Can I export all my data from SimplePractice?

Mostly, but not everything, and not in one click. SimplePractice offers a data export at Settings > Practice > Data export with three types: Complete, Sessions, and Contacts. A Complete export delivers a zipped file with folders for Billing Documents, Medical Records, Psychotherapy Notes, and Stored documents, organized by client. However, appointments are not in the data export—you run a separate Appointment status report for those—and your custom note templates, intake forms, and assessment templates do not export at all. Verify current behavior on SimplePractice's own support pages before you rely on it.

Do clinical notes transfer when I leave SimplePractice?

Your notes come out as PDFs inside the Medical Records and Psychotherapy Notes folders of a Complete export, so you keep readable copies of everything. What does not happen is a clean structured transfer: because the notes are PDFs rather than discrete data fields, a new system imports them as document attachments, not as editable, searchable native notes. Plan to attach historical PDFs where clinically needed and start fresh, native documentation going forward in your new EHR.

How long do I have to download my SimplePractice export?

About one week. SimplePractice's support documentation states that access to the data export and its password expire after a week, and SimplePractice cannot retrieve the password for an expired export. Treat it as a deadline: start the download promptly once the export is ready, copy the password from the data-export screen in Settings, and confirm the zip actually opens before that window closes.

Do my SimplePractice templates and intake forms transfer?

No. Custom note templates, intake forms, and assessment templates do not export from SimplePractice and have to be recreated in your new system. Before you lose interface access, screenshot or PDF each progress-note template, intake packet, and consent form so you have a reference to rebuild from. Many therapists treat this as a chance to delete fields they never used rather than copying old clutter forward.

How should I tell clients I'm switching from SimplePractice?

Keep it administrative and reassuring, and give two to three weeks notice. Clients mainly need to know three things: a new portal invitation is coming, they may need to re-sign an intake or consent form, and they may need to re-enter a payment method. You do not need to explain why you left or name the old vendor. A short, neutral message focused on what they need to do lands far better than a detailed software story.

How long does switching from SimplePractice take?

Plan for two to four weeks of active transition: running the export, rebuilding templates and forms, testing the new system with a non-PHI sample client, and updating your scheduling links, before you stop creating records in SimplePractice. Most of that time is rebuilding what the export drops, not moving data. The decision to switch is usually the hardest part; the work itself is a manageable project once you have a checklist.

How to Switch From SimplePractice: A Migration Guide

Leaving SimplePractice Is a Project, Not a Button

If you are planning to switch from SimplePractice, the first thing to accept is that there is no single "move my practice" button. SimplePractice is a mature, insurance-strong platform, and most therapists leave for one of two reasons: price or fit. On the price side, SimplePractice's own pricing page lists Starter at $49, Essential at $79, and Plus at $99 per clinician per month as of June 2026 (SimplePractice pricing page). Third-party reporting attributes the current Starter price to a March 2025 reprice that raised it from $29 to $49—the context we lay out in our SimplePractice 2026 price increase breakdown. On the fit side, private-pay therapists often find themselves paying for insurance machinery they never touch.

Whatever the reason, the fear underneath every switch is the same: losing your records. This guide is deliberately SimplePractice-specific. It is not a generic "any EHR" walkthrough—for that, see our companion piece on how to switch EHRs without losing patient data, which covers parallel runs and vendor-agnostic strategy. Here we stay anchored in SimplePractice's actual export tool: what it produces, where it falls short, and how to land cleanly on the other side.

One note before we start: this is general practice-management information, not legal, financial, or compliance advice, and every example below is fully synthetic—no real client information appears anywhere in this guide. SimplePractice's own support pages are the authoritative source for its current export behavior; the steps here reflect that documentation as of June 2026, but confirm the exact wording in your account before you act.

What SimplePractice's Data Export Actually Includes

This is the load-bearing section, so let's be precise about what SimplePractice's export does.

Where It Lives and Who Can Run It

The export tool lives under Settings > Practice > Data export, where you click Start export (SimplePractice Support, "Exporting client information through data exports," accessed June 2026). Permissions matter here: per that same support page, only the Account Owner—or a practice manager who has been granted data-export permission—can run it. If you are a clinician inside a group practice, you cannot generate the export yourself; you have to request it from the Account Owner or practice manager. Build that hand-off into your timeline if you are not the account owner.

The Three Export Types

SimplePractice offers three export types: Complete, Sessions, and Contacts (SimplePractice Support, "Exporting client information through data exports," accessed June 2026). For a full migration, the Complete export is the one that matters. It produces a set of folders—Billing Documents, Medical Records, Psychotherapy Notes, and Stored documents—each broken out into per-client subfolders. The output is a single zipped file, and SimplePractice gives you the option to require a password to open the file, which you should generally keep on for security.

One practical wrinkle, labeled as a heads-up rather than a SimplePractice claim: some new platforms require the export to be unprotected before they can ingest it. Carepatron's import help, for example, instructs you to "ensure the file is not password-protected" and to remove SimplePractice's password protection first if the zip carries it (Carepatron import documentation, accessed June 2026). So keep the protected master copy, but be ready to produce a temporary unprotected copy if your new vendor's importer demands it.

What Format the Data Comes In

The formats determine how usable your data will be on the other side. Client demographics and contacts come out as CSV files, while clinical content—progress notes, intake forms, treatment plans, assessments, and consent forms—comes out as PDFs (Proactive Chart, "Exporting Data from SimplePractice for Migration: Complete 2025 Guide," accessed June 2026).

Commentary (industry pattern, not a SimplePractice statement): PDFs are human-readable, which is great for a permanent archive, but they are not structured data. That means a new EHR imports them as document attachments, not as editable, searchable native notes. The discrete information inside those PDFs—a PHQ-9 score, a diagnosis code, a session date—will not auto-populate the corresponding fields in your new system. This is the single most important thing to internalize before you switch: you are exporting readable records, not a turnkey database.

What Does NOT Export Cleanly (Plan Around These)

Knowing the gaps in advance is what separates a smooth switch from a stressful one. Each of these is sourced.

Appointments are not in the data export. To get appointment data you have to run a separate Appointment status report. And critically, SimplePractice only lets you export past appointment records—as Jane's migration guide puts it, "SimplePractice only allows you to export past appointment records" (Jane App, "Importing from SimplePractice," accessed June 2026). Your future bookings are not in any export. You rebuild your forward-looking calendar by hand.
Templates and forms do not export. Your custom note templates, intake forms, and assessment templates simply will not come over and must be recreated in the new system—Proactive Chart states plainly that these "won't export. You'll need to recreate these in your new EMR" (Proactive Chart, accessed June 2026). More on rebuilding these below.
Billing history generally can't import automatically. Historical payment and invoice data usually cannot flow into a new EHR's billing engine. Jane is blunt about it: "we recommend manually inputting your billing data," because historical billing information can't be imported due to formatting differences between the systems (Jane App, accessed June 2026). Most therapists archive the SimplePractice billing PDFs rather than re-keying years of transactions.
Structured fields don't survive. Because notes land as PDFs, none of the discrete clinical fields auto-populate. As an illustration of how lossy this is, a SimplePractice-to-Jane import brings treatments in with a default 30-minute duration and a placeholder name (clinician name plus billing code), because the real treatment names and durations don't export—and any record Jane "can't be 100% sure" it is matching correctly "won't be imported" (Jane App, accessed June 2026). That is Jane-specific behavior, but it illustrates the general structured-data loss you should expect with any destination.
There is a one-week time bomb. Access to the export and its password expire after a week, and SimplePractice's team is unable to retrieve the password for an expired export (SimplePractice Support, "Exporting and downloading client data for transfer," accessed June 2026). Click the download link promptly, and copy the password from the data-export screen in Settings before it disappears.

For context on what a smoother destination looks like, IntakeQ/PracticeQ documents that its SimplePractice import covers Client Demographics and Charts, and warns that SimplePractice "exports the emergency contacts as part of the main client list," so those need a cleanup pass afterward (IntakeQ, "Migrating from SimplePractice," last updated January 26, 2024). Different destinations handle the same export differently, so ask your specific new vendor what they ingest.

Pre-Switch Checklist (Do This Before You Cancel)

Run these steps in order. The recurring theme: do not cancel SimplePractice until you have everything out, because export access dies with the account.

Pick a go-live date and keep SimplePractice active through it. Do not cancel first. Your export tool and historical data live behind an active subscription.
Run the Complete data export and the Appointment status report. Download the zip promptly within the one-week window and verify it opens with the password before you do anything else.
Inventory your templates and forms while you still have interface access. Screenshot or save a PDF of every progress-note template, intake form, and consent form. Once the account closes, these are gone (Proactive Chart, accessed June 2026).
List every client-facing link that points at SimplePractice—the client portal, your online booking page, your Psychology Today profile, your website's "Book now" button, your email signature, and your Google Business Profile.
Decide migrate-versus-archive for your history (the next section is a framework for this).
Confirm your new vendor is HIPAA-compliant and will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) before any PHI moves. This is non-negotiable for any tool that will touch protected health information. CoralEHR, for example, is HIPAA-compliant and signs BAAs—the baseline you should require of any destination.

Migrate vs. Archive: What History Actually Needs to Move

Not everything in eight years of records needs to be re-keyed into a new system. A simple judgment framework keeps the project sane.

Migrate (live, forward-looking): active client demographics and contacts, open treatment plans, current consents, and your upcoming appointments (rebuilt by hand, since they don't export). These are the records you will touch in the next few weeks.

Archive (keep, don't necessarily re-enter): closed-client charts, old superbills and billing history, and historical note PDFs. Commentary: the cleanest approach is to store the encrypted SimplePractice export zip securely as your retention copy, and only attach individual PDFs into the new system where they are clinically relevant to an active client. Retention obligations are governed by your state board and any payer rules, so keep that original export intact—it is your system of record for everything you choose not to migrate.

Keep in mind that your obligation to retain and provide access to records does not end when you change software. Under HIPAA, an individual has a right of access to inspect and obtain a copy of their protected health information in a designated record set (45 CFR 164.524), so you remain responsible for being able to produce those records throughout and after a migration. If a software vendor itself ever resists returning your data, that is governed by your Business Associate Agreement and vendor contract rather than 164.524—our general EHR-switching guide covers the written-request process and what your BAA should entitle you to.

Recreating Templates, Forms, and Intake in the New System

This is the part the export drops, so budget real time for it. Working from the screenshots and PDFs you captured in step 3, rebuild your progress-note format (SOAP, DAP, or BIRP), your intake packet, your consent forms, and any assessment templates you relied on.

Commentary: treat this as a cleanup opportunity rather than a chore. Over years, most intake packets accumulate fields nobody reads and consent language that has been superseded. You are not obligated to copy old clutter forward—rebuild lean.

On the AI question, here is the conservative, factual version: AI form and template builders can speed up this rebuild, but the clinician reviews and signs everything. In CoralEHR specifically, AI drafts notes and form scaffolding for the clinician to edit and sign—it makes no autonomous clinical decisions and runs no diagnosis or treatment on its own. Used that way, it shortens the rebuild without replacing your clinical judgment.

Test the New System With a Non-PHI Sample

Before you trust the migration with real client information, dry-run the whole workflow with a single fake test client that contains no real PHI—something obviously synthetic like "Test Client," a 555 phone number, and a made-up date of birth. With that test record, walk through:

the booking flow and a confirmation,
sending an intake packet,
writing a note in your rebuilt template,
generating an invoice or superbill,
launching a telehealth link,
and sending a client-portal invitation.

Then spot-check a sample of your actually-imported records—open a handful of the migrated PDFs and confirm they rendered correctly—before you rely on the import. Run both systems in parallel briefly around your cutover date, and once you are confident, stop creating new records in SimplePractice. Dual-entry beyond a short cutover window is where mistakes creep in.

Update Your Scheduling Links and Client Touchpoints

This is the step practices most often forget, and it produces the worst client experience when missed: a client books into a dead SimplePractice calendar that nobody is watching anymore. Replace every SimplePractice URL across:

your Psychology Today booking link, updated through the provider portal at member.psychologytoday.com (Psychology Today provider login, accessed June 2026),
your website's "Book" button or embedded scheduler,
your email signature,
your Google Business Profile,
your link-in-bio and any directory listings.

Then redirect or remove the old SimplePractice booking widget so clients cannot double-book in a system you no longer monitor. Finally, update any autoresponders or voicemail greetings that reference "your client portal," since that link has changed.

Notifying Clients: Neutral Admin Wording

Keep client communication administrative and reassuring. You do not need to editorialize about why you left or name the old vendor—clients care about what they need to do, not your software stack. Give two to three weeks notice and cover the essentials: a new portal login is coming, they may need to re-sign an intake or consent form, their payment method may need re-entry, and the scheduling link has changed.

Here is a short, fully synthetic template to adapt—no client names, no PHI:

"We're upgrading our practice software to serve you better. You'll receive a secure invitation to our new client portal at the email we have on file. Your scheduled appointments are unchanged. When the new portal is ready, please re-enter your payment method when prompted. Thank you for your patience during the switch."

Adapt the wording to your voice, but resist the urge to explain the technical migration. Simple and calm beats thorough and anxious.

A Realistic Timeline

For a solo private-pay practice, plan on two to four weeks of active transition. The bulk of that time is not moving data—the export itself is quick—it is rebuilding the templates and forms the export drops and updating your scheduling touchpoints. Run both systems in parallel for a short window around your cutover, then commit fully to the new one.

Commentary: in practice, the mental hurdle of deciding to switch is bigger than the work of doing it. Most therapists who dread the migration for months finish the actual project in under a month. A 30-day trial on the destination platform is usually enough to validate fit and complete the move without rushing.

Conclusion: Match the Tool to How You Practice

Switching from SimplePractice is entirely manageable once you know what its export does and does not give you: readable PDFs and CSVs, no future appointments, no templates, and a one-week download window you cannot afford to miss. Plan around those gaps, rebuild lean, test with a synthetic client, and update every link clients touch.

If you are private-pay and leaving the insurance complexity behind, CoralEHR is built for exactly that model: HIPAA-compliant and BAA-signing, with AI that drafts notes and forms for the clinician to review and sign—no insurance-billing machinery cluttering the workflow, and a trial period long enough to complete a real migration. (CoralEHR is purpose-built for private-pay practice and does not handle insurance claims submission.)

Keep Reading

How to Switch EHRs Without Losing Patient Data — the vendor-agnostic companion guide, with the written-request process and parallel-run strategy
SimplePractice Alternatives for Private-Pay Therapy — six EHRs compared on price, fees, and AI notes
SimplePractice 2026 Price Increase, Explained — the "why switch" context behind the current $49 Starter price
SimplePractice vs CoralEHR — a feature-by-feature comparison
What to Look for in an EHR for a Private-Pay Practice — how to evaluate a destination before you commit

This article is general practice-management information, not legal, financial, or compliance advice. Verify SimplePractice's current export behavior, pricing, and policies on its own support and pricing pages before you act.