Switching from SimplePractice comes down to three moving parts: getting your data out, keeping clients informed, and cutting over the calendar without dropping a session. As the account owner you can run a complete export of clinical notes and billing docs, but the download links expire about a week later, and notes don’t move automatically to a new tool. Plan it as a two-to-four-week sequence, not a weekend. This page is the checklist.
If you’re still deciding whether to leave, that’s a different question. Our SimplePractice alternatives page covers the evaluation side, when the switch is worth it and when it isn’t. This one assumes you’ve decided and want the mechanics.
Key takeaways
- As account owner, you can export clinical notes, billing docs, and records; download links expire about 1 week after you generate them.
- Notes don’t transfer automatically. SimplePractice can’t even move clinical notes between its own accounts, so confirm which fields your new tool imports.
- Budget 2 to 4 weeks for a solo or small practice: trial week, export-and-import week, cutover week.
- Keep SimplePractice read-only through cutover so you can reference old notes and close open invoices.
- Protect continuity of care first: client comms, reachability, and telehealth links matter more than the software.
What can you actually export from SimplePractice?
Start here, because the export defines everything downstream. As the account owner, per SimplePractice’s support docs, you can run a complete data export that includes clinical notes, billing documents, and other records. It comes out as downloadable files.
Two catches worth writing on a sticky note. First, the download links expire about one week after you generate them, so don’t export a month before you’re ready to import. Second, the export is a snapshot of files, not a live feed into your next tool. SimplePractice can’t even transfer clinical notes, billing documentation, and appointments between two SimplePractice accounts. So don’t assume a rival platform will magically absorb all of it either.
| SimplePractice export | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Clinical notes | Yes, in the complete owner export |
| Billing documents | Yes |
| Client demographics | Yes, exportable as a list |
| Appointments / calendar | Limited; often re-created, not migrated |
| Download link lifespan | ~1 week, then expires |
Before you pick a destination, check what a new tool actually imports and get the field list in writing.
Which fields survive the move, and which you rebuild
This is the part that trips people. Different destinations import different things. Some tools take client demographics plus chart notes from a SimplePractice export. Others import only a client spreadsheet and expect you to attach the historical notes as reference files. Neither is wrong; you just need to know which one you’re dealing with before cutover, not after.
A useful way to sort it: split your data into live and reference. Live data is what you’ll actively use day one: current clients, active demographics, upcoming appointments. Reference data is the history you need to look up but rarely edit: closed notes, old invoices. Import the live data. Keep the reference data as your downloaded export files, backed up, and searchable. You rarely need to retype years of notes by hand, and any vendor who tells you that you do hasn’t thought about it.
Patient Square offers EHR-ready export (PDF, HL7, FHIR) on every plan, which is the same principle in reverse: your notes should always be able to leave in a portable format. That’s an export, not a certified two-way interface, and it’s the question to ask any tool you’re moving to. If a platform can’t tell you how your data gets out, that’s your answer about lock-in.
The client-communication piece people skip
Your clients don’t care which EHR you run. They care that they can reach you and that their telehealth link works. So the comms are simple, but skipping them is how a smooth migration turns into a scramble.
Send one short message before cutover: the practice is updating its systems, here’s how to reach you during the transition, and here’s your new portal or telehealth link if it’s changing. Don’t move telehealth links mid-week for someone with a Wednesday session. Don’t cancel the old system until you’ve confirmed the new one holds a full clinic week. Continuity of care is the thing to protect. The software is just plumbing.
If you prescribe, note that a prescription draft in a new tool is a draft you review and sign, not an automated transmission, so nothing changes about your prescribing responsibility during a switch. Patient Square is an AI clinical platform. Practice Copilot brings the whole practice under one AI copilot: an ambient AI Medical Scribe that hands back a structured SOAP note, ICD-10 suggestions, and a prescription draft minutes after the visit, plus Patient Square EHR from the Copilot tier or an alongside path for an existing EHR, with scheduling and messaging as you move up the plan.
The week-by-week SimplePractice migration checklist
This is the artifact. Adjust the pace to your size, but keep the order.
| Phase | Week | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Decide + trial | Week 1 | Confirm the note quality holds on real sessions. Run the new tool’s 7-day trial. Get the import field list in writing. |
| Prep + comms | Week 2 | Draft your client heads-up. Set the cutover date on a low-volume week, not month-end. Reconcile open invoices in SimplePractice. |
| Export + import | Week 3 | Run the complete SimplePractice export as account owner. Download files before the ~1-week link expiry. Import live data; back up reference files. |
| Cutover | Week 4 | Run the new calendar live. Keep SimplePractice read-only. Send client comms and any new links. Verify a full clinic week before canceling. |
A few rules that save the week:
- Never export early. The links expire in about a week. Export when you’re ready to import, not before.
- Cutover on your quietest day. Not the Monday of a packed week, and never at month-end when billing is live.
- Keep the old system read-only. You’ll reference old notes and close invoices for weeks. Cancel last, not first.
- Verify before you cancel. Confirm the new tool held a real clinic week and your export files are downloaded and backed up.
- Test the note first. If the new tool’s note quality doesn’t hold on your real sessions, none of the rest matters. That’s the week-1 gate.
For the scribe-specific version of this, our AI scribe migration checklist covers switching documentation tools without losing a clinic day, and the pricing page lists what ships on each plan. The security page has the encryption and audit details if compliance is part of your sign-off.
Run the trial before you touch a single record
The most common migration mistake isn’t a botched export. It’s moving your whole practice to a tool you never really tested, then discovering in week two that the note quality doesn’t hold.
So flip the order. Before you export anything, run the new tool’s trial on real sessions, a full week if you can. For a therapist, that means seeing whether the note actually reads like your clinical voice, whether the structure fits your modality, and whether you’d sign it without a heavy rewrite. Ambient capture is a real workflow change from typing your own notes or filling a template, and some clinicians love it while others want more control. You want to know which camp you’re in before you’ve migrated three years of client history.
Time yourself editing three real drafts during the trial. If you’re correcting a line or two and signing, the tool works for you. If you’re rewriting from scratch, it doesn’t, and no export plan fixes that. This is why the checklist above puts “confirm note quality” in week one, ahead of everything. The data move is the easy part. The question of whether the destination actually solves your problem is the one worth a full trial week, because it’s the only part you can’t undo cheaply.
When you should not switch from SimplePractice
The honest counter-case. If SimplePractice’s therapy-native admin fits your practice, superbills, insurance panels, treatment-plan templates, and your complaint is minor, staying is cheaper than migrating. Every switch costs you a few weeks of attention you could spend seeing patients. Don’t pay that for a small annoyance.
Switch when a specific, recurring pain justifies the work. The most common one we hear is note-writing: a therapist charting until 7pm every night, where an ambient scribe drafts the note from the session and hands the evening back. That’s a real reason. “The new logo is ugly” is not. Run the 7-day trial on a real week first, see the note against your own visit type, and only start the export once you’re sure the destination fixes the thing that made you shop in the first place.