User manual
Gradespace Clinic manual
What the Clinic kit does, what Starter and Pro include, and every chapter of this manual in reading order.
On this page
Gradespace Clinic turns a WordPress website into the online front desk for an eye clinic or optician. Patients see your services and prices, pick a real free time and book online. Your team sees the day's appointments on one screen, keeps patient records and prescriptions, and, if you want a shop, sells frames, lenses and contact lenses online and over the counter.
This manual is written for clinic owners and front-desk staff. You don't need any technical knowledge. Every step uses the names you see on screen, and the pictures come from our public demo, Brightview Eye Clinic (clinic.gskits.co.uk). All names, phone numbers and orders in the pictures are sample data.
What the kit is made of
The kit comes in three parts. You install them in this order:
- Gradespace Core (free). The back office: plain-English settings, the Today screen, staff access, branded emails, the setup wizard, your licence and updates.
- The Gradespace Clinic plugin. A plugin is an add-on for WordPress. This one adds services, online booking, the calendar, patient records, prescriptions and the clinic shop screens.
- The Gradespace Clinic theme. The design: six looks, each with seven colour palettes.
The shop is optional. It uses WooCommerce, the free shop plugin for WordPress. Bookings, the calendar and patient records work without it.
Starter and Pro
One licence covers the plugin and the theme. Features marked (Pro) in this manual need a Pro or Agency licence.
| Feature | Starter (£69) | Pro (£139) | Agency (£389) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Services and online booking with real free times | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Today screen, appointments list, day / week / month calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reminder email the day before, cancel link in every email | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Patient records, prescriptions with printing, record-access log | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contact form messages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online shop with bank transfer proofs and pay at the store (with WooCommerce) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Six designs and seven colour palettes each | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sell in store (the till) | – | Yes | Yes |
| Stock control | – | Yes | Yes |
| Deposits when patients book online | – | Yes | Yes |
| Gift vouchers | – | Yes | Yes |
| Choosing exactly what each staff role can do (Staff access) | – | Yes | Yes |
| Email log and site stats | – | Yes | Yes |
| Websites covered | 1 | 1 | 5 |
Prices are one-off and include VAT and updates for life. Without a key the kit runs in Starter mode, but it doesn't get updates.
Chapters in reading order
Getting started (shared with all Gradespace kits)
- About the shared chapters
- Buying and your licence
- Before you install
- Installing
- The setup wizard in general
Your clinic website
- Quick start: from buying to your first booking
- The Clinic setup wizard
- Designs, pages and menus
- Services
- Online booking: what patients see
- Appointments and the calendar
- Patients and prescriptions
- The online shop
- Sell in store and Stock (Pro)
- Payments and deposits (Pro)
- Gift vouchers (Pro)
- Messages from the contact form
- The patient's My account page
- Clinic settings
- Running the clinic day to day
Looking after the website (shared)
- Your look: logo, menus and footer
- Pages and content
- Staff accounts and signing in
- Privacy, cookies and emails
- Backups and updates
- Troubleshooting and support
Getting help
Email support@thegradespace.com. Say what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and send a screenshot.
Every chapter of this manual
Buying and installing
- Buying and your licenceSharedThe Starter, Pro and Agency tiers, buying a kit, the licence key email, your licences page on thegradespace.com, and moving or upgrading a licence.
- Before you installSharedWhat your website and hosting need for a Gradespace kit, how to check them, and why to take a backup and use a test copy first.
- Installing your kitSharedInstalling Gradespace Core, then your kit's plugin, then your kit's theme from their .zip files, adding your licence key, and how updates arrive.
Setting up
- The setup wizardSharedHow the setup wizard works in every kit: each step, the starter pages and menu, sample photos, legal pages, and how to run it again.
- The setup wizardThe step-by-step screen that gets a new clinic website ready: opening hours, the services patients can book, bank details for the shop, and the starter pages, design, photos and sample products.
- Your look: design, colours, logo, menus and footerSharedChoosing a design and colour palette in Site Settings → Design & colours, previewing it, keeping the menu at the top when scrolling, adding your logo, and changing the menu and the footer.
- Designs, pages and menusThe six Clinic designs and their colour palettes, how to preview and choose one, and the pages and menu the kit makes for you.
- Pages, posts and picturesSharedEditing pages in the WordPress block editor, starting a page from your kit's ready-made layouts and sections, writing blog posts, and adding and replacing pictures in the media library.
Running your website
- ServicesAdd and change the services patients can book: name, description, how long each takes, price, online booking, what to bring and the order they're listed in.
- Online booking: what patients seeHow a patient books on your website, step by step, what they see afterwards, and how they cancel. Read it so you can talk a patient through it on the phone.
- Appointments and the calendarThe staff side of bookings: the Today screen, the Appointments list and the Calendar, and how to confirm, add, move, check in, complete and cancel appointments.
- Patients and prescriptionsFind, add and update patient records, add and print spectacle and contact lens prescriptions, link a patient's website account, and handle privacy requests and old records.
- The online shopSell frames, lenses and contact lenses on your website with WooCommerce: adding products and their optical details, how customers pay by bank transfer or at the store, and checking and completing Shop orders.
- Sell in store and Stock (Pro)Use the till to sell over the counter, take cash, card, transfer or split payments and print or send receipts; then keep stock right with Receive, Adjust, History and quick new products.
- Payments and deposits (Pro)Set up Gradespace Payments with Stripe or your shop checkout, ask for a deposit or the full price when patients book online, and use Clinic → Payments to see, refund and decide on payments.
- Gift vouchers (Pro)Sell gift vouchers on your website, issue them at the desk, take them when someone pays, and check balances in Clinic → Gift vouchers.
- Messages from the contact formRead and reply to messages people send with the contact form on your website, and tidy away old ones.
- The patient's My account pageWhat patients see when they sign in to My account on your website: appointments, prescriptions, orders and proof of payment, and how you link their account to their record.
- Clinic settingsEvery tab of Clinic → Settings explained: Business, Contact, Email, Opening hours, Bookings, Records, Privacy, Payments and Licence, plus Staff access and running the setup wizard again.
- Running the clinic day to dayThe daily and weekly routine for your team: signing in, the Today screen, the red badges, and a quick reference to where every setting lives.
Looking after your website
- Staff accounts and signing inSharedGiving each member of staff their own account, the staff roles each kit comes with, choosing what each role can do (Pro), and the staff sign-in page.
- Privacy, cookies and emailsSharedThe cookie banner and cookie settings, your starter terms, privacy and cookie policies, requests for people's data, the website's branded emails, test emails and the email log (Pro).
- Backups and updatesSharedWhat to back up and how often, and how to install updates to Gradespace Core, your kit's plugin and its theme safely.
- Troubleshooting and supportSharedFixes for the problems people meet most often: licence messages, installing, the setup wizard, pages not found, emails, signing in, the design and the cookie banner, and how to get help.
Bought this kit? The whole manual is also a PDF (version 1.0.1) to download or print, on My licences.