You don't need to memorize this list. Just know where to find it. Definitions are written in the order they'd actually come up while setting up FrontDesk.
Setup & accounts
Practice / Location: A single physical office. One practice in FrontDesk = one calendar, one phone configuration, one team.
Organization: A business that owns one or more practices. Billing, plan, and team roles live at the organization level.
Plan: Your monthly subscription tier (Free, Pro, Elite, Enterprise). Determines included minutes, SMS volume, locations, and which features are unlocked.
Phone numbers & porting
DID (Direct Inward Dial): Industry term for a regular phone number. The number you buy or port is technically a "DID."
Local number: A standard 10-digit US number with a geographic area code (e.g., 415, 212). Cheaper, feels personal, requires A2P 10DLC for SMS.
Toll-free number: Starts with 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, or 833. Works nationwide, slightly higher cost, requires toll-free verification for high-volume SMS.
Vanity number: A number that spells a word (1-800-DENTIST). Easier to remember, harder to find available.
Port / Porting: Moving an existing phone number from your current carrier to FrontDesk so the AI can answer it.
LOA (Letter of Authorization): The document you sign to authorize a port. Says "yes, I really want my number moved."
FOC (Firm Order Commitment): The carrier's promise that they'll release your number on a specific date. You get a FOC date a few days into a port.
Port-out: Moving your number away from FrontDesk to another provider. You can do this at any time.
SMS registration
A2P 10DLC: "Application-to-Person 10-digit long code." The US registration program that lets local numbers send business SMS reliably. Required before sending SMS from any local number.
Brand: Your business identity registered with carriers. Verified once, attached to all your local numbers.
Campaign: The use case attached to your brand (usually "Appointment Reminders & Customer Care" for FrontDesk).
Toll-free verification: The equivalent registration for toll-free numbers. Separate from A2P 10DLC.
Opt-in: The proof that a patient agreed to receive SMS. Carriers require this for any registration.
STOP/HELP keywords: Standard SMS replies that turn off (STOP) or request help (HELP). FrontDesk handles both automatically.
Caller ID
CNAM (Caller Name): The text shown next to your number on the recipient's phone ("SUNNY DENTAL"). Set once for the account under Settings → Phone & SMS → Caller ID on a paid plan, with no extra FrontDesk fee; carriers review it in a few days, then it takes 48–72 hours to show.
STIR/SHAKEN: A carrier framework that authenticates that the caller-ID number really belongs to the caller. Helps your outbound calls avoid being marked "Spam Likely." Automatic on FrontDesk-issued numbers.
Branded calling: A newer carrier feature that shows your logo and business name on the recipient's screen. On the FrontDesk roadmap.
Calls & SMS
Inbound: A call or SMS coming to your FrontDesk number.
Outbound: A call or SMS sent from your FrontDesk number to a patient.
Turn: In an AI conversation, one back-and-forth exchange (caller speaks, AI responds).
Transfer: Handing the call off from the AI to a human staff line.
Voicemail: A recorded message left by the caller. On paid plans and trials FrontDesk transcribes it; the AI Voicemail Agent also writes a summary.
Two-party consent: Recording law in 11 states requiring all parties to consent to a call being recorded. FrontDesk announces recording on every call by default.
TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act): US law governing automated calls and SMS. Sets time-of-day rules and opt-out requirements that FrontDesk enforces automatically.
Compliance
HIPAA: US health privacy law. Applies to any business that handles patient health information.
Covered Entity: A healthcare provider, plan, or clearinghouse subject to HIPAA. Most of our customers are covered entities.
Business Associate: A vendor (like FrontDesk) that handles PHI on behalf of a covered entity.
BAA (Business Associate Agreement): The contract between a covered entity and a business associate that allows them to handle PHI together. Available on Pro and above.
PHI (Protected Health Information): Any patient information tied to identity (name + appointment, name + diagnosis, etc.). Encrypted at rest and in transit on FrontDesk.
PII (Personally Identifiable Information): Broader term for any info that identifies a person. PHI is a subset of PII.
ESIGN: US law making electronic signatures legally equivalent to ink. Used for the BAA, opt-in consent, etc.
Websites & domains
Practice website: The public site FrontDesk builds from your settings (Online Booking → Website). Live at yourname.sites.frontdesk.care the moment you publish, and at your own domain once one is connected.
Domain: Your own address on the web, like harborlightcare.com. Buy one in Online Booking → Domains or connect one you already own from Online Booking → Website.
Registrar: The company a domain is registered with. Domains bought in FrontDesk are registered through Amazon Registrar, in your name; FrontDesk manages them for you.
Registrant contact: The person or practice on record as the domain's owner. The registrar emails this address once to confirm it; click the link within 15 days.
WHOIS privacy: Hides the registrant contact from public domain records. Included with every domain bought in FrontDesk.
DNS record: An entry that tells the internet where a domain (or a part of it) points, such as A and CNAME records for the website, MX records for email, and TXT records for verification and SPF. Editable under DNS & email on the domain's card.
Auto-renew: Charges your card on file each year, about six weeks before the domain expires, so it never lapses. Turn it off to let a domain expire.
Redirect: A second domain that sends visitors to your website's address, page for page, instead of showing the site under its own name.
What's next
Clinical, billing, and portal terms
Client portal: The private site where your clients sign in with an emailed code to manage visits, read secure messages, complete forms, download records, and pay. See What clients can do in the portal.
Secure message: A message written in the Inbox but read inside the client portal, so clinical content never travels by text. The client is nudged that a message is waiting, never sent the content.
Telehealth / video visit: A video appointment run in the browser from the Schedule, with a waiting room, chat, screen share, and a whiteboard. No audio or video is stored. Metered in participant-minutes (each person, each minute).
Group session: One appointment with a roster of up to 15 clients, each with their own reminders, attendance, fee, and video link.
Household: A family grouping of client records with a head of household, used to book everyone at once.
Charge: One billable line on a client's account (date, code, fee, paid). Captured when a visit is completed; the production ledger behind superbills and the financial reports.
Superbill: A numbered statement of charges and diagnoses the client submits to their own insurer for out-of-network reimbursement. Not a claim.
Card on file: A card the client agreed you may charge later, stored in Stripe. Powers autopay, cancellation fees, and payment plans.
Autopay: Charging the client's share of a visit fee to their card on file when the visit is completed.
Payment plan: A balance split into weekly, biweekly, or monthly installments, charged automatically or recorded by hand.
Chargeback / dispute: A client's bank reversing a card payment. Shows as a badge on the payment; a lost dispute is booked like a refund.
Open A/R: Unpaid fees on charges, aged from the visit date. Close to, but not always the same as, a client's outstanding balance, which also counts invoice lines that aren't visit charges.
Daily close: The Financial report's list of a day's transactions by method, for matching the drawer and the Stripe payout.
Progress note / SOAP note: A clinical note for a visit. Signing and locking fingerprints it so it cannot be edited; changes are addenda.
AI progress notes: The first draft of a clinical note written from a typed recap, a dictated one, an uploaded recording, or live note-taking during a visit, in your template (DAP, SOAP, BIRP, GIRP, intake). The draft is marked AI-assisted and you review and sign it. No audio is stored and the transcript is discarded once the draft exists; live note-taking needs the client's consent. Metered in AI note minutes. See AI progress notes.
Co-signature: A supervisor's signature on an associate's or intern's note, required by license status.
Psychotherapy note: A therapist's private process note, kept apart from the chart, readable only by its author, never exported.
Treatment plan: Goals, objectives, and interventions agreed with the client, signed by both, reviewed on a cadence, and revised in versions.
Outcome measure: A standardised questionnaire (PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5) scored automatically and trended, with a risk flag on the self-harm items.
Release of information (ROI): The client's signed authorisation to share records with someone, with a scope and an expiry.
Accounting of disclosures: The list of every time a client's records left the practice, which they may request under HIPAA.
Break the glass: Emergency, time-limited, audited access to a psychotherapy note by an owner or admin.