SimplePractice Ready to File: Are Those Claims Submitted?

Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.

No. Appointments in SimplePractice’s Unbilled or Ready to File list do not have a submitted claim yet. Before submitting them, find out why each one is stuck and confirm nobody already filed those dates somewhere else, such as a previous biller, a billing platform, or your current biller.

Why visits sit in the unbilled list

When practices ask us “there are unbilled claims, how do I submit them?”, the cause is usually setup, not forgetfulness:

• The visit has a $0 fee. A session entered with no fee will not produce a claim. Enter your full session fee for that service code; your contracted rate is applied when the payer processes the claim, not in this field.

• The practice billing address is incomplete. SimplePractice can reject claims when the Client Billing address in Practice details is blank, even if a Business Billing address exists. A biller-role login usually cannot open Practice details, so the practice owner has to fix it before the claims can be retried.

• The visit was marked self-pay by mistake. An evaluation or session flagged as self-pay is not sent to insurance, and its full fee lands on the client’s balance instead. This one may not even appear in the unbilled list, so check the high balances too.

• Someone else is supposed to bill it. A client billed through Headway, Alma, or another platform, or visits from before a biller hand-off, may legitimately not belong in your queue.

A visit that never got filed tends to surface later as a high client balance. When we work through “why does this client owe so much?” lists, unfiled claims are one of the most common answers.

Work the list one date at a time

1. For each appointment, note the client, date of service, clinician, billing type, and payer.

2. Check Insurance > Claims, filtered by client, for an existing claim on that date and read its Status column.

3. If the client was recently with another biller or a platform, confirm with them whether they billed that date. Ask for a submission date or claim number, not just “handled.”

4. Fix the blocker (fee, address, billing type, payer) and file the claims closest to the payer’s timely-filing limit first.

5. Afterward, confirm the claim was accepted, not just created. An empty queue is not the finish line.

Avoid the duplicate-claim trap

The costliest mistake is filing a date that was already billed. A payer that receives the same date of service twice tends to deny the second claim as a duplicate, and if both pay, it will take the money back later. We have seen a resubmission sent as a brand-new claim instead of a correction: the payer flagged the copies as duplicates and rejected them while the original was still processing. If a filed claim needs a fix, send it as a corrected claim, not a new one.

The same rule applies when a biller takes over your claims. When we start submitting for a practice, we ask the practice to stop submitting claims for those visits, and we check for existing claims before sending ours so nothing goes out twice. A date that was already paid under an earlier filing should never be refiled.

Clearing visits that were billed elsewhere

SimplePractice’s unbilled-appointments guide says externally filed visits can be removed from the list by creating the claim (New > Claim/CMS1500 on the client’s Billing page) and downloading it instead of submitting it. Its claim-status definitions explain the difference: Prepared means saved but not sent, Downloaded means a copy was taken for use outside SimplePractice, and Submitted means it was sent through SimplePractice. Only do the download step after you have confirmed the other party really filed that date.

For platform-billed clients, also see recording Headway or Alma payments. If unfiled visits are inflating client balances, the insurance vs client balance guide walks through the rest of the account.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check whether a claim was submitted?

In SimplePractice, go to Insurance > Claims, filter by the client, and read the Status column for that date of service. No claim at all means it was never created.

What should I put in the fee field so the visit bills?

Your full session fee for that service code. A $0 fee keeps the claim from being created.

My previous biller may have filed some of these. What now?

Ask them which dates they submitted before you file anything. File only the dates they did not, and remove the ones they did from your list without resubmitting.

Sources

• SimplePractice: Removing appointments from the Unbilled appointments list

• SimplePractice: Understanding claim statuses