You can manage consent forms, intake documents, and PDFs in SimplePractice that can be shared with your clients.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
For a walkthrough on how to send these documents to clients through the Client Portal, see Sending intake forms and documents to clients.
Note: For steps on collecting demographic and credit card information from clients, see Sending the Demographics form and Credit Card Information forms.
Consent forms
A consent form is a text document for your client to read and acknowledge with a signature. These documents only require an electronic signature from a client to acknowledge that they've read and agreed to the terms.
To locate your consent forms, navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents. Under Consent forms, you'll find the following forms:
- Notice of Privacy Practices form
- Informed Consent for Psychotherapy form
- Practice Policies Consent form
- Telehealth Consultation form
- Credit Card Authorization form
These forms are included with your SimplePractice account. You can review the content of each by clicking its link above.
Important: It’s your practice’s responsibility to review and update consent forms according to your practice policies, along with the legal requirements of your state. If you have any questions, we recommend consulting your local regulatory body.
Below, we’ll cover:
Editing an existing consent form
Important: When editing consent forms, all updates will replace the previous version of each form. To learn how to retain copies of previous versions for your records, see Creating a new custom form based on an existing form and Printing or saving a custom note or form.
You can edit existing consent forms to fit your practice’s needs. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Click Edit next to the consent form in question
-
Make edits to the title and/or content as needed
- You can update the bracketed text at the top to enter your practice’s information
- Click Save
Adding a new consent form
You can create new consent forms with custom content. To add a new consent form:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Click + New consent form
- Enter a title in the text box at the top
-
Enter the content of your form in the lower text box
- You can use bolded text, italic text, bullet points, numbered lists, divider lines, and hyperlinks
- Basic client information such as the client’s full name, or their next appointment date or time, can be populated by clicking the contact card icon
- Click Save
Note: For additional details, see Customizing and adding new practice documents.
Setting default consent forms
You can designate specific consent forms as Default, which will pre-select them when you’re sharing an intake package with a new client. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Under Consent forms, select Yes in the Default column next to the form
Note: Multiple consent forms can be selected as Default.
When you’re sharing documents with a client for the first time, default consent forms will be pre-selected under the Consent Documents section.
Intake documents
Intake documents allow you to collect responses from a client through the Client Portal. You can create custom intake documents or edit a pre-built template to fit your practice’s needs.
Below, we’ll cover:
- Creating new intake documents
- Adding and editing pre-built intake documents
- Enabling or disabling intake documents
- Setting default intake documents
Creating new intake documents
If you’d like to create a new intake document from scratch, rather than editing an existing template, you can do so from your Template library. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Template library
- Click Create new template
- Select for Intake Forms from the dropdown menu
-
Choose Add New to add a new form element or question
- To learn more about each question type and form element, see Customizing your note or form
Important: When creating new templates or editing existing templates, don’t include client names or any other PHI.
- Click Save
For a detailed walkthrough on creating your own custom templates, see Creating customized templates.
Adding and editing pre-built intake documents
You can add a pre-built intake document to your Template library and edit it to fit your practice. To add a pre-built intake document:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Template library
- Click View pre-built templates
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Scroll down to Intake forms
- You can click the eye icon to preview a document
- Choose + Add to add the document to your Template library
Note: For a full list of the pre-built templates we offer, see Template options in our Template library.
After adding a pre-built intake document to your Template library, you can edit its content as needed. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Template library
- Scroll down to Intake forms
- Click the intake document in question
-
Make edits to the title and/or content
- To learn more about each question type and form element, see Customizing your note or form
- Click Save
Important: When editing intake documents, all updates will replace the previous version of each form. To learn how to retain copies of previous versions for your records, see Creating a new custom form based on an existing form and Printing or saving a custom note or form.
Enabling or disabling intake documents
You can enable or disable intake documents in your Template library at any time. Disabling intake documents keeps them in your Template library, but prevents them from being shareable with clients.
To disable a document:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Template library
- Uncheck the box next to the document to disable it
- You can to re-enable the document at any time by checking the box
Setting default intake documents
You can designate specific intake documents as Default, which will pre-select them when you’re sharing an intake package with a new client. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Under Intake forms, check Yes in the Default column
Note: Multiple intake documents can be selected as default.
When you’re sharing documents with a client for the first time, default intake documents will be pre-selected under Questionnaires in the Send intakes page.
Uploaded Files
You can also upload PDF documents to share with clients through the Client Portal, such as externally made forms, homework, or articles.
Below, we’ll cover:
Note: Uploaded files can’t be edited or signed within SimplePractice or the Client Portal. However, clients can download files you’ve shared through Client Portal, complete or sign them outside of SimplePractice, and then re-upload them. For more information, see Allowing clients to upload documents to the Client Portal. If you have a form or document you’d like clients to sign or fill out in the Client Portal, see Creating new intake documents and Adding a new consent form.
Uploading a PDF
To upload a PDF to your account for sharing through the Client Portal:
- Navigate ate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Click+ Downloadable File in the Uploaded files section
-
Select the document from your computer’s files
- The maximum PDF size is 50MB
- Adjust the document’s name under Customize file name, if needed
- Click Save File
Setting PDFs as default
You can designate specific PDFs as Default, which will pre-select them when you’re sharing an intake package with a new client. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Under Uploaded files, check Yes in the Default column
Note: Multiple PDFs can be selected as default.
When you’re sharing documents with a client for the first time, default PDFs will be pre-selected under the Uploaded Files section.