KodaVet 1.11, 1.12 and 1.13 shipped over the past few weeks, and most of what changed sits in one place: the pet-owner portal. Owners can now book a time that is actually open, pay a deposit to hold it, cancel within your rules, and ask for a refill without picking up the phone. Each of those lands somewhere your team already works, whether that's the schedule, Billing or Tasks. Here's what's new.
Owners book real open times
A request form is better than nothing, but it still leaves someone at the front desk calling the owner back to find a time that works for both of you. Owners can now book straight from the portal. They choose a visit type, a veterinarian (or whoever is available) and a date, and they see only the times that are genuinely open: inside your booking hours and days, after your notice period, and clear of existing appointments and any time you've blocked off.
You set the hours, the days, how much notice you need, how far ahead owners can book and the slot length, all under Settings → Clinic Profile → Online booking. If you would rather keep scheduling in your own hands, turn online booking off and owners go back to sending a request for you to schedule.
A deposit that holds the time
Some appointments are worth protecting. You can now set a deposit amount on any appointment type and switch deposits on in your online booking settings. When an owner books that type from the portal, the time is held and they pay the deposit by card through your Stripe account. The deposit shows on the appointment in the schedule and on an invoice in Billing.
If the deposit isn't paid within 2 hours, the appointment is cancelled automatically and the time opens up again, so an abandoned booking doesn't sit on your schedule. An owner who cancels an unpaid hold releases it the same way.
The part your front desk will notice most comes at checkout. When you invoice the visit, the deposit applies itself: the deposit invoice becomes the visit invoice, the visit's charges replace the deposit line, and the amount already paid comes off the balance. Nobody has to remember to apply a credit. If an owner pays a deposit and then cancels or doesn't show, the deposit stays on its invoice, and whether to refund it or keep it is your call.
Cancellations on your terms
Owners can cancel from the portal up to your cancellation window, which is 24 hours before the visit by default. Inside the window, they're asked to call you instead. Every portal cancellation leaves a note on the appointment, so anyone looking at the schedule can see that it was the owner who cancelled.
Refill requests that arrive as tasks
Refill calls are some of the most routine calls a clinic takes, and some of the easiest to lose track of between the phone and the chart. Owners now see a Medications list on each pet in the portal, with the refills remaining, and can request a refill with an optional note. The request lands in Tasks as an Rx Refill task, with the owner's note attached.
From that task, Log refill opens the refill visit with the prescription already added. Saving it closes the request, completes the task, and emails the owner that the refill is ready. When the answer is no, Declineasks for a short note, something like “due for an exam first”, which is emailed to the owner and shown to them in the portal.
Refill rules you set once
Refills remaining now apply to every prescription, controlled or not. A prescription written with no refills can't be refilled; you write a new one. Refills on non-controlled prescriptions expire after a window you choose, 12 months by default. A refill-only visit also needs a signed exam within a window you set, again 12 months by default. Both windows live under Settings → Clinic Profile → Regulatory.
When a prescription can't be refilled, the refill visit still lists it, greyed out, with the reason beside it: no refills left, expired, Schedule II, or no recent exam. Whoever is talking to the owner can explain why without going looking.
Records owners can open themselves
Files you attach to a patient, such as lab results and certificates, are now visible to the owner in the portal, with a download button. Owners can also view and print a health certificate from the pet's page, covering the vaccination record and current medications. It's clearly marked as a record summary, so a signed veterinarian copy still comes from you, but it answers a lot of “can you send me his shot record” requests before they reach the front desk.
Telling every client at once
Holiday hours, an unexpected closure, a vaccine clinic on Saturday: the new Announcements page is where you post them. A published announcement shows as a banner in the portal and on a News page, and is emailed to every active owner who hasn't opted out. If your clinic has texting set up (Pro and Agent plans), owners who prefer text and have a phone number on file can be texted too. Owners who don't want clinic news can be marked “No clinic news” on their record.
A check-in a few days after the visit
A few days after a sick, surgery, dental, emergency or follow-up visit, the owner gets a “How is your pet doing?” email, plus a text if they prefer SMS, with a link to book a follow-up. It's the call most clinics mean to make and rarely have time for. It's on by default, and you can change the delay under Settings → Clinic Profile → Automation.
Your clinic's name on everything clients see
Your logo. Upload it under Settings → Clinic Profile and it appears at the top of the owner portal and on every email KodaVet sends to your clients on your behalf.
Replies reach you. Every email to owners, including reminders, invoices, receipts, outreach and refill notices, now uses your clinic email as the reply-to address. An owner who hits Reply reaches your inbox.
Where to find it
Most of the new settings sit under Settings → Clinic Profile: Online booking for hours, notice and deposits, Automation for the follow-up delay, and Regulatory for the refill and exam windows. Deposit amounts are set per appointment type under Settings → Clinical Reference Data → Appointment types, and Announcements has its own page. The pet-owner portal, online booking and deposits are part of the Pro and Agent plans. See the full feature list, or try KodaVet free for 14 days with your own clinic data. No credit card required.