Templates standardise your clinical documentation — write them once in Settings and your whole team can insert them during consultations, send them with consent forms, or use them to structure AI-generated notes. Lupa has distinct template systems: Manual Clinical Notes templates for manually inserted note structures, AI Clinical Notes templates used by Lupa Notes to shape AI-generated summaries, template/consent form templates for document creation and communication templates for emails/SMS, these are all managed inside the settings section.
💡 In short: Create and manage note and form templates in Settings → Templates. To apply a template during a consultation, see .
Before You Begin
📍 Permissions required:
Only users with correct permissions to edit templates can create templates that are shared with all staff across every location.
To access template Settings, you need the edit templates permission. Ask your practice manager to check your role in Settings → Permissions if the Templates section isn't visible.
Template Types at a Glance
Lupa's settings templates are organised into tabs, each covering a different use case:
Tab | What it's for |
Manual Clinical Notes | Rich-text note structures that vets and nurses insert into appointment notes during consultations — e.g. SOAP templates, vaccination check templates, post-surgical review templates |
AI Clinical Notes | Templates that tell Lupa Notes how to structure AI-generated consultation summaries — define sections, placeholders, and instructions the AI follows when turning a recording transcript into clinical notes |
Forms | Consent form templates — anaesthetic consent, cremation consent, off-licence medication consent, and similar. Also configures the default email and SMS used when sending signing links to clients |
Emails | Email content templates for communications sent from within Lupa — e.g. appointment reminders, client letters |
Debt Reminders | Email templates for overdue invoice reminders sent automatically or manually from billing |
Financial Documents | Templates for payment link emails and other finance-related client communications |
Managing Clinical Notes Templates
Step 1: Navigate to Settings → Templates
Click the Settings icon (cog) in the top navigation bar.
In the left sidebar, scroll to the Documentation section and click Templates.
The Manual Clinical Notes tab is selected by default.
💡 Templates are grouped into Owned templates (created by your clinic) and Inherited templates (shared from your company group). You can use inherited templates during consultations but cannot edit or delete them — contact your company administrator to make changes. For AI Clinical Notes templates, see the AI Clinical Notes tab.
Step 2: Create a New Template
Click + New Template in the top-right corner.
The Edit Templates dialog opens.
Enter a descriptive Name — e.g. "Annual Vaccination Health Check" or "Dental Examination SOAP". This is how it appears in the template dropdown during consultations.
Write your template content in the left editor pane. Use the formatting toolbar for headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, bold text, and tables.
Use Insert Placeholder to add dynamic variables that auto-fill with patient data when a vet inserts the template — e.g.
{petName},{breed},{weight}. See for the full list of available placeholders.The right panel shows a live preview of how the template will look when rendered.
Click Save.
✅ Name templates by appointment type, not by content. "Dental Examination" is more useful than "SOAP Template 2" — vets can find what they need in the dropdown instantly without reading the content first.
Step 3: Edit an Existing Template
Click any template card in the grid to open it in the editor.
The same Edit Templates dialog opens, pre-filled with the existing name and content.
Make your changes in the editor pane. The live preview updates as you type.
Click Save to apply your changes.
Step 4: Delete a Template
Open the template by clicking its card.
Click the red Delete button in the bottom-left of the dialog.
Confirm the deletion.
⚠️ Deletion is permanent. Once deleted, a template can't be recovered. If it's an AI Clinical Notes template your team uses regularly, consider hiding it instead (AI Clinical Notes templates only — see below), which removes it from the active list but keeps it in the system.
Managing Forms Templates
Click the Forms tab to manage consent form templates and the default signing-link messages.
This tab has three areas:
Default Templates for Sending Signing Links — the email and SMS message your clinic sends when requesting a client's signature on a consent form. Click Edit Email Template or Edit SMS Template to customise the subject and body. These templates support the same placeholder variables as clinical notes.
Form Template — controls the layout and visible sections of your consent form PDFs. Click Customise to configure which sections appear on printed or PDF forms. The preview uses your standard document footer (set in Settings → Printing) — consent forms have their own footer separate from financial documents.
Owned templates — your consent form content templates. Create, edit, and delete these the same way as Clinical Notes templates.
Company-Wide Templates (Multi-Location Groups)
If your practice is part of a multi-site group, administrators can create company-wide templates that are automatically available to every location without anyone needing to recreate them. To manage company-wide templates, your administrator navigates to Company Settings → Templates (accessible from the company-level admin panel, separate from store-level Settings). Any template created there appears in every store's template grid under Inherited templates.
🔒 Only users with the Company Admin role can create, edit, or delete company-wide templates. Store staff can use inherited templates but cannot modify them.
AI Clinical Notes Templates
If your practice uses Lupa Notes, the AI Clinical Notes tab in Settings → Templates is where you create and manage the templates that shape how the AI structures its generated notes.
Navigating the AI Clinical Notes tab
Click the Settings icon (cog) in the top navigation bar.
In the left sidebar, click Templates.
Click the AI Clinical Notes tab.
Templates are grouped into three tiers:
Lupa templates — provided by Lupa and available to every practice. You can favourite or hide these but cannot edit them.
Inherited templates — created at company level by your group administrator. You can favourite or hide these but cannot edit them.
Owned templates — created by your practice. You can edit, favourite, hide, and delete these.
Favourited templates appear at the top of the template picker when you start a recording.
Creating a new AI Clinical Notes template
Click + New Template.
In the New AI Notes Template chooser, select Create from scratch.
Enter a Template name — e.g. "SOAP / Consult" or "Dental Examination".
Write your template in the Template field. Use plain text and the markers described in the Template guide panel on the right.
Click Preview to test the template against a real past recording before saving — pick a recording from the list, then click Generate preview to see the AI output.
Click Save.
The Template guide explains the four marker types:
Section headings — plain text labels for each note section, e.g.
History of Presenting IllnessPlaceholders
[ ]— square brackets signal what information to insert, e.g.[Describe the patient's presenting complaint]Instructions
( )— round brackets tell the AI how to handle information, e.g.(Only include if explicitly mentioned in the transcript, else omit the section entirely)Verbatim — quotation marks include exact wording in every note, e.g.
"This note has been generated with the help of AI"
Editing an existing template
Click any owned template card to open it in the Edit AI Notes Template editor. Make your changes and click Save. Inherited and Lupa templates open in read-only view (View Template) — contact your company administrator to change inherited templates.
Favouriting and hiding templates
Click the star icon on a template card (or use the card menu) and select Favourite to pin it to the top of the recording picker. Select Remove favourite to unpin it.
Select Hide to remove a template from the active list and the recording picker without deleting it.
To restore hidden templates, click Hidden Templates and select Unhide next to the template you want to restore.
Switching practice during a recording
If you try to switch to a different practice while a Lupa Notes recording is in progress, a Recording in progress confirmation pop-up appears. Click Cancel recording & switch to stop the recording and switch, or Keep recording to stay on the current practice.
Tips for Well-Organised Templates
✅ Best practices from practices that run Lupa:
Cover your most common appointment types first — vaccination health checks, dental examinations, post-surgical follow-ups, and new-patient registrations are high-ROI starting points
Use consistent naming conventions — e.g. "Consult — [Type]" or "[Exam Type] SOAP" so templates sort predictably in the dropdown
Keep notes templates focused — a template with too many sections becomes slower to clear than typing from scratch. Aim for the 5–8 fields you actually fill in every time
Create company templates for shared workflows — vaccination protocols, regulated procedures, and consent-form wording that must be consistent across all vets belong at company level, not in personal templates
Review templates after compliance changes — if your practice protocol, drug formulary, or consent wording changes, update templates before the next consultation
Troubleshooting
Problem | Solution |
The Templates section doesn't appear in Settings | You may not have the Appointments Settings permission. Ask your practice manager to check your role in Settings → Permissions. |
I can see a template but can't edit or delete it | The template is an inherited company template — it was created at company level by an admin. Only company administrators can edit it. Contact your company admin if the wording needs updating. |
A template I created isn't appearing in the note editor during consultations | Confirm the template is a Manual Clinical Notes type (not Forms, Emails, or AI Clinical Notes). Also check the consultation is in progress — the template list only loads note templates. If the template was just created, try refreshing the page. |
An AI Clinical Notes template isn't appearing in the recording picker | The template may be hidden. Go to Settings → Templates → AI Clinical Notes, click Hidden Templates, and unhide it. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a Manual Clinical Notes template and an AI Clinical Notes template?
What's the difference between a Manual Clinical Notes template and an AI Clinical Notes template?
Manual Clinical Notes templates are pre-written text structures that a vet manually inserts into the note editor during a consultation — they appear in a list in the editor toolbar. AI Clinical Notes templates are used by Lupa Notes to define the sections and structure of the AI-generated consultation summary — they tell the AI what to produce from the recording transcript. Both are managed in Settings → Templates but on separate tabs.
Can I share a template with my whole team without being a company admin?
Can I share a template with my whole team without being a company admin?
No. Sharing templates across the whole team requires company-level access. If you've created a useful personal template and want it available to everyone, ask your company administrator to recreate it as a company template, or share the content so they can copy it in.
If I hide an AI Clinical Notes template, does it affect consultations that used it?
If I hide an AI Clinical Notes template, does it affect consultations that used it?
No. Hiding a template only removes it from the active list and the recording picker — it prevents the template from being selected for new recordings. Any existing consultation records that used the hidden template are unaffected; their AI-generated notes remain intact. You can restore a hidden template at any time via Hidden Templates.
Can I duplicate or copy a template?
Can I duplicate or copy a template?
There is no one-click duplicate function. To create a similar template, open the original, select all the content in the editor, copy it, then create a new template and paste the content in. Rename and adjust as needed.
Do template changes apply retroactively to old consultations?
Do template changes apply retroactively to old consultations?
No. Templates are copied into the note at the moment of insertion. Editing a template after it has been inserted into a consultation has no effect on those notes — each consultation's notes are independent records.