Record a Cash or Check Payment in SimplePractice
By George Ruan • October 7, 2026
Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.
To record money a client paid you directly, add a payment in SimplePractice with the Cash, Check, or External Card method and apply it to the invoice for that visit. Do not choose Online Card, which runs a new charge. Then make sure whoever runs automatic collection knows, so the same balance is not charged to the card on file.
This page covers client payments. For money from Headway, Alma, or another billing platform, use the separate platform workflow.
Sections
Record the payment against the right visit
Confirm the amount you actually received, the method, and which session it pays for. A promise to bring a check next week is not a payment yet.
Open the client’s unpaid invoice for that session, or choose Add Payment from the client’s billing page. If the session has no invoice yet, it needs one before money can be applied to it.
Select only the invoice or invoices the money covers. For a partial payment, change the amount to what was received; the rest stays open on the invoice.
Choose Cash, Check, or External Card. External Card is for a card you ran on another terminal or app. Review the summary and save.
Reopen the invoice and confirm what was applied, what is still due, and whether anything was left unallocated.
The method definitions come from SimplePractice’s client-billing guide; invoice selection and partial payments are covered in its payment navigation guide.
Where double collection actually comes from
In our support inbox, the cash-or-check problems are rarely about which button to press. They come from two people collecting for the same visit without telling each other. The patterns we see most:
The practice collects a copay and the biller collects it too. A clinician takes a copay at the session, often on a different card, while automatic collection is set to charge the card on file after the claim. When a practice tells us it already collected, we stop automatic collection for that specific visit and leave the earlier collected copays recorded as they are.
A cash rate was agreed but the visit still shows the insured amount. When a practice agrees a flat cash rate while insurance is sorted out, the session’s client amount has to be changed to that rate before you take the payment. We hold the card on file while the practice collects. After the change, one visit can show as two invoices that together equal the cash rate; that is expected.
A credit assumed to be there is not. A credit belongs to the client account it sits on. We have seen a practice expect an existing credit to cover a session when the credit was actually on other clients’ accounts, so the session still needed to be collected.
Payments taken outside the system go unrecorded. Sessions that look mysteriously paid, or unpaid, often trace back to someone running the client’s card in a separate app. Recording those as External Card keeps the ledger honest.
Tell the automatic collector before the next run
SimplePractice’s AutoPay guide says available unallocated payments are applied before an invoiced balance is charged. That only helps if the payment is recorded on the right client before the charge runs. If a biller collects for you through its own process rather than AutoPay, tell the biller which clients and visits you are collecting yourself; recording the payment alone may not reach their schedule in time.
Leave automatic invoices on if your biller relies on them. We use SimplePractice invoice items to reconcile client payments and balances, so turning invoicing off to tidy the chart can break that reconciliation. Charging copays yourself does not interfere, as long as each one is recorded against its visit.
Fixing a payment recorded wrong
Wrong amount or duplicate entry: correct or remove the original payment record. Do not add an offsetting fake payment.
Applied to the wrong visit: reallocate it to the visit the client meant to pay before asking them for more money.
Check bounced or never deposited: the SimplePractice entry does not prove the money cleared. Reconcile deposits in your bookkeeping and reverse the entry if the check fails.
If you are not sure whether a card was actually charged, check the payment method and transaction first. Deleting a bookkeeping entry and refunding a real card charge are different actions.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
I already collected the copay. Will my biller charge the card again?
It can, if the payment is not recorded on that visit or the biller does not know you collected it. Record the payment and tell your biller which visits you are collecting yourself so they can hold automatic collection for them.
Does recording a check in SimplePractice deposit it?
No. The entry is a ledger record. Depositing the check and confirming it cleared happen outside SimplePractice.
Can a credit on a sibling’s account pay for this visit?
Not on its own. A credit sits on the client account where it was created, so check which account holds it before telling a family the visit is covered.
Sources
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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.
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