Switching from SimplePractice should not mean starting over. The Import from SimplePractice wizard reads the export SimplePractice gives you and files every client, note, document, invoice and message in the right place in FrontDesk, with its original date.
Before you start: export from SimplePractice
Run these in SimplePractice first. The Complete export is the one that matters most; the three reports fill in details the export leaves out.
| File | Where to get it | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Complete export (zip) | Settings → Practice → Data export → Start export. Choose All clients in the practice (or one clinician), type Complete, untick Require a password to open file, click Export. When the email arrives, download the zip from the same screen. SimplePractice may deliver each folder as its own zip ("Export - Contacts - …"); upload them all. | Contacts, medical records, psychotherapy notes, administrative notes, billing documents, secure messages and stored documents for every client. |
| Client details (CSV) | Analytics → Reports → Client details. Set the status filter to include inactive clients, then More → Include Contacts, then Export → CSV. | Status, contacts and emergency contacts for each client. |
| Client demographics (CSV) | Analytics → Reports → Client demographics → Export CSV (Essential and Plus plans). | Which contact cards are clients, dates of birth, sex, preferred language and each client's contacts. Upload it with the Contacts zip. |
| Appointment status (CSV) | Analytics → Reports → Appointment status. Pick the widest date range, then More → Include Documentation and Include Insurance, then Export CSV. | Past appointments with their status, documentation and insurance. |
| Upcoming appointments (PDF) | Open a client, find Upcoming appointments on the right of their Overview, click Print and save as PDF. One per client. | That client's future appointments. Optional, and only needed for clients who have something booked. |
Three things to know before you click Export:
- Download links expire after one week. If the link has stopped working, start a new export.
- Do not password-protect the zip. A password-protected export is rejected at upload.
- Future appointments have no bulk export. SimplePractice will not export the whole clinic's upcoming schedule, only one client at a time through the Print button on their Upcoming appointments card. Save those as PDFs and upload them with everything else, or bring future visits in through a calendar feed instead.
Turn it on
- Open Settings → Integrations and find the SimplePractice card under Practice Management & EHR.
- Click Connect and turn on SimplePractice import.
Once it is on, Start an import appears in that panel, and Import from SimplePractice appears on the ⋯ menu of the Patients page for that location.
Run the import
Open Patients, click the ⋯ menu and choose Import from SimplePractice. The wizard has three steps.
- Upload. Start with the Contacts zip and the Client demographics CSV together, or upload everything at once. The contact cards bring each client's phone, email, address and both of their names; the demographics report says which cards are clients. The other folders can come in this upload or a later one: they find the clients you already imported.
- Review. Tick which categories to bring in. For each client, confirm how they match: New creates a record, Skip leaves them out, or pick an existing patient. Clients are matched by SimplePractice client number, then by name (legal or display), then confirmed with date of birth, phone and email; when more than one record could be the match, the wizard asks you to choose, including Same person as another client in the same upload when two clients share a name. Contact cards nobody vouches for (family and emergency contacts) and SimplePractice test accounts are skipped by default. Then map each SimplePractice clinician name to a FrontDesk provider so notes and appointments land under the right person, and choose who holds notes by clinicians who have no FrontDesk login.
- Import. Watch the progress, then read the results summary. Anything that could not be imported is listed there with the reason.
You can run the wizard again with the same files or a newer export. Nothing already brought in is created twice.
What lands where
The Complete export has seven folders. Each one goes to a specific place on the patient record:
| SimplePractice folder | Where it goes in FrontDesk |
|---|---|
| Contacts (vCards) | The client's legal name, preferred name, phone (the mobile number first), email, address and birthday. Other numbers and the card's notes go into a staff note. A number already used by another client (a shared family phone) is noted rather than copied. |
| Medical Records | Progress notes become signed, read-only clinical notes dated when they were written, with the original PDF attached. Questionnaires and treatment plans become chart documents. |
| Psychotherapy Notes | The separate psychotherapy note store: author-only, never in the portal, never in an export or a records release. A couples folder's notes go on both partners' charts. |
| Administrative | The client's administrative note banner. An existing banner is kept unless you choose to overwrite it. |
| Billing Documents | Invoices, superbills and statements, filed as billing documents. No charges are rebuilt from them; bring balances over with Import balances from SimplePractice (see below). |
| Secure messages | The client's secure message thread, with the original dates. |
| Stored Documents | Signed consents and uploads, filed on the Documents tab. |
Everything the wizard creates is marked as coming from SimplePractice, so you can always tell an imported note or file from one written in FrontDesk.
Upcoming appointments, and running both systems at once
Everything else in the import is add-only: it never removes anything. Upcoming appointments are different, because they are meant to be re-uploaded while you are still booking in SimplePractice.
Each Upcoming appointments PDF is the whole truth about that client's future schedule at the moment you printed it. When you upload a newer one, FrontDesk:
- adds appointments that are not in FrontDesk yet;
- updates ones whose length or clinician changed;
- cancels ones that have disappeared from SimplePractice;
- leaves alone anything booked in FrontDesk, anything before the date on the print-out, and anything after the last date it lists.
That last point matters: SimplePractice's Upcoming appointments card is paged, so a print-out that stops in January says nothing about February and nothing that far ahead is touched. A print-out with no appointments on it is taken at its word: that client has nothing booked, and their future SimplePractice visits are cancelled.
Two settings on the Review step control this:
- Cancel upcoming appointments this upload no longer lists is on by default. Turn it off to only add and update.
- Let FrontDesk send reminders for these appointments is off by default. Leave it off while SimplePractice is still live, or clients get two reminders for the same session. Imported appointments arrive already confirmed, so no reminder goes out until you ask for one.
You can re-upload as often as you like. Nothing else in the import duplicates either, so it is safe to send the same files again.
Sharing an upload with FrontDesk support
If something in the review step looks wrong and you want us to look at the actual files, turn on Share this upload with FrontDesk support on the review or results screen and add a short note. Nothing is shared until you switch it on. Sharing keeps the files you uploaded on our server for 7 days so a FrontDesk support engineer can download them; every view and download is recorded in your PHI access log. You can switch it off at any time, and the files are deleted as soon as the import has finished. Without sharing, uploaded files are deleted the moment the job ends.
After the import
- Bring balances over at cutover. Imported invoices and statements are documents, not charges. On the day you stop billing in SimplePractice, make sure every visit is invoiced there, then export the Outstanding balances report (Analytics, Reports) as CSV with With Balance turned off under More, so clients holding credit come over too. Upload it on Payments, three-dot menu, Import balances from SimplePractice. Check the totals against SimplePractice before you import. Each client is carried over once, so a later change is entered on the client's Billing tab. Saved cards stay with SimplePractice: import your AutoPay list and send each client a link to add their card from Settings → Billing → AutoPay clients. The whole sequence, from numbering to turning on autopay, is in Move your billing from SimplePractice.
- Keep upcoming appointments in step. Re-upload the clients' Upcoming appointments print-outs whenever the SimplePractice schedule changes, or connect a calendar feed so those visits block availability until the move is finished.
- Share documents when you are ready. Imported files are private to staff until you tick Make this visible to the client in their portal on the Documents tab.
- Check what prints on documents. The logo, Tax ID (EIN) and Organization NPI (Type 2) on new superbills come from Settings → Practice details.
- Skim the administrative banners on a few profiles to confirm the notes landed where you expected.
- Turn weekly clients into series. Upcoming visits that came over one by one can be grouped into a repeating series with Make it a series in the client's Manage upcoming, or for every client at once with Do this for every client (owners and admins). Visits whose type isn't one of your services show on Tasks under Visits to sort out. See Repeating visits.
Nothing changes in SimplePractice. The import only reads the files you exported. Keep your SimplePractice account open until you have checked that everything arrived.