Finding your way

The main menu#

The menu runs down the left side of every page. It shows only the areas your role lets you use, so two people in the same clinic can see different menus. NeatPractice adds an area to the menu when it reaches your clinic; until then it stays hidden rather than showing a page that does not work yet.

The areas appear in this order: Dashboard takes you back to your home dashboard, and Todos opens Todos, your own queue of items to finish. Then come Schedule, Patients, Visits, Docs (documentation and faxes), Billing (billing and payments), Payroll and Reports. Setup sits at the bottom of the menu, just above your name.

On a phone or a narrow window, tap the menu button in the top left corner to open it.

Module panels#

An area with more than one page, such as Billing, opens a second menu beside the main one that lists its pages. The panel shows only the pages your role lets you use.

• Hover over an area to preview its pages, and click a page to open it.
• Click the area itself to open the first page you can use.
• In a panel whose pages are grouped, such as Setup, click a group's heading to fold its pages away, and again to show them. NeatPractice remembers which groups you closed, and opens the group holding the page you are on.
• Click the arrow at the top of the panel to collapse it and give the page more room, and again to bring it back. Ctrl B does the same. NeatPractice remembers your choice on every device you sign in on.
• On a tablet or a window narrower than about 1024 pixels, the panel folds into the main menu: tap or click an area to see its pages over the page.
• On a list you can narrow by patient, the patient panel sits to the right of the area's panel.

Pages you reach from a list, such as a patient's chart, a visit or a report, have a back arrow next to their title that returns you to the list.

Searching for patients and staff#

Click Search in the top bar, or press Ctrl K (Cmd K on a Mac), to open the search box from any page.

• Before you type, it lists the patients whose charts you opened most recently.
• Type at least two characters to find patients and staff. Patients match on name (a close misspelling still finds them), chart number, date of birth, phone, email or insurance member id, and discharged or inactive patients are included. Staff match on name, email or NPI.
• Use the arrow keys to move through the results and press Enter to open one. A patient opens their chart; a provider opens their provider record, and anyone else opens their user account. When patients or staff appear, the first one is highlighted, unless you already moved the highlight yourself.
• If the patient or staff search cannot finish, the box says so; select that line to try again.
• You only see what your role lets you open. Patients follow your caseload and come from every location you can work in, whatever location you picked, since a chart opens from any location. Staff appear if you can view Setup (providers) or users.
• The same box still finds pages, settings and quick actions.

What you type in the search box is never added to the page address, so it does not end up in your browser history.

Choosing a location#

The tile at the top of the menu shows the location you are working in: its short code (or, without one, the first letters of its name), or ALL for All locations. Click it to see the locations you can work in, listed by name, and pick another one. A check mark shows the current choice.

• Lists show only what belongs to the location you pick. On Patients, for example, you see the patients seen at that location, including patients seen at more than one location.
• Some pages cover the whole clinic on purpose, such as Payments, Payroll, the fax inbox and returned documents: money, pay and incoming mail are not tied to one location. While a single location is picked, a note under the page title says the page shows every location.
• Reports start with their Locations choice set to the location you picked, and the Practice KPIs on the dashboard count only that location.
• All locations shows everything you have access to. It appears only if you can work in every location of your clinic.
• Opening a patient's chart always works, even when the patient is seen at another location. The location is a way to narrow your lists, not a limit on what you may open. A chart always shows the patient's records from every location, and a note under its header says so while a single location is picked.
• NeatPractice remembers your choice and uses it the next time you sign in, on any device. If you work in a single location, NeatPractice picks it for you. If you work for more than one clinic, each clinic remembers its own choice.
• Settings that apply to the whole clinic stay the same whatever location you pick.

Which locations you can work in is part of your user account; an administrator sets it under location access. If you can open Setup, Manage locations at the bottom of the list takes you to the locations page.

Hiding patient details#

When others can see your screen, for example at the front desk or while you share it in a meeting, click the eye button in the top bar (Hide patient details). NeatPractice then blurs patient names, dates of birth and ages, chart numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and street addresses on every page: lists, the chart header, the patient panel, patient pickers, dashboard widgets, the intake board, notifications, and patients the assistant looked up. Calendar blocks show the patient's initials instead of the name.

• Point at a blurred item to read it. A blurred link also clears while it has keyboard focus.
• Click the button again (Show patient details) to show everything.
• It changes only what your screen shows. Printouts, exports and what other people see stay the same, and NeatPractice remembers your choice the next time you sign in.

Setup#

Setup holds the settings that shape how your clinic works. Its pages are grouped by area:

• Clinic: your clinic's settings, practice details, patient settings, locations, disciplines and subscription.
• People and access: users, roles and the security audit log.
• Communication: the notifications you receive.
• Integrations: API keys and webhooks for connecting other systems.

The Setup panel works like every module panel: hover over Setup to preview its pages, click it to open the first page you have access to, and click the arrow at the top of the panel to collapse it.

Help for the page you are on#

Click the help button (the question mark) in the top bar to open the help page for the screen you are on in a panel beside your work. Links inside the panel open other help pages in the same panel; click the back arrow to return. Click Open in new tab to read the full page, with the page list and search, in its own tab. When a screen has no help page of its own yet, the panel opens the home page of the help.

The bottom of the panel links to What's new, Ideas and Contacting support.

Searching the help#

The help panel opens with the cursor in its search box, so you can start typing right away. Press / to jump back to the search box from anywhere in the panel. Results show in two lists:

• On this page: the sections of the help page you have open that use your words. Pick one to jump to it.
• All help articles: other help pages that use your words, with the section and a short excerpt. Pick one to read it in the panel; click the back arrow to return.

Use the arrow keys to move through the results and press Enter to open one. Your words stay highlighted on the page you open, starting at the first match in the section you picked. The search box shows where you are, such as 2 of 5. Click the up and down arrows next to it, or press Enter for the next match and Shift+Enter for the previous one; after the last match it goes back to the first. Press Esc to clear the search (or the highlights); press it again to close the panel. When nothing matches, try other words or click Open the help center to search every page in its own tab.

Help for a module or add-on your clinic does not use stays out of the results.

You can also open the help at any time at /help in your clinic's web address, even before you sign in. Press Ctrl K there to search every page.

For a quick reminder without leaving the page, click the small question mark next to a page or section title. It opens a short summary of what that page or section is for.

Forms and lists#

Adding or changing a record, such as a location or a payer, opens a dialog over its list instead of a new page. Click a name in the list to open it; close the dialog to go back to the list. A link to an open record keeps working, so you can bookmark it or send it to a colleague.

When a field has more to explain, a question mark sits next to its label. Click it to read what the field does.

Type a time the way you would say it, such as 9, 930, 9:30 pm or 21:30, and NeatPractice shows it as 9:30 PM once you leave the field. You can also click the clock next to it and pick the hour, minute and AM or PM. A time NeatPractice cannot read stays as you typed it, with a message under the field.

Names in a list are links. Click a patient to open their chart (at the section the list is about, such as coverage or plans of care), or a claim, payer, provider, location or document to open that record. A name shows as plain text when your role cannot open it. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) while clicking to open it in a new tab.

Previews#

Rest the pointer on a record's link for a moment, or move to it with the Tab key, and a small card opens with a summary, so you can check a record without leaving the list. Links outside lists preview the same way, such as the patient names on My Day, the calendar's appointment card, a notification's title, the names in the search box and the records a dialog links to:

• Patient: age, primary payer, next appointment, active alerts and any authorization that is running low, expiring or used up.
• Provider: disciplines, today's appointment count and, if your role manages providers, licenses that have expired or expire within 60 days.
• Claim: payer, status, billed, paid and balance, and the last status change.
• Visit: date and time, provider, discipline, location and where the note stands.
• Note or document: its kind, date, provider and discipline, whether it is signed and who still has to co-sign. The card never shows what the note says.
• Appointment: type, time, location and providers, and whether the patient arrived or cancelled.
• Authorization: number, payer, discipline, dates and the visits or units approved.
• Episode or referral: discipline, status, who referred the patient and when, priority and case lead.
• Coverage: payer, plan, priority, dates, copay and coinsurance.
• Charge: code, date of service, units, amount, payer, provider and any holds.
• Payment, deposit or remittance: date, payer, method, amounts and what is left to apply.
• Agency invoice: payer, location, period, services and total.
• Payer, location, physician or user: the details you look up most, such as a payer's claim method, a location's address and today's appointments, a physician's NPI or a user's roles.

The card shows only what your role can see elsewhere: without access to the schedule there is no next appointment, and without access to notes a visit card leaves out the note and a patient card counts medical alerts without showing them. Move the pointer away to close it. Cards stay off on touch screens, so a tap opens the record as before.

A list with nothing in it yet still shows its columns, with a message in place of the rows.

Every list has the same toolbar, in the same order:

• Filter narrows the rows. Click Add filter, pick a column such as a status, a location or a date, then pick the values to keep. Add more filters to narrow further, or switch and to or to show rows that match any of them. Reset filters clears them all. When your filters hide every row, the list says No results match the current filters. with a Clear filters link, rather than calling the list empty. Columns that hold patient details, such as names, have no filter; use the search box instead.
• Sort orders the rows by one or more columns.
• Group, in lists shown inside a record or a chart section, groups the rows by a column.
• Page controls such as a date range or a switch come next, and the search box, when the list has one, comes last.

You can also click a column header to sort the list by that column, ascending or descending, or to hide the column. Lists shown inside a record or a chart section can be grouped from the same menu. Columns that hold several values in one cell, such as a list of codes, have no sort.

Supported browsers#

NeatPractice works in the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on computers and tablets. If your browser is too old, NeatPractice shows a notice at the top of the page; update the browser and the notice goes away. See Supported browsers and devices for versions, screen sizes and resetting the app on a device.