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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stratapt.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Schedule Templates let you define what your practice’s standard schedule looks like for a given time period. Once a template is active and the nightly job is enabled, StrataEMR automatically applies it each night — keeping your schedule populated without manual setup each week. Navigate to Schedule Templates: Menu Bar > Settings > Schedule Templates.
Access: Configuring Schedule Templates requires Therapy Director permissions or above.

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How Schedule Templates Work

StrataEMR runs a nightly job at 11 PM ET that:
  1. Clears any empty, non-excluded appointment slots from the schedule
  2. Applies the active template to the cleared spaces
This means your schedule is automatically refreshed each night based on your template configuration. If no template is active for the current date, meaning today’s date doesn’t fall within any saved template’s start and end date range, the job still runs. It will clear unassigned, non-excluded slots as usual, but it won’t apply any template blocks in their place.
The nightly job must be enabled by StrataEMR staff. Creating templates in the Setup area alone does not initiate the process. The automation that applies them each night requires a separate activation step by StrataPT. Submit a request through your account manager or support to have the job turned on for your organization.

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Creating a Template

The Schedule Templates page displays a numbered list of up to 10 template slots. Each template has three fields:
  • Description — A name for the template (e.g., “Q1 2026 Schedule,” “Summer 2026 Schedule”)
  • Start Date — The first date this template should be active
  • End Date — The last date this template should be active
Click Edit next to any template slot to open the template editor. Click Save on the main page after making changes. Templates are date-driven — you can create multiple versions with non-overlapping date ranges to handle seasonal schedules, staffing changes, or quarterly rotations. The nightly job uses whichever template’s date range covers the current date.

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Editing a Template

Clicking Edit opens a view similar to the standard schedule calendar, with one key difference: you are building availability blocks, not scheduling patients. No patients are assigned in the template editor. Configure the template by placing the appointment types you want available during each time slot for each staff member. The appointment types, their durations, and their colors are all defined in the schedule legend (Schedule > Edit Settings under the Legend) — not in the template editor itself. The template simply places those pre-configured types onto the calendar grid. To speed up setup when multiple days share the same layout, use the Copy Current View feature to copy one day’s configuration to other days.
Appointment type settings live in the schedule legend, not the template. If you need to adjust durations, colors, or add new visit types, do that in Schedule > Edit Settings first, then apply them in your template.

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Protecting Blocks from the Nightly Job

When the nightly job runs, it clears empty, unassigned slots before applying the template. To prevent a recurring block — such as a lunch break or an internal hold — from being overwritten, set its appointment type’s Exclude Template Update to Yes in the schedule legend settings. Any slot marked as excluded will not be cleared or replaced by the nightly job, regardless of whether it has a patient assigned.
Unexcluded internal blocks will be overwritten. If a lunch break or staff hold is not marked “Exclude Template Update: Yes” on its appointment type, the nightly job will treat it as an empty slot and replace it. Set this flag on any appointment type used for recurring non-patient blocks.

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Best Practice: “Available” Appointment Types

When building your template, create dedicated appointment types in the schedule legend that represent open availability rather than specific visit types — for example:
  • Available 30 — a 30-minute open slot
  • Available 60 — a 60-minute open slot
Using neutral “Available” types in your template sets your clinic up for the Appointment Manager feature, which uses these blocks to facilitate bulk scheduling. Even if you’re not using the Appointment Manager today, building your template this way means you won’t need to rebuild it if you adopt it later.