You can set up service codes and products in your account to charge clients for the different types of services and items you may offer through your practice.

In this guide, we'll cover:

• What are services and products?

Creating and using service codes:

• Adding a new service code
• Creating a new custom service code
• Editing an existing service code
• Assigning service codes to clinicians
• Setting a default service code and custom rate for a client
• Adding service codes when creating a new appointment
• Using add-on codes

Creating and using products:

• Adding a product 
• Charging a product with an appointment
• Charging for a product only 

FAQs: 

• How do I bill for a package?
• How do I bill for an initial client balance?
• Can I add a client discount as a service or product?

What are services and products?

Services are billable appointments that you record in the calendar. These are things like "90834 - Psychotherapy 45 minutes" or a more general service like "Art Therapy, or "Supervision."  All services include the option to write a progress note.

Products are non-appointment items that you can add to invoices to charge a client. These can include services that don't need to be on the calendar and don't have any documentation, books, online courses, workshops, returned check fees, reports, or credit card processing fees.

Important: Make sure to verify whether passing credit card fees to your clients is legal in your state. See Adding a credit card processing fee to invoices to learn more. 

Adding a new service code

Every appointment that you create on the calendar will need to have a service code or CPT code whether you bill insurance or not. 

Here's how to add a new service to offer at your practice: 

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Services
• Click Add New Service
• Select the service code
  • The system is already populated with commonly used codes that are billable to insurance. You can type in the numbers to see the list of codes that are available to choose from
  • If you select a pre-populated service code, the Description will auto-fill. If you edit the service code description, the change will reflect on the online appointment requests page for clients and on invoices, statements, and superbills. The description will not show on claim forms

• Check Make this the default service if you want this service code to be the default when creating new appointments 
• Enter the Rate and select the Duration
• Select the Booking Options and the Clinicians Offering this Service
• Click Save

Once you've added the new services that you'll be offering for your practice, make sure to update your Availability windows from your Calendar to offer the service for online appointment requests. See our guide on Setting Availability for a detailed walkthrough.

You can also bill services in units and add multiple service codes to appointments. To learn more, see: Using Unit Billing and multiple service codes.

Note: The order that you add your service codes to your account will be the order that they appear in your online appointment requests.

Creating a new custom service code

If you don't see a code that you'd like to use or if you provide non-insurance services, you can create a new custom service code.

To create a new custom service code:

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Services
• Click Add New Service
• Enter the custom code in the Service field and click Add new code

• Check Make this the default service if you want this service code to be the default when creating new appointments
• Enter the Description and Rate and select the Duration
• Select the Booking Options and the Clinicians Offering this Service
• Click Save

Editing an existing service code

You can edit the description, rate, duration, booking options, the clinicians that offer it, and the active status of existing service codes.

To edit an existing service code:

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Services
• Click the service you want to edit
• Make updates to the fields as needed
• Click Save

If you need to edit the service code itself, you will have to click the service and click Delete Service. Then you can create a new service using a different code. 

If a service code is set as the practice default, you will not be able to delete it or make it inactive. You can select a different service to be the new default practice service and then you can go back and delete or change the active status of the original service. 

Important: Editing service codes will not update existing scheduled appointments on the calendar. This means that if you are trying to update a recurring series of appointments that are already set in the calendar, you will have to delete all future occurrences of this series and recreate the series so that the changes to the service code apply.  

After editing an existing service code, be sure to update the Availability windows on your calendar if you'd like to offer the service for online appointment requests. This won’t carry over after a service code is edited. To learn how, see: Setting Availability.

Assigning service codes to clinicians

If your practice has multiple clinicians, you can assign specific service codes to each of them. To assign a service code to a clinician, follow these steps:

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Services
• Click the service you’d like to assign to a clinician
• Under Clinicians Offering this Service, click the checkbox to the left of the clinician’s name 

• Click Save

Setting a default service code and custom rate for a client

If you're seeing a client on a sliding scale or set a special rate for them, you can set a default service code and rate that's specific to that client. 

To set a default service code or rate:

• Navigate to the client's Overview page
• Click Edit  > Billing and Insurance
• Scroll down to the Client's Default Service section
• Select a service code from the dropdown menu

• Enter a custom rate for that service code
• Click Save Client

The new default service code and rate will automatically apply to all new appointments created moving forward. You'll still be able to select a different service code and manually edit the rate when creating a new appointment if needed. 

Note: See How do I add modifiers to my claims? to learn how you can add a modifier to a client's default service code so it populates on claim forms. 

Adding service codes when creating a new appointment

When you create a new appointment on the calendar, the default service code that populates will be the code that was set as the practice default in your Services settings, unless the client that you selected has their own default service code set up.

You can always change the service code by selecting a different option from the dropdown. You can also change the default rate by editing the amount while you're creating the new appointment. 

If you want to add multiple service codes to the same appointment, click + Service. See Understanding Unit Billing and using Multiple CPT Codes in SimplePractice to learn more about adding multiple CPT codes to an appointment.

Using add-on codes

Frequently used add-on codes are already populated in our system. Similar to regular service codes, you can add these add-on codes to your settings to use them for appointments. 

Important: The add-on codes available in the system are based on what insurance companies accept. If a code doesn't appear in your Services setting, this means that it likely isn't accepted by insurance companies. If you notice any discrepancies, submit a help request so we can further assist you. 

To set up add-on codes in your account:

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Services
• Click Add New Service
• Enter a + symbol in the Service field and select the add-on code you're looking for

• Enter the Rate and select the Duration
• Select the Clinicians Offering this Service
• Click Save

To use add-on codes in appointments: 

• Create a new appointment
• Click + Service and select the add-on code

• Click Done to save

Note: You will only be able to select an add-on code for an appointment as an additional line of service after a regular service code is selected first.  

Tip: To learn more about extended sessions, see: How to Navigate Billing for Extended Sessions.

Adding a product

To begin charging clients for products, or non-appointment items, you'll have to add them to your account settings first. 

• Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Products
• Enter the Product Name and Price

• Click Save

Note: Product names and prices can be edited as you add them to invoices later on.  

Charging a product with an appointment

You can add a product as a line item to any unpaid invoice. The product fee will reflect on the client's overall balance. 

Here's how to add a product to an invoice: 

• Open the unpaid invoice
• Click More 
• Select Edit Invoice

Note: If the invoice has already been marked as paid, you can delete it and create a new one to add the product. New invoices can be edited before they're saved. To learn more, see: Creating invoices.

• Click + Add Line Item
• Click + Add for the product you want to add, and you can add as many as you need

• Make edits to the Description or Amount for the new product line item as needed

• Click Save

Charging for a product only

To create an invoice for a product only with no appointment:

• Navigate to the client's Billing page
• Click New > Invoice

Note: You'll see a blank list of available appointments if all existing appointments within the date range selected are already invoiced. If all existing appointments aren’t already invoiced, create invoices for these appointments first.

• Click Create Blank Invoice

• Click + Add Line Item 

• Click +Add next to each product you want to add to the invoice

• Make edits to the Description or Amount as needed
• Click Save Changes

How do I bill for a package?

You may offer packages to clients so they can work with you for a set number of appointments, at a discounted rate. If this is the case, you can add your package as a product to charge your client upfront, and then use a custom service code for each of the client's appointments for record-keeping.

• Add a new product for your package
• Add a custom service code
  • The rate for this code should be $0
  • Make sure to indicate in the description of the code that this is for the package you offer 
  • If you prefer using an existing service code for your client's package appointments because you plan to bill insurance or create superbills, you can use an existing service code instead and make sure to make an appointment level billing change to set the fee as $0 
• Charge your client for the package product only

• Add your client's appointments to the calendar 
  • Make sure to select the new custom service code you created for your package so your client isn't charged another fee
    
    • Alternatively, if you chose to use an existing service code, make sure to set the fee as $0 manually by making an appointment level billing change

After the appointments take place, you can enter notes on the client's chart as you would for any appointment. The client's Overview page and your calendar will have a record of the appointments you had with the client under the package.

How do I bill for an initial client balance?

If you're adding a new client and they already have a balance, you can add this amount to their account as a billable item. Here’s how: 

• Add a new product for the initial balance

• Create an invoice for a product only 
• Add the initial balance as a line item and edit the description or amount as needed

The initial balance will now be represented by an invoice, which can you can pay directly, or at a later time. 

Can I add a client discount as a service or product?

You may offer discounts to your clients that you want listed on their invoices or superbills. You can do this by adding the discount as either a service or product and entering a negative rate. For example, if you’re offering a $50.00 discount to your clients, you would enter the rate as -$50.00.

To add your discount as a service on your client’s appointment:

• Create a custom service code for your discount
  • The rate for this code should be a negative value
  • Enter a description for the service code reflects the discount details
  • Select which clinicians at your practice can use this discount code

• Add the discount service to a new or existing appointment

Important: Under Booking Options, make sure to uncheck the box next to Available for online appointment requests under Booking Options. This will prevent the service from being able to be added to an Availability block.

By adding the discount to an appointment as a service, the code will be listed on the client’s invoices and superbills.

Invoice

Note: On the invoice, it’ll list the primary service and discount on a single line item. The amount listed will be totaled to reflect the full fee minus the discount, rather than listing them on two separate line items. If the primary service and discount need to be on separate line items, we recommend following the steps below to add it as a product.

Superbill

To add your discount as a product on your client’s appointment:

• Add a new product to your account
  • Under Product Name, enter a description of the discount
  • The Price should be a negative value
• Add the discount product to a new or existing appointment

Note: If you choose to add the discount as a product, it’ll appear on your clients' invoices, but not their superbills. If it needs to be listed on their superbills, we recommend adding the discount as a service instead.