🖥️ For providers using the Oasys web app. For writing, signing and amending a session note itself, see Writing session notes and using Scribe.
This article shows you how to set your notes up: the note formats, your own templates, practice templates and prompt customization, session analysis, and bulk signing. It also explains the other kinds of notes in Oasys beyond the session note, including contact, psychotherapy, admin and prep notes.
In this article
1. Note formats
Every note template is built on a format, chosen in the template's Note Format menu. Each format comes with default sections and AI prompts, and you can edit its sections.
Classic formats
Standard Progress Note: a general six-section note covering the client's report, observations, interventions, treatment plan progress, assessment, and plan.
SOAP Note: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan.
DAP Note: Data, Assessment, Plan.
BIRP Note: Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan.
GIRP Note: Goals, Intervention, Response, Plan.
Formats for specific kinds of sessions
Intake Note: a first-session diagnostic evaluation.
Crisis Psychotherapy Note: a session spent on an acute crisis.
Family or Couples Therapy Note: who attended, the relational focus, and the identified client's progress.
Group Therapy Note: one note per member, covering only that client's participation and progress.
Treatment Plan Review: the session in which the treatment plan is created or reviewed with the client.
Termination Session Note: the final session of an episode of care, including the course of treatment and outcome.
Custom: your own sections, starting from one of the standard formats. In Choose starting template, pick a format and click Start Customizing, then edit its sections.
💡 Tip: You can switch templates for a single session when you save it, in the Session Settings dialog, as long as AI Progress Notes is on.
2. Customizing your note templates
Your templates live in Settings → Clinical → Note templates, and what you can do there depends on your setup.
Independent providers, and practice members whose practice lets providers create their own templates, can create, edit, duplicate and delete their own templates. Practice members also see their practice's templates below their own.
Practice members whose practice doesn't let providers create their own templates choose from the practice's templates only. Personal templates aren't offered.
Your account comes with ready-made templates to start from, which you can edit or duplicate.
Creating or editing a template
Click Create, or click an existing template card.
Give it a Template Name and, if you like, a Description.
Set up the Session Summary tab, which controls what Scribe generates: the Note Format, its sections and prompts, note length, and AI instructions. Use Add Section to add a section with your own Section Heading and AI Prompt.
Set up the Template Structure tab, which controls how the exported PDF is laid out.
Click Save Template (or Save Changes when editing).
Use the ⋮ menu on a template card to Set as default, Duplicate or Delete it.
✅ Good to know: While you're in a practice, the untouched starter templates on your own account are hidden, because your practice's templates stand in for them. Templates you created or customized stay available when your practice allows personal templates. If you leave the practice, the starter templates show again.
3. Practice templates and prompt customization
A practice can give every provider the same templates, while still letting each clinician adjust the AI wording for their own notes.
For providers in a practice
Your practice's templates appear as cards in Settings → Clinical → Note templates. Use the ⋮ menu on a card to Set as default for your notes.
If you haven't chosen a default, your notes use your practice's default template.
The practice manages each template's sections, order and PDF fields. You can't change those; contact your practice administrator to request changes.
Adjusting a practice template's prompts
Click a practice template card. Each section shows the Practice prompt and a Your prompt box.
Type your own wording in Your prompt for any section you want to change. Leave it empty to use the practice prompt. Each prompt can be up to 4,000 characters.
Click Save prompts. Sections you've changed show a Customized badge.
To undo, click Reset to practice prompt on a section, or Reset all. Your prompts apply only to your own notes.
⚠️ Important: If your practice locks prompt customization on a template, you'll see "Prompt customization is locked on this template." and your notes use the practice prompts. Any wording you saved earlier is kept, marked Not in use, and applies again if your practice unlocks it. You can remove it with Clear my saved prompts.
For practice admins
Practice templates are managed in Practice HQ → Settings → Note templates.
Use Set as default on a template card to choose the practice-wide default. Providers who haven't picked their own default use it.
The Allow providers to create their own templates switch, under Practice template settings, controls whether providers can also create and use personal templates. When it's off, providers use practice templates only.
The Allow clinicians to adjust prompts switch, inside each template, controls whether clinicians can rewrite that template's section prompts for their own notes.
Practice templates govern the template only. Providers can always choose Therapeutic Modalities, write Additional Instructions, and save their preferences per client in the Session Settings dialog. Scribe uses exactly what's shown there; picking a template fills in its defaults, and anything a provider clears is left out.
4. Session analysis
Session analysis is an AI summary of each session, shown on the session's Analysis tab after the session is saved.
If Session Analysis is available on your account and switched on (Settings → Clinical → Feature settings → AI settings → Session analysis), each session you save gets an analysis that includes:
The client's wellbeing score.
Overview: a summary of what was discussed.
Key Topics.
Insights.
Presenting Symptoms.
Action Items & Follow-up: action items, plus follow-up points for the next session.
Turning Session analysis off stops analysis for sessions you save afterwards; existing analyses are kept. If no analysis could be generated (for example, very little was transcribed or written), the tab says No Session Analysis Generated.
5. Unsigned notes and bulk signing
Your Home tab shows a Notes to sign count, so you can catch up on unsigned notes in one place.
Click Notes to sign on your Home tab to open Unsigned Notes.
Open and sign each note.
No-show sessions and sessions for archived clients aren't listed.
If your practice allows it, a Bulk Sign button (with the number of notes selected) lets you pick several notes, preview any of them, and sign them together. Supervised providers get Bulk Send for Review instead.
Practice admins turn this on in Practice HQ → Settings → Feature settings → Bulk sign-off → Bulk signing provider notes.
6. Other kinds of notes
Besides session notes, you can keep contact notes, psychotherapy notes and admin notes on a client's chart.
From a client's chart in My clients, the session list has two menus:
New → Start Video Session, Start In-Person Session, Log Session (document a past session), Schedule Session, or Add Contact Note.
Notes → Psychotherapy notes or Admin notes.
Note type | Use it for | Who can see it |
Contact Note (New → Add Contact Note) | A phone call, email, coordination note or other contact outside a session. Captures a note, date, start time and end time, and is shown in the session list. | Not visible to the client. |
Psychotherapy notes (Notes menu) | Your private working notes. | Only you. They aren't part of the client's official chart and aren't shared with supervisors, your practice or care-team members. |
Admin notes (Notes menu) | Internal, non-clinical notes for care coordination, such as scheduling, insurance, access or follow-up. | Not visible to the client. In a practice, they're shared with practice staff and providers on the chart (or the care team). |
7. Copilot and prep notes
If AI Copilot is on (Settings → Clinical → Feature settings → AI settings), you get two AI helpers for each client.
Prep Notes: AI-generated preparation notes for an upcoming session, drawn from the client's history. Find them on the client's chart (Copilot → Prep Notes) and during a session (the Prep Notes tab or button). If generation fails, click Try again.
Copilot (marked Beta): a chat assistant about the client. On the client's chart, click Copilot → Ask Copilot. During a session, use the Copilot tab or button.
Prep notes and Copilot aren't available in couple or family sessions. Turning AI Copilot off doesn't affect writing or signing notes. Your practice may control this setting for you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my own wording in a practice template?
Yes, if your practice allows prompt customization on that template. Open the template in Settings → Clinical → Note templates, write your wording in Your prompt, and click Save prompts. The sections, their order and the PDF layout stay as your practice set them.
Why can't I create my own templates?
Your practice has Allow providers to create their own templates turned off, so you choose from the practice's templates only. Ask your practice administrator if you need a different template.
Which template does Scribe use if I don't pick one?
Your default template. If you haven't set one and you're in a practice, Scribe uses your practice's default template.
Can I build a note template from scratch?
You can click Create without duplicating an existing template, but every template is built on a standard note format. A new template starts on Standard Progress Note. To design your own sections, choose Custom as the Note Format and pick a standard format to start from.
Can my supervisor or practice see my psychotherapy notes?
No. Psychotherapy notes are only visible to you. They aren't shared with supervisors, your practice or care-team members.