You can send different types of intake documents and consent forms to be completed electronically, and returned to you before their next appointment via the Client Portal.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

New clients

• Creating a client and sending intake documents for the first time
• Customizing the Welcome message
• Resending the Client Portal invitation email
• Viewing the Client Portal as a client for the first time

Existing clients

• Logging into the Client Portal with Instant Sign In or Google Sign In
• Resending a form to a client 
• Sharing documents with existing clients
• Sharing completed intake forms with clients
• Storing client documents

Status and reminders

• Receiving email notifications for completed intake forms
• Setting up reminders for clients to complete their intake forms
• Checking if my client opened the intake email
• Checking the status of intake documents that have already been shared with a client

Other

• Printing intake forms
• Deleting a completed questionnaire
• Updating the order of documents presented in the Client Portal
• Sharing progress notes, assessments, and diagnosis and treatment plans with clients for e-signature
• Important details to know

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Creating a client and sending intake documents for the first time

Once your Client Portal is set up, you can create a new client and select the intake forms you want to send to them through the Client Portal. Here's how:

• Click + Create > + Create Client 

• Enter the new client's name and contact information, and select Create & Continue
• In the Send Intakes window, select which forms you want to send

• Choose Continue to Email
• Edit the email, if necessary
• Click Continue to Review
• Review the email
  • If you need to make edits, click Back to Email
• Select Share & Send Now when you're ready and the client will receive the Welcome email with the Client Portal link

Note: To learn how to customize your intake form and note templates, see Creating customized templates in My Notes and Forms.

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Customizing the Welcome message

When you share documents with a client or a contact for the first time, they’ll be sent the Welcome email with a link to log into the Client Portal. You can customize the Welcome email for individual clients or contacts before sharing intake forms, as well as  customize the default Welcome message from your settings. To do this:

• Navigate to Settings > Client Portal > Emails
• Click Edit next to the default Welcome message for clients

Important: When editing the Welcome message, don’t delete the {practice_client_portal_login_link} macro. This macro generates a button that clients can click directly in the email to login to their Client Portal. For more information, see Explaining client email and reminder macros.

• Click Contact and Couple Emails to edit the default Welcome message for contacts and couples

Note: If you're working with couple clients and would like to learn more about setting up a couple, see Enhanced Client Management for couples. If you're working with minor clients and would like to learn more about setting up a minor client and their contacts, see Enhanced Client Management for minors.

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Resending the Client Portal invitation email

If your client hasn’t logged into the Client Portal yet, you can resend the Client Portal invitation email. To do this:

• Navigate to the client's Overview page
• Click Edit > Client Portal
• Under Client Portal Access, check the box for Resend email invitation

Note: The Resend email invitation box will only appear if the client has not yet signed into the Client Portal. If the client has already signed in and they need help logging in, we recommend sending them your Client Portal link so they can generate a login email via Instant Sign In.

• Edit and review the email content 
• Click Send Email

Tip: If you update a client's email address in the Client Info tab, you'll also want to resend the Client Portal invitation email in the Client Portal tab.

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Viewing the Client Portal as a client for the first time

This video will show you all of the optional features of the Client Portal, from the client perspective:

Tip: We recommend creating a test client using your own contact information. This way, you can practice sharing documents and preview intake forms you plan to send.

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Logging into the Client Portal with Instant Sign In or Google Sign In

Clients and contacts have two options for signing into the Client Portal: Instant Sign In and Google Sign In.

With Instant Sign In, your clients will be able to use a unique link to sign into their Client Portal each time. This removes the need for your clients to memorize a password and improves the overall security of their Client Portal account. 

With Google Sign In, clients who have a Gmail email address associated with their Client Portal have the option to sign in with their Google account credentials.

To learn more about how to invite a new client to the Client Portal, and to help clients that are having trouble signing in, see Assisting clients with signing into the Client Portal. 

Note: For step-by-step instructions on signing into the Client Portal, you can share this guide with your clients: Logging in to the Client Portal.

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Resending a form to a client

If a form was already completed and submitted, you can resend the same form. To do this:

• Navigate to the client’s Overview page
• Click Share in the upper right corner

If a form has not been completed by the client yet, but has already been sent, you can either delete the first request and then resend the form, or send the client a reminder to complete all pending documents if you have the Essential or Plus plan.

Note: If the template you want to resend has been deleted or disabled on the My Notes and Forms page, it won’t be available to share with clients. To learn more, see Enabling or disabling an intake form.

To delete and resend the form:

• Navigate to client's Overview page
• Under Shared with client, click the X next to the document(s) you’d like to resend

• Click Delete now in the confirmation modal that appears
• Choose Share in the upper right corner of the client Overview page
  • You can also click Share New under Shared with client
• Select the form you want to resend to the client
• Review your selection and the associated email, then click Share & Send Now

Note: To learn more about manually sending document reminders, see Setting up reminders for clients to complete their intake forms.

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Sharing documents with existing clients

To share documents with an existing client:

• Navigate to the client’s Overview page
• Click Share in the upper right corner
  • You can also click Share New in the Shared with Client box
• Select the documents you want to send to your client in the Share items window, then click Continue to Email

• Customize the email as needed, then click Continue to Review
• Select Share & Send Now when you're ready to send the client the email and documents

When your client logs into the Client Portal, they’ll see all the pending and completed documents that you’ve shared with them. This helps them easily track what they need to complete and send back to you. Here’s the client view of the Client Portal Documents tab:

• Once your client has completed the requested documents, you can locate the completed forms on the client's Overview page under Shared With Client

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Sharing completed intake forms with clients

Once a client completes their Paperless Intakes, the completed copies aren’t available for them to view within their Client Portal. Clients will only be able to view their completed intake forms if you download their intake forms, upload them to the client’s profile, and share them with them.

To download the completed intake forms, follow these steps:

• Navigate to your client's Overview page
• Locate the Shared with Client section 
• Click Show Completed
• Select the document
• Click the Download icon to download the document to your device

• Upload and share the completed intake form with the client

If you filled out the Notes field on a completed intake form, that note will be present within the downloaded file.

To make any changes to the note:

• Click Edit Notes at the bottom of the completed intake form

• Adjust the contents of the note
• Click Save Notes

Note: If you’ve already downloaded the completed intake form and want to make edits to the Notes section, you can re-download and share the document with your client after the changes have been made.

Once the file has been shared, your client will be able to download the file from the Documents tab in their Client Portal. For additional details, see What clients see when they log into the Client Portal.

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Storing client documents

You can store nearly any type of digital file or document, including Word documents, PDFs, photos, video clips, sound recordings, spreadsheets, and more. The only requirement is that the file is 50MB or less.

You can store these documents or images in the client's Overview page in the Uploaded Files section. To do this:

• Navigate to the client's Overview page
• Click Upload in the upper right corner
  • You can also click Upload New in the Uploaded Files section

• Click Continue to Email
• Choose Continue to Review
• Select Share & Send now

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Receiving email notifications for completed intake forms

When a client has completed all of their pending documents in the Client Portal, you’ll receive an email alerting you that the documents have been completed.

The client must complete all of their documents in order for you to receive this email.

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Setting up reminders for clients to complete their intake forms

You can enable automated email and text document reminders, so that clients are notified to complete their intake paperwork in the Client Portal before their appointment. You can also send a document reminder to a client at any time if they have pending documents to complete.

First, you’ll want to make sure the client has Client Portal access at their Overview page > Edit > Client Portal. If they don’t have access, you can grant access by clicking Send email.

Note: To learn more, see Inviting clients to the Client Portal.

To enable automated document reminders for an existing client:

• Navigate to the client’s Overview page > Edit
• Check the box for Completing documents under Send email reminders for

• Click Save Client

To enable text document reminders for an existing client:

• Navigate to the client’s Overview page > Edit
• Check the box for Send incomplete document reminders under Phone

• Click Save Client

Tip: You can also enable email or text document reminders when creating a new client.

To manually send a reminder to complete pending documents:

• Navigate to the client's Overview page
• Under Shared with client, click Send reminder

Note: If there are no pending documents to complete, there won’t be an option to send a reminder.

• Confirm who you’d like to send the reminder to
• Click Send reminder

Note: Manually sending document reminders is currently being rolled out. If you don't see this feature in your account, you can request it to be added by submitting a help request.

To learn more about customizing email and text document reminder templates, see Customizing email and voice reminders and Customizing text reminders.

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Checking if my client opened the intake email

You can check on whether your new client has opened the Welcome email and logged into the Client Portal. To do this:

• Navigate to your client's Overview page
• Click Edit > Client Portal
• Under Client Portal Access, you’ll see either the last time and date the client logged into the Client Portal or if the client has yet to log in, you’ll see this yellow notification: Invitation sent – client has not signed in yet.

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Checking the status of intake documents that have already been shared with a client

You can view the status of each intake document that you’ve shared with a client on their client Overview page in the Shared with Client section:

In this section, you'll find the status under each document. Here’s what each status indicates:

Status	Definition
Sent	The document has been sent to the client.
Viewed	The document has been sent and the client has viewed it in the Client Portal.
Reviewing	The client has filled out the document and is currently reviewing their responses before submitting.
Signed	The document has been filled out and signed by the client.
Completed	The document has been filled out and completed by the client.

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Sharing progress notes, assessments, and diagnosis and treatment plans with clients for e-signature

You can share signed and locked progress notes, assessments, and diagnosis & treatment plans with clients or contacts so they can be electronically signed via the Client Portal. To do this:

• Navigate to the client's Overview page
• Click Share in the upper right corner
• Select the document you’d like to share under Your Signed Documents

Note: This feature won't be available for clients that haven't logged into their Client Portal yet.

• Select the documents you want your client to sign under Your Signed Documents

• The Your Signed Documents section will list the 5 documents that have been most recently locked and signed by the clinician. 

Note: This feature won't be available for clients that haven't logged into their Client Portal yet.

• Click Continue to Review
• Select Share & Send Now when you're ready to send the email and documents

You can also share a document directly from its respective page. To do this: 

• Navigate to the desired document from the client's Overview page
• Click Share

• Click Continue to Email

• Click Continue to Review
• Select Share & Send Now when you're ready to send the email and documents

Important: A document must be signed and locked before it can be sent. If a clinician is under supervision, their supervisor will also need to sign and lock the document before it can be sent to the client for e-signature. 

The client or contact will be notified that a document has been shared with them through the Client Portal and will receive a link to sign in. When logged in, they'll see the document under the Needs to be completed section.

• Once the document has been signed, you can see the date it was signed in the Shared With Client box

• After the client signs the document, it'll appear in your account with both of your signatures.

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Important details to know

• SimplePractice doesn’t retain data that has been deleted from your account. We recommend using caution when deleting form templates and completed documents, as well as printing or saving a copy for your records prior to deletion. To learn more, see:
  • Printing or saving a custom note or form
  • Printing a client's completed intake documents
• If you didn’t include a link to the client's demographic information, intake, or practice documents when you first created them, you can share these documents with them at any time. For instructions on how to share documents with clients, see Sharing documents with existing clients.
• If you'd like for clients to be able to share documents with you, see Allowing clients to upload documents to the Client Portal.
• You can always disable/re-enable the Client Portal to trigger a new email being sent to your new or existing client. To learn more, see How to individually update and troubleshoot the Client Portal for a client.
• You’re unable to view the content of a customized email after it’s been sent. You can only see that the email was sent in your Account Activity and in your Sent emails report. To learn more about Account Activity and reports, see:
  
  • Account Activity: Tracking changes and information access in your account
  • Understanding your Analytics dashboard and reports