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Set up and manage the waitlist

From referral to appointment: How to use the screener and the waitlist together to simplify intake and fill your calendar faster.

Updated over 2 weeks ago

What’s in this guide:

  • When to use the Screener vs the Waitlist

  • How to review, accept or reject referrals

  • How to add, tag and book clients

  • Managing and closing waitlist entries

  • Tips for access, filters and workflows


Waitlist vs Screener: What’s the difference- and how to use both

Overloaded with referrals? Hand it over.

splose gives you two tools to manage incoming demand like a pro:
👋 The Screener – to triage and respond to new referrals coming in from embeddable forms
📋 The Waitlist – to manage clients waiting for services and match them with availability

The Screener gives you control while the Waitlist keeps you in touch.


Together, they take the pressure off your intake team- and help you support more clients, faster. Here’s how they work, what makes them different, and how to use both in one smooth workflow.

Quick snapshot

What we're comparing

Screener

Waitlist

What it’s for

Reviewing new referrals

Managing clients waiting for services

How clients get there

Automatically from an embeddable form (if enabled)

Accepted from Screener or manually added

Actions

Accept / Reject / Restore

Filter / Book / Move to closed / Restore

Tags

Auto-assigned from the form, not editable here

Fully editable based on your waitlist tags

Practitioner access

Not visible unless they have access to all clients

Visible once booked or practitioner role is set to have access to all clients

Client visibility

Roles with access to Waitlist and all clients

Roles with access to Waitlist and all clients


Screener

Start with the Screener

What it is

The Screener is your front line. It gives your team space to review incoming referrals before they’re added to your actual Waitlist. That means you stay in control of intake- especially when you're at capacity or need to prioritise.

When clients appear here

Clients will automatically appear in the Screener when they submit a form with the Screener setting enabled. This form can either be embedded on your website's referral page or sent as a direct link to your referrers.
More on embeddable forms here →

To enable this:

  1. Go to your Embeddable formShare & Automate tab

  2. Turn on Create client and add to Waitlist Screener

You can also set up email alerts for your team by clicking on Send email to and selecting users you want notified, so no new referral goes unnoticed.


Screener: Review and respond to referrals

  1. Go to WaitlistScreener

  2. Click a referral to open and review it

  3. Choose:

    • Yes → adds them to your Waitlist

    • No → archives the referral

  4. Choose how to respond:

    • Send your default email template

    • Pick another template

    • Write a custom message

    • Or skip the email entirely

splose includes default acceptance and rejection templates. You can customise or create more under Settings Email Templates, and select your default ones in the form settings.

💡You're not locked in to the default screener templates you select under Share & Automate when responding to accepted/rejected referrals on the Screener, so feel free to create different templates for different use cases.
You can select between your templates from the screener by clicking the screener email template dropdown.


Screener: Restore a rejected referral

Made a mistake or changed your mind?

  1. Go to the Rejected tab in the Screener

  2. Click Actions next to the referral

  3. Select Restore- it’ll go back to triage, ready for review again

💡Need to reach out to the client before accepting or rejecting their referral? Simply click the Actions button by their name and use the options to Send SMS or Send email.


Screener: Tags

Tags in the Screener are automatically applied based on your form setup. You can’t add or change tags in the Screener.
Once the referral is accepted and added to your Waitlist, you’ll be able to assign or edit tags freely.


Waitlist

Move to the Waitlist

Once a referral is accepted, the Waitlist becomes their home base. It’s where you manage client preferences, apply waitlist tags, use the map view- all in one place.

What it is

The Waitlist is your hands-on queue of clients waiting for services. Once someone is accepted from the Screener- or manually added- they’ll appear here, ready to be matched, scheduled, and supported.

When you accept a client from the Screener, you get the option to select client preferences for appointments, which in turn adds this client to waitlist matches on the calendar.


Waitlist: Add a client manually

  1. Go to Waitlist

  2. Click Add client

  3. Fill in:

    • Client name

    • Preferred location

    • Preferred practitioner

    • Date added (can be backdated)

    • Services they’re waiting for (one or more)

    • Preferred days and times:

      • Morning: 12am – 12pm

      • Afternoon: 12pm – 6pm

      • Evening: 6pm – 11:59pm

    • Tags (e.g. High priority, Step 1: Initial contact)

  4. Click Add

If a client is already on the waitlist, you will be notified after you enter their name ✨


Waitlist: Filter, sort and organise

You can filter the Waitlist by:

  • Tags

  • Preferred day and times

  • Preferred practitioner

  • Preferred service

  • Location

You can sort the Waitlist by:

  • Client name

  • Date added

Don't need all the columns showing? Click Show/hide fields to show or hide:

  • Date of birth

  • Address

  • Note

  • Referrer

  • Last contact

Need a birds-eye view?
Click Map to view clients by location. This is handy for:

  • Booking nearby clients on the same day

  • Reducing travel

  • Filling schedules based on geography

Map view respects your filters- so if you only want to see clients waiting for OT in Adelaide, that’s what you’ll get.


Waitlist: Booking appointments

You can book a client straight from the Waitlist, or from the calendar.

Option 1: From the calendar

  1. Go to your Calendar

  2. Click an available time

  3. Click Add appointment or Add support activity

  4. splose will show waitlist matches, sorted by who’s been waiting longest

  5. Choose the client, complete the booking, and click Create

📌 Can't find a certain client in your waitlist matches? You can go back to the Waitlist to check that their Practitioner, Location, Preferred day and Preferred time match with your calendar selection.

Option 2: From a client on the Waitlist

  1. Click the client’s name

  2. Go to their Appointments tab

  3. Create an appointment from there

💡After a client has been booked for the service they received, the client will be moved to the Closed list on the Waitlist.
If they’re still waiting for other services, they’ll stay in Active for those.


Waitlist: Move clients manually between Closed and Active lists

Want to move someone to Closed without a booking?

  1. Click the Actions menu next to their name

  2. Select Move to closed

To bring them back:

  1. Go to the Closed tab

  2. Click Actions next to their name

  3. Click Restore

These aren't final, so don't sweat if you accidentally move a client from one list to another. The change logs also allow you to see any changes made to a client on the waitlist.


Waitlist: Tags

Track your client progress on the waitlist with tags. You can customise and apply tags to match your intake flow. For example:

  • Step 1: Initial contact

  • Step 2: Docs received

  • Step 3: Ready to schedule

Tags can be filtered and updated at any point on the Waitlist, so your whole team stays in the loop.

To set up new tags:

  1. Go to Settings Tags

  2. Create the tags you need

  3. Apply them when adding or editing a client on the Waitlist


Practitioner visibility tip

Just assigned a referral to a practitioner and they can’t see it?

By default, practitioners only have access to clients they have appointments or support activities with. To give access earlier:

  1. Create a support activity or appointment for the client under that practitioner’s calendar

  2. That creates the link

  3. You can archive the activity if it’s not needed


Example workflow: A smooth intake in action

  1. A referral is submitted via your embedded referral form on your website → lands in the Waitlist Screener

  2. You review it from the Screener→ Accept and move to the Waitlist

  3. Add or update tags on the Waitlist like High Priority or Step 2: Docs received

  4. A cancellation pops up → click the time slot in your calendar

  5. splose shows your waitlist matches

  6. Choose a client from your waitlist matches and book the session

  7. Client is automatically moved to Closed for that service

From waitlist to welcome 👋🏻

💡 Want to streamline your intake process? Attach an appointment template to your intake/initial service with standard forms attached. This makes sure new clients automatically get the right forms before their appointment- so you save time and stay one step ahead.

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