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Week of July 19: a practice-ready sample client

Your built-in Sample Client can now rehearse real workflows end to end.

New

  • Write a note by hand, structured by your template: when you click Type on an appointment, there's now a Format picker — just like Dictate and Live Session have. Chart Note keeps the quick free-form box right there; choosing a template opens the full note editor with your template's sections ready to fill in. Templates are no longer only for AI-generated notes.
  • Send files in secure messages: you and your clients can now attach files to secure messages — a photo of an insurance card, a completed worksheet, a referral PDF. Click the paperclip in any message conversation (in your Messages inbox, or in the client portal for clients and their contacts). Every file a conversation exchanges is also saved to the client's Files tab automatically, labeled "Message Attachment" with who sent it, so nothing lives only in a chat thread. Portal uploads accept images and documents up to 25MB.
  • The Windows desktop app now keeps itself up to date: it quietly downloads updates in the background and applies them the next time you close the app — no reinstalling, no version checking. If an older copy ever falls behind, the app shows a banner with a one-click download of the latest installer.
  • An Exercises tab on client charts (beta): assign practice exercises to a client right from their chart. The workflow and client delivery are still being refined, so expect changes.
  • Ask a question, get an answer from the help center: a new "Ask a question" option in the account menu (top right) lets you ask in plain language — "how do I set up online booking?" — and get a step-by-step answer drawn from the help center, with links to the full articles. If the help center doesn't cover it yet, it says so and hands you off to Send feedback so a human can help.
  • See where new clients come from: online booking requests now remember how the client found you — the ad campaign, search click, or referring website that led them to your booking page (including the booking widget on your own website). Each request shows a "How they found you" line when you review it, and your new-client notification email includes the source. If you run Google or Meta ads with standard campaign links (UTM tags), attribution works automatically — nothing about your client's information is ever shared back to ad platforms.
  • Log clinical hours earned outside Practice Harbor: in Clinical Hours, Log Hours now includes a Direct option, so pre-licensed clinicians can record direct client contact from other settings (for example school or agency work) toward their licensure hours — pick the session type and note the setting. These sit alongside the direct hours already counted automatically from your completed appointments, and flow into your summary, weekly log, and PDF exports. (Hours earned elsewhere are verified by that setting's supervisor.)

Improved

  • Couple and family charts now show your sessions: the couple's chart has an Overview like an individual chart — each appointment appears as a card with its status, service code, and the session note nested underneath, with Type / Dictate / Live Session buttons right on the card. And notes you start from a couple's calendar appointment now land on the couple's chart (where couples notes belong), not on one partner's individual chart. On a partner's own chart, couple sessions link you straight to the couple's chart instead of offering to write an individual note against a couples session.

  • The couple chart's sidebar now shows billing at a glance: couple and family profiles gained the same sidebar cards individual charts have — insurance summary (the primary client's coverage, which is what gets billed for couples sessions), recent invoices, and superbills/statements — with links that keep you on the couple's own billing page.

  • Pick a template when typing a chart note: the "Add a note" box on client and couple charts now has the same Format picker as appointments — choose a template and a structured note opens in the full editor with your sections ready to fill in; free-form Chart Note works exactly as before. On couple and family charts, your "who attended" selection carries onto the note either way.

  • Couples and Family note templates can tell partners apart: the built-in Couples Therapy and Family Therapy templates (when newly added to your library) now write a separate "Progress" entry for each person present, and recordings of these sessions use speaker-separated transcription. Existing copies in your library are unchanged — you can turn this on per section in the template editor.

  • Invitation emails now come with role-specific getting-started guidance: when you add a team member, their welcome email now explains their first steps based on the role you gave them — supervisors get their two-minute setup (add your NPI and license so supervisees' billing documents stay compliant, and where notes arrive for review), clinicians get the calendar and client-chart basics.

  • Your workspace now lives at a dedicated secure address: on practiceharbor.com, signing in and everything you do while signed in now happens at secure.practiceharbor.com — the same separation banks use, keeping your workspace fully apart from our public website. Old links and bookmarks forward automatically, and links in emails now point there directly. You may be asked to sign in once after the change; nothing else about your account or data is different.

  • Screen sharing can now include sound: when sharing your screen in a telehealth session from Chrome or Edge, choosing a browser tab now offers a "Share tab audio" checkbox — so a video or audio exercise you play for your client is heard, not just seen.

  • The desktop app handles bad connections gracefully: opening the app now shows a Practice Harbor welcome screen while it loads, and if your internet is down you'll see a clear "Can't connect right now" message with a Retry button — it reconnects automatically as soon as your connection returns, instead of showing a technical browser error.

  • Comment read status now follows you across devices: the "unread comment" dot on supervision notes is now shared between your computers — reading a comment on one device clears it everywhere, instead of each browser tracking its own.

  • The tutorial session now becomes a real completed session: finishing the AI-scribe walkthrough marks the sample appointment completed with a billable charge — so superbills, statements, and receipts are all try-able on your Sample Client immediately afterward, without touching your metered sessions or your reports.

  • "Send an intake packet" on the Getting Started checklist is now one click: it asks for an email you can check (your own works), saves it on your Sample Client, and opens the intake picker — so you can see exactly what clients receive, in your own inbox.

  • The Sample Client's chart now prompts for an email when none is set — use a separate test address (not your own login email), and you can send intakes, superbills, and portal invites to the sample chart to see exactly what clients receive.

  • Adding a free consultation is now a one-click preset: when you add a service, tap the "free 15-minute consultation" preset to fill in a no-charge code, a $0 rate, and a 15-minute duration — the standard, insurance-safe way to offer a complimentary intro call. You can still adjust the duration, and no bill is ever created for a $0 service.

  • Supervisor details on billing documents: a new setting (Settings > Client billing documents) prints the supervising provider's name, license, and NPI on your billing paperwork for pre-licensed clinicians — now covering superbills, invoices, and statements — so a supervised clinician's documents are consistent, and states that require a "supervised by" line on billing documents are covered. The line follows the clinician's assigned supervisor automatically, and appears only when you turn the setting on. Printed CMS-1500 forms also show the supervising provider's NPI in Box 17b, matching what's already sent on electronic claims.

Fixed

  • Therapy-group billing now reads per member everywhere: a therapy group's profile no longer shows a single member's balance as if it were the group's. Group members are billed individually, so the profile now points you to each session's attendance panel — where per-member fees, invoicing, and payment collection live — and to each member's own chart.
  • Schedule Appointment now works from a therapy group's profile: the button opens the scheduler with the group pre-selected, and booked sessions include every member so attendance and per-member billing work as expected.
  • AI notes from telehealth sessions now generate reliably: turning on session notes inside a Practice Harbor Video call uploaded your audio but could silently fail to hand it off for transcription, leaving the note stuck at "Uploading". Session recordings now travel the same hardened upload pipeline as the recording page — audio uploads progressively during the call, short sessions are handled first-class, and anything that does get stuck is closed out with a clear message within the hour instead of spinning forever.
  • Ending a video call no longer shows a "Session Error": hanging up a telehealth session could paint an error screen over a perfectly clean goodbye (for you and for clients in the portal). Ending the call now just ends the call.
  • Interrupted session recordings are easier to find and rescue: if a recording is cut off before it finishes uploading — a crash, a closed laptop — the saved audio now appears in your left menu at the top of Recent, labeled "Unprocessed audio" under the client's name, with one click to turn it into a note. Previously this offer only appeared on the recording page. Recordings made during video calls are now protected the same way, saved encrypted on your device every 15 seconds.
  • Running late? Your appointment stays visible in the client portal: appointments used to disappear from the portal's Upcoming list 30 minutes after their scheduled end — so a client running late saw an empty list. Appointments now stay listed for 12 hours after they end; once a session can no longer be joined, the card says so plainly instead of hiding.
  • The whole app is faster: we found and fixed a build configuration issue that had been shipping a heavier, slower version of the app than intended. Everything — page loads, the calendar, video sessions — now runs on the fully optimized build. You don't need to do anything; it applies on your next visit.
  • Your camera turns off the moment a video session ends: the browser's recording indicator (the red dot on the tab) could stay lit after ending a telehealth session or backing out of the pre-call screen — the camera is now released immediately in every case, in both the practice app and the client portal.
  • Rejoin a video session for up to 4 hours after its scheduled end: sessions that run long, reconnecting after a dropped connection, or a "let's meet an hour later, same link" reschedule all work now — for you and for clients. Completed appointments also keep their Join Session, View Forms, and Add to Calendar buttons in the client portal.
  • Note-processing status messages now behave: the "Processing Notes" indicator dismisses when you leave the video session page (the note keeps generating in the background and announces itself when ready), and completion notifications arrive promptly instead of waiting for your next page visit.