Your First Consultation

This is the whole visit in one pass — the patient arrives, you write the note, record what you needled, build the script, print the label and raise the invoice. Everything stays on the one record, so nothing is typed twice.

Each step below has a tutorial of its own if you want the detail. Read this one first to see how the pieces fit together.

Step 1: Start the consultation

Open your calendar and click the appointment. From there you can start the consultation for that patient, which ties the note to the booking.

Step 2: Choose a template

Daobook ships with four consultation templates — Initial Consultation, Return Consultation, General and Simple. A Return Consultation opens with Progress Since Last Visit, tongue and pulse, examination and TCM diagnosis, then the treatment fields underneath.

You can change what's on a template, or build your own, so the note matches the way you already work rather than the other way round.

Step 3: Add a diagram if you want one

Tongue and body charts sit with the rest of the consultation content. Draw on them directly, and they save with the note. You can add your own diagrams in settings — see Your Own Diagrams and Diagrams in Templates.

Step 4: Record the points

The Acupuncture section records what you needled as real data rather than a line of free text. Search for a point and select it, or tap it from the quick-pick palette you build up as you work. Each point can be set to left, right or both.

If you needle the same combination often, save it as a protocol and fill it in with one click next time. The full walkthrough is in Recording Acupuncture Points.

Step 5: Build the prescription

In the Prescriptions section of the consultation, click + In-clinic and the builder opens inline. Search a formula by its Pin Yin name or its abbreviation, adjust the herbs, add anything else you want, and set the quantity you're dispensing.

Click Add to consultation — or Dispense & add to consultation if you track herb inventory — and it saves as a card on the note. See Building a Herbal Prescription.

Step 6: Finalise the note

Save as Draft keeps it open for later; Finalise closes it off. Both save the note rather than a prescription still sitting in the builder — if one is left there, Daobook takes you back to it first.

Step 7: Print the label

From the saved prescription, hit Print and choose a Single Label (Front Only), a Double Label (Front & Back), or an Instruction Sheet (A4) for raw herbs. See Printing Prescription Labels.

Step 8: Raise the invoice

Create the invoice from the appointment and it arrives already carrying the appointment's treatment, and any prescriptions from the consultation as line items. Record the payment against it and the visit is closed.

Tips:

Nothing here is compulsory. A note with no points and no script is still a valid consultation, and you can come back and add either later.
Herb inventory is off until you turn it on. You can prescribe from your first day without setting any of it up — see Herb Inventory: Stock, Batches and Expiry when you're ready for it.