Family portal

The family portal gives caregivers one secure place for each child they look after: upcoming appointments, the home program, files you share, secure messages with the care team, their journal and, when you allow it, billing. It works for every discipline. Turn it on first in Setup > Family portal, then open a chart and choose Family portal in the side menu.

Inviting a caregiver#

Click Invite Caregiver and pick a contact from the chart, or Someone else to type a name, email and relationship. The invitation goes to the contact's email on file unless you enter a different one.

• Show billing in the portal: balances, statements and payments. It starts on for a guarantor contact.
• Language: English or Spanish for the portal emails and the portal itself. Every portal screen, from sign-in to messages, shows in this language; what your staff write (messages, activity names, steps) shows as written.

Click Send Invitation. The caregiver gets an email with their portal link. Each time they sign in, NeatPractice emails them a one-time code; no password is involved. On their first visit they confirm each child they were given access to, and only then does that child show in their portal.

One caregiver email is one portal account in your clinic. Invite the same person from a sibling's chart and they see both children with the same sign-in. The Other children column shows how many more children they can see.

From a row's menu you can Send Invitation Again, Show Billing or Hide Billing, and Revoke Access. Revoking hides the child from that caregiver at once and signs them out when it was their last child. Their messages, journal entries and uploads stay on the chart.

What the family sees#

The What the family sees list shows the chart's records you can show or hide one at a time:

• Appointments in the next 90 days show in the portal unless you hide one (a surprise visit, a staff-only meeting).
• Chart files and signed documents (evaluations, progress reports, plans of care, monthly summaries) stay private until you share them. Families download a shared signed document as a PDF.

Use Show in Portal or Hide from Portal from a row's menu. Staff notes, meeting links and anything not listed here never reach the portal.

Files from the family#

Caregivers can send files such as school schedules or outside reports. They land in Family uploads, not on the chart. Click a file name to open it, then choose File on Chart (pick a document category; the file then goes through the usual virus scan) or Decline with a reason the family sees.

Messages#

Messages lists the conversations with this child's caregivers. Click a subject to read it and reply, or click Message Family to start one with a caregiver who has portal access. Close Conversation files a conversation that needs no answer; the family can always start a new one.

Message text stays inside your clinic's records, kept with the chart and never deleted. The family gets an email that says only that a new message is waiting, and the care team gets a notification that names no patient. Every message and every portal visit is recorded in the access log.

Family messages are for the child's care team. Staff whose chart access covers all patients read every conversation; anyone else reads and answers only the conversations of children whose care team they are on today. Someone who opens another chart, for example through emergency access, sees a note that the messages are for the care team instead of the conversations.

To see conversations across all your patients, open Patients > Family messages. It lists the conversations you may read. Filter by Status to find the ones that need a reply.

What caregivers see#

After signing in, a caregiver sees a home page with their children and these areas, as your clinic turned them on:

• Appointments: the children's upcoming appointments with the provider and location.
• Home program: activities to practice with steps and links, and a button to log each practice (home programs).
• Journal: entries they write about home, shared with the providers they pick, and your replies.
• Messages: secure conversations with the care team.
• Shared files: files you shared, and a way to send you files.
• Billing: for caregivers allowed to see it, each child's balance, statements to download and recent payments. Paying online is not available yet; the page shows how to pay.

Clinics with applied behavior analysis also offer Progress summaries: see ABA caregiver portal.