Frequently asked questions about FormAlert.

FormAlert is an appointment booking system for private clinics in India. It handles online bookings, walk-ins, phone and WhatsApp appointments in one queue, sends WhatsApp booking confirmations and 24-hour and 2-hour reminders, and requests a Google review after each visit. Online bookings arrive on their own; phone and walk-in patients are typed in by your staff. One plan: ₹1,999/month, or ₹17,999/year.

Solo practitioners and small private clinics in India — GPs, dentists, gynaecologists, dermatologists, physiotherapists, paediatricians, psychologists, ayurveda practitioners, and aesthetic clinics. If you run your own practice and want online booking with automatic WhatsApp confirmations and timed reminders, it's for you. It is not built for hospitals or clinic chains.

Setup takes about 20 minutes. You connect your Google Calendar, add your working hours, list your services with prices, and get your booking link. No training needed, no complicated software to learn.

No. FormAlert is designed to be extremely simple. If you can use WhatsApp, you can use FormAlert. Everything works on your phone, and there's no complicated setup process.

For appointments, yes — every patient's contact details, visit history, payments and WhatsApp conversation sit in one place, and you can export the patient list any time. It is not clinical software: no notes, no prescriptions, no medical history. Most clinics run FormAlert alongside whatever records they already keep.

No. FormAlert runs one clinic per account, with multiple doctors inside it on the Business plan. Routing requests across branches by location is not something it does.

Yes. FormAlert offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required — a full preview of the plan, reminders included. Trial messages are sent from FormAlert's shared WhatsApp number, because Meta has to verify your clinic's own number before it can send; connecting it is done with you on a call.

Patients can book from multiple places: your Google Business Profile "Book Appointment" button, a direct link you share (on Instagram, WhatsApp status, etc.), an embedded widget on your website, or any social media link. They choose a time, service, and pay—all in 30 seconds.

Yes. You can set up different services with different durations and prices. For example: "In-clinic consultation (30 min, ₹500)" and "Online consultation (15 min, ₹300)". Patients choose which type they want when booking.

You can cancel or reschedule any appointment with a single click from your dashboard. Patients also receive options to reschedule through WhatsApp or by contacting you.

Yes. You can add "Busy" events to your Google Calendar and FormAlert will automatically block those times from booking. You can also manually override any specific dates for holidays or emergency closures.

You can manually add walk-in appointments anytime from your dashboard. They're automatically added to your schedule and marked as "Confirmed" so you have a complete view of all appointments.

Yes. FormAlert shows real-time availability. If a slot is booked, it immediately becomes unavailable to other patients. No double bookings ever.

Yes. From any completed appointment, one click books the patient's next visit, and FormAlert reminds them automatically — 24 hours and 2 hours before — so follow-ups don't get forgotten.

Yours. We set up your clinic's own WhatsApp number, and every message — confirmation, 24-hour reminder, 2-hour reminder, review request — comes from it, with patients able to reply. There is no wallet: Meta bills you directly at its own rate, about ₹0.10 for a utility template and ₹0.78 if it classifies the message as marketing. During the 14-day trial, before Meta has verified your number, messages come from FormAlert's shared number and are one-way.

Patients get a WhatsApp reminder 24 hours before their appointment — while there is still time to reschedule — and again 2 hours before. Messages come from your practice's own WhatsApp Business number. We do not quote a no-show reduction figure, because we have none we can source.

Yes, once your practice has its own WhatsApp Business API number. You can edit the templates — add your practice name, preparation instructions, directions, or anything relevant. During the trial, before that number is connected, messages use FormAlert's own shared templates, which cannot be changed.

Yes, once your practice's own WhatsApp number is connected. Patients can reply to any message and message that number directly — including outside business hours to book an appointment — and you manage replies from your FormAlert dashboard. During the trial, on FormAlert's shared number, messages are one-way only.

No. There is no chatbot and no AI-written replies — we would rather say so plainly than sell you one that does not exist. What is automated is every message tied to an appointment: the booking confirmation, reminders 24 hours and 2 hours before, the follow-up, and the Google review request after the visit. When a patient asks a real question, a person on your team answers it.

There is no bot to take over from — a person answers from the first reply. On the Business plan, patient replies land in a shared WhatsApp inbox that reception and your staff both work from, with the patient's appointments and history alongside the thread, so whoever picks it up has the context. The automated appointment messages keep going out on schedule underneath that.

No — WhatsApp and email only. SMS gets filtered or ignored often enough in India that we would rather not bill you for it. If SMS is a hard requirement for you, FormAlert is not the right fit and we will tell you that on the call rather than after you have paid.

For the Business plan, you need a WhatsApp Business number for your practice. You can use your existing practice number or get a new one. We'll help you set it up during onboarding — it's included in the plan.

There is no wallet to manage on the plan — Meta bills your clinic directly at its own rate, roughly ₹0.10 for a utility template and ₹0.78 if it classifies the message as marketing. The 14-day trial is the exception: it comes with a small free credit allowance at ₹1 a billable message, and you can top up any time from your dashboard. Credit you buy never expires.

Payments are collected via Razorpay. You connect your own Razorpay account and patients pay at the time of booking — money goes directly to your bank account. You can also accept WhatsApp Payments for online consultations, where patients pay inside the WhatsApp conversation without being redirected to another app.

Patients pay via Razorpay: UPI (Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm), Credit/Debit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay), and Net Banking. For online consultations they can also pay via WhatsApp Payments — UPI directly within WhatsApp.

WhatsApp Payments is a UPI-based payment feature built into WhatsApp. Patients booking an online consultation can pay directly within the WhatsApp conversation — no redirect to Razorpay, no separate app. It's the most frictionless payment experience for patients already on WhatsApp, and Razorpay remains available alongside it.

Yes! For each service, you choose whether payment is required upfront (prepaid) or optional (postpaid). For example, you might require prepayment for online consultations but allow in-clinic patients to pay after the visit.

FormAlert charges ₹1,999/month, or ₹17,999/year. For patient payments, you pay only Razorpay's transaction fees directly to them (approximately 2% per transaction). FormAlert doesn't charge anything extra on payments.

Yes. You can process refunds directly from your FormAlert dashboard. The refund goes back to the patient's original payment method through Razorpay.

FormAlert tracks all payments automatically. You can export patient data with payment history as a CSV file anytime for your accounting records or CA.

FormAlert stores patient name, phone number, complete appointment history, payment status, and any consultation notes you add. Everything is digital and searchable—no paper files needed.

Yes. After each appointment, you can add or edit consultation notes, prescriptions, observations, or any other information you want to record about the patient's visit.

Search by patient name or phone number. You'll instantly see their complete appointment history, payment status, and any notes you've added. Everything is accessible from your phone or computer.

The patient portal is included on the Business plan. Patients receive a link to their portal in their confirmation WhatsApp message. From the portal they can see how many patients are ahead of them in the queue and the expected wait time — so they know when to arrive. For online consultations, the Google Meet link is there too. For in-person visits, they can see your practice location on maps. The portal is a web link — no app download, no account needed.

Yes. You can export your entire patient database as a CSV file anytime. This is useful for keeping your own backup records or for sharing with your accountant.

Yes. All patient data is encrypted and stored securely. We follow industry-standard security practices to protect sensitive medical information.

Yes! FormAlert is perfect for group practices. Each provider gets their own calendar and booking link (businessname/providername), but all providers share the patient database and payment settings.

Yes. Staff members get full access to manage appointments, view patient records, add walk-ins, and handle the calendar. The only thing they can't access is payment settings—that stays with the practice owner.

Patients choose which provider they want when booking (if you have multiple providers). Each provider has their own services and schedule. The system automatically assigns the appointment to the correct provider.

Yes. All providers and staff can see the entire practice schedule and patient database. This is helpful for group practices where patients might see different providers at different times.

When a patient books an online consultation, they pay upfront — via Razorpay or WhatsApp Payments. FormAlert automatically generates a Google Meet link and sends it to the patient via WhatsApp. At appointment time, they click the link (no app download needed) and you join from your FormAlert dashboard.

Yes. Instead of Google Meet, you can add custom text like "Phone call at appointment time" or "WhatsApp video call". This gives you flexibility to use whatever consultation method you prefer.

The Google Meet link is sent immediately when the appointment is confirmed (after payment if prepaid, or after you approve if postpaid). They also receive it in the reminder message.

Yes! You can create separate services with different prices. For example: "In-clinic consultation: ₹500" and "Online consultation: ₹300". Patients choose which type they want when booking.

When someone searches for a doctor near them, Google weighs how many reviews you have and how recent they are — so a clinic getting a steady stream of fresh reviews tends to show up higher than one that stopped collecting them. FormAlert doesn't touch where you rank directly; it does the part clinics usually skip, which is asking every patient, every time. Aries OB-GYN Clinic in Guwahati went from 42 to 87 reviews in six months this way — no patient asked face-to-face.

When you mark an appointment as "Completed" in the dashboard, FormAlert immediately sends the patient a WhatsApp message with a direct link to your Google review page. One tap and they're on the review form while the visit is still fresh. No sentiment screening, no extra steps — every completed visit triggers the request.

Included. The automatic Google review request goes out the moment you mark a visit complete, from your practice's own registered WhatsApp Business number. During the 14-day trial, before Meta has verified that number, it is sent from FormAlert's shared one instead.

Custom message templates are available on the Business plan. You can edit the review request template — add your practice name, a personal note, or anything you'd like.

Only patients whose appointments you mark as "Completed" will receive review requests. You control when the automation triggers.

Yes! FormAlert is mobile-first and works perfectly on any smartphone. You can manage your entire practice from your phone—check appointments, add notes, view payments, chat with patients.

No. Patients book through a simple web link that works in any browser. No app downloads, no sign-ups—just click, book, and pay.

Yes. You can sync your Google Calendar with FormAlert. Any "Busy" events you add to Google Calendar will automatically block those times from being booked on FormAlert.

You can cancel from your dashboard at any time. Your subscription stays active until the end of the current billing month — you won't be charged again after that. Export all your patient data as a CSV before you go. Your data remains accessible for 30 days after the subscription ends.

Yes. FormAlert works on any device—phone, tablet, or computer. You login through any web browser. Many practitioners check their schedule on phone and add detailed notes on computer.