Dictate in any app · Clinical

Voice typing in SimplePractice

Therapists write progress notes after every session, and the writing outlasts the session. With Typally you hold a hotkey, speak, and the text lands in SimplePractice exactly where your cursor was.

This is a vendor guide from the makers of Typally. Anything we say about SimplePractice is worth verifying — third-party features change without notice.
Dictate into SimplePractice Free — 100 minutes of dictation every month. No card, no trial countdown.
Try Typally free

In short

  • SimplePractice's own dictation: Note templates and structured formats.
  • What Typally does instead: works above the app rather than inside it — SimplePractice sees ordinary typed text.
  • Best used for: progress notes

Does SimplePractice have built-in dictation?

Note templates and structured formats. Dictation depends on what the practitioner adds themselves.

Why dictate in SimplePractice at all?

A therapist seeing seven clients a day owes seven progress notes. Written between sessions there is no time; written at the end of the day they are vague, which is exactly when they are least defensible.

In practice people use it for: Progress notes, treatment plans, intake summaries, and the administrative side of a private practice.

How to dictate in SimplePractice

There is no SimplePractice extension or add-in involved — Typally behaves like a very fast keyboard:

1

Get Typally running

Install, sign in, and it waits in the tray.

2

In SimplePractice, click the field before you speak

Make sure SimplePractice has the cursor in the intended field; that is the only thing that decides where words appear.

3

Speak with the key held down

Push to talk, say your piece, release to transcribe.

4

Read it before you move on

Typally is not HIPAA-certified and audio goes to a third-party transcription service. Client session content must not be dictated with it. A solo practitioner is still a covered entity.

What Typally adds in SimplePractice

Typally suits the business side of a private practice — website copy, intake FAQs, referral emails, supervision reflections written without identifying details. It is not HIPAA-certified and audio goes to a third-party transcription service, so client session content has to stay in tools covered by a business associate agreement.

What this looks like in practice

A therapist rewrites her entire website and her intake FAQ by voice in one evening — nine pages that had been half-finished since she started the practice. Session notes stay in the systems approved for them.

One habit that makes it work better

Whatever tool you use, write the note in the ten minutes after the session rather than at the end of the day. Recall degrades faster than most practitioners expect.

What to watch out for in SimplePractice

Typally is not HIPAA-certified and audio goes to a third-party transcription service. Client session content must not be dictated with it. A solo practitioner is still a covered entity.

Frequently asked questions

Can I dictate therapy progress notes with Typally?

No. Progress notes contain protected health information and Typally is not HIPAA-certified. Use a tool covered by a business associate agreement.

What can a private practice use it for?

Everything that is not client data — your website, intake FAQs, supervision reflections written without identifying details, business admin.

Does SimplePractice offer dictation?

It provides note templates and structure. Speech input is not a core feature; practitioners add their own.

Try it in SimplePractice

Free plan: 100 minutes of dictation a month, no card. Pro is $7.99/month if you want more.

Try Typally free

Also dictate in: TherapyNotes · Jane App · DrChrono · see all apps