synchronised separately from Cliniko.

Cliniko Email and SMS Marketing Preferences

Oncord imports email marketing consent and SMS preferences separately. Email marketing acceptance in Cliniko updates the contact’s email subscription status; the SMS preference updates their SMS opt-out setting.

Keep these preferences consistent with each patient’s choices. Do not enable both channels for everyone simply to make them eligible for a campaign.

After updating a patient’s preferences in Cliniko, run a manual sync from Settings > Apps, then check the contact’s email and SMS settings in Oncord.

Connect Oncord & Cliniko

The first step to enable the Cliniko integration, is to connect Oncord and Cliniko.

Navigate to Dashboard > Settings.
Select the "Third Party Integrations" page.
Click the "Enable Integration" button in the Cliniko integration box, and follow the steps to allow Oncord to access your Cliniko account.

Choose a Contact Sync Mode

The "Contact Sync" setting on the Cliniko integration configuration page (Dashboard > Settings > Third Party Integrations) controls which system is allowed to update contact details. Patients and appointments are always pulled from Cliniko into Oncord, and Oncord never creates or deletes Cliniko patients in any mode.

Cliniko preferred (recommended, default): Cliniko is the source of truth. Oncord links a contact to an existing Cliniko patient when exactly one patient has the same first name, last name and email address, but never changes patient records in Cliniko. Patient details from Cliniko always overwrite the linked Oncord contact.
Two-way updates: changes made in either system are sent to the other, and when both have changed the most recently updated record wins. Oncord only updates patients that are already linked to a contact.
Cliniko to Oncord only: Oncord never looks up or updates patients in Cliniko. Cliniko patients and appointments still flow into Oncord.

Note: Changing the mode discards any contact changes still waiting to be sent to Cliniko, so the new rule applies from the next sync onwards.

When Does a Sync Happen?

You can choose to enable or disable automatic synchronisation within the Cliniko integration configuration page (Dashboard > Settings > Third Party Integrations). 

With automatic sync enabled, changes in Oncord normally queue a sync with Cliniko about two minutes later. Timing can vary, and a sync already queued for an earlier time is not delayed by later changes.

When there are no changes in Oncord, background sync checks Cliniko approximately every 15 minutes. You can also start a sync manually from Settings > Apps.

Add Online Bookings to Your Website

Cliniko's online booking calendar allows you to take bookings via your website 24/7, reducing time spent taking bookings over the phone.

Before adding the online booking calendar to your website, follow Cliniko's provided instructions to configure and enable your online bookings page: Cliniko: Set Up Online Bookings.

There are two methods available for adding a booking function to your Oncord website:

1. Your Booking URL can be used as a simple text link or "Book Now" button on a page of your website, to direct the user away from your website to make an appointment via your Cliniko Online Bookings Calendar. 

2. Embed Code can be added to a page of your Oncord website, which will embed your Cliniko Online Bookings Calendar on the page. You can find instructions below. 

Embed Your Cliniko Online Bookings Calendar

Within Cliniko:

Navigate to Settings.
Click the "Online bookings" link, located under the Appointments heading.
Locate the "Code to embed in your website".

After retrieving the above code, login to your Oncord Website and add the embed code to a page:
(the following steps are shown in the video below)

We recommend you create a new "Book Now" page. (Creating a New Page)
Edit the website page (Dashboard > Website > Pages, click to select a page to edit).
Click the "Insert" button on the left-hand side of the editor.
Drag-and-drop the "EMBED" element onto the page.
Click to select the newly added embed code element, and select "edit" in the blue dropdown menu.
In the left sidebar, paste the embed code provided by Cliniko, and click "Apply".
Click the "Save" button, to save the page.