Cliniko Virtual Assistant: a VA who already knows your appointment book
For physios, podiatrists, psychologists, speechies and naturopaths who run the whole clinic on Cliniko, with nobody left to run Cliniko.
What your VA actually does inside Cliniko
Appointment book
Daily diary management: unconfirmed bookings chased by SMS, gaps flagged, repeat appointments set up properly, and the schedule kept true so practitioners walk into the day they expect.
Wait list
Cliniko's wait list doesn't contact anyone by itself, so your VA works it. When a cancellation lands they filter by appointment type and practitioner, ring or text down the list, and backfill the gap the same morning.
Patients without upcoming appointments report
The weekly rebooking pass. Run the report, tick Hide patients with scheduled recalls so the list is real, then follow up everyone who finished a course of care without booking the next one.
Patient forms and new patient files
Intake forms sent with the booking and checked the day before the appointment, blanks chased with a friendly nudge, and duplicate patient files caught and flagged for merging so the record your practitioner opens is the only one.
Invoices and payments
A daily run of Cliniko's Uninvoiced appointments report so nothing leaves unbilled, then outstanding-invoice follow-up on a cadence you approve.
Reminders and follow-up messages
Reminder templates matched to each appointment type, email and SMS timed separately, and messages kept under 160 characters so each send costs one SMS credit instead of two.
Tyro Health claiming admin
Submitting the Medicare bulk bill, patient and DVA claims your practitioners have raised, tracking claim statuses, and flagging rejections with context attached. The VA processes; item numbers stay clinical.
Nobody googles “cliniko virtual assistant” out of idle curiosity. You search it because the whole clinic lives in that appointment book, and the person running it, confirming, invoicing, chasing forms, working the wait list, is you, in the four minutes between a discharge note and the next initial.
Cliniko deserves better than that. It’s Melbourne-built, allied health to its bones, and the admin layer is genuinely good: reminder templates per appointment type, a wait list with proper filters, a report that literally lists everyone who left without rebooking. The features exist. What most clinics are missing is a person with the time to drive them every day.
The daily rhythm a VA runs in your Cliniko
Morning, before your first patient: the book gets a pass. Unconfirmed appointments chased by SMS, gaps flagged, repeat bookings checked. When a cancellation lands at 8:40, your VA opens the wait list, filters it to that appointment type and practitioner, and rings down the list. Most days the 10:15 is backfilled before you’ve finished with your nine o’clock.
Then forms. Tomorrow’s new patients get checked: intake form completed? If not, it’s re-sent with a polite nudge, so your practitioners aren’t spending the first ten minutes of an initial collecting a history the form should have caught.
Then money. Cliniko’s Uninvoiced appointments report lists every appointment that hasn’t had an invoice raised; your VA runs it daily so nothing walks out unbilled, then works outstanding invoices on a chasing cadence you’ve approved. If you claim through the Tyro Health integration, bulk bill, Medicare patient claims, DVA and health fund, they track statuses and flag rejections with the context attached, not just a forwarded error.
Weekly: the Patients without upcoming appointments report, with Hide patients with scheduled recalls ticked so the list is real. Everyone who finished care without a next booking gets a call. That one report, worked properly, usually pays for the VA on its own.
And the quiet stuff. Reminder templates tuned per appointment type, email two days out, SMS one day out, and kept under 160 characters so each reminder costs one SMS credit instead of two. Practitioner.FirstName, not Practitioner.FullName. Small thing. Adds up at volume.
The honest bit
Two things Cliniko won’t do, no matter who you hire. The wait list is a list, not an automation: it does not text patients when a slot opens, someone has to work it, which is exactly why it belongs in a VA’s scope rather than on your settings wishlist. And if you run a standalone HICAPS terminal at front desk, it doesn’t talk to Cliniko; Tyro retired HICAPS from the integration in February 2023 and replaced it with HealthPoint, so terminal claims stay with whoever is physically in the room.
What stays with you
Treatment notes, all clinical communication, fee and item-number decisions, and anything a patient says that sounds clinical, which escalates to you under a written rule, never gets answered by the VA. The notes part isn’t a policy we wrote, it’s a permission Cliniko built: a VA on the Receptionist role cannot open a treatment note. We just respect the wall that’s already there.
One genuinely pleasant detail: Cliniko prices by practitioner, and reception users are unlimited and free. Your VA’s seat adds exactly nothing to the software bill.
What it costs and where to start
Cliniko admin sits on the admin tier, $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST, typically 10-15 hours a week for a one-to-five practitioner clinic, more if the VA also covers front-of-house enquiries. Placement takes 7-10 business days, with 5-7 days supervised inside your Cliniko before solo work, a 30-day recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and no lock-in beyond 14 days notice.
If you want the industry view, the allied health page goes deeper, and the VA cost guide has the full pricing picture. Otherwise book a discovery call with Jenn, who has placed 48+ VAs into Australian businesses since 2024 and will tell you straight if your clinic isn’t ready for one. Bring your wait list and your Uninvoiced appointments report. We’ll find the hours.
Industries that run on Cliniko
The tasks this usually covers
Cliniko VA questions
Will the VA actually know Cliniko, or am I training someone from scratch?
Honest answer: Cliniko is one of the most common platforms in Australian allied health, so candidates with real Cliniko hours are genuinely findable, and where we can match you with one, we do. If the closest match is someone strong on a similar allied health platform instead, we'll say so on the discovery call rather than fudge it. Either way the ramp is the same: 5-7 days supervised inside your account before any solo work, starting with the appointment book and wait list, with invoicing and claiming added once the basics are clean. You sign off on the move to solo.
Can a virtual assistant see our treatment notes?
No, and not as a promise, as a permission. Cliniko's Receptionist, Power Receptionist and Scheduler roles cannot open treatment notes at all; only Practitioner and Administrator users can read them, and only practitioners write them. There's even a setting to restrict practitioners to notes they authored themselves. So when your psychologist asks how a VA fits with note confidentiality, the answer is short: the role we give them has no door into that part of Cliniko.
Can the VA handle our Medicare and health fund claiming?
The admin half, yes. Cliniko's integrated claiming runs through Tyro Health (the integration long-time users still call Medipass): Medicare bulk bill, Medicare patient claims, DVA and health fund claims, submitted and tracked from inside Cliniko. Your VA submits what practitioners have billed, watches statuses, and flags rejections with the context you need to fix them. One caveat: a standalone HICAPS terminal at front desk doesn't talk to Cliniko, since Tyro retired HICAPS from the integration in early 2023, so terminal claims stay with whoever is physically in the room.
What does a Cliniko virtual assistant cost?
Cliniko admin sits on our admin tier at $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST. Most clinics run 10-15 hours a week, roughly $500-1,100 a month, covering the book, the wait list, forms, invoicing and the rebooking report. Add specialist work like campaign and reporting support at $18-25. The refundable $500 deposit credits to your first month, there's no lock-in beyond 14 days notice, and because Cliniko doesn't charge for reception users, the software cost of adding a VA is zero.
I'm a solo practitioner who is clinically full. Is this overkill?
Solo and clinically full is the exact profile this works best for, because every admin hour you do is a patient hour you didn't bill. Start at 10 hours a week: confirmations, wait list, forms, the daily invoice sweep and the weekly rebooking pass. If your books are full with a wait list you're not working and a rebooking report you've never run, the VA isn't overhead, it's the difference between full-this-week and full-next-quarter.
Book a free discovery call
30 minutes with Jenn, the founder. Tell her you run Cliniko and what's eating your week; she'll tell you honestly what a VA can own inside it, what it costs, and whether it makes sense.
Thanks – now pick your time
We've got your details. Lock in your call right now using the calendar link below, or if you'd rather wait, Jenn will email you within one business day.
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