How can you benefit from automatic signatures on practice documents?
As a therapist, psychologist, or social worker, you already know that signatures are an integral part of record keeping. Many practice documents need to include the client’s name or unique identifier, the date, and your signature as evidence that you created the record. However, now you can maintain proper records digitally, saving a lot of paper, physical storage space, and hassle.
Electronic signatures have streamlined the process, and now it’s even easier to ensure that you never miss this important step. With Owl Practice, adding your signature to practice documents is completely automated, so that your signature is affixed everywhere that’s necessary without you even having to think about it. No more printing out a document just to add a signature to it. Once you’ve uploaded your signature to the system, you don’t have to worry about it again. It will always be there.
Do you need to include your signature on invoices and receipts?
This question comes up a lot and is often misunderstood. Strictly speaking, accounting documents like invoices and receipts don’t actually require signatures. However, some insurance companies like the signature to be included, so you might decide to add your signature just to cover all your bases. Using Owl, you can easily add the signature to the invoices and receipts as well, even though it’s not a defined requirement.
Signatures on Session Notes
Owl Practice automatically takes care of inclusion of your signatures on all session notes, and includes the date and time, which are College requirements. The system logs when the notes have been signed and tracks all changes made to the notes with date and time stamping. Not only does Owl track your signature but the system also locks your notes when they’ve been completed.
Signatures for Supervisory Documentation
Not only is the Owl electronic signature feature incredibly convenient for your client documentation, but it’s also handy for supervisory work. Many therapists have been through the process of supervising trainees, and if you’ve done it before, you’ll know that there are a lot of signatures required on everything. Now you can sign off on all of those documents with Owl Practice too, and the workflow to do so is fully automated in our Group Edition product.
How to Create an Electronic Signature
The first step is to create your electronic signature. There are a few ways to do this. The most popular way is to sign your name on a piece of paper and then take a photo of it:
- Write your signature on a blank piece of white paper.
- Snap a photo. Be sure that you have good, bright lighting when you take the photograph.
- Send the photo to yourself so that you can access it on your computer.
- Crop the signature to get rid of extra white space.
- Save the signature as a medium sized file, around 150 X 300 pixels is ideal.
Another option is to create a digital version of your signature using a tablet, an app, or by scanning a document with your signature and isolating or cropping the signature.
How to Upload your Signature to Owl Practice
Uploading your signature to Owl Practice is easy! Once you have a digital copy of your signature:
1. Go to Settings > Therapist Details. 
2. Here, you will see an area titled Signature. 
3. Select the blue Upload button, find the file of your digital signature, and click Open to send it to Owl.
4. Once you’ve uploaded the signature you’ll see a preview of the image. If you don’t see anything then try a different file type. 
5. When you are done uploading, be sure to hit Save at the bottom of your Settings.
Once you’ve successfully uploaded your signature, it will be added to all of your Invoices, Receipts, and Account Summaries. You’ll also be able to sign your Session Notes digitally, saving you the hassle of printing them to manually sign each note.
If you have trouble creating and uploading a signature, we’re always happy to help.
Every therapist, psychologist, and social worker can benefit from automatic signatures on practice documents. If you have any questions, or if you’re having trouble adding your signature to your documents, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’d be happy to help.
As always,
Practice Wisely
