Thinking of changing practice software? What to check before you move

If you are looking at a different practice system, something has probably changed in your practice. Maybe you went mobile, took on more NDIS or Support at Home work, hired your fifth clinician, or noticed that a growing share of the week happens in spreadsheets beside your software. None of that means your current system is wrong. It means it is worth checking whether it still fits the practice you run now, not the one you set up.

This post is written to be useful whichever way you decide. It covers the honest reasons to look, what to test before you commit, what a migration really moves, and the questions to put to every vendor on your list, including us.

Good reasons to look, and one bad one

Reviewing your practice software is worth doing when the shape of the work has moved. Common triggers:

• Your funding mix changed. A practice that was mostly private now bills NDIS, Medicare, DVA, WorkCover and Support at Home, and each funder wants something different on the invoice.
• You went mobile. Travel, routes and drive time now decide whether a day makes money.
• The team grew. Rosters, credentials, leave and timesheets have moved from your head into a folder of spreadsheets.
• Work happens outside the system. If staff keep a separate list of unbilled visits or overdue invoices, the software is not carrying the load.

The bad reason is a single irritation. Every system has one. Moving software takes real time from people who are already busy, so the case for it should be about the next three years of the practice, not last Tuesday.

What to test in a trial

A demo shows you the best path through a product. A trial should show you your worst day. Before you commit to anything, run your own scenarios through it:

1. Book a week for your busiest clinician, including a repeat booking, a joint session and a last-minute reschedule.
2. Raise invoices for one patient under each funder you bill, and check that each one is addressed to the right payer and carries the references they need.
3. Cancel a visit late and see how the cancellation fee is decided and recorded.
4. Write a progress note the way your clinicians actually write them, on a phone, between visits.
5. Pull the report you look at every month and check that the numbers mean what you think they mean.
6. Export your data and open the file. If leaving a system is hard, that should give you pause before joining it.

What actually comes across in a migration

This is where switching guides tend to go vague, so here is the specific answer for AspireOS. With an API key from your current system, where it offers one, AspireOS pulls across your patients, your team with their Ahpra and provider numbers, contacts, appointments, invoices with their line items and settled dates, funding episodes (cases), your price list and your waitlist. The pull can be re-run without creating duplicates, and invoice numbers carry on from where your existing sequence ended.

Some things need a different route or a manual step:

• Progress notes come across from a CSV export through Import data, and arrive locked with their original date and author.
• Files and attachments do not come across. Download the ones you need before you close your old account; it is the one item you cannot come back for.
• Letters, submitted intake forms, message history and support activities stay where they are.
• Receipts and payment lines do not come across, although each invoice arrives knowing whether, and when, it was paid.
• How much of a funding episode has been used is not carried, so correct the cases that are still running.
• Templates, automation settings and team logins are set up fresh.

The full step-by-step, including the order to do things in, is on our switching page. Whatever vendor you choose, ask them for a list like this one, in writing, before you sign.

Running both systems while you check

You do not have to switch in an afternoon. AspireOS can pull from your current system every night while you keep working in it, and it lists the records the two systems disagree about so you can settle each one. Testing mode holds every patient message while you set up, and held messages are never sent later, so nobody gets a reminder from a system they have never heard of. Writing changes back to your current system is not available today; it is marked as coming soon.

One rule matters more than any feature: only one system can own the calendar. If both are taking bookings for the same clinician, sooner or later the same hour will be booked twice. Decide which system owns bookings during the overlap, and tell the whole team.

Questions to ask any vendor, including us

• Where is my data hosted, and which parts of it can be processed outside Australia?
• What can your AI do without a person pressing a button?
• How do you handle each funder I bill, and what is still on your roadmap rather than live today?
• What does the price depend on: people, logins, locations, text messages, add-ons?
• Can I export everything, at any time, in a format I can open?
• Who do I talk to when something goes wrong, and how quickly?

For AspireOS, the answers are on our pricing page and in the switching guide: AspireOS is priced per person, with AspireAi included, and practice data is hosted in Sydney. Our step-by-step on how to switch practice management software covers the project plan from the practice's side, from the first export to the day you go live.

If you would like to see your own scenarios run through AspireOS before you decide anything, start a free trial and run your worst day through it.