Workflow Setup Guide: Charge to Patient – Send to Patient

The Charge to Patient – Send to Patient workflow is designed for orders where patients are billed directly and receive their medication at their nominated address or via pickup. This guide walks through the key workflow settings required to configure this setup, covering delivery, payment links, checkout options, risk assessment surveys, and automated communications to support a smooth patient ordering experience.

Before setting up an Order Workflow, we recommend preparing several components in advance. Workflows may use Shipping Options, and integrate Invoice Templates, Accounts, Risk Assessment Surveys which are sent using Email and SMS Templates. To ensure a smooth setup process, it’s best to prepare these components before building your workflow.

See Pre-requisites to learn more about the different components you need to set up before building an order workflow.

Workflow name
The name of your workflow should indicate the type of process it represents, allowing staff to easily distinguish it from other workflows. For general use, name it Charge to Patient – Send to Patient. 

Invoice template

Select the invoice template that will be used for this workflow to ensure billing documents are consistent and accurate.

Order Flow (Payment method)

For this workflow, choose the Payment Link payment method:

• Payment Link
  This workflow will send a secure payment link to the recipient. This sends a quote and purchase link, allowing the customer to review their order, complete payment, select shipping or pickup details, and complete any required risk assessment surveys online.
• This is especially useful for online orders where customers prefer to review and confirm their order before payment.

Tick ‘Allow payment method changes on orders’ to allow the payment method to be edited, even when an order workflow has been selected.

Select Shipping as the default delivery method to ensure all orders are delivered to the customer address. Any shipping options added to the workflow will be available when creating an order, and the default shipping option will be pre-selected during order preparation.

You can also add pickup options to provide flexibility for patient order collection. Any available pickup options will appear in this section when creating a workflow.

To learn how to set up shipping and pickup options, see our blog: Compound Direct Order Delivery: A guide to pickup and shipping options

Default billing account

If a workflow is account-specific, selecting a default account defines which account is automatically associated with orders created using that workflow. You can enter a default billing account even if the clinic order will not be charged to a clinic, this will allow the orders under this workflow to be recorded in account statements.

Tick ‘Set Account as Invoice Recipient’ to automatically send a copy of the invoice to the account.

Decide whether orders processed through this workflow are taxable. Tick ‘Taxable’ to ensure that tax is applied to the items in the order. If the items are taxable, determine tax inclusion. Tick ‘Tax is inclusive’ if the item price already includes tax. If this is not selected, tax will be added on top of the item price during checkout.

Checkout settings will appear when the notification setting is enabled. When a customer checks out using a payment link, it is important that checkout settings are set up to polish the checkout process and to add extra precautions and flexibility prior to checkout.

Enabling ‘Line items editable’ will allow customers to remove or decrease OTC and prescription items, and increase the quantity of OTC items before checking out.

‘Enable Invoice Download’ allows customers to download their invoice or pharmacy receipt after checking out. The invoice will also be included in the fulfilment emails. Some pharmacies choose to disable this option because orders have not yet been completed, and they prefer to send the invoice during fulfilment instead. 

Placing a ‘Checkout Note’ will be helpful for adding reminders to customers before they complete their purchase. Select the ‘Checkout Note Importance’ to customise how the message will be displayed on the purchase link.

A ‘Default’ note importance will display the note in blue, a ‘Medium’ importance will display it in yellow, and a ‘High’ importance will display it in red. Selecting ‘Show a popup’ will display the note in a popup when the purchase link is opened.

Risk Assessment Surveys are sent along with the purchase link when the selected payment method is online. Select the appropriate survey using the drop-down menu, which displays all surveys that have been prepared in advance. 

If the patient is marked as veterinary, a risk assessment will not be sent.

You can also add a Risk Assessment Survey Prompt, which is useful for confirming whether there have been any changes since the customer’s last order if they have previously completed a risk assessment.

The prompt will be displayed before the patient begins the survey. If the patient answers ‘No’, the survey will be skipped, and they may proceed directly to payment.

Choose which automations should occur when an order is paid or saved. Enable the following options depending on how you want orders to be handled once they are paid or saved.

• ‘Archive on paid’ will automatically archive the order once the order has been charged to an account.
• ‘Archive on save’ will automatically archive the order when it is saved.
• ‘Fulfil on save’ will automatically mark the order as fulfilled when it is saved.
• ‘Pending payment on save’ will automatically mark the order as payment-pending when it is saved.
• Enter the number of days before an unfulfilled order is automatically archived.

Add tags under Auto-Tag on Creation in your workflow. Any tags added here will automatically be applied to every new order created using that workflow. These tags will appear once the order is saved, not during the order build stage.

If the selected payment method is Payment Link or Invoice Link, the Notification section will appear, allowing you to customise the email and SMS templates, contacts, and confirmation settings.

Select the appropriate ‘Email & SMS Template’ for this workflow.

Optionally, you may assign a contact person who will be set as the ‘CC’ or ‘Reply To’ recipient for sent links.

Enable ‘Send without confirmation’ to send the quote and payment link immediately, without displaying the Send Order Confirmation modal.

Tick ‘Attach invoice PDF on email’ to receive the invoice as a PDF attachment.

Customise how and when customers receive updates about their orders by choosing which automated messages are sent when an order is confirmed or fulfilled, and who should receive each correspondence. Notifications are sent using pre-configured Email and SMS templates tailored to your pharmacy's workflow.

To learn how these templates are set up and used in order workflows, see our blog: Email & SMS Templates: Customised Communication with Compound Direct.

To set up automatic Order Confirmation or Order Fulfilment messages, first choose whether the Customer or Clinic should receive the correspondence. 

As this workflow is Charge to Patient – Send to Patient, you may select ‘Customer’ as the recipient for all correspondences.

Since the order will be sent to the patient, configure the Pickup and Shipping correspondences, choose the relevant template from the drop-down menu. 

If you prefer not to send communications, leave the selection set to None.

To see how these communications are received, see Order Confirmation and Order Fulfilment.

For a more detailed walkthrough on configuring additional workflow settings, such as invoice settings, notifications, order pending reminders, and other options, see our blog: Compound Direct Order Workflows: Streamlining pharmacy operations

To see how these workflow settings work in practice, along with other order-related processes, see Accounts & Orders System: Managing pharmacy to clinic orders in Compound Direct

The Charge to Patient – Send to Patient workflow enables pharmacies to manage patient-billed orders efficiently while offering flexibility through online payments, delivery or pickup options, and automated notifications. By configuring workflow presets, tax and checkout settings, risk assessment surveys, communications, automations, and auto-tags, pharmacies can streamline patient orders while maintaining control over compliance, billing, and customer experience within Compound Direct.

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