Setting Up Custom Templates for Your AI Charting Assistant Summary Format

In this article:

• Before You Begin
• Choosing the Recording Summary Format
  • Setting a Default Recording Summary Format
  • Overriding the AI Summary Format for Individual Services
• Customizing the Recording Summary Format
  • Creating a Custom Recording Summary Format
  • Configuring Your Custom Recording Summary Format
• Using Your Custom AI Summary Format With Note Templates
• Editing a Custom Recording Summary Format
• Deleting a Custom Recording Summary Format

Before You Begin

Before creating a custom AI Summary Format, make sure the following are in place:

• AI Charting Assistant add-on: The AI Charting Assistant must be enabled on your account. See Getting Started With the AI Charting Assistant →
   
• Familiarity with recording summary formats: Custom formats work alongside the three built-in formats and can be assigned as your account default or to individual services. 

Choosing the Recording Summary Format

Select your preferred default recording summary format for AI-generated session summaries. This setting applies to all recorded sessions unless overridden at the individual service level.

Your formats are managed from your Practice > Note Templates page under the AI Summary Format tab. This is also where you'll create custom formats. 

Practice Better gives you the option to customize your AI Summary Format (more on this below), and also includes three built-in formats that are available to all accounts:

• Narrative notes (paragraphs): a paragraph-style summary of the full session.
• Outline notes (bullet points): key topics organized with supporting bullet points.
• SOAP notes (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan): structured sections for clinical documentation.

💡 Your recording summary format determines which placeholders you need to use in your Note Template. Choose your default AI Summary Format before setting up your Note Template.

Setting a Default Recording Summary Format

1. Go to your Practice > Note Templates and click the AI Summary Format tab.
    
2. Click on the title of the format you want to set as your default. You can set one of the pre-built formats or one of your custom formats as the default.
   
    
3. Toggle on Make this my default recording summary format.
   
    
4. Click Set as default in the confirmation pop-up.
   
    
5. You’ll see the default setting toggle change to green, and a “Default” label on this format when viewing your list.
   
   

📍 Note: Setting a new default will switch all services that currently use the default format to the new selection. Services with a format set individually at the service level are not affected.

Overriding the AI Summary Format for Individual Services

You can assign a different recording summary format to specific services. For example, you may want narrative notes for discovery calls and SOAP notes for follow-up consultations.

1. Go to your Practice > My Services and click Edit on the relevant service.
    
2. Under Booking Options, select your preferred option from the Recording summary format drop-down.
   
    
3. Click Save changes near the top-right.

💡 If you assign a custom recording summary format to a specific service, create a matching note template and notes automation to pair with it for a fully automated workflow.

Customizing the Recording Summary Format

If the three built-in formats don't match your documentation style, you can create your own custom recording summary format. Custom formats give you full control over the structure, tone, and detail level of your AI-generated session summaries.

Custom formats are created and managed from your Practice > Note Templates under the AI Summary Format tab, alongside the three built-in formats.

Creating a Custom Recording Summary Format

1. Go to your Practice > Note Templates and click the AI Summary Format tab.
    
2. Click the Create template button.
   
    
3. Enter a Title for your format.
    
4. Under Your AI recording summary format, choose how to define your format using one of three methods:
   
   • Use existing note: Select a recent session note from your account. Practice Better will analyze the note's structure and generate a starting point for your custom format based on it. Select the note from the list and click Generate template. 
   • Paste note: Copy and paste the text of an existing session note into the text field. Practice Better will analyze the pasted content and generate a starting point for your custom format. Click Generate template when ready.
   • Write instructions: Write your format instructions directly. This method takes you straight to the style instructions and sections editor without generating a starting point.
      
5. Once your starting point is generated (or if you chose Write instructions), you'll see two editable areas: Style instructions and Sections. Read below for more details about these options.
    
6. Click Save > Save Template in the top-right corner to save as you go.
    
7. Click Save > Save and Exit when you're done. 

📍 Note: Once your custom AI Summary Format is saved, you’ll see the option to toggle on Make this my default recording summary format. You can change this default at any time.

Configuring Your Custom Recording Summary Format

Style Instructions

Style instructions are global rules that apply across all sections of your summary. Use this field to define perspective, tense, abbreviations, and formatting conventions. For example: "Write in third-person past tense. Use standard clinical abbreviations."

Sections

Sections define the structure of your summary. Each section has the following fields:

• Section title: the name of the section as it will appear in the generated summary.
• Instructions: describe what content belongs in this section.
• Format: choose how content in this section is presented. Options are Prose, Bullet points, Numbered list, and Labeled sub-items.
• Detail level: choose the level of detail for this section. Options are Concise, Moderate, and Comprehensive.
• Omit when empty: when toggled on, this section will be hidden from the generated summary if no relevant content was discussed during the session. This prevents blank section headings from appearing in your notes.

Click the Add section button to add additional sections. 

Use the up and down arrows to reorder sections, and the trash icon to remove a section.

To preview how your format will perform against a real session, click the Preview button next to the Sections heading. 

A panel will open on the right side of the screen. Select a previous session recording and click Run preview to generate a sample summary using your current format settings.

After making changes to your format sections or instructions, click the Run preview button again in the preview panel to see a new preview. 

💡 Use the preview to test and refine your format before saving. This lets you see the actual note output your custom format will produce before applying it to live sessions.

Using Your Custom AI Summary Format With Note Templates

Once you've created a custom AI Summary Format, you'll need to pair it with a note template that includes the correct placeholders for the automation to populate your session summary automatically.

Which Placeholder to Use

Custom AI Summary Formats use a single placeholder regardless of how your format is structured:

• Session Summary: inserts the full AI-generated summary produced by your custom format.
• Session Action Items: inserts the list of action items discussed during the session.

⚠️ Important: The SOAP-specific placeholders (Session Summary: Subjective, Session Summary: Objective, Session Summary: Assessment, and Session Summary: Plan) only work with the Practice Better built-in SOAP format. These placeholders are not compatible with custom AI Summary Formats, including custom formats structured as SOAP-style sections. If your note template includes SOAP-specific placeholders and your service is set to use a custom AI Summary Format, those placeholders won't populate.

Setting Up Your Note Template

1. Go to My Practice > Note Templates and click the Notes tab.
    
2. Click the Fast Action Button to create a new template, or click Edit on an existing one.
    
3. In the text editor, click the placeholder button in the toolbar to open the placeholder menu.
    
4. Insert Session Summary where you want the full summary to appear.
    
5. Insert Session Action Items where you want the action items to appear.
    
6. Save your template.

💡 You can use Session Summary and Session Action Items together in the same template, or use either one independently depending on your workflow.

A Note on Style Instructions Length

Style instructions in a custom AI Summary Format are limited to 5,000 characters. If your instructions exceed this limit, the format may not generate summaries as expected. Keep your style instructions concise and use the Sections fields to add detail at the section level.

Editing a Custom Recording Summary Format

1. Go to your Practice > Note Templates and click the AI Summary Format tab.
    
2. Click Edit next to the format you want to update.
    

3. To start over with a new reference note instead of editing the existing instructions, click Change next to the current reference source. This returns you to the format creation screen where you can select a new existing note, paste new note text, or switch to writing instructions manually.
   

   ⚠️ Important: Clicking Change and generating a new template will replace your current style instructions and sections. Any manual edits you've made to those fields will be lost. Save a copy of your current instructions before proceeding if you want to preserve them.

4. Make your changes, like adding new sections, reordering sections, adjusting the written instructions, and updating the style instructions. 
    
5. Click Save.

📍 Note: Edits to a custom format will apply to all future sessions that use it. Previously generated summaries are not affected.

Deleting a Custom Recording Summary Format

1. Go to your Practice > Note Templates and click the AI Summary Format tab.
2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the format you want to delete.
3. Select Delete and confirm.

⚠️ Important: Deleted AI Summary Formats cannot be restored.

If the deleted AI Summary Format was your account default, the Narrative style will be set as your new default AI Summary Format. If the deleted AI Summary Format was assigned to any services, those services will revert to the Narrative default. 

Services with a different individually assigned format are not affected.