Screening questions and eligibility
Ask your own intake questions and stop unsuitable bookings before they happen.
Booked lets you attach a screening form to one service, decide what each answer should do, and read the answers on the booking. It sits on the Eligibility tab of the service editor, so a yellow fever appointment asks about pregnancy while ear syringing asks nothing.
Turn screening on for one service
- Open Booked › Business › Services and click the serviceThen open the Eligibility tab, headed Eligibility & intake.
- Switch on "Collect eligibility / intake for this service"The rest of the card stays hidden until you do.
- Fill in Section title and Intro / instructionsBoth show above the questions. One sentence on why you are asking is plenty.
- Add your questions, then press Save serviceAll six tabs share one form — switching tabs saves nothing.
Services
The Eligibility tab of the service editor.
- 1Eligibility — the sixth tab. Screening belongs to this service alone.
- 2Build with AI — drafts a questionnaire from a description. Shown only if AI drafting is set up.
- 3Collect eligibility / intake for this service — the master switch. Off means customers book straight through.
- 4When is it collected? — the most important choice here.
Choose when the questions are asked
The three options behave very differently.
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| During the online booking | A step straight after the customer picks the service, before the date. A blocking answer stops them before a slot is held or money moves. |
| Secure link after booking | The appointment is taken first; the confirmation screen shows a Complete your screening button leading to a private page. |
| Staff / admin only | Nothing is shown to anyone. The questions stay saved, no step appears on the booking form, and there is no staff-side form either. |
The slot is held and any deposit taken before the customer answers. A Block booking rule here only records them as ineligible — it never cancels or refunds, so you must do both. The link appears on the confirmation screen only. That screen says it is emailed too, but Booked sends no such email, so if the customer closes the tab it is gone.
Write the questions
Press Add question, type it into the box at the top of the card, then pick a Type. Help text (optional) shows in small print underneath — use it for the bit patients otherwise ring up about. Required is ticked by default; leave it so for anything clinically important. Arrows reorder a card, the bin removes it.
| Type | Good for | Rules can test |
|---|---|---|
| Yes / No | Contraindications | is Yes, is No |
| Single choice | Country of travel | is (one of your options) |
| Multiple choice | Medicines, existing conditions | includes (one of your options) |
| Number | Age, weight, BMI | <, ≤, >, ≥, = |
| Text | Free notes | is answered, equals, contains |
| Date | Date of birth, travel date | is answered, equals, contains |
Single choice and Multiple choice show an Options list — add each with + Option. A question left with no text is quietly dropped on save, so a blank card that vanishes is expected.
Set rules: flag for review, or block the booking
Each question has an Eligibility rules area reading "No rules — any answer is fine." Press + Rule for one line: If answer … then … with two outcomes.
- Flag for review — the booking goes through but lands as Pending. This beats auto-approve: even with "Auto-approve new bookings" on, a booking flagged during the online booking waits for a human.
- Block booking — the customer is stopped there, seeing a "Not suitable to book" panel with your Message shown to the customer and a Change my answers button. No appointment, no charge.
Write that message: leave it blank and the customer gets a generic line telling them to contact you, which is a phone call you could have avoided.
Two questions on a yellow fever service — one blocks, one flags.
- 1The question — exactly as the customer reads it. Ask one thing per question; two cannot be ruled on.
- 2Required — they cannot continue without answering.
- 3The outcome — Block booking, so a "Yes" ends it. Flag for review would let it through as Pending.
- 4Message shown to the customer — appears only for Block booking, and it is the one line a customer definitely reads.
- 5A flagging rule — a past reaction is not an automatic no, so this only marks the booking for a pharmacist.
Two things to watch. Changing a question's Type clears its rules, so set the type first. And your rules never reach the customer's browser — every answer is re-checked on your server, so nobody can fake a pass.
ID uploads and consent text
Switch on Require secure ID / document upload when you need to see something — a passport, a prescription, a photo of a rash. Upload label is what the customer reads ("Photo ID"); Minimum files sets how many, from 1 to 5. They can send JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or PDF, 12 MB each.
Those files are encrypted, kept out of the Media Library, and opened only by staff through the booking, with every view recorded. If your server cannot encrypt them the card reads "Secure uploads aren't ready yet" — collect nothing until it has gone. Consent statement (optional) adds a tick box under the questions.
Customers cannot continue without ticking it, but the tick itself is never stored on the booking. If you need to prove consent later, ask for it as a Required Yes / No question instead — those answers are saved.
Draft the form with AI
Build with AI opens a box headed Describe the service and who is eligible. Describe it as you would to a new colleague: the service, the age limits, what rules someone out, whether you need ID. Generate form then drafts the questions, rules, intro and document settings.
It keeps your When is it collected? choice and replaces everything else, so generate first and edit after — a second run overwrites what you wrote. Read every rule before saving: a drafted rule is a clinical decision with your name on it.
Review a flagged booking
Flagged bookings sit in Bookings under the Pending chip. Open one and find Eligibility & secure documents: a verdict of Eligible, Flagged for review or Ineligible, every answer, and any uploads. Confirm from there, or cancel and ring them.
GB-00042
| Are you pregnant or breastfeeding? | No |
| Have you ever had a serious reaction to a vaccine? | Yes |
| Date of travel | 2026-09-28 |
A flagged booking, with its answers and encrypted upload.
- 1Status: Pending — a flag raised during the booking forces this even when auto-approve is on. Nothing is confirmed until you say so.
- 2Flagged for review — the verdict. Ineligible only ever appears on bookings screened by secure link, after the fact.
- 3The answers — every question with what they said. This is the record; it is not copied to the customer.
- 4Secure documents — encrypted uploads, opened through Booked rather than a public link. Delete them once you no longer need them.
Answers live on the booking, not the person: a regular who books twice is screened twice, and a subject-access request means opening each booking.