Administration
Closing your clinic account
What happens when your clinic closes its NeatPractice account, how owners request and download a full export of the clinic's data, what it holds, and how long you have to change your mind.
Closing your account stops everyone in your clinic from signing in. Your records are not erased right away: NeatPractice keeps them for a grace period, prepares a full copy of your data for you, and removes them only after that.
Close the account#
Only people whose role can delete the organization see this option.
- Open Setup and choose Organization.
- In Danger Zone, click Delete Organization.
- Type your clinic's name to confirm, then click Delete.
Everyone in your clinic is signed out and can no longer sign in. The closure is recorded in the security audit log.
Your data export#
Your data export is one zip file with everything your clinic stored in NeatPractice. When you close the account, NeatPractice prepares one for you and emails the person who closed it when it is ready. Owners can also request a new one at any time, before or after closing.
What the export holds#
| Folder or file | What it holds |
|---|---|
records | Each patient's documents as PDFs: signed notes, evaluations, plans of care and reports exactly as signed (with addenda), superbills, Good Faith Estimates, sent faxes, records request packets, consents and uploaded documents. |
files | Every file uploaded to or created in NeatPractice, in its original format, in one folder per patient (and clinic for the rest). |
tables | Every kind of record as a spreadsheet (CSV) and a JSON file: patients, insurance policies, appointments, visits, charges, claims, payments, the patient ledger, providers, users, setup lists and more. |
audit | The change history of every record, the log of who opened which patient chart, break-glass access, security events and support access. |
data-dictionary.csv | Every column of every spreadsheet explained, with its type and the allowed values. |
README.pdf | A guide to the folders, notes for importing the data into other software, and what was left out on purpose. |
manifest.json | Every file in the export with its size and a checksum, so you can confirm it arrived complete. |
Patient folders are named with the patient's last name, first name and a short code, for example
example-jordan-1a2b3c4d. Drafts that were never signed appear in the spreadsheets but not as PDFs. Passwords,
sign-in links, API keys and other secrets are never included. If your clinic records Social Security numbers, the
patients spreadsheet holds them in full.
Request and download an export#
Only owners can request or download the export; the NeatPractice support team cannot, even with support access. You can do this while the clinic is open and during the grace period after closing it, when signing in shows only this page.
- Open Setup > Clinic > Organization.
- In Data export, click Request Export.
- Enter the code from your authenticator app, then click Request Export. NeatPractice skips the code if you entered one in the last 15 minutes. To encrypt the file, turn on Protect the ZIP with a password first (see below).
- When the export shows Ready (NeatPractice also emails you), open the row menu and choose Download, enter a code if asked, and save the file.
Preparing an export can take a while for a large clinic. Every request and download is recorded in the security audit log.
Protecting the export with a password#
When you request an export you can turn on Protect the ZIP with a password and enter a password of 8 to 128 characters twice. NeatPractice encrypts every file inside the ZIP with AES-256, so the file opens only with that password. Windows 11, macOS, 7-Zip and WinZip can open it; older built-in tools may ask you to use 7-Zip instead.
NeatPractice never keeps your password in readable form and forgets it once the file is built, so support cannot recover it. If you lose it, request a new export. Share the password separately from the file, for example by phone. The exports list marks a protected export with Password protected. The step-up code and the 7-day download window still apply.
How long an export stays available#
Because the file holds all of your clinic's patient information, an export you request while the clinic is open can be downloaded for 7 days after it is ready; the Expires column shows when. After that NeatPractice deletes the file, the row shows Expired, and you can request a new export whenever you need one. The deletion is recorded in the security audit log too.
The export NeatPractice prepares when you close the account stays available for the whole grace period.
The 90-day grace period#
Your data stays in NeatPractice for 90 days after you close the account. During that time, owners can still sign in to download the data export, and NeatPractice support can reopen the account with everything as you left it. Contact support before the date shown when you closed the account.
After the grace period#
Records are deleted only once the retention period that applies to your clinic has passed, only after a complete data export with all your files has been prepared, and only after two members of the NeatPractice support team confirm it. Until then your records stay stored and protected, even though nobody in your clinic can sign in. When the records are finally removed, everything goes: patient records, notes, billing, files and the history of who changed or viewed what. NeatPractice keeps a certificate of the deletion (when it happened and how much was removed), but none of your data.