The last screen of the booking wizard is where the client double-checks the details, attaches anything useful for the visit, and submits. This page covers exactly what's on that screen, what the client sees after submitting, what email arrives in their inbox, and how the booking moves from a request into a confirmed appointment in the clinic's diary. For the orientation overview see . For the picker that comes before this screen see .
💡 In short: The client reviews the summary, optionally adds notes and files, and submits. Lupa shows a "request received" dialog, sends a copy by email, and lands the request in your diary as Requested. Once the clinic accepts, it becomes Confirmed and a second message goes out to the client.
Why this matters
⚠️ Treat Requested as a real, time-sensitive task — don't leave them hanging. A submitted booking sits in the diary as Requested and the slot is held against it. The client knows it isn't confirmed yet, but they're waiting on you to either accept it or come back with an alternative. Set a clear internal SLA — same day, or next-business-day — and review incoming requests as part of the morning routine, not as a "when there's time" task.
What this step gives you | Why it helps |
One review screen, every detail | Pet, visit type, vet, date, and time are summarised together — the client confirms the whole booking in a glance, not buried fields. |
Notes and attachments captured up front | Symptoms, medication context, and photos arrive before the appointment, so the team isn't scrambling for context at the door. |
Two-stage confirmation | The client gets an immediate "we've got it" email, then a separate confirmation when the clinic accepts. They know exactly where they stand. |
Slot held — but not yet locked in | The clinic decides whether to accept, reschedule, or decline before the diary turns green. No surprises. |
Appointment request submission | Submission either fully succeeds (appointment created, files uploaded, email sent) or fully fails — never a half-booking. |
The Confirm screen
The screen is titled Confirm details. It's the first time the client sees everything stitched together.
What the summary shows
Stacked from the top of the screen down:
Client notes (optional). A multi-line text area with placeholder "Please let us know of any additional requests or information that you have that you think would be useful to our team". Free text, sized for a paragraph or two.
Attach Extra Files (optional). A drag-and-drop file dropzone. Any file format is accepted — vaccination cards, photos of skin issues, prior test results, referral letters. Files appear in a list with a remove button.
Date & time pill. A rounded pill with a calendar icon and a clock icon, showing the date in the clinic's locale (e.g. Wednesday, 14 May) and the start–end time.
Appointment pill(s). One pill per appointment in the booking, each with a paw icon, the pet's name, and the visit type.
Provider pill. The chosen vet (avatar, name, role) — or No preference if the client picked Any Employee.
Total price. Shown only if every visit type in the booking is public-priced. If any are private, the total is hidden until the visit.
The submit button
The label on the bottom action button changes based on what the clinic has configured:
When | The button reads |
Standard booking, no payment required | Request Booking |
Clinic charges a deposit or full payment up front | Pay [amount] to book appointment — opens the payment screen first; appointment is only created on payment success |
Pre-registration mode (no appointment, just account + pet creation) | Complete Registration |
How payments work in detail — Stripe and Lupa Pay flows, deposits as fixed amount or percentage, the payment UI — lives on .
Booking policy and privacy
A small info icon next to the submit button shows a tooltip: "By clicking Request Booking you agree to [Clinic]'s Booking Policy and Privacy Policy", with both links going to the clinic's pages.
What happens at the moment of submit
Lupa runs the submission as a single all-or-nothing operation:
Re-checks slot availability — if someone else booked the slot in the seconds since the client picked it, the submission is rejected and a Time Slot Unavailable dialog steps the client back to the date and time screen.
Creates the appointment in the clinic's diary at the chosen slot, with the visit type, pet, vet (if any), and notes attached.
Uploads any files the client attached and links them to the appointment.
Stores any questionnaire answers from the previous step against the appointment.
Triggers the request received email to the client.
🔒 The submission is whole. Either everything above succeeds, or nothing does. The client never ends up with an appointment but no files, or files but no appointment. If something fails, the wizard shows an error message and the client can retry safely.
The success dialog
On a successful submission Lupa pops a centred modal — a yellow clock icon and the heading "We have received your request for an appointment." followed by "You will receive a copy of this request via email." Below sits a grey What happens next? info box: "The clinic must confirm your appointment. You will receive a separate SMS/email to confirm when this has occurred." The only action on the dialog is Make another Booking — clicking it clears the wizard form, refreshes the data, and drops the client back on the pet picker. They stay signed in.
The success page
Some flows route to a dedicated success page (/success under the booking URL) instead of the dialog — for example, after a payment, after pre-registration, or if the client opens the success page directly. The page shows a tick animation and one of two messages depending on the flow:
Standard booking: "Your booking request has been sent" with the body "Make sure to check your email inbox to see if the clinic accepts the appointment." — a Back button below brings the client back to the pet picker to make another booking.
Pre-registration: "Thanks for registering!" If the clinic has set a custom registration success message, that message renders here. There's no Back button — the flow ends.
Pre-appointment information for the client
The client receives two automated messages from Lupa.
1. The request-received email
Sent immediately on submission. Contains:
A summary of the booking — pet, visit type, date, time
A status of Requested — reminding the client this isn't confirmed yet
The clinic's contact details for follow-up This email is purely a confirmation that the request was captured, not a confirmation of the appointment.
2. The clinic-accepted message
Sent when a clinic team member accepts the request from the work app — moving the booking from Requested into Confirmed in the diary. It can go by email, SMS, or both, depending on the client's communication preferences and the clinic's notification setup. If the clinic has automatic appointment reminders enabled, those start landing in the days before the visit too — typically one a day or two before. Reminders are part of the clinic's wider notifications setup, not specific to online booking.
📍 Two emails, by design. A "we've got your request" email goes immediately. The "your appointment is confirmed" message only goes when the clinic accepts. Clients can tell at a glance which stage they're at — and clinics can decline or reschedule before the lock-in without confusing the client.
The lifecycle of a booking request
Status | What it means | Where it changes |
Requested | Client submitted; slot held; clinic hasn't acted yet. | Set automatically on submit. |
Confirmed | Clinic accepted. Slot locked in. Client notified. | Set when reception/staff accept the request from the diary in the work app. |
Cancelled | Either the clinic declined, or the appointment was cancelled later. | Set from the work app's appointment view. |
The client cannot change any of these from inside the booking portal. To cancel or reschedule a Requested or Confirmed booking, they reply to the email or contact the clinic by phone.
Slot taken between picking and submitting
This is the one error case the client will see, and it's worth being able to spot. When the slot has been taken in the seconds between the client picking it and submitting, the submission returns a BOOKING_SLOT_NO_LONGER_AVAILABLE error. The portal pops a red Time Slot Unavailable dialog with the message "The slot you selected is no longer available. Please select a new time." and a Choose a New Time button. Clicking the button:
Clears the previously-selected slot from the form
Invalidates Lupa's cached availability for that date
Drops the client back on the Select a date and time screen to pick again No appointment, no email, no file upload — nothing reaches the clinic. The client just picks another slot and tries again.
Other submission errors
Other submission errors
Generic submission failures — network blips, transient server issues — surface as a "Something went wrong. Please try again later" toast message on the confirm screen. The client can retry the submit. Lupa's slot-rechecking guarantee still holds: a partially-failed submission doesn't create a half-booking on the diary.
Tips for clinics
✅ Review requests at fixed points in the day. First thing in the morning, after morning consults, and at end-of-day is a sensible rhythm. Set a simple SLA the team agrees on (e.g. "all requests acted on within four working hours"). Don't accept blindly. The Requested state exists because the clinic gets to look at the booking before the slot locks in. Use it. Check the visit type matches the symptoms in the notes; check the pet is on the right vet; reschedule if needed before accepting. Read the notes and attachments. Anything the client added is genuinely there to help. A photo of a lump or a note about anxiety changes how the visit should go. Reply to declines. If you can't accept a request — fully booked, wrong service, urgent issue — phone or email the client back, don't just decline silently. Keep your booking and privacy policy URLs accurate. They're linked from the confirm screen tooltip and from the request-received email. Out-of-date links erode trust before the visit even happens.
Troubleshooting
Problem | What to check |
"Client says they booked but I don't see it in the diary" | Check the diary view's filters — Requested appointments may be hidden by a diary filter on the day. Also verify they completed the submit step rather than dropping off on the confirm screen; the request-received email confirms that submission actually happened. |
"Client got Time Slot Unavailable and is stuck" | Clicking Choose a New Time in the dialog drops them back on the date and time screen with availability refreshed. They pick a new slot and resubmit. Nothing hit the diary; nothing needs cleaning up. |
"Client never got the request-received email" | Check spam/junk first. Confirm the email address on the client's record matches what they typed during registration. Confirm the clinic's transactional email isn't being blocked by the client's mail provider. |
"We accepted the request, but the client says they didn't get the confirmation" | Check the client's communication preferences — if SMS is unticked, no SMS will go. Check the clinic's notification template settings for the appointment confirmed trigger. Resending manually from the appointment view in the work app is the quickest fix. |
"Files the client attached aren't on the appointment" | Open the appointment in the work app; attachments appear in the dedicated files section, not inline in the notes. If they're truly missing, the client can re-attach by phoning or emailing — the client portal doesn't currently allow editing an existing booking's attachments. |
"Client wants to reschedule a Requested booking" | Either decline the request and ask the client to rebook, or accept first and reschedule from the diary. Both work; "accept then reschedule" is usually less friction for the client. |
Frequently asked questions
Is a Requested slot "locked in" as a placeholder on the diary?
Is a Requested slot "locked in" as a placeholder on the diary?
The diary holds the slot against the requested booking, so another online booking attempt for the same slot will see it as taken. Internal staff can still book over it from the work app if they need to — useful for emergencies, but be deliberate about it.
What format are the request-received and confirmation emails in?
What format are the request-received and confirmation emails in?
HTML emails styled with the clinic's branding where possible. Plain-text fallbacks are included so they render in any client. Subject lines and body templates are part of the clinic's notification settings.
Can the client edit a booking from the portal after submitting?
Can the client edit a booking from the portal after submitting?
No. The portal only handles new bookings. Any change — cancel, reschedule, add files, edit notes — has to go through the clinic. Clients will need to contact the practice directly.
What happens if the clinic doesn't accept a request?
What happens if the clinic doesn't accept a request?
The booking sits as Requested indefinitely until someone acts on it. There's no automatic timeout that flips it to confirmed or cancelled. That's why an internal SLA on reviewing requests matters.
Are notes from the client visible to the vet on the day?
Are notes from the client visible to the vet on the day?
Yes — the client notes from the confirm screen appear on the appointment record in the work app, alongside any questionnaire answers and attached files, so reception, nurses, and vets can read them before the consult.
Why does the success dialog say "SMS/email" with a slash?
Why does the success dialog say "SMS/email" with a slash?
Lupa doesn't know which channel the clinic will use to send the eventual confirmation — it depends on the client's communication preferences and the clinic's notification settings. The slash covers either case.
Does pre-registration generate a Requested appointment?
Does pre-registration generate a Requested appointment?
No. Pre-registration creates the client and pet records but does not create an appointment. The success page shows a different message for that flow (often a custom one set by the clinic).