Did SimplePractice Charge the Card? How to Check
By George Ruan • October 7, 2026
Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.
To know whether SimplePractice charged a client’s card, find the payment itself on the client’s billing page and check its method: only an Online Card payment means SimplePractice ran the card. Invoices, statements, superbills, credits, and insurance adjustments can all change what the client sees without any money moving.
Sections
Things that look like a charge but are not
“Did you charge this card?” is one of the most common questions practices send us. Often the answer is no, and the confusion comes from one of these:
An automatic invoice or statement. SimplePractice creates invoices on its own schedule (daily, monthly, or another practice-wide setting) and can email them to the client. Monthly statements and superbills are separate documents with their own per-client switches. A client who gets an invoice email has been billed, not charged.
A credit from an insurance payment. When an old claim pays, the client’s ledger can suddenly show a large credit. That is the claim clearing a balance, not a refund to or a charge on the card.
An existing credit applied to a visit. Part of a visit can be paid from account credit and the rest from the card. Only the card portion is a charge, and only that portion would come back in a card refund.
An unpaid invoice for an AutoPay client. A client the practice believes is on automatic payments, with a card on file, can still have unpaid invoices. We have traced these to automatic charging that was never actually switched on for that client.
AutoPay-paused notices. SimplePractice can pause AutoPay after insurance adjustments post. Those notices are not charges either.
Find the actual transaction
Write down the amount and the date the client is asking about. Keep the visit date, invoice date, charge date, and bank posting date separate; they are often different days.
Open the client’s Billing page and filter to the client’s transactions. Widen the date range, because a charge for an insurance visit usually happens after the claim processes, not on the day of the session.
Open each payment with View. Check the method, which invoice or invoices it was applied to, and its receipt.
For Online Card, match it to the processor record and confirm it succeeded, failed, or was refunded. For External Card, Cash, or Check, the money was taken outside SimplePractice and recorded afterward.
If there seem to be two charges, compare them one by one by transaction, not by matching dollar amounts.
SimplePractice’s client-billing guide defines Online Card as a card processed through SimplePractice and the other methods as payments recorded from elsewhere. Its receipt guide explains that receipts are created when a payment is added, so a cash entry can have a receipt with no card involved, and refunds get their own receipt.
When the card really was charged twice
Real duplicate collections do happen, and in our experience they cluster in a few situations:
Several claims process at once and each one triggers a copay, so a client sees multiple charges in one day. Each may be correct, but practices often prefer a daily limit or a payment plan instead.
A practice collects at the session and the biller collects after the claim. Tell your biller which visits you collect yourself.
Two cards are on file, for example for two parents, and the one charged was not the one the family expected.
A manual cleanup of old balances charges something it should not. When that has been our mistake, we refund it and say so.
Once you confirm an overcharge, refund it to the same card it came from and, if the situation is still being sorted out, pause automatic charging for that client so it does not repeat. Tell the client the verified amount, the visit it covered, and what happens next.
The billing-document guide describes how invoices, statements, and superbills differ. If the question is really whether the amount was right, use the insurance vs client balance checklist. If the client paid you directly, record that cash or check payment before the next automatic charge.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
My client got an invoice email. Was their card charged?
Not necessarily. Invoices are generated and emailed on their own schedule. Look for a payment with the Online Card method to know whether the card was run.
Can I turn off automatic invoices to stop the confusion?
Check with your biller first. We rely on SimplePractice invoices to reconcile client payments and balances, so we ask practices to leave automatic invoicing on.
Will a refund include the part paid with account credit?
No. A card refund returns only what was charged to the card. The credit portion stays on the client’s account or is reallocated separately.
Sources
Want Bomi to handle insurance billing?
Bomi helps therapy practices with benefit checks, claims, denials, balances, CAQH, attestations, and revenue management.
Talk to Bomi about billing
About Bomi
Founded by George Ruan, Dax Earl, and Andrey Goder, Bomi helps independent therapists and group practices with insurance billing, credentialing, and payer follow-up. Bomi grew out of Dax’s experience helping his mother with her therapy practice, with a clear purpose: reduce the administrative burden of insurance while keeping practice owners in control.
Meet our founders