Documentation
Signing deadlines
When a visit's note is due, what happens when it is late or locked, and how a supervisor grants more time.
A discipline can give its visit notes a signing deadline, counted from the end of the session in the location's time zone. Your clinic sets it in Documentation Rules, and can add deadlines for co-signatures, caregiver signatures and finishing the visit, or different deadlines for some appointment types or payers. ABA notes start with a deadline of the end of the next business day.
A draft shows where it stands at the top of the note:
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Due soon | The deadline is a few hours away. |
| Past its signing deadline | The note is overdue. You can still sign it; it is marked a late entry. |
| Locked past its deadline | When the clinic locks overdue notes, the author can no longer edit or sign it. |
Locking never changes or removes what the note says.
Reminders and overdue work#
NeatPractice checks deadlines every 15 minutes:
- Before the deadline, whoever owes it (the author, or the supervisor for a co-signature) gets a Documentation due soon notification.
- At the deadline, they get Documentation overdue, and so do the supervisors assigned to the visit's provider.
- When a note locks, the author gets Note locked, and Note locked again when extra time runs out.
Notifications never name the patient; click one to open the note or visit. Overdue work also shows on the Overdue page of Todos and in the Overdue documentation widget on your dashboard, which also lists visits that have no note yet.
Asking for more time#
On a locked note, the author clicks Ask for More Time, says why the note is late and clicks Send Request. The author's supervisors get a notification. A user with the Notes: Unlock permission for the patient (clinical supervisors and behavior analysts have it for their caseload) opens the note, or the Extensions tab on the Todos page, and clicks Grant More Time. The note opens again for the author for the time your clinic set (48 hours by default), then locks again if it is still unsigned. To turn a request down, click Decline and give a reason; the note stays locked, the author sees the reason on the note and can ask again. Nobody can grant their own request. A note signed after its deadline keeps the Late entry mark, even after more time was granted. Every request, grant, decline and lock is kept in the clinic's change history, and each grant or decline also appears in the security audit log without the decline reason.
Late notes and billing#
When a deadline has Hold charges of late notes (or Hold charges while overdue) turned on:
- while its milestone is overdue, the visit's charges wait in charge review with Documentation overdue, and stay out of claims until the note or signature is done;
- once it is done late, they wait with Documentation signed late until a biller releases them.
On-time documentation report#
The On-time documentation report in Reports shows, per provider and discipline, how many deadlines came due in the dates you pick, how many were met on time or late and how many are still open, with the on-time rate. Pick which deadline to rate; it starts with Note signed.