Product Reminders are an essential tool for helping your practice maintain consistent patient care. Their primary function is to notify clients when a patient is due for a service, treatment, or medication. Beyond improving patient outcomes, reminders also serve as a reliable mechanism for generating repeat business and strengthening client relationships.

To view and manage reminders, as well as access the associated email template:

The Reminder Email Template is the communication message that each reminder notification sends to clients when a reminder is triggered based on your defined sending cadence.

The Basic Template will appear by default when you first open your reminder email template. It includes:

You can customize the body text and add a custom signature to personalize the message.

The Advanced Template allows you to build your reminder email from scratch, with no pre-loaded text or variables. If you're using this option, be sure to include the {REMINDERS DUE} variable to populate the correct reminder content for clients.

Variables insert client, patient, or clinic-specific information into your email so that each reminder feels personalized. Place the variable text exactly where you want the custom data to appear.

Available variables include:

It is recommended that you create a reminder template for any service, care, or treatment for which you'd like to notify clients. Common examples include:

A Reminder Template is required for each product that should trigger an automatic reminder when invoiced.

To begin, navigate to the Reminders tab and click + Add New.

The Trigger Product is the product that will be added to a SOAP treatment plan or invoice and will initiate the automatic creation of a patient reminder.

This setting determines which actions in the patient record will generate a new reminder.

Next, enter the Reminder Name. This is the name that will appear on the patient’s profile to identify the reminder. Remember to include a duration or species details as needed (example: Rabies Vaccine - 3 Year). This name will help your team quickly understand what the reminder refers to when reviewing patient records.

The Due Date determines when the patient will next be due for the related service, relative to the date of administration.

You can specify a time frame using days, weeks, months, or years. For example, a 12-month due date for an annual vaccine.

You can also configure the due date to automatically adjust based on quantity.

For example:

Next, identify the Auto-Complete Product(s). These are the products that will satisfy and complete the reminder when invoiced or administered. This may be a single item or multiple items

This setting determines how reminders are marked as fulfilled or removed from the patient's active reminder list.

Finally, set the Notification Cadence by selecting + Add a Notification. The controls when reminder communications are sent to the client relative to the reminder's due date. Remember to select Save when done or select + Add Reminder to add another reminder to this trigger product.

You can send messages before the due date, after the due date, or both as appropriate.

Example:

For a 12-month reminder, you might schedule a reminder to be sent:

The Reminder Template table organizes entries alphabetically by the Trigger Product. This helps you quickly identify which products have an associated reminder and spot any products that may be missing reminders.

To view the Reminder Templates associated with a product:

The table provides two separate status indicators:

Each plays an independent role in determining whether a patient reminder will be generated.

This is the first row of each entry in the table.

This is because an inactive product cannot be invoiced, and without invoicing, no reminder can be triggered.

This status appears in the expanded view under the associated product row.

To deactivate a reminder template:

Inactivating a product with an associated reminder template will also inactivate the reminder.

You can update the Reminder Name on an existing template at any time.

You’ll be shown a confirmation message before saving changes, alerting you to the system-wide update.

If a patient reminder did not generate as expected, confirm that the item invoiced matches a reminder template rule in your reminder configuration. It's possible the item either does not have a reminder template created to trigger a new reminder. Another possibility is that the associated trigger product has been archived, and a duplicate version is mapped to the reminder template. This duplicate version is the version being invoiced but no reminder template is mapped.

If this has occurred, you'll need to update your reminder template configurations and manually create a new reminder in the patient record.

If a patient reminder remained present after a visit where services were completed, confirm that the unsatisfied reminder template has the invoiced service or treatment items listed as auto-complete products. If the invoiced item(s) are not listed as auto-complete product(s), they will not satisfy existing reminders to complete them.

If this has occurred, you'll need to update the auto-complete configuration and manually complete the remaining reminder in the patient record.

The patient reminder list and vaccination history are controlled by two separate configurations in Shepherd. The reminder list is controlled by the Reminder Templates defined under Client Communications. The vaccination history is controlled by the vaccine details defined within a vaccine product item.

If you'd like to review if a reminder communication was triggered to a client, you'll want to open the client history activity record, by selecting the zig-zag arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the client profile.

The activity is listed chronologically, and a search bar is offered to narrow down results by key phrases such as 'Reminder Notification' or the client's email address. The full content of the message along with a time stamp are provided in the history log.

We've included an example below for your ease of reference: