# Route every Spruce call and message after it lands > Each request that starts in Spruce becomes a patient-linked Task with an owner and a route, open until the patient has an answer. Markdown view of https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/phone-message-to-task — the HTML page is canonical. [](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks) 1. [Playbooks](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks) 2. [Messages & Calls](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks#messages-and-calls) Each request that starts in Spruce becomes a patient-linked Task with an owner and a route, open until the patient has an answer. - Weave - Spruce - Saves about 3 min per message (est.) Last checked Oct 27, 2026 against Tabflows v3.10.63 ## The situation Spruce is often the front door for your clinic. Patients call, text, ask for refills, send forms and follow up there, and that part is working: the patient reached you. The hard part is what each request becomes. A refill message turns into a chart check, a pharmacy task, a provider review and a reply. A scheduling question needs the calendar, a lab question needs result review, and a membership question needs billing. When nothing defines the path after the message lands, your team rebuilds each request by hand and carries the workflow in memory. ## Steps 1. **Decide the route for each kind of request** Agree which requests the team answers directly, which need a Task, provider review, scheduling, a callback or billing, and which are never handled without clinical escalation. Have an Admin add those routing rules to Practice Brain, or upload them there as a document, so the answer does not live in one person's head. 2. **Link the conversation to the patient** Link the Spruce conversation to the patient with the link button in the Tabflows sidebar. Tabflows finds the matching profile, you confirm it, and it shows Profiles linked for the whole clinic. Anyone on the team can then reopen the right patient and conversation. 3. **Turn the request into a Task** In the linked Spruce conversation, select the lightbulb and review the AI Recommended task's patient, description, assignee, due date, tag and urgency, or, when there is no lightbulb, create the Task with + in Tasks and select Patient. If a recommendation shows Similar open task, compare it with that work first, since Save task always creates a new Task. 4. **Send it down its route** In Assigned to, choose the teammate or group that owns that kind of work, such as Front Desk or Billing, and add a clinic Tag such as Refills. Work that needs provider review goes to the provider, and when a provider only needs to answer a question, @ mention them in Comments so ownership stays put. 5. **Answer the patient and close the loop** In the Spruce conversation, wait for the Draft Assist reply marked AI DRAFT, or select Generate if auto-generation is off, then select Insert, edit it and send it yourself. Set the Task to Done only when the patient has their answer and no follow-up remains. ## The outcome Every call or message that creates work lands as a patient-linked Task with an owner, a route and a status, so what happens next no longer depends on someone remembering it. Spruce stays where patients reach you, and your team finishes the work each message starts. ## Ask Sidekick Sidekick is the AI assistant inside Tabflows. Hey Tabflows, create a task for this phone message with the caller, the reason and the callback number, linked to the patient, assigned by our routing rules in Practice Brain and due today. ## In the Product Library - [Using Spruce with Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/integrations/using-spruce-with-tabflows) - [Create a Task with AI Recommendations](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/tasks/create-a-task-with-ai-recommendations) - [Draft a patient reply without starting from scratch](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/magic-buttons/draft-a-patient-reply-without-starting-from-scratch) - [How do I set up Practice Brain](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/practice-brain/how-do-i-set-up-practice-brain) - [Using Weave with Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/university/library/integrations/using-weave-with-tabflows) [Read the full guide](https://www.tabflows.com/blog/spruce-phone-message-workflow-dpc) [Open it in the Automation catalog](https://www.tabflows.com/university/automations?automation=phone-message-to-task) ## Related markdown Section index: [Playbooks](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks.md) Alongside this page: - [Advance directive tracking](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/advance-directive-tracking.md) - [After hours answering service](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/after-hours-answering-service.md) - [After hours message triage](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/after-hours-message-triage.md) - [Billing decline follow up](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/billing-decline-follow-up.md) - [Call follow up loop](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/call-follow-up-loop.md) - [Chronic care check ins](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/chronic-care-check-ins.md) - [Clia and compliance renewals](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/clia-and-compliance-renewals.md) - [Dea and license renewals](https://www.tabflows.com/university/playbooks/dea-and-license-renewals.md) Start here: - [Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/index.md) - [Tabflows pricing](https://www.tabflows.com/pricing.md) - [Tabflows FAQ](https://www.tabflows.com/faqs.md) - [About Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/about.md) - [Contact Tabflows](https://www.tabflows.com/contact.md) - [DPC workflow software](https://www.tabflows.com/dpc-workflow-software.md) - [Directory](https://www.tabflows.com/directory.md) - [Workflows](https://www.tabflows.com/workflows.md) - [DPC finder](https://www.tabflows.com/dpc-finder.md) Every page listed in sitemap.xml has a markdown twin at the same URL with `.md` appended, or by sending `Accept: text/markdown` to the canonical URL. Wider index: [llms.txt](https://www.tabflows.com/llms.txt), [llms-full.txt](https://www.tabflows.com/llms-full.txt), [sitemap.md](https://www.tabflows.com/sitemap.md), [sitemap.xml](https://www.tabflows.com/sitemap.xml). Support documentation: https://www.tabflows.com/university/library — append `.md` to any article URL for its raw markdown.