Scheduling Software for Veterinarians and Vet Clinics
Pet owners pick the reason for the visit and a free slot, and get reminders before they come. Surgery mornings stay closed to bookings. Hosted in the EU.
Updated 31 October 2026
Why do vet practices spend so much time on the phone?
A vaccination takes fifteen minutes, a new patient consultation half an hour, a pre-surgery consultation longer, and many of them are still booked by phone. Owners ring while you are consulting, reception juggles the desk and the line, and someone asking for "a check-up" ends up in the wrong length of slot. Tymeslot gives each reason for a visit its own meeting type, so owners pick what they need and see only the slots that fit it. Emergencies stay on the phone, where they belong.
What a veterinary diary needs from online booking
Routine work suits online booking well: vaccinations, annual health checks, nail clips, new patient registrations and post-operative checks. These have predictable lengths, and owners are happy to book them in the evening. Urgent cases do not suit it, and a booking page should say so and give the phone number.
The harder part is protecting theatre time. If owners can book consultations on a surgery morning, the vet ends up scrubbing in late. In Tymeslot each meeting type uses an availability schedule, so routine consultations can open only in the afternoons on surgery days, and time off covers the days the practice is closed. A post-operative check can be a private meeting type that only the owners you send the link to can book.
Everything veterinarians need. Nothing they don't.
Vaccination, Check-Up or Pre-Op
Vaccinations, health checks, new patient consultations and pre-surgery consultations each get their own duration, description and booking link.
Surgery Mornings Stay Free
Give consultations an availability schedule that opens only in the afternoon on surgery days. Add time off for training days and holidays.
Private Links for Post-Op Checks
Mark the post-operative check as private and send its link when the animal goes home. Owners browsing your public page never see it.
Booster Reminders a Week Out
A booster booked twelve months ago needs more warning than a next-day nail clip. Set a reminder a week before, while owners can still move it around work, and another on the morning.
Deposits Where a Gap Hurts Most
On Pro, owners pay a fixed deposit, such as €30, when they book a pre-surgery consultation, the slot that is hardest to refill at short notice. Vaccinations and post-op checks stay free to book.
House Calls You Approve First
Switch on host approval for a home visit type, so each request waits until you have checked the route and the time between farm calls before the owner gets a confirmation.
Privacy and compliance for veterinarians
A vet booking concerns an animal but is made by a person, so two sets of rules meet on the booking form: data protection law for the owner, and the profession's own conduct rules on confidentiality and on telling clients where to go out of hours. The points below quote the RCVS, the UK regulator; veterinary chambers and boards elsewhere set comparable duties, so check your own.
Owner data is personal data; the animal's is not
The RCVS notes that animal data falls outside the GDPR, while clients' personal data must be handled under it. On a booking form, the owner's name, email, phone and any answers about the household are personal data; ask only what reception needs to book the right slot, and keep clinical history for the consultation.
Confidentiality covers the client and the animal
Vets and their support staff should not disclose any information about a client or their animal to a third party without a justification. A connected calendar shares only whether an hour is taken, so a surgery list or a farm visit entered there never shows its details on the booking page.
Emergency cover details must be easy to find
Practices should give clients full details of their 24-hour emergency cover and make them publicly available, for example on the practice website, along with likely initial costs. A booking page is where owners look at night, so put the out-of-hours number and provider in each meeting type's description.
- Hosted in the EU
- Signed DPA on Enterprise only
- Self-hosting for full control
See the difference
Without Tymeslot
With Tymeslot
Common scheduling scenarios
How do vets handle vaccinations and annual check-ups online?
Vaccinations and annual check-ups are high in volume and predictable in length, which makes them the easiest appointments to move online. They are also the ones owners forget, because they are booked so far ahead.
- Create a 20-minute "Vaccination or health check" meeting type, plus a 30-minute version for households bringing two cats or two dogs together.
- Set the booking horizon to 365 days, so owners book next year's booster at the desk, and a puppy's or kitten's second injection, usually two to four weeks later, before they leave.
- Remind owners seven days ahead, then again three hours before the visit.
- An owner who moves a booster from the confirmation email frees the slot for someone whose dog needs a kennel cough vaccination before boarding.
How do veterinarians register new patients through online booking?
A new patient consultation takes longer than a vaccination: you need the animal's history, previous vet and any current concerns. Booked into a 15-minute slot, it runs over and delays the whole afternoon.
- Create a "New patient consultation" meeting type of 30 minutes with its own link.
- On Pro or self-hosted, ask the kind of animal, its name and age, the previous practice and whether it is insured.
- Set a minimum notice of 24 hours, so the previous practice's records can be requested before the visit.
- Leave a 10-minute buffer on the schedule to set up the new record in the practice-management system afterwards.
How do small vet practices keep surgery days under control?
On surgery days a small practice cannot also run a full consulting list. Without limits, online booking fills every slot and leaves no room for post-operative checks or an urgent case.
- Give routine consultations a schedule that opens only in the afternoon on surgery days, for example from 14:00 on Tuesday and Thursday, and all day on the others.
- Make "Surgery admission" a private 10-minute meeting type with drop-off slots from 08:00 to 09:00 and a daily limit equal to your theatre places, and send its link after the pre-surgery consultation.
- Print or email the private post-op check link alongside the discharge notes.
- Busy times in your connected calendar, such as a farm visit, block those hours for bookings too.
See Tymeslot in action
A starter setup for veterinarians
| Meeting type | Duration | Buffer | Minimum notice | Bookable ahead | Payment at booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaccination or health check | 20 min | 10 min | 4 hours | 365 days | None |
| New patient consultation | 30 min | 10 min | 1 day | 4 weeks | None |
| Pre-surgery consultation | 30 min | 10 min | 2 days | 4 weeks | €30 deposit at booking |
| Post-operative check | 15 min | 10 min | 2 hours | 2 weeks | None |
Intake questions
- What kind of animal is it: dog, cat, rabbit or something else?
- What is your pet's name and age?
- Has your pet been registered with another practice? If so, which one?
- Is your pet insured? If so, with which insurer?
The year-long booster horizon and the two-hour notice on post-op checks cannot share settings with the 48-hour pre-surgery notice, so build four availability schedules, one per type. Start with your consulting hours, then the surgery-day version that opens at 14:00. Put the out-of-hours number in every type's description.
Tymeslot compared with Acuity and SavvyCal
For a vet practice, Tymeslot differs from Acuity Scheduling and SavvyCal mostly in what it costs to start and who owns the software: it has a free plan and an open-source licence, and neither of them offers either. That matters to small and mobile practices that want to try online vaccination booking before paying for anything. The questions row matters because reception needs the species before the animal arrives. The honest trade-off: Acuity puts client forms on its cheapest plan, where Tymeslot's booking questions need Pro.
| Feature | Tymeslot | Acuity | SavvyCal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: vaccinations, boosters and post-op checks | No: 7-day trial, no card needed | No: free trial only; a paid plan is needed to activate links |
| Custom intake questions | Pro: species, name and age before arrival | Yes, on all plans: custom client forms | Yes: custom questions on scheduling links |
| Open source | Yes: GNU AGPLv3, free on practice servers | No: hosted service only | No: hosted service only |
Sources checked 5 October 2026.
How much time could you save?
A rough estimate, not a promise.
200
minutes saved per week
173.3
hours saved per year
€13,864
annual value of saved time
Which calendars do veterinary practices use with Tymeslot?
Start free, upgrade when you're ready
A practice that only puts vaccinations, health checks and post-op checks online can stay on Free. Pet-detail questions and the €30 pre-surgery deposit shown above both come with Pro (€9/month). Self-hosting on hardware the clinic already runs gives both with no subscription.
Free
€0 / month
Pro
€9 / month