NOTE: Access to the AI Scribe Setup area is controlled by permissions. Only team members (admins) with the correct role or permissions assigned can configure it. Clinicians who have been granted AI Scribe access can use the feature, but they will need the appropriate permissions to configure the Setup area.
If you'd like a staff member to be able to access and configure the AI Scribe Setup section - including managing users, prompt templates, AI-ready forms, and settings - you will need to update their permissions. Navigate to Team, click on their name, go to "Permissions," find the Setup section, and make sure it is enabled.
Step 1: Navigate to AI Scribe Setup
Log in to your Pabau account and in the left sidebar menu, click on Setup > Clinical then select "AI Scribe." The hub header shows live counts for employees enabled, forms that are AI-ready, and prompt templates created, along with an "Open AI Scribe" button that takes you directly to the Sessions view.
The left navigation within AI Scribe Setup has four areas: Users, Prompt Templates, AI-ready Forms, and Settings.
Step 2: Enable AI Scribe for Staff Members
The Users section lists all employees along with their location and current status. The header shows a running count of total employees versus those enabled.
To grant a staff member access, toggle the switch next to their name. Enabling a clinician gives them the ability to record with AI Scribe, edit AI charting notes, and fill forms with AI. Once you have made your changes, at the very bottom of the page click "Confirm changes" to apply them, or "Discard changes" to cancel.
NOTE: Granting a clinician access to use AI Scribe is separate from giving them access to configure it. The Setup area exposes consent rules, retention settings, templates, and access controls - make sure only team members with the appropriate role or permissions can reach it.
Step 3: Install a Ready-Made Template
Prompt templates tell AI Scribe how to structure and format the clinical notes it generates. Each template has a type (Note or Letter), a set of sections, and within each section a prompt and an output format.
The Community templates library — a collection of pre-built templates you can browse by clinic type, including Anti-Aging, Acne, Body Contouring, Laser, Dermatology, Mental Health, Dental, Physiotherapy, and more.
Click "Preview" on any template to see a read-only view of its section structure and formatting guidance before committing. Once you're happy with a template, click "Install" to add it to your clinic's template list. Installed templates will show an "Installed" badge.
Step 4: Create or Edit a Template
Installed and custom templates appear under the Templates tab, with Edit and Delete options per row and a "+ New Template" button to start from scratch.
Clicking "+ New Template" opens a chooser with two ways to start:
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Build from form (Recommended): Pick one of your treatment forms and Pabau drafts the sections, subsections and extraction prompts for you. This is the fastest route, and it can make the form AI-ready in the same flow - see Step 6.
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Create manually (Full control): Start from an empty template and add your own sections and subsections one by one. This opens the blank editor described below.
The template editor has a Name field, a Type toggle (Note or Letter), a Structure panel on the left, and a live Preview panel on the right.
In the Structure panel you can:
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Add sections: Each section has a name, a customisation prompt, and a format - choose from Paragraph, Bullets, List, or Narrative. The chosen format will be reflected in the generated note.
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Add subsections: Subsections can be added from a categorised library (for example, Assessment and Plan → Clinical Impression, Treatment Goals, Recommended Course) or created as a custom subsection. For a custom subsection, give it a name, an AI instruction (what to capture), and a format.
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Add a checklist: Optionally add a structured checklist to any section for tick-style capture.
NOTE: A template cannot be saved without at least one section. If you try, Pabau will show "Add at least one section before saving - an empty template produces a blank note."
NOTE: If a template section is left without a linked form field, AI Scribe will display a warning - "Unlinked fields won't be populated by AI Scribe" - so you know that content won't map into the form.
Step 5: Preview and Test the Template
The Preview panel on the right has two modes:
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Sample: Shows placeholder content per section so you can check the structure and formatting at a glance.
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Try it: Lets you paste in a real transcript (prefix lines with "c:" for clinician and "p:" for patient) and run a preview to see actual AI-structured output. This is the fastest way to validate a template before putting it into use.
Step 6: Generate a Template from a Form
Instead of building a template from scratch, you can generate one from an existing form - and link it back to that form in the same flow.
Choose "Build from form" in the New Template chooser, or click "Generate from form" from within the editor. Pick a form from the list: only treatment note forms are offered. A form that is already linked to another template is greyed out and marked "Already linked to a template" - unlink it in AI-ready Forms first if you want to use it here.
AI Scribe reads the form's fields and drafts a matching structure of sections and subsections. While it is working you can click "Cancel" to return to the form picker. If your template already has sections, you will be asked to confirm first - "Replace the current structure?" ("Generating from a form replaces all current sections and subsections. This can't be undone.") - then click "Replace and generate."
Review and refine the generated structure, then click "Save template." Because the template was generated from a form, Pabau then asks whether to link the two:
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"No, just save the template": the template is kept and no link is written.
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"Yes, make form AI ready": opens the field mapping panel, pre-filled with the matches AI Scribe proposed. Nothing is saved at this point - check each proposed match, adjust or add any you want, then click "Save & close." The counter at the top shows how many of the form's fields are linked.
On success you will see a "Template linked" confirmation telling you how many of the form's fields will be populated automatically from the transcript, with a "View AI ready forms" button that takes you straight to the Forms tab.
NOTE: Auto-linking only ever covers the single form the template was generated from, and only after you confirm both steps above. If AI Scribe could not match any fields, the form is still linked but stays Not Ready in the AI Ready column until you map at least one field yourself.
NOTE: If the form is linked to another template while you are reviewing the mapping, the template is still saved and you will see "Template saved, but the form was not linked." Unlink the form in the Forms tab, then link it to this template.
Step 7: Link Forms to Templates
Forms are linked to templates so that generated section content can automatically populate the right fields, making a form "AI-ready." The Setup hub displays a live count of how many of your forms are currently AI-ready.
The AI-ready Forms section lists all your forms with their name, linked prompt template, status, and whether they are currently AI Ready — shown as a green "Yes" or grey "No" in the AI Ready column. To link a template to a form, use the "Link a prompt template..." dropdown in the Prompt column and select the relevant template. Once linked, an × will appear to remove it if needed.
After linking a template, click "View instructions" on the right side of the form row to open the field mapping panel. On the left you will see all the form's questions, each showing its field type and whether it is currently linked or not.
On the right you will see the prompt subsections from the linked template. Click on a subsection on the right to link it to the selected form question on the left - this tells AI Scribe which generated content should populate which field. A counter at the top shows how many fields have been linked out of the total.
Any unlinked fields will display a warning that they won't be populated by AI Scribe. Once you have mapped all the relevant fields, click "Save & close."
NOTE: Templates you built with "Create manually" are never linked automatically - the steps above are the only route for those, and for linking a second form to a template you have already generated.
Step 8: Configure Recording Consent
In the Settings section, the first area covers recording consent. Toggle on "Require patient consent" to block any recording from starting until consent has been captured. Choose how consent is collected:
- Verbal: The provider confirms the patient gave verbal consent before recording.
- Written: The patient signs a digital consent form during check-in.
- Verbal and Written: Both are required before any recording can begin.
Step 9: Configure Language and Transcription
In the Language and Transcription section, set the following:
Spoken language: The language the AI uses to transcribe the recording.
Note language: The language the finished note is written in.
Pause on long silences: When enabled, recording automatically stops after a set silence threshold to avoid unnecessary capture.
Step 10: Configure Data and Privacy
In the Data and Privacy section, configure how recordings and transcripts are handled:
Hide patient name in transcripts: Visually masks the patient name in the transcript view. Note that this does not alter the stored transcript or recording.
Auto-delete recordings after note is signed: Purges the original audio file once the note has been finalised and signed off.
Retention period: Sets the number of days transcripts are kept before they are automatically deleted.
With your users enabled, templates configured, forms linked, and settings in place, AI Scribe is ready for your clinical team to start using. For a full guide on how to run a session, read our How to Use AI Scribe article.
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