ℹ️ This comprehensive guide covers all available customization options including AI model selection, language settings, clinic-wide rules, personal preferences, and training examples to ensure your SOAP notes meet the highest professional standards while saving valuable time.
How to Access QuickSOAP Settings
To access QuickSOAP Settings in your Digitail account:
Navigate to any Patient profile, Flowboard or My Dashboard
Click the QuickSOAP button to open the QuickSOAP drawer
Look for the Settings icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner of the QuickSOAP drawer
Click the Settings icon to open the Settings modal
If you don't see the QuickSOAP feature in your account, please contact support to activate Tails AI Dictation for Quick SOAPs as it may require activation for your clinic.
📌 Permission Note: Some settings like Clinic Rules require administrator permissions. If you see a "View Only" badge on certain sections, contact your practice administrator to update your User Role and Permissions.
Highlights of QuickSOAP Settings
QuickSOAP Settings are organized into five main sections, each designed to customize different aspects of your AI-powered documentation experience.
QuickSOAP AI Model Selection
Choose between two powerful AI versions:
QuickSOAP Advanced (Recommended): Latest AI model with enhanced veterinary understanding, automatic rule application, and faster processing
QuickSOAP Classic: Proven legacy model compatible with custom training libraries
Key Benefits:
Enhanced medical terminology recognition
Faster SOAP note generation
Automatic application of clinic rules and personal preferences
Language & Voice Configuration
Optimize your voice recognition setup:
Language Selection: Choose between English (recommended for maximum medical accuracy) or Multilingual Auto-detection
Microphone Testing: Verify proper microphone access and functionality
Voice Recognition Optimization: Ensure optimal dictation quality
Rules & Preferences Management
Create comprehensive documentation standards:
Clinic Rules (Special Permission Required)
Apply to all team members in your practice
Ensure clinic-wide consistency and compliance
Examples: Pain assessment protocols, body condition scoring requirements, drug dosage documentation
Personal Rules
Apply only to your individual SOAP notes
Customize documentation to match your personal style
Examples: Specific examination techniques, preferred terminology, detailed findings format
Additional Instructions
Case-specific guidance for individual consultations
Template-based options for common documentation styles
Temporary modifications without changing permanent rules
Preview SOAP Generation
Test your settings with real examples:
Multiple Test Cases: Annual exams, emergency visits, quality of life consultations, puppy checks
Real-time Generation: Watch SOAP notes populate in real-time
Rule Verification: Confirm your clinic and personal rules are properly applied
Best Practices for QuickSOAP Customization
Read more about setting up effective rules for each section.
Clinic Rules Best Practices
Start with essential compliance requirements
Use specific, actionable language (e.g., "Always document BCS on scale 1-9")
Focus on standardization across all team members
Include legal and insurance documentation requirements
Personal Rules Best Practices
Complement (don't contradict) clinic rules
Add your individual documentation style preferences
Include specialized terminology you commonly use
Specify formatting preferences for different examination types
Writing Effective Rules
✅ Good Example: "Always document body condition score (BCS) on a scale of 1-9 in the physical examination section"
❌ Poor Example: "Document body condition"
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Microphone Problems
Check browser permissions in your browser settings
Test different browsers if issues persist
Verify microphone hardware with other applications
Rules Not Applied
Confirm QuickSOAP Advanced is selected for Rules & Preferences
Save settings after making changes
Test with Preview section to verify rule application
Inconsistent Results
Review and refine rules for clarity and specificity
Use Preview section to test different scenarios
Adjust Additional Instructions for case-specific needs
Poor Transcription Quality
Check language settings match your dictation language
Verify microphone setup and audio quality
Speak clearly using proper veterinary terminology
Quick Reference: Settings Hierarchy
Understanding how rules work together ensures optimal SOAP note generation.
Rule Priority Order (Highest to Lowest)
🚨 Clinic Rules (Priority 1 - HIGHEST)
Applied to ALL team members
Non-negotiable standards
Override conflicting information
🩺 Personal Rules (Priority 2 - MEDIUM)
Applied to your individual notes
Complement clinic rules
Add personal documentation style
📋 Additional Instructions (Priority 3 - CASE-SPECIFIC)
Temporary instructions for specific cases
Applied to individual consultations
Perfect for special requirements
Example in Practice:
Clinic rule: "Always document body condition score (BCS 1-9)"
Personal rule: "Include pain assessment using Colorado State University Pain Scale"
Additional instruction: "Focus on respiratory findings for this coughing Patient"
Result: Your SOAP note includes BCS documentation, pain assessment, and detailed respiratory findings - all working together for comprehensive documentation.
Remember to regularly test your settings using the Preview SOAP Generation section and adjust based on real-world results. Take advantage of these powerful customization features to make Tails AI Dictation for Quick SOAPs version 1.5 work perfectly for your veterinary practice!
🧾 QuickSOAP Dynamic Fields (Closed Beta)
This feature is in Closed Beta.To request access, reach out through chat, your account manager, or email tails@digitail.io.
Everything above configures how Tails writes your whole SOAP note. QuickSOAP Dynamic Fields adds something narrower: your own record template decides which fields Tails completes, and each of those fields gets its own instructions.
Until now, QuickSOAP wrote every visit into the same six SOAP fields, for every clinic and every visit type. With Dynamic Fields, Tails completes the fields you built, using your section names, your field labels and your configured dropdown options. Where your template has a dropdown, Tails picks a value from your list instead of writing a paragraph you have to re-key. Where it has Visit Types, Tails selects from the Visit Types your clinic actually configured.
This section covers both halves: setting up your template (done once, by an administrator) and using it in a consultation(done by the vet, every visit).
⚠️ One thing to know before you look for it. Every other setting in this article lives in QuickSOAP Settings. Field instructions do not. They are configured on your record templates, under Administration → SOAP Templates.
✅ Before you start
Your clinic is enrolled in the Closed Beta
Your clinic is on the new record page (SOAP Templates 2.0)
You have template creation permission to edit templates
Part 1 - Set up your record template
Done once per template, by an administrator. Fields you mark here apply to everyone in the clinic who uses that template.
💡 You may not need to change anything.The six fields QuickSOAP always filled - Summary, Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan and General Recommendations - are already marked in your existing templates, and vital signs are always completed. A clinic that changes nothing keeps exactly the behaviour it had before.
Beyond those, a large set of standard Digitail clinical fields already arrive with an expert-written instruction attached but switched off. Turning one on takes a single click and no writing at all.
Step 1 - Open the template
Go to Administration → SOAP Templates and open the template you want to configure.
Step 2 - Add the fields you need
If the field you want is not already in the template, click Add from Library.
Custom tab - fields your own clinic created.
Digitail tab - Digitail's standard clinical fields. The Custom tab opens first, so if you are searching for a standard field such as Body Condition Score and finding nothing, switch tabs.
Step 3 - Turn a field on
Click the settings cog wheel icon for the field you want Tails to complete.
Switch on Use in Quick SOAP. The helper text reads Allow QuickSOAP to auto-complete this field.
If you have an AI instruction pre-populated and you don't want to edit it just press UPDATE.
Every field you switch on gets a purple Tails tag beside its label, so you can see at a glance what is covered. If the switch is off, Tails skips the field entirely and produces no suggestion for it.
⚠️ If you want to use QuickSOAP, never save a template with zero fields marked. Generation will return nothing you can review.
Step 4 - Write or edit the Tails Instructions
Tails Instructions tells Tails what belongs in this field. The tooltip reads Give Tails instructions on what should be auto-completed in this field.
Write it yourself, or click Generate beside Tails Instructions and let Tails draft one. It builds the draft from what it already knows about the field: the section and sub-section it sits in, the field type, the label, the internal description, the placeholder and the default value.
For dropdowns and multi-selects, the generated instruction automatically lists your configured options as the only valid answers, so Tails cannot invent a value that is not on your list.
Review and edit whatever it drafts - it is a starting point, not a final answer. If you edit one of the instructions Digitail shipped, a Revert to original link appears so you can put it back.
A good field instruction says what to leave out as well as what to include."Leave null if not discussed" is the single most useful sentence in most of them, because it stops Tails filling a field the vet never assessed.
🚨 If a field does not have an AI Instruction 🚨
Just make sure you have Title for that field and and optional add an Internal Description for that field. We are using all of this information when you press Generate inside Tails Instructions.
Step 5 - Write the Tails Formatting
Tails Formatting tells Tails how the content should look - comma-separated terms, bullet points, numbered steps, a short paragraph, or key-value style. The tooltip reads Define how Tails should format the content of this field.
If you do not have any specific formatting needs let the AI choose what he things best. Alternatively write your own formatting rules or click Generate beside Tails Formatting for a draft, adjust it, then Save.
This feature is useful if you want to use a specific template for the AI. For example you could set a Formatting Instruction like the example below:
⚠️ Write the instructions first. The Generate button beside Tails Formatting reads your Tails Instructions as its input. Pressed on an empty instructions box it has almost nothing to work with, and the result will be generic.
💡 Tails Formatting only appears on free-text fields. Dropdowns, multi-selects and numeric fields are already constrained by their options or their type, so there is nothing to format. This is expected, not a fault.
Step 6 - Optional: describe the template's purpose
Each template also has one instruction that applies to the whole generation rather than a single field.
In the template editor's main sidebar, open Template settings and use the AI instructions field. The tooltip reads Describe the purpose of this template to guide AI-generated content.
Use it to say what the template is for - for example, telling Tails that a refill template should produce prescription-only content. Revert to default restores to the Digitail Default if there was an AI instruction pre-set.
🚫 What Tails cannot complete
Some items can never be auto-completed, and the Use in Quick SOAP switch does not appear on them at all:
- The coded Diagnosis picker. Tails writes the free-text Diagnosis and Presumptive Diagnosis fields, but it cannot select from your clinic's coded diagnosis list. You still choose the coded diagnosis yourself.
- Date fields, including the record date.
- Widgets - Dental Chart, Body Maps, the Vitals widget, Anesthesia, Medications, Tasks, Estimates, Payment, Forms, Certificates and Follow-ups. (some of them have their own AI experiences).
One exception worth knowing: weight, temperature, pulse and respiratory rate are always completed whenever QuickSOAP generates anything, whether or not anyone switched them on.
✅ Best practices for setting up fields
Start from the defaults. Switch on a field that already has an instruction written, generate once, and see what it produces before writing anything yourself.
Instructions first, formatting second. The formatting generator reads your instructions.
Say what to leave out. Tell Tails to leave a field empty when the subject was not discussed.
Keep clinic-wide standards in Clinic Rules. A field instruction cannot override one, so a standard written at field level will lose every time the two disagree.
Mark as many or as little fields as you need. Every field you switch on is another decision the vet makes at review time.
Check the header counter before you leave the template.
Part 2 - Use it in a consultation
Done by the vet, on every visit.
Step 1 - Select a template on the record
This is the step everything else depends on. Your template is what tells QuickSOAP which fields to complete, so it has to be applied to the record before you generate anything.
1. Open the patient record.
2. Find the Template selector at the top of the record. If nothing has been applied yet it reads Select template.
3. Choose the template for this visit.
The record takes a snapshot of the template at the moment you apply it. The fields QuickSOAP can complete are the ones in the template as it was then, which is why changing a template later does not alter records that already exist.
💡 If you see an "Outdated" badge beside the template name, the template has been updated since it was applied to this record. Reapply the template to pick up the latest version, including any newly marked QuickSOAP fields.
Without a template, QuickSOAP has nothing to work with. This is the most common reason a first look at Dynamic Fields seems not to work.
Step 2 - Add your input sources
Click the QuickSOAP trigger. The sidebar opens under the heading Start Quick SOAP, with a Your Input Sources panel. Combine as many sources as you like in a single generation:
1. Record in the app - click Start Recording, then Finish Recording when the consultation is done. You can add more than one recording. Before you record anything this area reads No recordings yet. Get started now.
2. Add files - click Add/Browse Files to open the Add/Use Files window, which has two tabs:
- General & Record Files - files already attached to the patient or the record.
- Upload from Computer - drag files onto Drag and drop files here, or use browse from your device link.
Supported file types: PDF, JPG, PNG, MP3, WAV, M4A. This includes documents and images, not only audio, so bloodwork and imaging can go straight in. Each file must be 20 MB or smaller.
3. Import from your phone or smartwatch - click Import from Tails VIP to bring in recordings captured in the Tails VIP app.
4. Type findings directly - use the Type additional findings or observations here... box for anything you did not say out loud.
Step 3 - Generate the suggestions
Click Generate AI Suggestions. Tails transcribes your inputs, then completes every field in your template that has been marked for QuickSOAP.
Regenerate AI Suggestions runs another pass. Note that regenerating clears the current set of suggestions and your accept and decline choices before it starts. Anything you already accepted stays in the record.
💡 Generating and syncing require the full record page. If you opened QuickSOAP from the Flowboard, you will see To generate or sync fields, you must go to record page.
Step 4 - Review and sync
Suggestions appear as cards grouped by your template's own sections, with a count fields modified counter at the top and an Expand all items button beside it. Each card shows the field label, its sub-section where relevant, and the suggested value under the label Generated by Tails.
Accepting is what writes the value into the record. There is no separate sync step.
1. One field at a time - click the check icon Accept Changes or the cross icon Decline Changes on a card. Cards you have dealt with move to the bottom of their section, so what is still open stays at the top.
2. A whole section - use Approve All or Decline All inside that section. They act on that section only. Once you have resolved some cards the buttons become Accept (n) and Decline (n) for whatever is still pending. These appear only while more than one suggestion in the section is open - with one left, use the card's own icons.
3. Everything at once - the same buttons in the sidebar footer resolve every remaining suggestion.
💡 Vital signs arrive as one grouped card. If you dictated a unit that differs from your clinic's preferred unit, Tails converts it and shows a note on the card, for example Weight was converted from lbs to kg.
Step 5 - Know what accepting does
This is not the same for every field type, and it is worth a glance before using Approve All on a section.
Field | What accepting does |
Any free-text or notes field, including the six SOAP sections | Adds the text on a new line. Nothing already written is changed or lost. |
Dropdown, radio button, multi-select, checkbox, short text | Replaces whatever was in the field. |
Visit Types and Additional Vets | Adds to what is already selected. Nothing is removed. |
Responsible Vet | Replaces the current one. |
Weight, temperature, pulse, respiratory rate | Recorded as a new vitals measurement, in your clinic's units. |
So the only places you can lose an existing entry are the structured fields and the responsible vet but only if you press Accept for that field. We never permanently modify something without your approval.
Step 6 - Or review inside the record
Every suggestion also appears in the record itself, so you do not have to work out of the sidebar.
- Click any suggestion card to jump straight to that field inside the record.
- On a dropdown, radio button, multi-select, checkbox, Visit Type or vet field, the suggested value replaces the control while it is open, with a Revert to [previous value] chip beneath it. Clicking the chip declines the suggestion and puts the old value back.
- On a text or notes field, the suggestion appears as a purple Generated by Tails: bubble below the field. Click the bubble to accept it. The field is locked while a suggestion is open, and there is no decline button here - to decline a text suggestion, use the cross on its card in the sidebar.
Step 7 - Clearing up
Clear in the sidebar footer starts the whole QuickSOAP over. It is not a "dismiss the leftovers" button: it removes all recordings, typed notes and generated content for that QuickSOAP, and asks you to confirm first. Values you already accepted into the record are not affected.
If you want to decline and re-generate with new information hit the Decline (All), add your new input and hit Regenerate suggestions.
---
🛠 Troubleshooting
I generated a SOAP and got an orange notice about another QuickSOAP version.
Two situations produce that notice. Most commonly, no fields in your template are marked for QuickSOAP. Open the template, check the header reads fields are marked for use in Quick SOAP, mark at least one field, save, then generate again.
The other cause is that the QuickSOAP genuinely was generated in the other version, in which case open the original record page or press regenerate here. Also confirm a template is applied to the record - without one, dynamic fields cannot work at all.
My field instruction is being ignored.
Check whether a Clinic Rule, Personal Rule or Template Instruction speaks to the same field. Field instructions are the lowest-priority layer and yield to all three by design. If that is not what you want, move the instruction up a level - put it in Clinic Rules if it should apply to everyone.
I updated a template but an existing record did not change.
Records take a snapshot of their template when it is applied, so template edits apply from the next record onwards. On a record that is still open you will see an Outdated badge beside the template name - reapply the template there to pull in the latest version.
Accepting a suggestion replaced what I had typed.
Free-text and notes fields append on a new line, so nothing is lost there. Dropdowns, radio buttons, multi-selects, checkboxes and short text fields are replaced, and so is the Responsible Vet. See the table in Part 2, Step 5 above.
There is no Tails Formatting box on my field.
Expected. Formatting only appears on free-text fields - everything else is already constrained by its options or its type.
I cannot find a standard field in the template editor.
Check the Digitail tab rather than Custom, search by the field's full name rather than an abbreviation, and check Add Field Group - some fields are only available as part of a group. A field already in the template is also hidden from the list.
Why can't I generate or sync from the Flowboard?
Generating and syncing need the full record page. Open the record and try again.
Can Tails set the Visit Type?
Yes. It selects from your clinic's own configured Visit Types, preferring the most specific match, and can select more than one. If nothing matches confidently it leaves the field empty. Accepting adds them without removing any already there.
Can Tails select a coded diagnosis?
Not today. Tails writes the free-text Diagnosis and Presumptive Diagnosis fields, but the coded diagnosis picker must be selected manually.
Does this change how I record?
No. Recording, transcription, Clinic Rules, Personal Rules all work exactly as before. There is still one QuickSOAP draft per record.
Interested in trying Tails AI?
If you want to learn more about Tails AI, including pricing and implementation details, we're here to help!
Contact us through:
Live Chat: Use the chat feature in your Digitail account
Email: Send us a message at tails@digitail.io