When you log into your SimplePractice account, you’ll see your calendar. You can customize and filter your calendar view to quickly see your schedule.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- Customizing the calendar view
- Using filters to view your calendar
- Enabling calendar privacy display
- Using color coding options
- Understanding the progress note indicator
- Printing your calendar
- Troubleshooting missing appointments
Note: To learn how to schedule appointments on your calendar, see Adding and managing appointments.
Customizing the calendar view
To customize your calendar view, navigate to Settings > Calendar. Under Calendar Display, choose the hours and days you want displayed. You can choose to display the entire week, weekdays only, or Monday through Saturday.
Note: This setting is practice-wide for group practices. This setting can be managed by Account Owners, Practice Managers, and Clinicians with Administrator Access. To learn more, see Team member roles and access levels.
The calendar hours you set are fixed. This means you won't be able to scroll earlier or later than the times you have set. If you'd like to have more calendar access, expand your calendar hours.
Using filters to view your calendar
There are several ways to filter your calendar to be able to quickly find what you’re looking for.
Changing calendar dates
In the top left, you can use the left and right arrows to view previous and future dates. Clicking Today will bring you back to today’s date.
Choosing between Daily, Weekly, and Monthly views
In the top left, you can use the left and right arrows to view previous and future dates. Clicking Today will bring you back to today’s date.
Filtering by location and clinician
If you have more than one office location listed in Settings > My Practice > Locations, you can filter your calendar by specific office locations.
To filter by office location:
- Open the All offices dropdown menu
- Check the boxes next to the offices you want to filter the calendar by
- Click Apply
You can revert back to displaying appointments for all offices by checking the box next to All offices and clicking Apply.
If you’re in a group practice, you can also use the All clinicians dropdown menu to filter the calendar by specific clinicians. To do this:
- Open the All clinicians dropdown menu
- Check the boxes next to the clinicians you want to filter the calendar by
- Click Apply
You can revert back to displaying appointments for all clinicians by checking the box next to All clinicians and clicking Apply.
With either of these filters, your calendar will only display appointments that meet your selected criteria. Any appointments that don’t meet this criteria will be hidden from view.
Note: The office and clinician filters can both be applied at the same time.
Advanced filtering options
Note: Advanced calendar filters are only available on our Plus plan. For more information, see Which subscription plan is right for me?
With our advanced filtering options, you can also filter your calendar to view:
- New clients
- Incomplete documentation
- Unpaid by client
- Insurance
Note: Only one advanced filter can be applied at a time.
To use one of the advanced filters:
- Navigate to your Calendar
- Click the filter button
- Select one of the filters:
- New client
- Income complete documents
- Unpaid by client
- Insurance
- When selecting Insurance you’ll also be given the option to choose which insurance provider you want the filter to apply to
- When selecting Insurance you’ll also be given the option to choose which insurance provider you want the filter to apply to
Note: The number next to the filter name reflects the number of appointments on the calendar that meet the criteria.
- Click Apply
After selecting a filter, any appointments that meet the filter criteria will remain highlighted. Appointments that don’t meet the filter criteria will be grayed out.
To reset your calendar and remove the filter, click Reset in the upper right corner.
Note: Clicking Availability will bring you to your Availability calendar. For more details, see Managing your Availability.
Enabling calendar privacy display
You can enable privacy settings on your calendar homepage to add another layer of security while working outside of your office or in a public space.
Your current privacy status is listed to the left of your calendar. To toggle between Privacy On and Privacy Off, click the Privacy button.
Note: This is set for each clinician in group practices.
Privacy On
When your privacy settings are on, the appointments on your calendar will only display the clients' first and last initials.
Privacy Off
When your privacy settings are off, the appointments on your calendar will display your clients' full names.
Additionally, you can click Recently Viewed to the left of your calendar to view the full names of your five most recently viewed clients. You can also select the client’s name if you would like to view their file.
Using color coding options
Your calendar uses different colors to show each appointment's status. These colors indicate whether an appointment is in the future, the past, canceled, a no show, late canceled, or an Other appointment.
Here’s what each color means:
Color |
Meaning |
Green |
The appointment is in the past |
Blue |
The appointment is in the future |
Yellow |
The appointment is canceled |
Red |
The appointment is late canceled or a no show |
Gray |
The appointment is an Other event |
Note: To learn how to change an appointment's status, see How to change an appointment's status.
Understanding the progress note indicator
For each appointment that has already occurred on your calendar, there may be a progress note indicator icon. This icon will let you know whether a progress note has been added for that appointment and whether that note has been locked and signed.
Add note
If a past appointment on your calendar doesn’t have a progress note associated with it, you’ll see an empty progress note icon:
To add a progress note, click the empty progress note icon. This will take you to the progress note for that particular appointment. Write your note and click Save.
Sign note
If a past appointment on your calendar already has progress note associated with it and you haven’t signed it yet, you’ll see a written progress note icon:
To sign the progress note, click the written progress note icon. This will take you to the progress note of that particular appointment. To sign and lock a progress note:
- Click Sign
- Review your signature
- Click Sign & Lock
An appointment with a signed and locked progress note will no longer display the note icon:
Note: For additional details on locking and signing progress notes, see Locking and signing notes.
Printing your calendar
In some instances, you may want to print a copy of your calendar. To do this:
- Navigate to your Calendar
- Adjust the Day, Week, or Month view, depending on your needs
- If you need to set any additional filters before printing, see Using filters to view your calendar
- If you're using a PC, hold down the Control + P keys to open the print window
- If you're using a Mac, hold down the Command + P keys to open the print window
- From the new window, adjust the settings as needed and click Print
Troubleshooting missing appointments
If you're no longer able to find your appointments on your calendar, you can try these steps to troubleshoot:
Filtering your calendar by clinician
If your calendar is filtered to show appointments for specific clinicians, you can update your calendar filter to All Clinicians. This allows you to see all appointments on the calendar, regardless of the clinician assigned to the client.
To display appointments for all clinicians:
- Navigate to your Calendar
- Open the Clinicians dropdown menu
- Check the box next to All clinicians
- Click Apply
Changing your calendar filter to show all offices
If your calendar is filtered to show specific offices, you can update the calendar filter to All Offices to locate appointments related to all locations.
To filter your calendar by all office locations:
- Navigate to your Calendar
- Click the Offices filter dropdown
- Check the box next to All offices
- Click Apply
Changing your calendar view to Month
To view all appointments in the current month, navigate to your Calendar and click Month. This allows you to see any appointments that may have been scheduled outside of your Settings > Calendar > Calendar Display hours.
Checking Account Activity
In some instances, another team member at your practice may have updated the appointment you’re searching for on the calendar. In these instances, we recommend checking your Account Activity log.
The Account Activity log allows you to see any changes made in your account. You can access the Account Activity log by clicking Account Activity on the left navigation panel.
Note: Account Owners and Practice Managers have access to view all Account Activity. Other team members can view their own activity. To learn more about Account Activity, see Account Activity: Tracking changes and information access in your account.