How do I connect my practice management software?

This is part of the Clinic Growth Hub subscription.

Sound familiar?

Your real patient list lives in your practice management system, and your marketing lives in Co-Kinetic, and keeping the two in step by exporting and re-importing spreadsheets gets old fast. Connecting the two systems directly is the fix, and it takes one API key 🔗.

What's happening

In Settings → Integrations & Tools, the Practice Management Software section connects Co-Kinetic to your practice system. Nookal can be connected today; Mindbody and Jane App are marked coming soon. Connecting works by API key: you paste the key from your practice system, Co-Kinetic verifies it against the live system before saving anything (a wrong key saves nothing), and the section shows Connected. You can disconnect at any time, and reconnect later by entering the key again.

Using Cliniko? Cliniko connects from Integrations in the main menu instead: choose Cliniko, paste your Cliniko API key (found in Cliniko under Settings → API), and press Connect to Cliniko. The same verify-before-save rule applies.

Once connected, the sync brings your patients in as Co-Kinetic contacts (matched by email address, and tagged with where they came from) and, for Cliniko, keeps each contact's most recent appointment date current, which matters because your audience builder can filter on last appointment ("hasn't been in for six months"), and that filter is only as good as the date behind it. Nookal appointment dates are still being finished, so if you are on Nookal and rely on that filter, tell us in the chat and we will confirm where your account stands.

A Cliniko connection also gives you two automation options on its preferences screen. The toggle "Automatically add patients with birthdays to birthday campaign" asks you to pick which of your date-based events it feeds, and then adds any synced patient with a date of birth to that event, so they get its birthday email. Under Your Automation Rules, a rule with the trigger "New record created" adds only the patients who are genuinely new since the last sync to the email workflow, prize draw or date-based event you choose, rather than your whole patient list. Both are drafts until you press Save preferences.

Why it works this way

The API key approach means Co-Kinetic never holds your practice-system login, and the key is verified before it is stored: the connection either genuinely works at setup or isn't saved at all. Access is limited to patient names, contact details and appointment data; clinical notes stay where they are 🙂.

What to do now

  1. In your practice system, find your API key (in Nookal, your account settings hold the API access section: their support covers where).
  2. In Co-Kinetic, go to Settings → Integrations & Tools, find Practice Management Software, choose your system, paste the key and connect. Verification takes a moment; the section then shows Connected.
  3. That's it. Syncing starts by itself once you're connected.
  4. Once running, spot-check it: open a contact you know had a recent appointment in Audience → Manage Contacts and check their last-appointment date.

Using another system that is not listed? Tell us in the chat before doing anything and we'll set you on the right path for your setup.

The question behind the question

"Will this fill my marketing audience with every patient I've ever seen?" The connection is about keeping data accurate, not about mass-mailing your patient list, and consent still rules: being in your practice system is not marketing consent. Use the sync to keep dates and details honest, and keep your actual email marketing pointed at audiences who opted in ("How do I stay GDPR-compliant when emailing patients?" covers the line) ⚖️.

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