Power Diary Virtual Assistant for AU Allied Health

Nobody searches “power diary virtual assistant” out of curiosity. You search it because the whole clinic lives in that appointment book, and the person confirming, claiming, chasing forms and working the waitlist is you, in the four minutes between a discharge note and the next initial. The software changed its name to Zanda in late 2024; your habit didn’t. Same book, same problem.

And it is a good book. Power Diary is one of the most admin-shaped platforms in Australian allied health: the waitlist matches clients to cancellations on its own, recalls have proper templates, claiming goes straight to Medicare without a terminal, and the Client Portal takes bookings around the clock. But almost every one of those features ends with a step a human has to do, and the features only earn their keep when someone does it every day.

The daily rhythm a VA runs in your Power Diary

Morning, before the first patient: the calendar gets a pass. Unconfirmed appointments chased by SMS, gaps flagged, recurring bookings checked, the odd double-booking caught before it becomes a waiting-room collision. Then the platform’s best trick. When a cancellation is processed on the calendar, Power Diary surfaces the waitlisted clients whose preferred practitioner, location and availability match the freed slot, and offers to text them. Your VA sends it, watches the replies, and books the first yes. Most days the 10:15 is backfilled before the practitioner knows it was ever empty.

Then bookings and forms. Overnight Client Portal bookings get confirmed and checked for duplicate profiles, then tomorrow’s new clients get a look: intake and consent forms still incomplete are nudged through the portal, so the initial starts with a finished history instead of ten minutes of paperwork. If the appointment is telehealth, the link is created and sent ahead of time with the join instructions, so nobody is troubleshooting a camera at the top of the session.

Then money. A daily sweep for appointments that haven’t been invoiced, outstanding invoices worked on a chasing cadence you’ve approved, and the Tyro EFTPOS takings reconciled against the day’s appointments so the till and the diary agree. Claiming runs through Tools > Medicare: bulk bill and patient claims submitted through Power Diary’s own Medicare integration, statuses watched there, and anything stuck on Pended chased now rather than discovered at BAS time. DVA rides on the same setup, so veterans’ claims aren’t a separate headache. The whole medical and NDIS billing layer sits on the admin side of the line, where a VA belongs.

Weekly and monthly, the part most clinics never get to: recalls. Client recalls set with the right template per service so a course of care doesn’t quietly end, and the Inactive Clients report worked as a reactivation list so the people who drifted off get a call instead of silence. That one habit, done properly, usually pays for the VA on its own.

The honest bit

Two things worth saying plainly. The waitlist match only fires when the cancellation is actually processed on the calendar. A cancellation taken over the phone and never entered triggers nothing, so process discipline is most of the value here, which is rather the point of hiring someone whose entire shift is the process. And the recall and reactivation lists reward someone who knows the reports: the Inactive Clients report and Advanced Search filters do the work, but there’s no single magic button, and we won’t pretend there is.

If you’re weighing it against Cliniko, the short version is Cliniko has a cleaner one-click rebooking report and Power Diary has a stronger built-in waitlist and a no-terminal Medicare path. Either way the VA scope is the same shape.

What stays with you

Clinical notes, all clinical communication, fees and item numbers, and anything a client says that sounds clinical, which escalates to you under a written rule and never gets answered by the VA. The notes part isn’t a policy we invented, it’s a permission the software builds: with the clinical Records pages and Access all Client File Uploads switched off, and Profile Access narrowing things further, a VA simply has no door into that part of Power Diary. We respect the wall that’s already there.

One pleasant detail that survived the rebrand: Power Diary prices per practitioner, and admin users are free. Your VA’s seat adds exactly nothing to the software bill.

What it costs and where to start

Power Diary 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 Power Diary before any solo work, a 30-day recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and no lock-in beyond 14 days notice.

The allied health page goes deeper on the industry side, 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 waitlist and your last month of unbilled appointments. We’ll find the hours.