How to switch from SimplePractice: exports and cutover

Leaving SimplePractice takes a data export, a mapping and one parallel billing cycle. This guide covers what SimplePractice's export includes, how clients, appointments and documents come into MegAligna, what stays behind — filed claims and telehealth history — and the cutover order that keeps sessions documented and billed without a gap.

How a SimplePractice migration works

Three phases: export everything while the subscription is fully active, map and import, then run one parallel billing cycle before SimplePractice goes read-only. Solo practices sometimes compress this to a fortnight; groups should plan a month.

What arrives structured, and what arrives as a document

The useful distinction in a SimplePractice migration is not what moves and what does not — nearly everything moves — but what moves as data and what moves as a file.

Demographics, appointments and staff arrive as structured records you can query, report on and bill from. Historical progress notes and assessments arrive as documents attached to the client record: readable, retained, and not searchable in the way the originals were. That is true from any system to any system, and it is the expectation worth setting with clinicians before they discover it themselves in month two.

The practical consequence is a decision about how much history you actually need live. Most practices find that two years of attached notes plus a complete export held in reserve is the right answer, and that attempting more is effort spent on records nobody opens.

The mechanics of the import itself — the record types, the dry run, what arrives as documents — are the same for every source system and are covered in migrating practice management software.

What maps, and what does not

Maps as structured data: client demographics and contacts, appointment history and recurring schedules, and payer details captured on the client.

Arrives as documents: progress notes, treatment plans and uploaded files — attached to the client chart for continuity, not re-keyed into structured fields.

Stays behind: claims filed through SimplePractice (they adjudicate there), its telehealth session history, and client portal messages. Export message threads you need as files before access ends.

Cutover order

Pick a Monday. Before it: export, import, reconcile client balances against your last statement run. From it: all new sessions schedule and document here, card payments run here, and superbills or biller exports replace in-app claim filing. The old system drains to read-only over one billing cycle — no split weeks, no double documentation.

If you have not decided yet, the SimplePractice comparison is honest about which practices should stay put. The destination depends on your discipline: behavioral health, speech therapy and occupational therapy each have their own page.

Common questions

Will clients notice the switch?

The visible changes are payment receipts and any portal access. Tell clients the week before, move stored payment arrangements deliberately — card data never migrates between processors automatically — and expect one month of "where do I pay this" questions.

What about claims still processing at SimplePractice?

They finish where they started. Keep the SimplePractice account active until the last claim adjudicates and posts, which is the real reason the overlap month exists.

Can we keep our SimplePractice notes accessible?

Yes — they import as documents on each client chart, so the clinical history stays one click away even though it is not structured data here. Export complete records for every client, not just active ones.

Try it end to end with test data

14 days, no card required. Use made-up patients while you evaluate — real patient information waits until a business associate agreement is in place.

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