Podiatry practice software that keeps your treatment chairs full

A podiatry practice runs on a rhythm: patients book, you assess, you treat, you advise on footwear and orthotics, you invoice, and, for routine care, you bring them back on a regular recall cycle until their feet are managed. OneBookPlus supports every stage of that rhythm, from the first online booking through to the recall reminder that keeps a routine patient on schedule rather than dropping off and re-presenting with an avoidable problem.

Patient booking and intake

Patients find your clinic through Google, your website, or a GP referral and book directly through your branded online booking page. They select from your defined appointment types, initial assessment, routine treatment, nail surgery, biomechanical or gait assessment, orthotic fitting, or diabetic foot review, and choose an available time slot in real time. New patients complete a digital intake form capturing contact details, presenting complaint, medical history (including diabetes and vascular conditions that change your risk assessment), referring practitioner, and health-fund details. This appears in their patient record before they walk through the door, so you can review the case before the consultation rather than spending the first ten minutes on paperwork. Returning patients skip the intake and book their next visit in under thirty seconds. The online booking feature overview covers how availability, buffers and appointment types are configured.

Clinical notes and treatment records

During each appointment you record notes against the patient's record, presenting complaint, vascular and neurological screening, dermatological and nail findings, gait and biomechanical observations, treatment performed, footwear and self-care advice, and the plan for next time, in whatever structure suits your documentation style. Structured note templates are on the roadmap; until then the notes are free-form. For multi-session care plans, keep the plan's goals and review intervals in the patient's notes, and if another podiatrist in your clinic sees the patient, they have full context from previous visits, no verbal handovers. Clinical notes are timestamped and stored securely against each patient record, supporting your AHPRA documentation obligations and the 7-year health-record retention requirement, and providing evidence of the care pathway if ever queried by an insurer or referrer.

Recalls and routine-care retention

Routine foot care is the backbone of most podiatry practices, patients who need their nails and calluses managed every six to twelve weeks, and diabetic or high-risk patients who need review on a tighter cycle. Recall reminders are built for exactly this. Set a rebooking interval for your clinic, and patients who haven't returned within it are automatically emailed a nudge with a direct link to your booking page, so reception can follow up proactively before a manageable foot becomes an urgent one. For a clinic, consistent recalls are the single biggest lever on chair utilisation and predictable revenue, and automating them frees reception from the phone. The same recall tooling runs the treatment-plan cycles described on our osteopathy practice software page and the review cycles used by physiotherapy clinics.

Invoicing, HICAPS and Medicare EPC

At the end of each appointment, OneBookPlus generates an invoice with your ABN and provider number. Podiatry consultations provided by an AHPRA-registered podiatrist are generally GST-free as recognised health services, while orthotics, footwear and other products you sell are usually GST-taxable. OneBookPlus handles these mixed invoices correctly, line by line, so your BAS is right without manual sorting. Record each invoice against the correct payer, private fee, HICAPS health-fund extras claim, Medicare EPC/CDM care-plan session, DVA, NDIS, or WorkCover, so your revenue reporting breaks down by payer type. For patients on a GP Management Plan, keep the session count in the patient's notes so the up-to-five funded allied-health sessions per calendar year never surprise you. HICAPS terminal claiming and Medicare submission still run through your HICAPS and Medicare facilities; OneBookPlus keeps the booking, clinical-note, invoicing and accounting record aligned with those claims so nothing falls through the cracks.

Orthotics, retail lines and the mixed invoice

Podiatry is one of the few allied-health disciplines where a large share of revenue leaves the room as a physical thing. Custom orthotics, prefabricated devices, footwear, padding, offloading and dressings all sit on the invoice next to a consultation that is generally GST-free as a recognised health service. Some medical aids and appliances carry their own GST-free treatment, others are plain retail, which is why treating the invoice as a single tax category is where clinics get into trouble. OneBookPlus sets the treatment per line, so one invoice can carry a GST-free consult, a taxable retail item and a separately treated appliance, and the tax summary separates them without anyone re-sorting at quarter end. Because the cost of the device sits against the same job, you can also see what a fitting returned rather than only what it billed. The GST calculator works the 10% both ways when you are pricing a new product line, and the glossary entry on GST-free versus input-taxed sales explains why the two are not interchangeable. General information, not tax advice, so confirm each product category with your accountant or the ATO.

What the payer mix tells you at the end of the quarter

Two podiatry clinics can bill the same amount and run completely differently, because one is mostly private patients paying at the chair and the other is carrying DVA, NDIS and aged-care work that settles weeks later. Recording the payer on every invoice, private fee, health-fund extras, a Medicare EPC session, DVA, NDIS or WorkCover, turns that difference into something you can see rather than something you feel in the bank balance. The payer breakdown shows where the revenue comes from, and the aged-receivables view shows how much of it is still outstanding, which is the number that decides whether you can add a chair or a second practitioner. Scheme and insurer work also carries its own approval limits and paperwork, so knowing what share of the week it represents is worth more than a headline revenue figure. The bookkeeping software overview covers how those figures roll into your BAS summary, and our page for NDIS providers goes deeper on plan-managed and self-managed billing if that is a growing part of your list.

Reputation and practice growth

Growing a podiatry practice comes down to keeping the patients you have on their recall cycle and attracting new ones, often via GP referrals and online search. OneBookPlus supports both. After an appointment, automatically request a Google review from satisfied patients, building the online reputation that wins the next person searching "podiatrist near me." Referral source tracking shows which GPs and specialists send patients your way, so you know which professional relationships to nurture. Your booking page doubles as a lightweight website showcasing your services, fees and reviews, and the dashboard ties it all together, bookings, recalls, referrals, payer mix and BAS-ready financials in one place, so you always know exactly where the practice stands.