Services

A complete guide to the Services module — creating and managing clinic services, pricing, scheduling rules, and department assignments.

Written By Dev010

Last updated 19 days ago

The Services module defines the treatments and procedures your clinic offers. Services are a core dependency across the platform — they are required for booking appointments and are linked to invoices for billing. Every appointment must have a service assigned.

Accessing the Module

Sidebar → Services

Direct URL:

https://yourdomain.com/dashboard/services

Who can access:

Action	Admin	Doctor	Receptionist	Nurse
View services	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create service	✅	❌	❌	❌
Edit service	✅	❌	❌	❌
Delete service	✅	❌	❌	❌

Only Admin accounts can create, edit, or delete services. All other roles have view-only access — they can see services when booking appointments or creating invoices but cannot modify them.

Services List

The main services page shows a complete list of all clinic services.

Each row displays:

Service name
Category
Department
Price
Duration
Max bookings per day
Status badge (active / inactive)
Action buttons (edit, delete)

Creating a Service

Click the Add Service button on the services list page. A dialog opens with the service creation form.

Required Fields

Field	Notes
Name	Service name (e.g. General Consultation, Teeth Cleaning)
Price	Cost of the service in your clinic's currency
Duration	Length of the service in minutes

Optional Fields

Classification:

Field	Notes
Category	Free text category (e.g. Consultation, Diagnostics, Surgery)
Department	Link to a clinic department

Scheduling Rules:

Field	Notes
Max Bookings Per Day	Maximum number of times this service can be booked in one day — default 20
Follow-up Required	Toggle — marks that a follow-up appointment is expected after this service
Prerequisites	Free text — conditions or tests required before this service
Special Instructions	Free text — preparation or instructions for the patient

Status:

Field	Notes
Active	Toggle — inactive services are hidden from appointment booking and invoices

Saving the Service

Click Save to create the service. It appears immediately in the services list and becomes available in the service dropdown when booking appointments.

Services must be active to appear in the appointment booking form and invoice creation form. Inactive services are preserved in the database but hidden from selection dropdowns.

Editing a Service

Click the Edit button on any service row. The edit form opens with all existing values pre-filled.

Update any fields and click Save. Changes take effect immediately — existing appointments and invoices linked to this service are not affected by price or duration changes.

Changing the price of a service does not retroactively update invoices that were already created with that service. Invoice amounts are fixed at the time of creation.

Deactivating a Service

If a service is no longer offered but has existing appointment or invoice history, deactivate it rather than deleting it.

Edit the service → toggle Active to off → Save.

Deactivated services:

Are hidden from appointment booking dropdowns
Are hidden from invoice creation dropdowns
Remain in the database and preserve all historical links
Can be reactivated at any time

Deleting a Service

Click the Delete option from the service row action menu.

A confirmation dialog appears before deletion.

⚠️ Deleting a service sets service_id to null on any linked appointments and invoices (ON DELETE SET NULL). The appointment and invoice records themselves are preserved but lose the service reference. Deactivate instead of delete when historical records exist.

Max Bookings Per Day

The Max Bookings Per Day field controls how many times a service can be booked on any single calendar day.

Value	Behavior
20 (default)	Up to 20 bookings per day
1	Only one booking per day (e.g. specialist procedure)
0	No limit enforced

This is useful for procedures that require significant preparation time or specialized equipment that limits how many can be performed per day.

The max bookings limit is enforced at the UI level during appointment booking. If you need hard enforcement, verify the limit server-side when creating appointments.

Follow-up Required

Toggling Follow-up Required on a service marks it as a service that typically requires a follow-up appointment after completion.

This is a documentation flag — CareNova does not automatically create follow-up appointments. It is visible to staff when reviewing the service and can inform scheduling workflows.

Service Categories

Categories are free-text labels used to group related services for easier navigation. Common category examples:

Clinic Type	Example Categories
General	Consultation, Diagnostics, Procedure, Vaccination
Dental	Cleaning, Restorative, Orthodontics, Surgery, Cosmetic
Ophthalmology	Eye Exam, Refractive, Surgical, Therapeutic

Categories are not a separate configuration table — they are typed directly on each service. Use consistent naming across services for clean organization.

Linking Services to Departments

Assigning a service to a department creates an organizational link that helps with filtering and financial reporting at the department level.

For example:

Dental Cleaning → Dental department
Blood Test → Laboratory department
Eye Exam → Ophthalmology department

Department assignment is optional but recommended for clinics with multiple departments.

Database Schema Reference

services

Column	Type	Description
`id`	uuid	Unique service ID
`name`	text	Service name
`description`	text	Service description
`price`	numeric	Service price
`duration`	integer	Duration in minutes
`department_id`	uuid	FK → departments (set null on delete)
`is_active`	integer	1 = active, 0 = inactive
`status`	text	active / inactive text
`category`	varchar	Service category label
`max_bookings_per_day`	integer	Daily booking limit — default 20
`follow_up_required`	boolean	Follow-up flag
`prerequisites`	text	Required preconditions
`special_instructions`	text	Patient preparation notes
`created_at`	timestamptz	Creation timestamp
`updated_at`	timestamptz	Last updated timestamp

An index is set on name for fast search performance.

Relationship to Other Modules

Module	Relationship
Appointments	Every appointment references one service
Invoices	Invoices can reference a service for billing
Departments	Services can be assigned to a department

Workflow Examples

Setting up services for a new dental clinic:

Sidebar → Services → Add Service
Create: General Dental Consultation
- Price: 50.00
- Duration: 30 minutes
- Category: Consultation
- Department: Dental
Create: Teeth Cleaning
- Price: 80.00
- Duration: 45 minutes
- Category: Cleaning
- Max bookings per day: 8
Create: Tooth Extraction
- Price: 120.00
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Category: Surgery
- Max bookings per day: 4
- Follow-up Required: on
- Special Instructions: "Avoid eating 2 hours before"
Services are now available when booking appointments

Temporarily suspending a service:

Sidebar → Services
Find the service → Edit
Toggle Active to off → Save
Service disappears from appointment and invoice dropdowns
Re-enable when ready to offer the service again

Updating a service price:

Sidebar → Services
Find the service → Edit
Update the Price field → Save
New price applies to all future invoices — existing invoices are unchanged

Troubleshooting

Service not appearing in appointment booking dropdown:

Confirm the service is set to Active — inactive services are hidden from dropdowns
Hard refresh the browser after activating a service
Confirm at least one service exists — the dropdown is empty if no services are configured

Cannot create or edit services:

Service management is restricted to Admin role only
Doctor, Receptionist, and Nurse accounts see services but cannot modify them

Service shows wrong price on new invoices:

Confirm the service price was saved correctly — check Supabase → Table Editor → services
Invoice amounts are set at creation time — editing the service price after an invoice is created does not change the invoice amount

Max bookings limit not working:

The limit is enforced at the UI level during booking
Check that the value is set correctly on the service record
If you need strict enforcement, verify the count server-side in your booking workflow

Next Step

Continue to the Departments module guide to learn how to organize your clinic into departments and assign staff, patients, and services to them.