A referring clinic in Lupa is another veterinary practice that sends cases to yours — the local vet who refers an oncology patient, the GP practice that sends complicated dermatology workups your way. Each referring clinic is stored as its own record under Clients → Clinics so you can see who referred a client, contact the referring vet, and pull a list of every patient that came from a particular practice.
💡 In short: Add a referring clinic record under Clients → Clinics, then attach it to a client via the Referral Company field on the client form. The link appears as a badge on the client's profile and gives you a single place to see every patient that came from that clinic.
Before You Begin
📍 The Clinics tab is only visible when Referrals are enabled for your practice. If you can't see a Clinics tab on the Clients page, an administrator needs to enable Referrals under Settings → Online Booking → General. Once enabled, the tab shows up alongside Pets and Clients and the Referral Company field appears on the client form.
A referring clinic is not the same as a corporate or company client:
A corporate client is a paying account at your practice — for example a charity or a working-dog organisation that owns the pets being treated. Create them as a regular client with the Title set to Company (see ).
A referring clinic is another veterinary practice. They aren't a paying client themselves — their relationship with you is referral-based — so they live under Clinics, not under Clients.
Adding a New Referring Clinic
Open Clients in the top navigation, then switch to the Clinics tab.
Click Add Clinic in the top right.
Fill in the Clinic Details (see fields below) and, optionally, separate Billing Details.
Click Save. You land on the new clinic's detail page.
Clinic form fields
Field | Required | What it does |
Name | Yes | The referring clinic's practice name. This is what appears in dropdowns when you attach a client to the clinic. |
Yes | Main contact email for the practice. Used for referral correspondence. | |
Phone | Yes | Main contact phone with country-code selector. |
Address | No | The practice's address with autocomplete. |
Billing details (optional)
By default, the Use company details for billing details checkbox is ticked, meaning Lupa will use the clinic's main email, phone and address for any billing correspondence. Untick the checkbox to expose a separate Billing Details section where you can enter:
Billing Email
Billing Phone
Billing Address Use this when the clinic uses a different finance contact or a separate accounts-payable address from their main practice details.
Linking a Client to a Referring Clinic
The referring-clinic record is most valuable when it's attached to the clients who came from that clinic.
Open the client's profile and click Edit Client.
In the client form, find the Referral Company field.
Search for the clinic by name and select it.
Click Save. The referral relationship now surfaces in three places:
A clinic badge on the client profile header — clicking it jumps to the clinic's detail page.
The client appears under Related Clients on the clinic's detail page.
Your reporting (via Analytics & Reporting) can break referrals down by clinic. If the referring clinic isn't in Lupa yet, create it first via Clients → Clinics tab → Add Clinic, then come back and attach it.
The Clinics Tab
Open Clients → Clinics to see every referring clinic for your practice. The list is an expandable tree:
Each top-level row is a clinic, showing Name, Phone, Email, Account Balance (the aggregated balance across that clinic's referred clients), and a Client Since date.
Click the chevron on the left of a clinic row to expand it and see every client that's been referred from there. Each child row shows the client's contact info and balance. Use the Search clinics box to filter the list by clinic name. The same column-filter, sort and column-visibility patterns as the Clients and Pets tables apply — see . Each row has a three-dot action menu with View (open the clinic's detail page) and Edit (jump straight to the edit form).
The Clinic Detail Page
Click into a clinic to see its full detail page.
The page is divided into the following sections:
Section | What it shows |
Header | Clinic name and Clinic Code — click the code to copy it to the clipboard. The code uniquely identifies this clinic and can be shared with the referring practice when needed. |
Company Details | The clinic's main email, phone and address. |
Billing Details | The separate billing contact, if you set one. Otherwise this mirrors Company Details. |
Related Clients | Cards for every client whose Referral Company is set to this clinic. Click a card to open the client's profile. |
Related Pets | Pets owned by those clients, for a quick view of who's been referred. |
Account Balance | The aggregated financial picture across all referred clients — appointments and payments rolled up. Useful for clinics on a shared-billing arrangement. |
Appointments | All appointments across the clinic's referred clients, past and future. |
Editing a Clinic
Open the clinic's detail page.
Click Edit Clinic in the top right.
Update any fields. The form is the same as the create form.
Click Save. A toast — "Clinic updated" — confirms the save.
💡 There's no archive or delete for referring clinics in the UI. If a referring clinic stops sending cases or merges with another practice, edit the record (rename it, update contact details) rather than removing it. If you genuinely need to remove a clinic record, contact Lupa support.
Tips
✅ Get the most out of referring clinics:
Add the clinic before the first referred client arrives. That way the Referral Company field is ready when you register their patient and you don't lose the data point.
Capture both a main and a billing contact when they differ. Statements and clinical correspondence often need to go to different inboxes.
Use the Clinic Code in your referral acknowledgement letters or templates so the other practice can quote it back when they email you.
Open the clinic detail page before quarterly catch-ups with referring practices — Related Clients, Related Pets and Appointments give you everything you need on one screen.
Troubleshooting
Problem | Solution |
I don't see a Clinics tab on the Clients page | Referrals are disabled for your practice. Ask an administrator to enable them under Settings → Online Booking → General. |
Add Clinic doesn't save — error on Email or Phone | Both Email and Phone are required and must be valid. Check the format (e.g. include a country code on the phone number). |
The clinic I added doesn't appear in the Referral Company dropdown | Refresh the client form. The dropdown is search-as-you-type, so type the first few letters of the clinic name to load it. |
Related Clients section is empty after creating a clinic | You haven't attached any clients to it yet. Open each referred client's profile, click Edit Client, and set the Referral Company field. |
I want to delete a clinic, but there's no Delete button | The UI doesn't expose a delete action. Edit the record to keep it accurate, or contact Lupa support if it genuinely needs removing. |
Billing details are showing the company address even though I entered separate ones | The Use company details for billing details checkbox is still ticked. Untick it, fill in the separate billing fields and save again. |
Clinic Code is missing or doesn't copy | The clinic code is generated automatically — make sure you've saved the record. Click directly on the code text to copy. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a corporate client and a referring clinic?
A corporate client is a paying customer of your practice (for example a charity or assistance-dog organisation that owns the pets being treated). They sit under Clients with the Title set to Company. A referring clinic is another veterinary practice that sends you cases — they live under Clinics because the relationship is referral-based, not transactional.
Can a client have more than one referring clinic?
No — each client has a single Referral Company field. If you need to track multiple referring sources, use the client's Internal Notes for context and pick the most relevant clinic for the dropdown.
How do I send referral correspondence to the referring clinic?
Use the clinic's Email as the contact for letters and reports. Lupa doesn't yet automate referral letters end-to-end — they're typically sent via your normal communication tools using the clinic's email address.
Can I import a list of referring clinics in bulk?
Bulk import happens during data migration when your practice first joins Lupa. There's no self-service bulk import for clinics — contact Lupa support if you need to import a batch.
Why does the Account Balance on a clinic look like a sum of multiple clients?
It's intentional. The clinic's Account Balance section aggregates appointments and payments across every client linked to that clinic, giving you a single view for clinics that share a billing arrangement. For an individual client's balance, open the client's profile.
Can I archive a referring clinic that's no longer active?
There's no archive action on referring clinics today. Renaming or updating the record is the workaround; for a hard removal, contact Lupa support.