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Everything a patient can see or do in the portal comes from these settings. There are seven tabs, and this page goes through all of them so you can decide once and stop wondering what your patients are looking at.
Your edition may label this Patient portal and Patient Portal. The tabs and settings are identical.

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How to change a setting

1

Open the tab you need

The seven tabs run across the settings card: Branding, Appointments, Messaging, Telehealth, Documents, Notifications and Privacy. On a phone they collapse into a dropdown. A tab your plan does not include shows an amber shield.
2

Change the setting

Switches take effect for every patient at once. Numbers — notice periods, limits, retention — apply from the moment you save.
3

Save

Select Save. It stays unavailable until Portal Name and URL Slug are both set and the slug passes its check.
Do not select the green pulsing Live button to save. Once your portal is published that button unpublishes it and patients lose access. Save with Save.

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Branding

Your portal’s name, address and appearance. Covered in full on Brand your portal. In short: Portal Name, URL Slug (which sets your web address), Welcome Message, Logo, Banner Image, Favicon, your primary, secondary and accent colours, and Font Family.

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Appointments

“Online Appointments — Control how clients book, reschedule and cancel appointments through the portal.” Once a notice period has passed, the buttons vanish from the patient’s screen rather than failing when selected. That is deliberate, and worth telling your front desk so they can answer “the cancel button has gone” in one sentence.

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New Client Requests

A master switch that puts the New Patient button on your portal’s welcome page. Under it, Allow requests from:
  • New individual clients
  • New couple clients
  • New contacts (on behalf of someone else) — a parent or carer registering for another person
Then Information collected from new clients:
  • Show new client prescreener — asks What brings you in? and How did you hear about us?
  • Ask for preferred payment method — insurance or self-pay, plus their insurer
And Notify me of new client requests, which emails you when someone applies.
A request is a waitlist entry, not an account. Nobody can sign in until you approve them and tick the portal-access box. See Give a patient portal access. With this switch off, the portal shows “Not accepting new patients online”.

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Messaging

“Secure Messaging — Configure how clients can communicate with your care team.” Needs Essential and above. Messaging is off until you turn it on. Before you do, decide who watches the inbox and how quickly you answer, and put that in your out-of-hours message. An unwatched message channel is worse than none.

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Telehealth

Enable session recording governs the whole clinic. Switching it off blocks recording for every clinician, on every call. Recording a consultation is regulated where you practise — turn on Require explicit consent to record unless you have taken your own advice saying otherwise. See HIPAA and your data.
Patients can blur their background or use a supplied one on any plan; uploading a background image of their own needs Essential and above.

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Documents

Two halves: paperwork you send out, and record sharing. Paperwork Record sharing — each is off by default and each is a separate decision:
Turning on record sharing publishes results to patients as soon as they are signed off, with no clinician release step in between. Only completed, signed items appear, and the portal is view-only — but a patient can read an abnormal result before you have spoken to them. Agree how you follow up abnormal results before you switch these on.
Patients cannot request refills, acknowledge results or download from these sections. Requests for copies come to you.

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Notifications

Who gets told what. Needs Essential and above. Reminders go to patients who have confirmed their appointment, so encourage confirmation rather than assuming everyone booked will be reminded. Settings marked Coming soon do nothing yet. Do not build a workflow on them, and do not promise patients text-message reminders.

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Privacy

Sign-in already protects patients well: there is no password to reuse or leak, and every sign-in needs a fresh code sent to the address on the record. Shorten Auto-logout after inactivity if your patients often use shared or public devices.

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Check it worked

Open your portal address in a private browser window and sign in as a test patient. Confirm that:
  • The sections in the left-hand list match what you switched on — no Messages if messaging is off, no Lab Results unless you shared them.
  • The Book button appears or does not, as you intended.
  • A visit inside your cancellation notice no longer offers Cancel.
  • The New Patient button on the welcome page matches your New Client Requests setting.

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If something goes wrong

That tab needs a higher plan — Messaging and Notifications need Essential and above. See Change your plan.
Check you selected Save and that it was not greyed out — an incomplete Portal Name or a failing URL Slug blocks the whole save, including changes on other tabs. Then reload the patient view; a portal already open in a patient’s browser picks up the change on their next page load.
Only completed, signed items appear. A draft note or an unreported test is invisible until it is finished. Check the record itself is signed off before assuming the setting is at fault.
Reminders are email only and go to patients who have confirmed their appointment. Check Email appointment reminders is on, and that the patient has selected Confirm in the portal. There are no SMS reminders.
Only the practice owner can edit portal settings. See Roles and permissions.