Connect WhatsApp to Cliniko — send appointment reminders
Bridge Cliniko appointments to WhatsApp reminders via Google Calendar. Zellbox picks up every Cliniko appointment and fires 24h + 2h WhatsApp reminders automatically.
by Nacho CollNacho founded Zellbox to give appointment-driven small businesses — clinics, salons, spas, physio, aesthetics, vets, mental-health, and fitness studios — a WhatsApp-first calendar and customer record system.
Editorial disclosure: I work at Zellbox. Cliniko described from their iCal feed docs as of August 2026.
Cliniko is a practice-management platform for physio, chiro, osteo, and allied-health clinics. Zellbox adds WhatsApp reminders on top of Cliniko’s built-in SMS via the Google Calendar bridge.
How it works
- In Cliniko → Practitioner → External Calendar → copy the iCal feed URL.
- In Google Calendar → Other calendars → Add → From URL → paste the iCal URL.
- In Zellbox → Onboarding step 2 → connect the destination Google Calendar.
- Every Cliniko appointment fires a WhatsApp reminder at 24 h and 2 h.
What Zellbox adds beyond Cliniko’s built-in reminders
- WhatsApp channel — Cliniko sends SMS + email natively, but WhatsApp isn’t a first-class option inside Cliniko itself; the Google Calendar bridge is what makes a WhatsApp reminder possible without switching practice-management platforms.
- Higher delivery rate in WhatsApp-first patient populations — clinics serving patients in regions where SMS delivery is unreliable or ignored (parts of Latin America, Southern Europe, MENA) typically see WhatsApp open rates well above SMS.
- Signed consent PDFs on the customer record — useful for physio, chiro, and osteo practices that need a signed treatment-consent form on file, something Cliniko’s own reminder flow doesn’t produce.
- Two-way replies land in your Zellbox inbox — when a patient replies “can we move to Thursday?” the message shows up next to that patient’s record instead of on a practitioner’s personal phone.
Setup notes for multi-practitioner clinics
Which practitioners need their own iCal feed
Cliniko’s iCal export is per-practitioner, so a clinic with several physios, chiros, or osteos needs one feed per practitioner subscribed to Google Calendar (either one shared calendar with all feeds layered in, or one calendar per practitioner). Zellbox reads whichever Google Calendar you connect, so either layout works.
What happens if the iCal feed lags
Google Calendar refreshes subscribed iCal feeds on its own schedule (typically every few hours), not instantly. That’s fine for the 24h reminder but can miss same-day reschedules for the 2h reminder — worth flagging to reception staff so they manually notify patients on last-minute Cliniko changes until the feed catches up.
Feature summary
| Zellbox layer | Cliniko built-in | |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical records + treatment notes | No | Native + strong |
| SMS + email reminders | Not the focus | Native |
| WhatsApp reminders | Native + free tier | Not available |
| Signed consent PDFs | Native | Custom intake form |
Bridge takes ~15 min; then unattended. Free tier covers 100 reminders/mo.
About the author: Nacho Coll is the founder of Zellbox. He writes about WhatsApp Business automation for appointment-driven small businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Does Cliniko sync to Google Calendar?
Does Cliniko already send WhatsApp reminders?
Which practitioner types is this useful for?
About the author
Nacho Coll
Founder & Engineer at Zellbox
Nacho founded Zellbox to give appointment-driven small businesses — clinics, salons, spas, physio, aesthetics, vets, mental-health, and fitness studios — a WhatsApp-first calendar and customer record system. Writes about WhatsApp Business automation, no-show economics, recall-cycle playbooks, and the operational realities of running visit-driven businesses at scale.
