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When a Practitioner Leaves

Recommended updates to your Zanda when a practitioner leaves.

When a practitioner leaves your practice/business, we recommend performing the following changes and updates to their Practitioner, User Profile, and some other settings within your Zanda account and taking care of the client data. 

In this article:

Export their Client Data

Master users or users with the Allow Database Export permission can export the practitioner's calendar information at any time.

  • With the Zanda account Master User' consent, the leaving practitioner can export and keep a copy of their client data files, including clients, client notes, appointments, referrers, invoices, payments and products, and any uploaded documents (client files). Here are the detailed instructions for Exporting Your Data.
  • If the practitioner is going to use Zanda in their next practice, with the Master User's consent it is possible to copy their client data, here are some more instructions: Transferring Data to Another Zanda Account.

Update the Primary Practitioner

If another practitioner takes over the clients of the leaving practitioner, update the Primary Practitioner setting  on those client profiles.

Do this while the practitioner is still active. The Primary Practitioner filter in People > Clients > Advanced Search and in Tools > Bulk Update lists active practitioners only, so reassigning the caseload is quickest before the leaving practitioner is deactivated. If you have already deactivated them, see Already deactivated the practitioner? below.

Reassigning existing clients is always a deliberate update, either in bulk or one profile at a time. Deactivating a practitioner leaves every client profile still pointing at them as Primary Practitioner. For an existing client, booking an appointment with a different practitioner, or being invoiced by one, does not change their Primary Practitioner, and there is no setting that makes the Primary Practitioner follow the practitioner a client is actually seeing. The Default for New Clients setting applies to brand new clients only, so it does not cover existing ones.

Option 1: Updating the Clients Primary Practitioner in Bulk

  1. Go to Tools > Bulk Update
  2. Generate a list of clients allocated to the leaving practitioner as the Primary Practitioner
  3. Select all the clients in the generated list 
  4. Scroll to the 'Update specific fields for selected clients' section of the page
  5. Select field to update: Primary Practitioner
  6. Select new practitioner who'll be the new primary practitioner for these clients
  7. Click 'Update

Option 2: Updating Each Client Profile Individually

    1. In People > Clients > Advanced Search, generate a list of clients who have the leaving practitioner as Primary Practitioner.
    2. Right-click on each Client Name to open their Client Profile in a new tab.
    3. Navigate to the Admin > Manage page and select the new practitioner in the Primary Practitioner filed.
    4. Click Save Changes.

Already deactivated the practitioner?

The Primary Practitioner filters in Advanced Search and Tools > Bulk Update list active practitioners only, so you have two ways to reassign clients whose practitioner is already inactive.

Option A: reactivate temporarily, reassign, deactivate again. This is the quickest way to move a whole caseload.

  1. Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Practitioners and turn on Show Inactive.
  2. Open the inactive practitioner, turn the Active toggle on, and click Save.
  3. Go to Tools > Bulk Update, filter on that practitioner as Primary Practitioner, select the clients, and set the new Primary Practitioner.
  4. Return to User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Practitioners and turn the Active toggle back off.

A practitioner can be active for a short time without changing your subscription price, as long as you deactivate them again before your next billing date. See Managing Your Zanda Subscription.

To keep a temporarily reactivated practitioner out of your Client Portal, so clients cannot book with them while you work: in User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Availability, turn Online Bookings off for their availability, or in Setup > Client Portal > Available Services unassign their services. The portal only offers a practitioner who is active, has availability with Online Bookings enabled, and is assigned to the service the client selected, so removing either one keeps them hidden.

Option B: update client profiles one at a time. You do not need to reactivate anyone for this. Open the client profile, go to Admin > Manage, and select the new practitioner in the Primary Practitioner field, then save. The dropdown still shows the client's current practitioner even when that practitioner is inactive, so the profile can always be corrected directly.

Important: If the practitioner who leaves has got some future appointments and the clinic has the responsibility to provide them, they will need to be moved over to another practitioner's calendar. 

After the practitioner is deactivated, any future appointments and associated invoices will be deactivated as well. To recover them, you will need to make the Practitioner's calendar active again. (Please note that you are able to make a Practitioner's calendar active for a short time period without affecting your subscription price. Just do not forget to make the practitioner inactive again after you have finished looking for the necessary information). 

Archive Client Profiles

If this practitioner's clients will not use the services of your practice, you can archive their client profiles in one go:

  1. Navigate to Tools > Bulk Update and generate a list of clients who have this practitioner as Primary Practitioner.
  2. When the list of clients shows up, simply tick the ones you want to archive and click on the blue Archive button at the bottom of your screen.

Update 'Email From Address' field in Communication Email Templates

  1. Go to Tools > Communication > Templates 
  2. Open the Email Templates one by one
  3. Update the Email From Address in the Email Templates, if necessary. 

Update Email Addresses Used for Notifications

  1. Go to Tools > Form Designer, open the Form Templates, and remove or update the email address in the Who to Notify When Client Submits Online Form field, if necessary. Leave the Client's Primary Practitioner switch on, but do not forget to change the Primary Practitioner on client profiles, as described above. 
  2. Update email addresses used for Client Portal Notifications assigned in Setup > Client Portal > Notifications, in the These Email Addresses field,  if necessary. 

Deactivate the User Profile

    1. Navigate to User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Users. This will take you to the User Management page.
    2. In the User list, toggle the switch off next to the name of the user under the Active column. This deactivates their profile

Hint 💡

You may release their email address registered with the User profile (for example, by adding  +released to the email address: user+released@test.com), to allow the practitioner to use it for registering with a different Zanda account.

Deactivate the Practitioner

  • Navigate to User Menu > Account Settings > Team > Practitioners, open the practitioner and disable the Active switch at the top-right corner of the page.

Notes💡

  • If there were any future-dated appointments in the inactive practitioner's calendar, their automatic reminders will not go out.  

  • You won't be able to delete a practitioner profile if there is cleint data linked to it. Make the profile inactive instead. This will remove it from all searches and dropdowns, in your account and from your subscription charges.

Frequently Asked Questions

❓ Why can't I create a new invoice for a client whose practitioner has left?

Every invoice needs a practitioner in the Sold By field. When an invoice is not linked to an appointment, Zanda takes that practitioner from the client's Primary Practitioner, and it has to be an active practitioner. If the client's Primary Practitioner has been deactivated, creating a new invoice for that client fails.

The New Invoice button on the client's Billing > Invoices page and the Quick Actions invoice link both create the invoice straight away, so there is no opportunity to change Sold By first.

To fix it:

  • Open the client profile, go to Admin > Manage, select an active practitioner in the Primary Practitioner field, and save. New invoices for that client will then use the new practitioner. This is also the permanent fix, so do this rather than working around it each time.
  • If the charge relates to an appointment, add the service to the appointment in the calendar instead. An invoice created from an appointment takes its practitioner from the appointment, not from the client's Primary Practitioner.

If several clients are affected, reassign them together using the steps in Already deactivated the practitioner? above.

❓ Can Zanda update a client's Primary Practitioner automatically when they see someone else?

Zanda assigns a Primary Practitioner automatically in two situations, both of them at the start of a client's history with you: when a new client is created or registers on your Client Portal, they receive the practitioner set as Default for New Clients; and if that client then books their first appointment through the portal with a different practitioner, that practitioner becomes their Primary Practitioner instead.

For an existing client, the Primary Practitioner then stays as it is until someone changes it, whether the client books with another practitioner, is treated by one, or is invoiced by one. From their second appointment onwards, update it yourself using the steps above.

If you want several practitioners to be able to see a client's clinical records without changing who the Primary Practitioner is, use Assigned Practitioners on the client profile instead. See Assigning Multiple Practitioners to a Client Profile.

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