Patients & Engagement

Manage patient records, recall lists, intake forms, reviews, and payments.

• Manage patient recordsThe Patients section is your practice's contact list and, for healthcare practices, the front door to each chart. Search by name, phone, or email; filter by status (Active, Prospective, Inactive, New this month, Discharged) and, in a group practice, by provider, including No provider yet; choose which columns show with Columns. Add patients by hand or import them from a CSV, a SoftDent PDF, or a SimplePractice export. Share documents sends one set of forms to many clients through the Client Portal in four steps. The full profile has tabs for Overview, Notes, Messages, Billing, Payments, Documents, and Records. Households group family members. Real patient records are archived, not deleted; owners and admins can permanently delete only records with nothing on them.
  7 min
• Find your way around a client chartOpen a client from Patients to see their chart. The header shows Next visit, Last visit, Provider and Balance, plus chips only when something needs doing ("2 documents waiting · View", "1 invoice overdue · Collect"). The buttons are Call, Message, Ask (the assistant, about this client) and Book; on a computer, the ⋯ menu has Edit profile, Upload photo, Clinical notes, Send documents, Discharge client, Email portal invitation and Grant portal access (copy link). The Overview tab holds the Administrative note (flag it Urgent, Heads-up or FYI), Activity, Appointments with Manage upcoming, Staff notes, Billing, Patient info, How to reach them, Contacts, Clinical (diagnoses, allergies and medications, diagnosed treatment), Insurance, Household and Portal access. The other tabs are Notes, Messages, Billing, Payments (once online payments are set up), Documents and Records.
  5 min
• Add a client from anywhereClick New in the top bar and choose your client term (for example Patient), type "new client" in search, or click Add patient on the Clients page. The Create client drawer collects the legal name and the name they go by, date of birth (which sets Adult or Minor; Mark as minor or Mark as adult changes it), a parent or guardian for a minor or Add guarantor for an adult, self-pay or insurance, who referred them, Active or Prospective (Active by default), an email and phone with their contact permissions, and reminder switches. Only the legal first and last name are required. Tick Add to waitlist to add them there too. Continue creates the client and opens their profile, and, if Send intake documents next was ticked, the Send documents wizard.
  4 min
• Review new patientsOpen Patients → New Patients (the label follows your terminology, for example New Clients) to see everyone added in the last 30 days; the date menu switches to 7, 14, 60 or 90 days. Two cards show new patients per day and the top sources (AI Call, Online Booking, Manual, Import and more). Each patient card shows three checks: whether the profile is complete (first and last name, phone, email, date of birth, insurance provider and member ID), whether a first visit is booked, and whether the welcome message went out. The Needs action, Onboarded and All new pills filter the list. The card's button is Complete profile, Book first visit or View profile, depending on what is still missing; clicking the card opens a quick view.
  2 min
• Use recall lists to bring patients backOpen Patients → Recall List to see patients who have a recall due date: the header counts who is due for care and how many are overdue. Filter with the All, Overdue, Due soon, Contacted and Scheduled pills, sort by Most overdue first, Due date, Last contact or Name, and search by name or phone. Each card shows the service, the due date, the last visit and how many reminders went out. Send reminder texts one patient, Remind all due texts everyone overdue or due soon, the phone icon starts a call, and the person icon opens Log Contact, where you pick the method and outcome. Logging Scheduled marks the patient Scheduled; any other outcome, or a reminder text, marks them Contacted, and Contacted patients get a Book button.
  2 min
• Send digital intake formsIntake forms live in Settings → Template Library (under Client Care). Browse pre-built adds ready-made forms; Build new template opens the form builder, where you drag fields onto the form, set each field's properties and click Save Template. To send one form, use Send to patient on its row and choose SMS, Email or Copy Link; that link expires after 7 days. To send several documents at once through the Client Portal, use Send documents on the client's profile. Answers show on the client's Documents tab and in Settings → Shareable Documents, where a completed form can be downloaded as a locked PDF. The default intake package can go out automatically when the AI or your booking page books a new client.
  2 min
• Manage your template librarySettings → Template Library (under Client Care) is where every document template lives, grouped as scored measures, intake forms, progress notes, consent forms and other documents. Browse pre-built adds templates from the library; Build new template opens the form builder with short and long text, email, phone, date, dropdown, multi-select, radio, checkbox, signature, file upload, heading and paragraph fields. Each row shows fields, minutes, version, how many were sent and the completion rate, and its menu offers Send to patient, Preview, Public link, Edit, Duplicate, Version history and Delete. A new version is only created when you change a form's structure after it has been completed at least once, so earlier submissions keep the exact form they answered; older versions can be restored. Deleting removes the template from the library but keeps completed records.
  3 min
• Send documents to a clientOn a client's profile, Send documents opens a three-step wizard: choose documents (consents, scored measures, questionnaires, the demographics form and, when Stripe is connected, a card-on-file request), compose the email, then Share & Send Now. The client gets one email with a Sign in to the Client Portal button, and a text when allowed, and completes everything in the portal. Each item shows on the profile's Documents tab as Sent, Opened, Started or Completed. Settings → Shareable Documents tracks every document sent, offers the locked PDF of completed ones, resends reminders, and holds the default intake package that can go out automatically when the AI or your booking page books a new client. Reminders go out every three days, up to three times. Your team gets one bell notice per client only when a visit is close and the documents are not done, or when the reminders ran out; Open client goes to that client's Documents tab.
  4 min
• Coming of ageOpen Patients → Coming of Age to see clients who turn 18 (or the age your rules set) in the next 90 days, or who already have with a parent or guardian still linked to their record. Nothing changes on its own. Click Decide and choose what happens to the parent's part: Parent keeps their part (review on a date), Adulthood comes at another age, Client signs a release (sent to the client's Client Portal, with the parent's portal access paused, ticked by default, until you finish the release once it is signed), or Client takes over (the parent's portal access ends, reminder copies to parents stop, and you can remove the guarantor). Age rules sets the usual age, states with another age and the age a minor may consent. Anyone on the team except a view-only member can decide; only an owner or admin can save the age rules.
  5 min
• Collect patient reviewsSettings → Reviews. Turn on the Review Generation switch and FrontDesk sends a review request after each completed visit: it goes out Send delay hours after the visit ends (2 by default), by text, email or both as set under Send via, and texts wait for 8am–9pm in the client's time. A client who was asked (automatically or by hand) isn't asked again automatically until the Ask the same client again after time has passed: 90 days by default, or every visit, 30 or 60 days, 6 months or 1 year. No request goes out for a cancelled or no-show visit, or to a client who is do-not-contact or can't be reached; under Which visits you can limit requests to some Visit types and to clients with a Minimum number of completed visits. A client who hasn't opened their link gets up to two Reminders (1 and 3 days after the request by default, never after the link expires). You can also send one any time with Send Request. The request asks for a rating; ratings at or above the Positive rating threshold are pointed to the review platforms you add, lower ones stay private. The Requests tab shows each request's status and why one was skipped or failed.
  7 min
• Set up payments (connect Stripe)Before you can take card payments from patients, each location connects its own Stripe account under Settings → Billing → Payment methods (the Stripe Payments card in Settings → Integrations opens the same thing). Click Connect with Stripe on a location; Stripe collects your business details, tax ID, the owner's identity and the bank account for payouts on its own pages. Each location then shows one status: Taking payments, Finish setup, Stripe reviewing, Payments off or Not connected. Finish in Stripe or Resolve in Stripe takes you back to what is missing, and Someone else can finish this copies a setup link for whoever does your banking. Once a location is Taking payments, View payouts shows recent payouts.
  3 min
• Take patient paymentsThe Payments page opens on Overview and has five tabs: Overview (what is owed, not yet invoiced or missing a fee, what came in, AutoPay, balances by age with the 60+ day ones to start with, and recent billing activity), Payments (every payment, with date and type filters, Send receipt and Refund; click one for its details), Invoices, Balances (who owes what, split by age, with Request Payment) and Appointments (each visit by date of service, and every client's balance with their card). The ⋯ menu has Export payments, Filing info, AutoPay clients and Billing settings; card fees and payouts are under Reports → Financial → Payment processing. On a patient's Payments tab you Collect payment by card, cash, check or insurance, Record manual, Send request for a pay link, Create invoice, or set up a Payment plan. A payment on the balance pays open charges not on an invoice first, then open invoices, oldest first. Only a client's newest balance link can be paid, and a link never charges more than they owe.
  9 min
• Create and send superbillsA superbill is a reimbursement statement your out-of-network patients file with their own insurance; FrontDesk does not send claims. Set up once: each provider's NPI and license under Providers, and the Tax ID (EIN) and optional Organization NPI under Settings → Practice details. Then open the patient's Billing tab and choose New ▾ → Superbill. It covers the full history by default, or a date range you pick; untick any visit, and no-show fees start unticked. Click Preview, then Generate & download. Issued statements are numbered and listed on the Billing tab, where you can download the PDF or email the patient a secure link, and portal clients find them under Documents.
  4 min
• Set up email notificationsOpen Settings → Email. In the "Who patient emails come from" card, enter the Send from address (on your own domain, not Gmail or Yahoo), the Shown as name, optionally a different Replies go to address, and your mailing address, then click Verify this address. SendGrid emails that address a link; click it, then click I've clicked the link. For the best inbox placement, open Authenticate your domain, enter your domain, add the DNS records shown and click Check records; once the domain is authenticated, any address on it sends with no verification email. Until a sender is verified or a domain is authenticated, most patient email does not go out. Email is included on Pro and above.
  3 min