Help Centre

Your subscription and billing details are managed from the Billing section in Settings. This is where you can see your current plan, update your payment method, and view past invoices. Only team members with the Admin role have access to billing settings, so your financial information stays protected.

SimpleRef offers two main plans. The Starter plan is designed for smaller practices that need core referral management features. The Professional plan adds advanced analytics, trend reporting, period comparisons, and the doctor pipeline matrix. Both plans include a set number of doctor seats, and you can purchase additional seats or add-ons as your practice grows.

Your invoices are available directly in the billing section, so you do not need to dig through email to find them. Each invoice shows exactly what you are being charged for, including your base plan, any additional doctor seats, add-ons, and SMS credit purchases. This makes it straightforward to reconcile your SimpleRef costs with your practice accounting.

If you need to update your payment card, you can do that from the same section. SimpleRef processes payments securely through Stripe, so your card details are never stored on SimpleRef's servers. Changes to your payment method take effect immediately and apply to your next billing cycle.

Doctors are added to your practice from the Team section in Settings. When you add a doctor, they get their own login credentials and access to the Doctor Inbox, where they can review and act on referrals assigned to them. Each doctor added to your practice uses one doctor seat on your plan.

To add a doctor, you enter their details and SimpleRef creates their account. You can also send them an invitation email so they can set up their password and log in. If your practice has multiple specialists, you can add them all and assign referrals to the right person as they come in.

Your plan includes a set number of doctor seats. If you need more than your plan allows, you can purchase additional seats from your billing settings. The seat limit is there to keep your costs predictable, and you can always adjust it as your team changes.

Removing a doctor frees up their seat on your plan. This is useful when a doctor leaves your practice or when a locum's contract ends. Removing a doctor does not delete any referral history. All referrals that were assigned to them remain in your system with their full timeline intact. You can reassign those referrals to another doctor if needed.

If a doctor works across multiple practices that use SimpleRef, they can be added to each practice separately. Their single login gives them access to all practices they belong to, and they can switch between them easily. This is common for specialists who consult at several clinics.

You can change your plan or add features from the Billing section in Settings. SimpleRef offers two main tiers, Starter and Professional, and each is designed for different practice needs. Upgrading or changing your plan is straightforward and does not require contacting support.

The key difference between Starter and Professional is analytics depth. Starter gives you KPI cards and core referral management features, which is everything most small practices need. Professional adds trend charts, conversion funnels, the doctor pipeline matrix, period-over-period comparisons, and data export. If your practice is growing and you want deeper insight into your operations, Professional is the way to go.

In addition to the main plans, SimpleRef offers add-ons that you can purchase separately. These give you access to specific features without needing to upgrade your entire plan. Add-ons are billed alongside your subscription and can be added or removed as your needs change.

When you upgrade your plan, the new features become available straight away. If you change to a lower plan, the change takes effect at the start of your next billing cycle, so you keep access to your current features until the end of the period you have already paid for. This means there is no risk of losing access to something mid-month.

If your practice has requirements that go beyond the standard plans, SimpleRef also offers custom Enterprise arrangements. These are tailored to larger or multi-site practices and include dedicated support. You can reach out through the contact page to start that conversation.

You can send an SMS to a patient directly from their patient record or from a referral's detail view. This is useful for appointment reminders, status updates, or any quick communication where a phone call is not necessary. The message is sent from your practice and recorded in the patient's timeline automatically.

SimpleRef uses an SMS credit system. Each message costs one or more credits depending on the length of the text, since longer messages are split into multiple segments by the carrier. You can see a segment counter as you type, so you always know how many credits a message will use before you send it. This helps you keep messages concise and manage your credit balance.

Credits are purchased in top-up packs from your billing settings. Each pack gives you a set number of credits, and unused credits roll over month to month so nothing goes to waste. If you prefer not to think about it, you can enable auto top-up, which automatically purchases a new pack when your balance gets low.

SimpleRef also provides message templates for common communications. These save you from typing the same thing over and over and help keep your messaging consistent across the team. You can use a template as-is or edit it before sending to add a personal touch.

All SMS activity is tracked in the patient's timeline, so anyone on your team can see what messages have been sent and when. This keeps everyone in the loop and provides a clear communication history if you ever need to look back.

SimpleRef takes patient consent seriously, in line with Australian privacy requirements. Before you can send any messages to a patient, their consent status must be recorded in the system. This ensures your practice is always communicating within the boundaries the patient has agreed to.

Consent can be recorded as verbal, written, or electronic, depending on how the patient gave their permission. When you add or update a patient record, you can set their consent status accordingly. SimpleRef tracks what type of consent was given and when it was recorded, giving you a clear audit trail.

If a patient has not given consent, SimpleRef will prevent messaging to that patient. This is a deliberate safeguard to protect both the patient and your practice. It means your team does not need to remember who has opted in and who has not, because the system enforces it automatically.

Consent status can be updated at any time. If a patient gives verbal consent during a phone call, a team member can record that immediately. If consent is later withdrawn, updating the record will block any future messages until consent is given again. This flexibility means your records always reflect the current situation.

Managing consent properly is not just about compliance. It builds trust with your patients and demonstrates that your practice takes their privacy seriously. SimpleRef makes this straightforward by building consent checks into the normal workflow rather than treating it as a separate administrative burden.

Patients can opt out of receiving SMS messages from your practice at any time by replying STOP to any message they have received. This is handled automatically by SimpleRef. As soon as the system receives a STOP reply, the patient's record is updated and no further messages will be sent to them.

If a patient changes their mind and wants to receive messages again, they can reply START. This re-enables messaging for that patient automatically, and their consent status is updated in the system. Your team does not need to do anything manually for either of these actions to take effect.

You can also update a patient's opt-out status manually from their patient record. This is useful if a patient calls your practice and asks to stop receiving messages, or if they ask to be opted back in during an appointment. Manual updates take effect immediately, just like the automated STOP and START replies.

The opt-out system is designed to comply with Australian telecommunications and privacy requirements. Giving patients a simple, reliable way to control their messaging preferences protects your practice and builds confidence that you respect their wishes. SimpleRef records all opt-out and opt-in events in the patient timeline, so you always have a clear history of the patient's messaging preferences.

Your dashboard is the first thing you see when you log into SimpleRef. It gives you a snapshot of how your practice is handling referrals right now. The top section shows KPI cards with your key numbers: total referrals, conversion rate, average processing time, and a breakdown by workflow stage. These update in real time as your team works through referrals.

Each KPI card shows a single number with context. For example, your conversion rate tells you what percentage of referrals are making it through to completion, while processing time shows how long referrals are taking on average from start to finish. If you have set goals, you will also see a progress bar on each card showing how close you are to your targets.

Practices on the Professional plan get additional analytics below the KPI cards. These include trend charts that show how your numbers are changing over time, a conversion funnel that visualises where referrals drop off, and a doctor pipeline matrix that shows workload distribution across your specialists. You can also compare your current period against the previous one to spot improvements or declines.

The dashboard is designed to answer the questions practice managers ask most often. Are we keeping up with incoming referrals? Where are the bottlenecks? Which doctors have the highest caseload? You should not need to dig into individual referrals to understand the overall health of your practice. The dashboard gives you that picture at a glance, and the detailed views are there when you need to drill deeper.

SimpleRef lets you set targets for the metrics that matter most to your practice. You can configure goals from the Goals section in Settings, where you choose which KPIs to track and set a target value for each. Common goals include referral volume targets, conversion rate benchmarks, and processing time limits.

Once a goal is set, it appears as a progress bar on the relevant KPI card on your dashboard. This gives you an instant visual indicator of how close you are to your target. If you are ahead of pace, the bar fills up in green. If you are falling behind, it is easy to see at a glance that you need to take action.

Goals are a practical tool for keeping your team aligned. When everyone can see the same targets on the dashboard, it creates a shared understanding of what the practice is working toward. Whether your focus is on reducing processing times, increasing throughput, or improving conversion rates, having a visible target helps keep the priority front and centre.

You can update your goals at any time as your practice's priorities change. If you hit a target consistently, raise it. If a goal turns out to be unrealistic, adjust it to something achievable. SimpleRef does not lock you into anything, so your goals can evolve alongside your practice. The aim is to give you a useful benchmark, not to create pressure.

SimpleRef provides a range of analytics reports on the Professional plan that go beyond the basic KPI cards available to all users. These reports are designed to help practice managers understand trends, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions about how to improve referral processing.

The volume trends report shows how many referrals your practice receives and processes over time. You can spot seasonal patterns, see the impact of changes you have made, and understand whether your referral volume is growing or stable. This is particularly useful for workforce planning and capacity management.

The conversion funnel visualises how referrals flow through your workflow stages and where they drop off. If a large number of referrals stall at a particular stage, the funnel makes that immediately obvious. The doctor pipeline matrix gives you a heatmap view of referral distribution across your specialists, so you can see at a glance who is overloaded and who has capacity.

Processing time charts break down how long referrals spend in each stage of your workflow. This helps you pinpoint exactly where delays are happening. Maybe triage is fast but scheduling takes too long, or perhaps doctor review is the bottleneck. With this information, you can focus your improvement efforts where they will have the most impact.

You can also compare the current period against the previous one to track whether your changes are making a difference. If you made a process improvement last month, the period comparison shows whether it actually moved the needle. Data export is available for practices that want to do further analysis in their own tools.

Adding a new referral in SimpleRef starts from the Kanban board. You fill in the patient's details and the referral information, including the referring GP, the reason for referral, and any relevant clinical notes. If the patient already exists in your system, you can link the referral to their existing record so everything stays connected.

When entering patient details, SimpleRef will suggest matches from your existing patient database as you type. This helps avoid duplicate records and saves you from re-entering information you already have. If the patient is new, their record is created automatically alongside the referral.

You can also assign the referral to a specific doctor at your practice during creation. This is useful when the referral letter names a particular specialist, or when you already know who should handle it based on the type of referral. If you are not sure yet, you can leave the assignment blank and assign it later.

For practices that want to reduce manual data entry, SimpleRef also offers an AI intake portal. This allows referral information to be captured electronically and fed into your workflow automatically. It is a good option if you receive a high volume of referrals and want to streamline the initial entry step. Any referrals that come through the intake portal appear on your Kanban board ready for review, just like manually entered ones.

Whether you add referrals manually or through the intake portal, each one gets a full timeline that tracks every action taken from the moment it enters your system. This gives you a complete audit trail without any extra effort.

The Kanban board is the main place where you manage referrals day to day. Each column on the board represents a stage in your workflow, and each referral appears as a card in whatever stage it currently sits in. Moving a referral forward is as simple as dragging its card from one column to the next.

When you move a referral, SimpleRef automatically records the change in the referral's timeline. This means you always have a clear history of when a referral entered and left each stage, without needing to write anything down. The timeline captures who made the change and when, so if your team needs to review what happened with a particular referral, the information is right there.

You can also update a referral's stage from its detail view. This is handy when you are already looking at the referral's full information and want to advance it without going back to the Kanban board. The detail view shows the workflow stages as a visual pipeline, and you can move the referral forward or backward from there.

Moving referrals through stages is not just about organisation. It feeds into your dashboard analytics too. SimpleRef tracks how long referrals spend in each stage, which helps you spot bottlenecks and understand where delays are happening. Over time, this gives you a clear picture of how efficiently your practice is processing referrals and where there might be room for improvement.

SimpleRef lets you flag any referral as urgent so your team knows it needs priority attention. When a referral is marked urgent, it receives a visual highlight that makes it stand out immediately on the Kanban board. Urgent referrals are also pushed to the top of their column, so they are the first thing your team sees.

You can set the urgency flag when you first create a referral, which is useful when you receive a referral letter that is clearly time-sensitive. If the urgency becomes apparent later, perhaps after reviewing clinical notes or receiving a follow-up call from the referring GP, you can update the flag at any time from the referral's detail view.

The urgency flag is visible everywhere the referral appears, including the Kanban board, the referral detail view, and in any notifications sent to assigned doctors. This means no one in your team needs to guess whether something is urgent. The visual cue is consistent and unmistakable.

Marking referrals as urgent is also helpful for your reporting. You can see how many urgent referrals your practice handles over time and how quickly they are being processed compared to standard referrals. This kind of insight helps you understand your workload patterns and make sure time-sensitive cases are getting the attention they deserve.

SimpleRef tracks how long each referral has been sitting in its current workflow stage. When a referral stays in one stage longer than expected, it is automatically flagged as overdue. This gives your team a clear signal that something may need attention, whether the referral is waiting on a response, stuck in a queue, or simply been overlooked.

Overdue referrals are highlighted visually on the Kanban board so they are easy to spot at a glance. Your dashboard also surfaces overdue counts, giving you a quick summary of how many referrals across your practice need follow-up. This means you do not have to manually check each referral to find the ones that are falling behind.

The thresholds that determine when a referral becomes overdue are configurable. Every practice works at a different pace, and what counts as overdue for a surgical referral might be very different from a routine diagnostic. You can adjust these thresholds in your settings to match your practice's expectations and service commitments.

When you see an overdue referral, the next step is usually to check its timeline to understand where it stalled. Maybe it is waiting for documents from the referring GP, or perhaps the assigned doctor has not yet reviewed it. The timeline gives you the context you need to take action, whether that means sending a follow-up message, reassigning the referral, or escalating it within your team.

Keeping on top of overdue referrals is one of the most effective ways to improve your practice's referral processing times and ensure patients are not waiting longer than they need to.

When you first create your SimpleRef account, a short setup wizard walks you through the essentials. You will enter your practice name, address, contact details, and choose the specialties your practice covers. This only takes a couple of minutes, and everything you enter here helps SimpleRef tailor the experience to your practice from day one.

Once the wizard is complete, you land on your main dashboard. From there you can start adding referrals straight away, or head into Settings to fine-tune things further. You might want to add your team members, configure your referral workflow stages, or upload your practice logo so your communications look professional.

There is no pressure to get everything perfect during setup. Every detail you enter in the wizard can be changed later from your practice settings. If your address changes, you add a new specialty, or you simply made a typo, just open Settings and update the relevant section. SimpleRef saves changes immediately, so there is nothing extra to publish or deploy.

If you are migrating from spreadsheets or another system, the setup wizard is a good time to think about how your current referral stages map to SimpleRef's workflow columns. You can always adjust these later, but starting with a workflow that matches your existing process makes the transition smoother for your whole team.

You can invite team members to your practice from the Team section in Settings. Enter their email address, choose a role, and SimpleRef sends them an invitation. When they accept, they create their own login and are automatically added to your practice. Each person gets their own credentials, so you always know who did what.

SimpleRef has three staff roles to choose from. Admin gives full access to everything, including billing, settings, and team management. Staff is designed for day-to-day users who need to manage referrals and patients but do not need access to billing or practice configuration. Shared Staff is built for reception desks and front-of-house teams where multiple people share a workstation throughout the day.

Choosing the right role matters because it controls what each person can see and do. Give admin access only to practice managers or owners who need to manage the account. Staff is the right fit for most team members who are processing referrals. Shared Staff works well when you have rotating reception staff who each need their own identity without separate email accounts.

You can change anyone's role at any time from the Team settings. If a staff member takes on more responsibility and needs admin access, or if you want to restrict someone's permissions, just update their role. The change takes effect the next time they load the application. You can also remove team members entirely if they leave the practice, which frees up their seat on your plan.

Every practice in SimpleRef starts with a default referral workflow that covers the most common stages a referral passes through. This default is a solid starting point, but most practices want to tailor the stages to match how they actually work. You can do this from the Workflow section in Settings.

Customising your workflow means you can add new stages, rename existing ones, reorder them to match your process, or remove stages you do not use. For example, if your practice has a triage step before scheduling, you can add a "Triage" stage and place it wherever it fits in your sequence. If you call your final stage "Completed" rather than "Done", just rename it.

SimpleRef also supports workflow templates, which is useful if your practice handles different types of referrals that follow different paths. You might have one workflow for surgical referrals and another for diagnostic referrals. Each template defines its own set of stages, and you choose which template applies when creating a referral. This keeps things organised without forcing every referral through the same pipeline.

Changes to your workflow take effect immediately for new referrals. Existing referrals stay in their current stage, so you will not lose track of anything that is already in progress. If you remove a stage that has active referrals, SimpleRef will prompt you to move them to another stage first. This makes it safe to experiment and refine your workflow as your practice evolves.