Digital scheduling for physiotherapists: less paperwork, more patients
By Marai ·
Physiotherapy has specific requirements that most generic scheduling tools simply do not account for: recurring weekly treatments, informed-consent intake forms, clinical notes that matter from session to session, and the need to issue valid invoices that patients can submit to their insurance providers.
If you are still running your practice on paper, spreadsheets, or a phone calendar, you are wasting time that could go to your patients.
Why physiotherapists need something different
Recurring appointments: the backbone of your business
A physiotherapy patient does not come once and disappear. The typical pattern is a cycle of 5, 10, or 15 sessions — usually one or two per week, on the same day at the same time. Creating each of those appointments manually is tedious and error-prone.
With a digital scheduling tool like Marai, you can set up recurring appointments on a weekly or monthly schedule. You define the first session and the system automatically generates the rest, honouring your availability. Public holidays or time off are handled by schedule exceptions, which block those slots automatically.
Digital intake forms with e-signatures
Before the first session, you need patient information: reason for consultation, medical history, current medications, allergies, and informed consent for treatment. On paper, this gets lost, misfiled, and is difficult to look up.
Digital intake forms let you gather this information before the patient even sets foot in your practice. Marai supports 11 field types (text, dropdown, date, number, phone, email, digital signature, and more), covering everything from a health questionnaire to a full informed consent document.
The patient fills in the form on their phone or computer. By the time they arrive, you already have all the information in their record.
Centralised records in the CRM
Every patient has a history: what the problem is, what treatments have been applied, how they are progressing. If that information is scattered across paper notes, phone memos, and memory, something important will eventually slip through.
Marai’s CRM centralises everything in a single patient record: appointment history (past and upcoming), payments received, completed forms, and notes you add yourself. You can also create custom fields specific to physiotherapy — type of injury, affected area, number of sessions in the current cycle, or whatever you need.
Invoicing for insurance reimbursement
Many physiotherapy patients pay out of pocket and then submit the invoice to their insurer for reimbursement. They need a properly formatted invoice: sequential numbering, the practitioner’s tax ID, patient details, itemised description, and all the fiscal information required in Spain.
Marai generates proforma invoices, final invoices, and credit notes directly from the platform. Set up your tax details once and every invoice comes out in the correct format. The patient receives their invoice by email and can download it whenever they need.
Features that make a real difference
Automatic reminders
Patients with chronic pain or long treatment programmes sometimes lose motivation and stop showing up. A WhatsApp or email reminder 24 hours in advance does more than reduce no-shows — it tells the patient that their treatment matters.
You can configure reminders by email (included on all plans), by WhatsApp (from the Starter plan onwards), or both. The system sends them automatically; you do not have to do a thing.
Schedule management per professional
If your clinic has multiple physiotherapists, each can have their own schedule, their own services, and their own pricing. Marai’s schedule templates let you define the weekly availability for each professional, while schedule exceptions handle holidays, training days, or one-off days off.
Waiting list
When a patient cancels, a slot opens up that another patient could use. Marai’s waiting list automatically notifies interested patients when availability appears, and the first one to respond gets the slot.
This is especially useful in physiotherapy, where demand often exceeds supply and many patients would gladly take an earlier slot.
Online payments and deposits
Not every patient needs to pay in advance, but for first appointments or specialised treatments, a deposit significantly reduces cancellations. Marai accepts card payments, Bizum, bank transfer, and cash through Stripe.
You can configure the deposit per service: you might require one for the initial assessment but not for follow-up sessions.
Reliability score
Marai automatically assigns each patient a reliability score based on their history — whether they confirm, arrive on time, cancel in advance, or simply do not show up. This lets you spot patterns and act accordingly, such as requiring a deposit from patients with a history of no-shows.
Google Calendar sync
If you already use Google Calendar for your personal schedule or to coordinate with other practitioners, Marai syncs bidirectionally (available from the Starter plan). Appointments created in Marai appear in your Google Calendar and vice versa, preventing double bookings.
Patient reviews
After each visit, you can automatically request a review from the patient. Reviews are collected within Marai and help you understand what is working well and what could be improved. Review collection is available on all plans, including Free.
What about data protection?
Health data has special status under the GDPR. Marai complies with European data protection regulations: data is stored on European servers, explicit consent is managed, and patients can request the export or deletion of their data at any time.
How much does it cost?
| Situation | Plan | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Self-employed physiotherapist, just starting out | Free | €0/month |
| 1–2 physios, want WhatsApp and forms | Starter | €29/month |
| Clinic with 3–5 professionals | Pro | €59/month |
| Large clinic or multiple locations | Business | €99/month |
The Free plan includes 1 professional, 50 appointments per month, a visual calendar, waiting list, and reviews.
Conclusion
Physiotherapy demands precise management: recurring appointments that never get missed, records that never get lost, invoices that hold up with insurers, and patients who actually remember to come.
A digital scheduling tool like Marai covers all of these needs without the complexity. You can start for free and migrate your practice in under an hour.
Find out how Marai is tailored to your specialty on the physiotherapy page.