Guide to Practice Assistant

The Practice Assistant is designed to help you work more efficiently in Halaxy by giving you instant access to key information and actions through a simple chat interface. Instead of manually navigating between different areas of Halaxy, you can ask the assistant direct questions and receive answers within seconds.

The Practice Assistant opens as a panel alongside your current screen, recognising the current page you are viewing, allowing it to provide relevant help and context-specific information when needed so you can continue working while quickly checking appointments, reviewing availability, identifying overdue invoices, or getting guidance on how to use specific pages.

The Practice Assistant is available within Halaxy at no additional cost, allowing you to start using it straight away.

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Using the Practice Assistant can help you:

  • Reduce time spent searching for information

  • Access important data without leaving your current workflow

  • Quickly complete common tasks such as reviewing bookings or invoices

  • Learn how to use different areas of Halaxy with contextual guidance

This makes it easier to stay organised, respond to patient needs, and manage your practice more effectively throughout the day.

Open and use the Practice Assistant

The Practice Assistant is connected to your practice data by default. To change this, see Manage Practice Assistant access.

  1. On the top-right of any page, click the icon-ai-milky-way.png AI icon.

    Practice-Assistant-01.png
  2. In the chat panel, enter your question or query to begin chatting.

    Practice-Assistant-02.png

    Alternatively, click the question mark icon and select from the list of sample questions to ask.

    Practice-Assistant-03.png

From here, the Practice Assistant will answer your questions that are relevant to your Halaxy account and adjusts its responses based on your access and the page you're viewing.

Tip

To refine your results, enter additional details to narrow your request, such as a date range, timeframe, or a practitioner's name.

Use the copy icon under any answer to copy it, or the thumbs up/down icons to submit feedback. Your chat will be anonymised to help improve the assistant.

Important

By default, the Practice Assistant connects to practice data with permissions matching the user account's access level. To manage the access to the Practice Assistant, see the Manage Practice Assistant access section below.

Ask about your schedule and availability

Use the Practice Assistant to quickly check your calendar without leaving the page you're on.

Task

Example question

Check appointments

“List today's appointments”, “What's on this week?”, “Show my afternoon bookings today”

Check availability

“When am I next free?”, “Do I have a 30-minute gap this week?”

Check specific practitioner's availability

“When is Dr Alex Lee free next week?”, “Is the physiotherapist available tomorrow?”

Find scheduling conflicts

“Are there any calendar clashes this week?”

Compare appointment activity

“Compare appointments this month to last month”

The assistant replies with a summary and a link to the relevant calendar view or report, ready to save.

Ask about online bookings and your waitlist

The Practice Assistant can also check your online booking setup and waiting list.

Task

Example question

Check your online booking setup

“Can new clients book with me online?”, “Which of my locations accept online bookings?”

Check appointment types and services

“Which appointment types are bookable online?”, “Which of my services are telehealth?”

Check your waitlist

“How many people are on my waitlist?”, “Are there any urgent waitlist entries?”

Check online booking requests

“How many online bookings came in this week?”, “Are there any booking requests that need approval?”

Ask about your finances

Ask the Practice Assistant about invoices, claims and other financial information for your practice.

Task

Example question

Check unpaid or overdue invoices

“List overdue invoices”, “Which invoices are unpaid?”

Check claims

“Do I have any failed claims?”, “Why did my claim fail?”

Check income and expenses

“What's my income today?”, “What were my expenses this week?”

Find your top referrers

“Who are my top referrers this month?”

Check your Halaxy credit usage

“How many credits have I used this month?”

The assistant replies with a summary, such as a count, total or the reason a claim failed, and a link to the relevant report, ready to save.

Ask about patients and tasks

Ask the Practice Assistant about a specific patient, or check what still needs your attention today.

Task

Example question

Check a patient's next appointment

“When's my next appointment with Lee Blake?”

Check outstanding tasks

“Do I have any tasks today?”

Check missing intake forms

“Which patients have outstanding intake forms?”

Check new patients

“How many new patients did I see this week?”

Check for reminder or communication problems

"Have any appointment reminders or emails failed this week?"

Tip

You don't need to type a patient's name to ask about them. Questions like “who's my next patient?” work without any identifying details, since the assistant looks up records using your existing permissions.

Ask about Halaxy

Ask the Practice Assistant about the page you're currently on, or how to complete a task anywhere in Halaxy.

Task

Example question

Get how-to guidance

“Can I use telehealth?”, “Can patients book online?”, “How do Medicare claims work?”

Check account and setup options

“How do I add users?”, “Can I control user permissions?”, “Does Halaxy have an API?”

Learn about the current page

“What can I do on this page?”, “Learn more about this page”

The assistant replies with relevant guidance and a link to the Halaxy Help Guide article it used.

Manage Practice Assistant access

The account owner can control which information the Practice Assistant can access, as well as who is able to use it.

  • Set access for your practice

    1. Click Settings > General.

    2. Under the AI Settings section, click the Icon-Edit.svg pencil icon next to Practice Assistant.

      Practice-Assistant-Settings-01.png
    3. In the pop-up, select what access to give to your Practice Assistant:

      Practice-Assistant-Settings-02.png
      • Practice assistant: Tick Enabled/Disabled to turn the feature on or off.

      • What the assistant can access: Tick what information the Practice Assistant is allowed to have access to.

      • Available to: Select which specific access levels have access to the Practice Assistant.

    4. Click Save.

    Note

    To manage a specific user's access to the Practice Assistant, click the Set acces for a specific user tab.

  • Set access for a specific user

    1. Click Settings > Users.

    2. In the list, find the user's name, then under the Actions column, click the Icon-Edit.svg pencil icon.

      User-Access-01.png
    3. Under AI Features, tick/untick the Practice Assistant.

      Practice-Assistant-Settings-03.png
    4. Click Save.

Important

The Practice Assistant only works within each user’s existing permissions and cannot access or show any data beyond what that user is authorised to see.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will we get charged for using the Practice Assistant? How much does it cost?

The Halaxy Practice Assistant is included at no additional cost, making it easy to start using it as part of your daily workflow.

Who can access the Practice Assistant?

The Practice Assistant is enabled by default. If you are unable to see the Practice Assistant, contact your account owner to request access. Account owners can set the access in Settings > General > AI Settings > Practice Assistant or each user's individual permission in Settings > Users.

How do user permissions and controls work?

The practice assistant mirrors your exact Halaxy access levels. If a user doesn't have permission to view finances or certain records on the main platform, the practice assistant won't show them either. Account owners can also restrict the assistant to Help Guide only questions.

Account owners can set the access in Settings > General > AI Settings > Practice Assistant or each user's individual permission in Settings > Users.

Why are my results incomplete or not what I expected?

Results may vary depending on your account's access level. Your account may not have access to the full practice data. Otherwise, it could also depend on how your request is entered. Try including more specific details such as dates, practitioner names, or timeframes to refine your results.

Why does the practice assistant say it doesn't know the answer?

If the assistant can't find a grounded answer in your practice data or the Help Guide, it will say so or ask a clarifying question, rather than guess. This helps make sure the information you receive is accurate.

Is my practice and patient data safe?

Yes. The AI never reads your patient files or database. It only analyses the text of your question to understand what you want, while Halaxy’s secure code fetches the data using your existing permissions. Conversations are completely private to your individual login, and patient data is never used to train AI models.

Are the answers accurate and live?

All data provided is live and queried in real-time. However, the AI in the practice assistant is a navigation aid, not the system of record itself. You must always verify financial or clinical details in the linked underlying report before taking action.

How is my chat history handled?

Chats are short-lived and automatically clear after 30 minutes of inactivity or when you log out. There is no export feature, but you can copy text directly from the chat panel.

Updated

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