For clinic owners — your first day
Walk through your first day as the owner of a new MyDentalPractice clinic — from sign-up through booking your first appointment.
Overview
You signed up as an Owner. That gives you the highest level of access in your clinic — full settings, every report, every patient record, billing, and the ability to invite and manage every other user. This guide walks you through the steps you'll do once, in order, on day one.
Prerequisites
- A working email address you control
- A laptop or desktop with a modern browser (see System requirements)
- Your clinic's name, address, and primary phone number
- A payment method for the registration fee (Paystack-supported card, bank transfer, or USSD)
Steps
Create your account. Go to https://app.mydentalpractice.ng/signup, fill in your name, email, and password, choose Clinic Owner as the account type, and submit. Detailed walk-through: Creating your clinic account.
Verify your email. Check the inbox for the address you signed up with. Click the verification link in the email titled "Verify your MyDentalPractice account". The verification window expires after 24 hours; if it expires, request a new link from the sign-in page.
Sign in for the first time. Return to https://app.mydentalpractice.ng/login and sign in with your email and the password you set. You'll land on the Clinic Onboarding wizard rather than the dashboard.
Complete the onboarding wizard. The wizard is seven steps: Clinic Information, Branding & Appearance (Professional/Enterprise tiers), Financial & Charges, Fee Schedule (CDT), Staff & Team, Communication Preferences, and Final Review. The progress bar at the top shows percentage complete. You can navigate back at any point. Step-by-step: Completing onboarding.
Choose your subscription tier. Open Settings → Billing & Subscription to compare Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. The Starter tier is free during your trial; pick a paid tier before the trial ends to avoid losing access to gated features. See Choosing a subscription tier.
Add a payment method. Still on Settings → Billing & Subscription, click Add payment method. The platform uses Paystack — supported instruments are Visa/Mastercard/Verve, bank transfer, and USSD. The card you add is tokenised; the raw card number is never stored on our servers.
Invite your team. Open Settings → Staff and click Invite Member. For each invitee enter their email, choose their role (Admin, Dentist, Hygienist, Therapist, Nurse, Receptionist, Billing Staff, HR Manager, or Staff), and submit. Each gets an email with a one-time link to accept. Full walk-through: Inviting your team.
Add your first patient. From the top nav, open Patients, then click + New Patient in the top-right of the patient list. Fill in the required fields (first name, last name, date of birth, gender, primary phone) and any optional fields you have on hand. Submit. The patient appears in the All tab with status ACTIVE.
Pay the registration fee for the patient. A new patient cannot book an appointment until the registration fee is recorded against their record. Open the patient profile, find the Registration Fee section, click Record payment, choose the payment method, and submit. See Paying the registration fee.
Book the first appointment. From the top nav open Appointments, click + New Appointment, choose your test patient, pick a dentist, a treatment room, and a time slot. Save. You should see a card on the calendar for that slot. The appointment shows status SCHEDULED.
Confirm your dashboard reflects the activity. Open Dashboard from the top nav. You should see "1 patient" in the patient stat tile and "1 upcoming appointment" in the appointments tile. If those don't update within a few seconds, refresh the page.
Expected outcome
- Your owner account is created, email-verified, and signed in
- Onboarding is complete; the wizard does not reappear on subsequent logins
- A subscription tier and a payment method are configured
- At least one staff member has been invited (they may not have accepted yet)
- One patient exists with a paid registration fee
- One appointment is on the calendar
- The dashboard shows the patient and appointment counts
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Verification email never arrives | Provider blocked or email typo | Use the Resend verification link on the sign-in page; check spam; if you mistyped your email, contact support — only the email owner can change it |
| Onboarding skips the Branding step | Branding is gated to Professional/Enterprise tiers | Upgrade your tier first, then the wizard will include it on the next visit |
| "Patient must have a paid registration fee" error when booking | Registration fee not recorded | Open the patient profile and complete Paying the registration fee |
| Appointment save returns "Time slot conflicts with another booking" | Idempotency conflict or double-booking | Pick a different time, or cancel the conflicting appointment first |
| Dashboard counts don't update | Browser cache | Hard-refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R) |