"Email Already in Use..."

You have a client who now wants to attend couples therapy…

You have a child whose sibling is starting therapy too…

You try to do the above and you get the dreaded “Email already in use” message when you attempt to activate their portal.

So frustrating!

But, this is fixable and SP DOES allow people to be in different charts in different ways. You do not need additional emails for the person or any other crazy work arounds. And SP Documentation attempts to explain this, but let me try to simplify it:

Rule: Only Enter a Person in the System ONE TIME.
After that, you will access their profile to place them in other parts of SP.

Here are the simple steps to never have a problem with this again:

  1. Look up the person you’d like to add in SP - Go to Clients and filter for ‘Clients and Contacts’ > search for the person (client, contact, anyone you are trying to add unless they are a totally new client)

    • The person DOES NOT show up on the list, move on to Step 3

    • The person DOES show up on this list you need to merge duplicates - Chose ‘manage’ on one of the listings, click ‘merge with duplicate’, and put check marks on all the repeats. Note: This does not merge charts, just merges contact info into one “contact file”. Also, be very careful with people who have common names. Be very sure they are the same person!

      • Why is this important? Because if the person is listed multiple times, when you go to add from existing, you will see this person listed several times and you will not be able to tell which version is the one that will SHARE the email. If you pick the wrong one, it won’t work.

  2. Add the person FROM EXISTING whether you are adding them as a contact or half of a couple. Since you’ve taken care of the merge (if needed), this person will be listed only once and it will allow you to add the person AND give them access to the portal.

  3. Add the person as a NEW ENTRY. You won’t encounter any issues activating the portal.

IMPORTANT: Minors should never have a parent email listed under their name. The proper place for the parent’s email is in the contacts section in the chart. If the minor has their own email, that’s the one that will be listed under the child’s name. The advantage of this set up is that you can send certain things to the minor, like a questionnaire or measure, and certain things to the parent, like consent and billing documents. And the signatures will match the actual person it was sent to.

Kari Silverberg