How LocalScribe Works with SimplePractice

If you use SimplePractice in private practice, LocalScribe is most useful as the drafting step before you finalize documentation in the chart. The practical advantage is that you can gather shorthand, dictation, pasted text, and supporting documents in one place, generate a structured draft, and then move that draft into the SimplePractice note, intake, or treatment-plan fields you already use. That setup matters because SimplePractice supports customizable templates for intake forms, progress notes, treatment plans, and other documents, and progress notes are tied to appointments in the client record.

For SimplePractice, the best setup is usually to mirror your actual SimplePractice template inside LocalScribe. Use the same main headers, the same order, and, when helpful, the same nested subheaders. Then add a short instruction under each heading so the draft comes out in the right shape the first time.

How to set it up

Build a LocalScribe custom template that matches the documentation structure you already use in SimplePractice. If your SimplePractice note has broad sections with smaller fields or prompts inside them, mirror that in LocalScribe too. Nested subheaders are useful here because they let you match the platform more closely and reduce cleanup later.

These custom-template examples show the section headers and the instructions you would give the model for each section.

A SimplePractice progress-note template in LocalScribe might look like this:

Subjective: Include the client’s reported symptoms, concerns, updates, and relevant self-report since the last session.

Objective: Include observable behavior, mental status findings, participation, affect, speech, and other session-based observations.

Assessment: Summarize the clinical meaning of the session, response to interventions, current functioning, and barriers to progress.

Progress toward goals: Briefly note movement, setbacks, or unchanged patterns related to current treatment goals.

Risk or safety updates: Include any relevant risk findings, protective factors, and meaningful safety-related changes.

Plan: Include homework, follow-up steps, referrals, frequency, and the next clinical focus.

That kind of structure fits SimplePractice better than a flat generic note because SimplePractice itself lets clinicians customize templates across documentation types.

How the workflow works

Generate the full draft in LocalScribe, review it, and then paste each section into the matching SimplePractice field. This is especially helpful when your SimplePractice template is already dialed in and you do not want to reorganize content manually every time. Since SimplePractice progress notes are created from the appointment workflow and become part of the medical record, matching the structure closely makes the handoff cleaner.

What to put into LocalScribe

Use the source material you would normally draw from while writing manually. That can include typed shorthand, pasted text, dictation, ambient or session recording, and attachments such as intake paperwork, screeners, prior evaluations, referrals, or other documents. LocalScribe is built around turning that source material into a structured draft, and its product plan includes custom templates plus a deterministic test-reference library for assessment language and scoring conventions.

A simple input example might look like this:

Client reports more anxiety this week related to work and conflict with partner. Slept poorly three nights. Used breathing once and said it helped a little. Tearful early in session, calmer by end. Oriented, engaged, no SI/HI reported. Focused on identifying triggers and reducing all-or-nothing thinking. Plan is continue CBT work, practice coping skill daily, follow up next week.

Progress notes

For a fairly standard note, LocalScribe’s built-in SOAP, DAP, or BIRP templates may be enough. But if your SimplePractice note has custom section names, embedded prompts, or extra fields, a LocalScribe custom template is the better fit. SimplePractice supports progress-note documentation tied to appointments, and clinicians can customize note templates to fit their practice.

Intake

Intake documents in SimplePractice are also customizable, including through the template library. That makes intake a strong custom-template use case in LocalScribe.

A practical LocalScribe intake template might use:

Presenting concern: Summarize the reason for seeking services, current symptoms, and why treatment is being sought now.

Relevant history: Include psychiatric, medical, family, social, trauma, substance, and prior treatment history relevant to care.

Current functioning: Describe functioning across work, school, relationships, and daily life.

Risk and safety: Document current and relevant historical risk factors, protective factors, and safety-related information.

Strengths and supports: Identify personal strengths, motivation, coping resources, and important supports.

Initial formulation and plan: Summarize the initial clinical picture and recommended next steps.

Treatment plans

SimplePractice has a dedicated diagnosis and treatment-plan workflow, so treatment planning is another place where matching the platform’s structure usually works better than relying on a broad generic format.

A practical LocalScribe treatment-plan template might use:

Diagnosis or problem area: State the diagnosis, presenting problem, or treatment target being addressed.

Goals: Write broad treatment goals in clear clinical language.

Objectives: List measurable or observable objectives that indicate movement toward the goal.

Interventions: Describe the clinician interventions, treatment approach, or services planned.

Frequency and review plan: Document expected frequency of care, coordination needs, and when progress will be reviewed.

A quick note for subspecialties

For subspecialty practices, custom terminology and test-reference tools can help the draft stay closer to the language your documentation requires. That matters more once you get into specialized assessment, pediatric, rehab, or other niche workflows, and it becomes even more relevant when adapting this approach to other EHRs and school-based platforms. The main setup decision still comes first: get the template shape right, then layer in specialty language as needed.

Bottom line

For SimplePractice, build your LocalScribe template to mirror the structure you already use there. Match the headers, match the order, use nested subheaders when needed, add short instructions under each section, generate the full draft in LocalScribe, and then paste section by section into SimplePractice. That is the setup most likely to save time without creating more editing afterward.