# Chart a visit: notes, charts and photos

> In Velarya, you chart a visit on its Clinical tab: select Start chart, pick a published chart template, fill it in and select Complete. A chart that needs sign-off goes to a reviewer, who approves and signs it. Visit notes, products with lot numbers and clinical photos sit beside the chart, and Amend corrects a completed one.

- Source: https://velarya.com/help/chart-a-visit
- Who can do this: Charts, visit notes and photos: Clinical charts & forms at edit (Admins and Service Providers; Location Managers view them). Sign-off: Approve & sign off charts (Admins)
- Plans: Scale, Branded, Connected
- Time: 5 minutes
- Last verified: 2026-10-01

## Before you begin

- A published chart template: Create a form or chart template.
- The visit is booked for the patient with a service: Book an appointment for a patient.

## Open the visit's Clinical tab

The visit's **Clinical** tab in Velarya holds everything clinical about one treatment: its charts, its visit notes and its photos. It lives on the visit's sale.

1. Open the appointment on **Calendar** or **Front Desk**. The appointment panel lists the visit's forms and charts under **Forms & Charts**, each with its status.
2. Select **Chart**. The visit's sale opens on its **Clinical** tab.
3. When one sale covers several appointments, select the visit at the top of the tab.

![A sale's Clinical tab with its Charts card, a chart in Needs review, Start chart outlined and the Visit Notes box](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/sale-clinical-tab-90ea6894.webp)

You can also reach the tab from **Transactions**: open the sale and select **Clinical**. The patient's own **Clinical** tab lists their charts and visit notes from all their visits, newest first.

## Start and complete a chart

A chart in Velarya is a record your team fills in from a published chart template, such as a treatment record or a SOAP note. Completing it locks it.

1. Select **Start chart** in the **Charts** card. **Start a chart** opens with the published chart templates to choose from, and **Sign-off** marks those whose charts need a reviewer.
2. Select a template. If it copies earlier answers, **Copy answers from the last completed chart** appears, ticked. Untick it to start blank. Signatures are never copied: every chart asks for a new one.
3. Select **Start chart**. The chart opens with the patient's allergies, medications, conditions and sex at birth filled in wherever the template asks for them.
4. Fill in the chart. It saves as you type, and "Saving…" then "Saved" shows beside the title.
5. Select **Complete**, then **Complete** in "Complete this chart?". "Chart completed" appears, or "Chart submitted for review" when the template needs sign-off.

![Start a chart dialog with the Advanced Treatment Record selected, its Sign-off badge and Copy answers ticked](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/start-chart-dialog-a499ac6c.webp)

Completing a chart, including submitting it for review, copies its connected answers into the patient's record: allergies, medications, conditions and sex at birth into the medical history, and any connected name, email, phone, date of birth or address onto the profile. A blank answer changes nothing. Every chart, from the moment it starts, is listed with its status on the patient's **Clinical** tab and, when it belongs to a booked visit, in that visit's **Forms & Charts** block.

## Record products and lot numbers

When a chart template includes a **Product Usage** component, a **Product Usage** card sits below the chart. Each entry records a product given at the visit. **Organization settings** > **Lot Recall**, open to staff with **Clinical charts & forms**, finds every patient across the practice who received a lot, with their contact details. It matches the whole lot number, so type it exactly as printed.

1. Choose the product in **Product**, or choose **+ New product**, type its name and select **Create**.
2. Enter the **Quantity** and choose the **Unit**: units, ml, mg or syringes.
3. Type the **Lot #**, pick the **Expiry date** and add the **Site**, such as Glabella.
4. Select **Add product usage**. "Product usage recorded" appears, and the entry lists the amount, lot, expiry and site.

![Product Usage card on a chart with a neuromodulator, 20 units, lot NTX-24117 and the Glabella site filled in](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/product-usage-card-8be19c3c.webp)

Record each product and site as its own entry. To remove one, select the bin beside it and confirm with **Delete**. Entries lock with the chart when it is completed.

## How does sign-off work?

Sign-off in Velarya is a reviewer's approval of a chart. A chart whose template has **Require sign-off** moves to **Needs review** when completed, and a reviewer with **Approve & sign off charts** approves it or returns it.

1. In **Transactions**, select the search box and choose **Chart review** under **Add filter**, then **Needs review**. Sales with a chart waiting show **Needs review** in the **Chart review** column.
2. Open the sale, select **Clinical** and select the chart. It reads "Submitted for review by" the author, with the time. A chart started from a patient's **Clinical** tab belongs to no sale: it shows **Needs review** in the **Charts** card there, and you open it from that card.
3. Check the chart, then select **Approve and sign**.
4. Add a **Comment (optional)**, sign under **Signature** with **Draw** or **Type**, and select **Approve and sign**. "Chart approved and signed" appears, and the chart is **Completed**.

![Approve and sign dialog on a chart that needs review, with a comment and a typed signature](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/approve-and-sign-dialog-a2c563f4.webp)

To return a chart, select **Request changes**, explain what to fix in **Comment** and select **Request changes**. The author sees **Changes requested** with your comment, edits the chart and selects **Resubmit**, which sends it back for review.

Staff who hold **Submit without reviewer approval**, which Admins hold by default, complete a sign-off chart straight to **Completed**. Velarya records in the audit log that the review was skipped.

## Correct a completed chart

A completed chart in Velarya stays exactly as it was signed. To correct it, you amend it: Velarya makes a new, editable copy linked to the original.

1. Open the completed chart and select **Amend**.
2. Select **Create amendment** in "Amend this chart?". "Amendment created" appears, and the copy opens with the same answers and product entries, so you correct only what changed. Its signature fields start blank.
3. Make the correction, sign where the chart asks and select **Complete**. A template that needs sign-off sends the amendment for review too.

![Amend this chart? confirmation on a completed treatment record, with Create amendment outlined](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/amend-chart-dialog-8d0ddbc4.webp)

The amendment reads "Amendment of an earlier record. View the original chart.", with a link to the original, which keeps its answers and signatures.

## Add visit notes

Visit notes in Velarya are dated entries about a treatment, each stamped with its author, such as how the patient responded or what to check next time. They sit under **Visit Notes** on the visit's **Clinical** tab, and below **Charts** on the patient's **Clinical** tab.

1. On the visit's **Clinical** tab, type in **Add a visit note... Type @ to tag staff**. A note holds up to 10,000 characters.
2. To bring in a colleague, type **@** and pick their name. You can mention up to 20 people. Each gets a mention in their Notifications bell that names you but not the patient, and selecting it opens the visit.
3. To attach files, select the image button for a photo or the paperclip for a PDF or image document, up to 10 of each.
4. Select **Add note**. The note appears under today's date with your name and the time.

![Visit note box with a note about a bruise and arnica, Maya Fournier mentioned, and Add note outlined](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/visit-note-composer-f26a0181.webp)

On the patient's **Clinical** tab, the composer adds **No linked appointment**: choose a visit there to link the note to it. To change or remove your own note, point at it and select the pencil or the bin. Deleting asks "Delete note", and a changed note shows (edited).

## Add and compare clinical photos

Clinical photos in Velarya belong to the patient, and those uploaded on a visit also belong to that visit. Your team uses them for before-and-after records and injection maps.

1. On the visit's **Clinical** tab, select **Upload Photos** under **Visit Photos** and choose one or more images: JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 5 MB each. "Photo uploaded" appears for each.
2. Open the patient's profile and select **Photos**. Every clinical photo is here, newest first, with the filters **All**, **Before**, **After** and **Other**.
3. Select a photo and set its type to **Before**, **After** or **Other** in the menu at the top left. A photo counts as **Other** until you set it.
4. To annotate it, select **Mark up**, draw with the pin, pencil, shape, arrow or X tools in red, blue, green or yellow, and select **Save markup**. The markup is a layer over the photo, and the original is kept unchanged.
5. To compare, select **Compare**. **Before / After** puts two photos side by side: choose a side, pick a photo from the row below, add a **Pair title (optional)** and select **Save pair**.

![Photos tab on a patient's profile with the All, Before, After and Other filters, Compare outlined and Upload Photos](https://velarya.com/assets/help/chart-a-visit/photos-tab-toolbar-0bf2e3ee.webp)

**Upload Photos** on the **Photos** tab adds photos that belong to the patient but no visit. Deleting a pair under **Saved pairs** keeps both photos.

## How does charting behave?

Velarya treats charts, notes and photos as part of the patient's clinical record: locked once complete, visible only to the clinical team, and logged.

| Situation | What Velarya does |
|---|---|
| A chart is in progress | Staff with **Clinical charts & forms** at **edit** who can reach the visit fill it; providers fill charts on their own appointments. When two people save at once, the later save is refused with "This chart was changed in another session. Reloading the latest version.", and that person's latest changes are replaced by the saved chart. |
| A chart is completed or waiting for review | Locked, with its products and photos. A completed chart is corrected with **Amend**; a chart waiting for review goes back to its author when a reviewer selects **Request changes**. |
| The template changes after a chart starts | The chart keeps the version it started on, including whether it needs sign-off. Edits to a template shape only new charts. |
| A chart is completed or signed off | Velarya records the signer, the time, their browser and IP address, and a fingerprint of the chart's answers at that moment. Each signature is captured anew; none is copied from another chart. |
| A provider opens a patient | Service Providers, and other staff set up as providers, open the charts, visit notes and photos of their own appointments with the patient, and those not linked to any visit. |
| Someone opens or changes a chart, note or photo | It appears in the patient's **Access history**, with who and when. Chart answers and visit notes are encrypted. |
| A patient is deleted | Their charts, visit notes and photos are erased with the profile. Archiving the patient keeps them. |

Who holds each permission by default is in [How patient privacy works](https://velarya.com/help/how-patient-privacy-works). Allergies and medical alerts belong to the patient's medical record, covered in [Record a patient's medical history and files](https://velarya.com/help/record-medical-history-and-files).

## If something goes wrong

**"No clinical service on this transaction."** The sale has no service on it, and charts attach to services. Add the service to the sale, or start the chart from the patient's **Clinical** tab.

**"No client on this transaction."** The sale has no patient. Add the patient to the sale, then open **Clinical** again.

**The Clinical tab shows "Clinical records restricted".** Your role does not hold **Clinical charts & forms** at **view**, which Front Desk does not hold by default. Ask an Admin for a role that includes it, as [How patient privacy works](https://velarya.com/help/how-patient-privacy-works) describes.

**Start chart, Add note or Upload Photos is missing.** Your role holds **Clinical charts & forms** at **view**, which reads charts but does not write them. Location Managers hold **view** by default. An Admin can give you a custom role with **edit**.

**"No published chart templates available."** Your practice has no published chart template yet. An Admin publishes one in **Organization settings** > **Forms & Charts**, as [Create a form or chart template](https://velarya.com/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template) shows.

**"2 required fields missing" when you select Complete.** Required questions are still blank. Fill them in and select **Complete** again.

**"This chart is no longer editable."** A colleague completed the chart while you had it open. Open it again, and use **Amend** if it needs a correction.

**Approve and sign is missing on a chart that needs review.** The chart reads "Submitted for review. A reviewer with sign-off permission must approve this chart." Only staff with **Approve & sign off charts**, Admins by default, sign off charts.

**There is no paperclip in the note box.** Attaching documents saves them to the patient's files, which takes **Client documents & photos** at **add**, held by Admins and Location Managers by default.

**A document is refused when you attach it.** The message gives the reason: the file is over 5 MB, or is not a PDF or a JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC image. Save it in one of those formats under 5 MB and attach it again.

**"Photo is attached to a clinical note and cannot be deleted", or "Failed to delete" on a visit's Clinical tab.** The photo is part of a visit note, so it stays with that note in the record.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can two people chart the same visit?

Yes. Staff with Clinical charts & forms at edit who can reach the visit open a chart in progress, and Velarya saves changes as they type. When two people edit it at once, the later save is refused and that person's chart reloads with the saved answers, so they re-enter their last change. Each person can also start a separate chart or add visit notes of their own.

### Can I chart a visit that was not booked?

Yes. Staff who open Transactions and hold Clinical charts & forms at edit, Admins by default, chart a sale with a service on it from its Clinical tab, the same way as a booked visit. A chart can also start from the Charts card on the patient's Clinical tab. A chart started there belongs to the patient rather than to one visit, and it is listed on their profile with the others.

### Who can read my visit notes?

Staff whose role holds Clinical charts & forms at view, within their reach. Admins see every note, Location Managers see notes for patients seen at their locations, and providers see notes from their own visits and notes not linked to a visit. Front Desk does not hold it by default. Notes are encrypted, each opening appears in the patient's Access history, and only the author edits or deletes a note.

### Are clinical photos stored securely?

Yes. Velarya stores clinical photos encrypted and opens each one through a private link that expires after 15 minutes, so a copied link stops working. Only staff with Clinical charts & forms see them, and providers see photos from their own visits and photos not linked to a visit. Each time the photos are opened, the patient's Access history records who opened them and when.

### Do patients see their charts, visit notes or photos?

No. Charts, visit notes, product records and clinical photos are for your team, and Velarya keeps them out of the patient app. What a patient fills in themselves arrives as a form, which they complete from a link by email or text; the finished form then appears among the patient's charts with the status Completed.

### What happens to charts if a patient is deleted?

They're erased with the profile. Deleting a patient removes their charts, product records, signed consent forms, visit notes, photos, files, medical history and medical alerts, and the Permanently Delete Client? dialog lists each one before an Admin confirms. To keep the clinical record, archive the patient instead, as Update, archive or delete a patient explains.