Switching from SimplePractice to Holder

Three exports from three different screens, and no way round it. The one that catches people is that SimplePractice's own data export gives you contact cards rather than a spreadsheet, so the client list has to come from a report instead.

What comes with you

• Clients: yes. Names, contact details, dates of birth and the demographic fields you've filled in.
• Consent status: no. SimplePractice records treatment consent, not marketing consent. Everyone arrives with none recorded.
• History: partly. Notes and documents export as folders of files, one per client. Appointments export as a separate report. Neither goes through the standard import — turning them into records inside Holder is a one-off we do for you.

Export from SimplePractice

The client spreadsheet:

• Analytics > Reports > Client details
• Set the date range wide enough to cover every client, and make sure the status filters include active, inactive and prospective
• Click Export > CSV
• Do the same for the Client demographics report

Take the report route rather than the data export for this. The data export produces vCard contact cards, not a spreadsheet, which is the step where people get stuck.

The records:

• Settings > Practice > Data export
• Click Start export, choose All clients in the practice, then the Complete export type
• Leave Require a password to open file ticked, and click Export
• You'll be emailed when it's ready, but the file isn't sent by email. Go back to the same page, click Ready for download, and copy the password from beside it
• Do this promptly. Access and the password expire after a week, and SimplePractice cannot retrieve an expired password
• Only the Account Owner, or a practice manager with export permission, can run it

You get folders for Administrative, Billing Documents, Contacts, Medical Records, Psychotherapy Notes, Secure messages and Stored Documents, each with a subfolder per client.

The appointments:

• Data exports don't include appointments, which surprises everyone
• Analytics > Report exports > New report export
• Choose Appointment status, set the date range back to the beginning, choose CSV, and export
• Download it the same day. Once ready, it expires at midday the next business day

Import to Holder

• Upload the Client details CSV as it downloaded. Date and phone formats are normalised on import, so don't spend an evening reformatting American dates
• Read the column mapping check before anything is written
• Duplicates are flagged side by side with a merge view. Where two records disagree about opting out, the more restrictive one wins
• The records ZIP isn't a CSV and doesn't go through this route. Send it to us instead

What Holder rebuilds rather than imports

• Booking pages, session types, availability, packs
• Intake questionnaires, rebuilt as versioned intake forms, so from the switch onward you can see which version a client signed
• Notes written in Holder are locked once signed
• Under an hour for the scheduling side, longer if your intake form is a long one

What doesn't come with you

• Insurance, claims and superbills. Holder doesn't do insurance billing. If US insurance work is a real part of your practice, that is the honest reason not to move
• Marketing consent. Decide who you have permission to email and set it deliberately
• Secure messages. They export as a record of what was said, not as live threads
• Psychotherapy notes. They're in the export, but check your retention position and lawful basis actually cover moving them anywhere
• Zoom. No integration transfers. In Holder you paste your own link on a session, one session at a time

The last step

• Repoint the booking link everywhere it appears
• Take a test booking as a client and check the confirmation and intake form both arrive
• Keep the SimplePractice export archived somewhere secure and encrypted. Your clinical retention obligations outlive your subscription

Deep history imports are a paid one-off service, not part of a trial or a plan. If you want one, send us your export before you start a trial: we'll quote you for it, and tell you honestly what will and won't come with you either way.