Inbox & messaging

Open the Inbox and tour the views

The Inbox is your unified work queue for everything that arrives at the practice — patient messages, lab and imaging results, prescription requests, completed paperwork, referrals, faxes, website inquiries, and billing exceptions. It lives in its own always-open tab beside Home and Calendar, and the dashboard queue buttons (Dashboard queues) deep-link straight into the right view. Inside, work is sorted into views:

1. Open the Inbox tab. Inbox sits beside Home and Calendar at the top of the workspace. Like those two, it’s a system tab — it can’t be closed, so your queue is always one click away.
2. Know the three columns. A collapsible view sidebar on the left lists the views, each with its own unread-count pill. Next to it, a message list carries its search box, filters, Open / Done switch, and a New button in the header when composing is available. The reading pane fills the rest of the screen.
3. Collapse the sidebar when you want room. The chevron button (Collapse sidebar / Expand sidebar) shrinks the views to icon badges; large counts cap at 99+.
4. Pick up where you left off. Each view remembers your selected message, search text, and scroll position when you navigate away and back, so flipping to a chart mid-triage doesn’t cost you your place.

Which views you see depends on your role: physicians get every view except Billing, practice admins see all of them — Billing only if their account is allowed to see financial amounts — and staff see the views their messaging, document, refill-triage, and billing permissions unlock; staff with no inbox permissions don’t get the Inbox tab at all (see Staff accounts & permissions).

Work from the dashboard queues

You don’t have to start in the Inbox itself. The Home dashboard’s Inbox action center groups your inbox work into up to three groups. Every tile carries a live count and opens the matching Inbox view, so the dashboard doubles as your morning triage board. Only tiles with something in them show, and a group with nothing left disappears.

If you work other people’s inboxes (Attached inboxes), Home adds one line near the top: Inboxes you work: with a chip per person and that inbox’s open-item count. Click a chip to open that inbox.

The unread badges — on these buttons and on the Inbox sidebar — refresh automatically about every minute, and opening or triaging an item updates them immediately. How loudly Hero EMR notifies you about new messages is tunable per physician — urgency thresholds and after-hours rules live in Message Settings.

Read and answer patient threads

The Patient view brings together portal messages, incoming texts and email, and phone-agent messages. Select a conversation to mark it read and open its history. Voicemail also lives in this view; see Voicemail.

1. Review the patient bar. Customize patient bar lets you select and reorder the chips next to the patient’s name. Choose a Role preset or arrange your own, then Apply. Chips that do not fit move into the overflow.
2. Read the conversation on the right. The timeline and reply box stay together. Expand Visit context on the left for Orders, Diagnoses, Follow-up, and Visit note. Drag its divider to resize it, or double-click the divider to reset the width. A thread without an encounter says No visit linked.
3. Use the patient actions. Open chart, Schedule, Order, and Forward appear when available. On a narrow pane some actions move into More actions. Scheduling opens the patient’s scheduler without making you search again.
4. Choose the delivery channel before sending. Reply via shows the available choices. A text thread defaults to Text; choose Portal for a secure reply when offered. Email threads use Email. The button names the action: Send text, Send to portal, or Send email.
5. Write, review, and send. Enter sends by default and Shift+Enter adds a line. Change or clear Send the reply under Settings → Hotkeys if you prefer another key; the reply box shows your current shortcut. Drafts are kept per thread during your session. A failed send stays visible with a retry action.
6. Use dot phrases in the reply. Type a period and the phrase’s shortcut (for example .thanks) in the reply box: your dot phrase list opens at the cursor. Arrow keys move, Enter or Tab inserts the phrase, Esc closes the list, and Enter never sends while the list is open. Phrases fill in for the patient on the message, not a chart open elsewhere. This works in patient and results replies; Team Chat has no dot phrases.

See whether the patient read your message. Each message the practice sends the patient through the portal shows Read {time} once the patient opens it (with the day when they read it on a later day, for example Read yesterday, 9:41 AM), or Not read yet. Hover or focus the status to see Patients cannot see your read status: patients never see whether, or when, anyone at the practice read their messages. Texts, emails, phone-agent messages and team-only notes show no read status. It is always on, for every practice. The status catches up the next time the thread refreshes.

When focus is outside a text field, Alt+O, Alt+D, Alt+F, and Alt+V jump to Orders, Diagnoses, Follow-up, and Visit note. These shortcuts can also be changed under Hotkeys.

Leave a team-only note on a patient’s message thread (internal note the patient can’t see)

To discuss a patient’s message with your team without anything going to the patient, switch the reply box to Note to team. The note shows in the thread marked Team only — the patient can’t see this; it is never sent by portal, text, email or notification, and it does not change the thread’s owner, read or Done state.

1. Open the patient’s thread in the Inbox Patient view (or the patient’s conversation in By patient).
2. Above the reply box, switch from Reply to patient to Note to team. A draft reply to the patient is kept while you switch.
3. Type in Write a note for your team… and click Add team note, or press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on a Mac). Plain Enter adds a line.

The note appears as an amber Team note card in the thread, in the By patient conversation and on the chart’s encounter Messages card. Staff on the thread and the members of its message pool get an Inbox notification; the author does not.

Reorder medications from a patient conversation

A refill request rarely needs the chart. The Visit context panel of a patient conversation lists the patient’s active medications, so you can reorder one, several or all of them into the conversation’s visit and sign them there.

1. Open the conversation and expand Medications. It is in Visit context, between Orders and Diagnoses. When the panel is collapsed, the pill icon on its rail opens it. Each active medication shows its directions, when it was last prescribed and, when the pharmacy’s fill reports show it, how many refills are left. Medications that ran out or are on hold say so.
2. Reorder one. Click Reorder on its row.
3. Reorder several. Tick them, then click Reorder N at the top. Clear unticks them.
4. Reorder everything current. Click Reorder all. Medications on hold or not started yet are left out; tick those yourself if needed.
5. Review and sign in Orders. The orders are added to the conversation’s visit and Orders opens above. Nothing is sent until you sign them there.

• Built like Reorder in the visit. The orders are built exactly as the visit’s own Reorder builds them (Repeat last visit). A medication already in the visit’s orders says In this visit’s orders with a View button instead.
• What was added. A short note after each reorder says what was added, what wasn’t, and why. A medication whose directions need finishing is not added from here; add it from Orders.
• Queued stops. A stop queued in the visit for a medication you reorder is removed.
• Who can. Staff who can’t prescribe see the list with Only prescribers can reorder medications. and no buttons.
• Signed visit? Start the addendum shown above the sections first, as you would to add any order.

Unsend a message sent to the wrong patient (delete a sent message)

When the wrong document or another patient’s information went out, unsend the message. The patient no longer sees it or its attachments in the patient portal or the Hero app; in its place they see “This message was removed by the practice.” Any file the message added to the patient’s chart is removed from the chart too. Your team still sees that it was unsent, by whom and when, and can open what was sent.

1. Open the conversation in the Inbox. A thread or the patient’s By patient conversation both work.
2. Point at (or tab to) the message, click … (More actions) beside the sender’s name, then Unsend…
3. Read what will happen. The window lists it: the patient stops seeing the message and its attachments; files it added to the chart are removed; whether the patient already opened it, and when (your practice’s time); whether the alert telling them about a new message already went out (it never contains the message itself and can’t be taken back) or now won’t; and, for a text conversation, that the text already reached their phone and can’t be taken back.
4. Add a note for your team if you like. Type it in Note for your team, for example Wrong document. Only your team sees it.
5. Click Unsend.

After unsending

• The message shows Unsent by {name} · {time}, and the conversation shows {name} unsent a message. Click Show what was sent to read the original and the names of the removed files. Only staff see it, and opening it is recorded like any chart read.
• The conversation keeps its name, except when the unsent message started it: it is then renamed Message removed, because its title may have named the wrong patient.
• If the Inbox was about to add orders to the visit from that message, it won’t.

Who can unsend. Providers, and staff with the Send patient messages permission. Anyone who can open the conversation and message patients can unsend any message your practice sent in it, not only their own. A patient’s own message can’t be unsent.

Send patient education handouts from a conversation or the chart

Share handouts from your education library, Hero’s and your practice’s own, without a visit. The patient reads them in the portal and the Hero app under Health record → Education, and is told once that something new is there (by app notification, text or email, following their message notification settings). The alert never names a handout.

1. Open the sharing window. In the Inbox, in a patient conversation, click the send button next to the paperclip in the reply box (Send a questionnaire, form or handout) and choose Patient education. From the chart, open the patient’s Questionnaires tab and click Share handouts on the Share patient education card.
2. Find the handouts. Search for a topic, or use Favorites or Practice copies. Click Preview to read one first.
3. Click Select on each handout you want. Click again to remove it. The bar at the bottom lists what you picked.
4. Click Share handouts.

• One alert. Handouts shared within a few minutes of each other, including ones added in a visit’s Patient Instructions, reach the patient as one notification.
• Who can. Providers and staff who can edit visits, the same people who share handouts in a visit.
• In order sets. A handout can also be part of an order set and go out when you sign the visit (Screeners, forms, education and outside orders).

Expand a reply with AI and review it before sending

The AI wand works in the reply box for patient conversations, results, and inquiries. It creates editable text; it does not send the reply.

1. Type the facts and plan you want to communicate. Click Expand to turn shorthand into a full reply. With an empty box, the same control reads Quick reply and drafts from the conversation.
2. Use the shortcut if preferred. Ctrl+Enter, or ⌘+Enter on Mac, runs the AI action by default. This is separate from the send shortcut. While the draft is being generated, Esc cancels it.
3. Review in the expanded reply box. The editor grows to give you room to read, up to half the window height, and scrolls for longer text. Expanded by AI or Drafted by AI identifies the result. Undo restores your previous text. Check any notices about details that need review, and edit before sending.
4. Keep clinical decisions yours. Verify that every typed fact survived, that no unsupported advice was added, and that medications, doses, and follow-up are correct. The expander is designed not to add controlled-substance recommendations; still check the entire draft.
5. Tune the style. Physicians can use Inbox expander settings beside the wand to open the relevant AI Customization settings. Stored suggestion chips, when present, can still insert a draft for review.

On your own sent, encounter-linked messages, Extract orders can turn your written plan into order drafts. Review and finalize those drafts through the clinical workflow. On a signed visit they belong to an addendum, not an automatic change to the signed note.

Triage with flags, read state & completion

The list header controls the queue; row actions and the reading pane control an individual item. Some folders have specialized actions, so only the actions supported by that item appear.

1. Use Open and Done. Open shows work still to handle. Mark an item Done to remove it from that list; use Done to find completed work and Reopen where available. A patient’s new reply brings their conversation back into the open queue.
2. Shared items are finished once, for everyone. Done on a practice-wide inquiry, on a voicemail that rang to several people, or on a conversation a message pool owns marks it Done for everyone who got it; their Done list shows Done by {name}. Reopen reopens it for all of them. A voicemail someone forwarded to you stays yours to finish, and everything else, including a conversation that is only yours, is Done for you only. Checking off one copy of an online booking alert to-do checks off everyone’s copy too (Online booking alerts).
3. Keep moving or undo. Completion offers an immediate Undo where supported. More list options contains Open next item after Done, which controls automatic advance to the next item.
4. Search, filter, and sort. Search is always visible. Filters opens Received within (24h, 7 days, 30 days, or Any time) and a Patient picker. Use Clear all to reset filters. Sort choices remain Most Recent, Unread First, and Flagged First.
5. Act on one item. Hover a row, open its context menu, or use the reading-pane actions for Done, Flag / Unflag, Mark read / Mark unread, and Forward when available.
6. Handle several items together. Select row checkboxes to show the bulk bar with Done, Read, and Unread where supported. Select all selects the currently loaded rows, not every unseen item in the practice.
7. Refresh or recover from an error. Use Refresh messages. A loading error has its own retry state; an error is not an empty queue.

Inbox keyboard shortcuts

The Inbox has its own Outlook-style chords, active whenever you’re in the Inbox tab. They use Ctrl on Windows and Mac alike, and they stand down while a dialog — compose, forward, scheduling — is open, so the dialog keeps the keyboard.

None of these are fixed: the Settings menu > Hotkeys opens the Keyboard Shortcuts editor, where you can rebind any of them to a chord you prefer.

Forward a conversation to your team

Forwarding is how patient conversations are handed to another physician or staff member — the message stays one thread, but ownership of the work moves to the recipient’s queue with the full prior history attached.

1. Open the dialog. Click the Forward toolbar button on a patient thread, or right-click the row and choose Forward thread….
2. Pick the recipient. The Forward Conversation dialog lists your organization’s clinicians and staff with a search box (Search team members…, or Search people or pools… when your practice has message pools; type p, a space and a pool name to search pools only) — physicians show a stethoscope icon with credentials, staff show their title. Forwarding to a pool shows who it goes to: Everyone in Front Desk sees it. Any of them can reply or take it. Add an optional Note for the recipient; it stays internal and the patient never sees it. Star a physician (Add to favorites / Remove from favorites) to pin them under a Favorites header above All Team Members; it’s the same favorites list the calendar uses. Only physicians can be starred.
3. Send it. Select the person and click Forward (it reads Forwarding… while in flight); Cancel closes without forwarding.
4. What the recipient sees. The conversation appears in their own Patient view with a blue forward arrow (tooltip This conversation has been forwarded to you), and the thread timeline records an event pill — Dr. A forwarded to Dr. B.

Compose new messages & tune your messaging rules

To start a conversation rather than answer one, use New in the message-list header (tooltip New message). A new message opens a fresh secure thread; the patient is alerted by push/SMS/email and replies from the portal, which lands right back in your Patient view.

1. Click New. The compose modal opens (the same modal titles itself Reply to Message or Forward Message in those contexts).
2. Pick the patient. To: is a patient picker — type two or more characters in Search for a patient…, or choose from RECENT PATIENTS (shown with DOB and MRN). Patients without a portal account are grayed out with a No account tag; selecting one shows an error that they cannot receive messages.
3. Write and send. Fill Subject: and Message: (inline images and dot phrases are supported), then click Send Message — it shows Sending…, then Message Sent with a Message sent successfully! banner before the modal closes.
4. Or send it later. A Send later button sits beside Send Message in the compose modal and beside the channel-specific send button in the thread reply box. Pick one of the presets — stated in your practice’s time zone, not your laptop’s — or a custom date and time, and the message drops onto the Queued tab of the todo panel, where you can still reschedule, send now, or cancel it right up until it goes (see Send a message later). Drafts carrying an attachment or an inline image can’t be scheduled; the button explains why and you send those immediately.
5. Replies stay in the conversation. Replying from a thread reuses the conversation, prefixes the subject with Re:, and locks the recipient to the patient on the thread.

Your personal messaging rules live under the toolbar Settings menu > Message Settings (the modal is titled Message Preferences):

See one conversation per patient

The Patient view normally lists one row per thread: a portal thread, a text thread and a voicemail from the same patient are three rows. By patient folds them into one row per patient, and opening that row shows everything about the patient in one stream, in time order: their messages and voicemails, and the results, faxes, requests, forms, referrals, visits and billing alerts that belong to them.

1. Switch the list. In the Patient view, use the Threads | By patient switch beside Open | Done. Threads is the default. Your choice is saved to your account, so it follows you to other computers. Switching marks nothing read, and the item you had open stays open.
2. Read the rows. Each row shows the patient’s initials with an unread count, the latest activity, and a chip with the channels it holds and how many threads it gathers (for example 3 threads). Rows keep the sort you chose, and search, Filters and Open | Done work as usual. A voicemail from an unknown caller stays a row of its own until it is linked to a chart.
3. Open a conversation. The pane is titled Conversation (with · 3 threads when there are several). The patient bar and its actions are the same as on a thread. A red New line marks where the unread part starts; Load earlier at the top brings older items, down to Beginning of this patient’s history. If something new arrives while you have scrolled up, New activity takes you to it.
4. Narrow the stream. The chips above the stream are All, Messages (messages, voicemails and staff chats), Results, Documents (faxes, forms, referrals, uploaded documents and questionnaires), Rx (refill and prescription requests), Visits and Billing. Only chips with something you are allowed to see appear. The chip you pick is kept while you work.

Replying in a conversation

The reply box always answers one thread. Hero picks the most recently active thread you can reply in; each thread starts with a chip naming its channel and subject, and the one you are answering says · replying here.

• Answer a different thread: hover a message and choose Reply here, or use the Reply in picker above the reply box when there are two or more threads you can answer.
• The channel and recipient come from that thread, with the same Reply via choices as in Patient threads.
• Only voicemails? The reply box offers Call back or Portal for the voicemail (Listen & call back).
• Nothing you can answer? The box reads “You can’t reply in this patient’s threads”, with the reason when there is one, and a New message button to start a fresh thread.

Acting on the whole conversation

Row actions on a By patient row reach every thread and voicemail of that patient in your Inbox, not only the ones on screen:

You can also give the switch a keyboard shortcut: in the Settings menu > Hotkeys, set Switch the Patient folder between threads and one conversation per patient (it has none by default).

Patients have a similar choice in the portal: their Messages page switches between By topic and All in one (Portal messaging). Their choice changes nothing in your Inbox.

Open a card and act on it in place

In a By patient conversation, messages are speech bubbles; everything else is a one-line card: a small icon, a title, a few facts, one status and the time (in your practice’s time zone). Click the line, or press Enter, to open it; click again to close it. A staff chat card is marked Staff only so nobody takes it for a patient message. Past visits show as a single line with the visit type, clinician and status.

• A card’s action is the folder’s own. A button appears only when that folder would show it to you, and it does exactly what it does there. A card’s Done marks only that item done, with Marked done · Undo; it never closes the conversation.
• Review… opens the full view in place. Prescription requests, refill requests, forms and inbound referrals need a check, a reason or a signature, so Review… opens that folder’s full screen inside the conversation pane, with all its buttons and safety checks. Back to conversation returns you to the same place in the stream; a reply you had started is kept.
• You see only what you could see anyway. Each type shows only to people who can open it in its own folder or the chart: billing alerts only for people who see the Billing folder, staff chats only you are part of, voicemails sent to you, results for people with result access, and so on. Messages always show.

Choose which items appear in conversations

The gear beside the filter chips (Conversation settings, tooltip Choose what shows here) opens Show in this conversation: one switch per item type, so you can keep, for example, billing alerts or past visits out of every conversation.

• Messages are Always shown. The switches are Voicemails, Staff chat, Lab results, Imaging, Faxes, Uploaded documents, Forms, Questionnaires, Referrals, Refill requests, Rx requests, Past visits and Billing alerts. Only the types you are allowed to see are listed.
• Your choice applies to every By patient conversation and is Saved for you on every device. It changes nothing for anyone else.
• A small dot on the gear means something is switched off. A chip whose types are all switched off disappears; if it was the chip in use, the stream goes back to All.

Share patient messages with a team, and add a backup when nobody opens them

Out of the box, a message a patient writes to a doctor goes to that doctor only. A message pool is a named team — Front Desk, Nurses, Billing — that can handle patient messages together: everyone in the pool sees what is sent to it, any of them can reply on the provider’s behalf, and anyone can take a conversation for themselves. Backup coverage adds a backup person or pool when a patient message sits unopened too long.

Set it up: Admin → Messaging

Practice administrators, the owner, and office managers who may manage practice settings open it as a workspace tab. The left rail lists Pools, Patient messages, Backup coverage and Inbox access, and sums up How patient messages flow; on a phone the sections are one Section list instead. Inbox access (Who can work whose inbox) is a different tool from pools and routing: it lets someone work another person’s whole inbox where it is, without moving any message (Admin: Inbox access).

1. Create a pool. In Pools, add a New pool: a Pool name (staff then send to it by typing p and its name), What this team handles, an optional Department, and Who’s in this pool (at least one person). Backup for this pool is Use the practice default or Give this pool its own rule. Press Create pool. Each pool shows its members, its backup, where it is Used in, and Send to it; you can edit or archive it.
2. Send patient messages to it. In Patient messages, choose whether the practice manages messaging or each provider decides in their own Settings → Message Settings. Either way, routing can send new patient messages to a pool instead of one person, and providers can send theirs to any of the practice’s pools. The same section sets Who can message the provider? and the practice’s reply-time notice.
3. Turn on backups if you want them. In Backup coverage, switch on Send unopened messages to a backup, then write the rule: If a patient message isn’t opened within a wait (optionally counting office hours only, with editable office days and hours), also send it to a person, a pool, or The provider the patient wrote to. Urgent messages get a backup sooner sets a shorter wait for urgent ones, and then also send it to can name a different backup for them (Same backup, the default, keeps the rule’s own). For example, routine messages go to the practice owner after 9 office hours and urgent ones to the office manager after 2. A message gets one backup: once it has gone to the urgent backup, it isn’t also sent to the routine one. Tell the backup by Email and/or Mobile notification; these only say a message is waiting, never the patient’s name or what they wrote. It applies only to messages that arrive after it is turned on, and it is off until you turn it on.

In the Inbox

• Your pools are listed under Patient in the folder rail; click one to see only that pool’s conversations.
• Chips on a conversation say who has it: the pool’s name (In the Front Desk pool — everyone in it sees this conversation), Backup (No one opened this in time, so you were added as the backup), and Opened by {name} — a pool shares one read state, so you can see whether a teammate already opened it.
• Take it makes a pool conversation yours: It’s yours now — this conversation left Front Desk and is only in your inbox. The doctor the patient wrote to can take it back the same way.
• Done is the pool’s. When anyone in the pool marks a conversation Done, it is Done for the whole pool and shows Done by {name}; Reopen reopens it for everyone, and a new message from the patient brings it back for all of them. A conversation someone took, and anyone outside the pool who can see it, keep their own Done.
• The timeline records forwards, takes and backups as their own lines, so everyone can see how the conversation moved.

Tell patients how soon you reply: the reply-time notice

Patients read your reply-time notice right where they write to you in the patient portal and the Hero app: how soon to expect a reply, when a question needs a visit, and what to do in an emergency. Until you write your own, Hero’s wording is used: “We usually reply within 1-2 business days. Questions about new symptoms or medication changes may need a visit. If this is an emergency, call 911.”

1. Open Admin → Messaging and choose Patient messages. Practice administrators and staff who manage practice settings can change it.
2. Type your wording in Reply-time notice. Up to 400 characters. What patients see shows exactly what patients will read.
3. Click Save in the bar at the bottom.
4. To go back to Hero’s wording, click Use Hero’s wording and save. Clearing the box does the same.

• Where patients see it. In the portal: at the top of New message, under Messages, and under the reply box in a conversation. In the Hero app: at the top of the new-message screen, and in the Sent. note after they reply. “911” is always a tap-to-call link.
• The whole practice. The notice applies to every provider, whether the practice manages the other messaging settings or each provider decides in their own Settings → Message Settings.
• Keep it short. Two or three sentences: how soon you reply, what needs a visit, and what to do in an emergency.

Work someone else’s inbox where it is: attached inboxes

An attached inbox lets you work another person’s inbox from your own Inbox, without anything being forwarded or moved. A medical assistant can work the inbox of the doctor they support every day; a provider can work a colleague’s; while someone is out of office, the people covering work theirs. The items stay in the owner’s inbox, and opening, answering or finishing one does it for the owner too.

1. Turn on inbox access. A practice manager opens Admin → Messaging → Inbox access and switches on Let people work each other’s inboxes. It is off by default. Out of Office doesn’t need this switch: while someone is away, the people covering for them are attached whenever Out of Office is on (While they’re away).
2. Attach people. A manager attaches anyone to anyone in Inbox access (Admin: Inbox access). Where the practice allows it, people also share their own inbox, and providers attach themselves to a colleague’s, from the Inbox (Inbox sharing).
3. Open it. The owner’s inbox appears in the attached person’s Inbox switcher, above the folders (Switch inboxes). Hero sends no email or text about it.

Four ways someone gets attached

Switch between your inbox and the inboxes you work

When you work at least one other inbox (or one is about to start), the top of the folder rail becomes the Inbox switcher, under the heading Inboxes. Without it, the rail looks as it always has.

1. Read the rows. My inbox comes first, then each inbox you work, by name. Every row has the owner’s initials in that inbox’s own color, its open-item count (red when something urgent is waiting) and a palm when the owner is away. Hover for the full name, the count and the return date. With more than six inboxes, the quiet ones fold under More inboxes (n); an inbox with anything open is never folded. On a collapsed rail the rows become a stack of initials with their counts.
2. Switch. Click a row, or press { and } to go to the previous or next inbox (change them under Settings → Hotkeys). You stay in the same folder when the other inbox has it, otherwise you land on its first folder (usually Patient). Each inbox keeps its own search and scroll position.
3. Know where you are. In someone else’s inbox, a strip in their color sits above the list: Ana Rivera’s inbox, an Away until … chip when they are away, and why you work it (You’re covering · until Fri, Oct 31, Shared by your practice, Ana Rivera shared their inbox with you or You attached yourself). The rail’s Folders label carries their initials. On the right: 4 open to-dos · Open when you work their to-dos, What’s shared?, and Back to my inbox.
4. Check What’s shared? It says, in plain words, what you can do here, naming only what you actually get.

• Coming up. Out of Office coverage that hasn’t started shows as a faded row with its start date (“From Mon, Oct 20 you’ll work Ana Rivera’s inbox.”). You can open it once it starts.
• Home. Home shows Inboxes you work: with a chip and an open count per inbox; each chip opens that inbox (Dashboard queues).
• Remembered and linked. The Inbox remembers the last inbox you used in this browser tab, and a link can open a particular inbox. If you no longer work it (you were detached, the time away ended, or sharing was turned off), you are taken back to My inbox with “You no longer work Ana Rivera’s inbox.”

What you can and can’t do in someone else’s inbox

An attached inbox shows the folders that belong to a person, and only those you could open in your own inbox. Your role decides which (Staff accounts & permissions), and folders your practice doesn’t use never appear.

What you can do

• Open and finish. Opening an item marks it read for the owner, and Done marks it done for the owner. Done rows say who finished them: Done by Ada Lee in the owner’s own Done list, Done by you for yours.
• Reply. The reply goes to the patient, and the conversation stays in the owner’s inbox. Providers reply under their own name. Staff reply on behalf of the provider the patient wrote to, and the reply box says so: “The patient will see this reply from you, on behalf of Ana Rivera.” Patients still see the provider they wrote to. Staff need permission to send patient messages, as in their own inbox.
• Everything else you can do in your own inbox — forward, flag, mark unread, Mark handled, call back or link a voicemail, work a fax, decide a refill, answer a pharmacy request — works on the owner’s items, recorded as you.
• To-dos. In the To-do panel’s Tasks tab, Whose switches between Me and the people whose inbox you work. On someone else it lists the to-dos assigned to them: “Finishing one finishes it for Ana Rivera.” You can’t reassign their to-dos unless you created them: “Only the person it’s assigned to or its creator can reassign it.”

What stays with the owner

• Signing. Co-sign, Orders to sign and supervisory prescriptions are not shown: only the owner can sign. What’s shared? counts what is waiting for them. A pending co-sign request can be moved to another co-signer instead: the co-signer, a co-signer who can see all co-sign requests, or a practice administrator reassigns it in the Co-sign folder (Co-sign folder).
• Practice-wide folders (Forms/Letters, Inquiries, Referrals, Health records, Billing) are the same for everyone, so they stay in your own inbox.
• New conversations. There is no New button in someone else’s inbox; a new conversation starts in My inbox. Message pools aren’t listed there either.

Share your inbox, or attach yourself to a colleague’s

Inbox sharing is the people button in the folder rail’s header, beside the collapse button; a small dot on it means someone works your inbox right now. While people work your inbox, My inbox also shows a Shared with chip with their initials beside the folder’s title, which opens the same window. It reads “Nothing moves: people work an inbox where it is.” Every change saves at once.

Who works my inbox

• Each person is listed with how they came to be there: Practice (Shared by your practice), Shared (You shared your inbox), Self (Attached themselves) or Out of Office (While you’re away Oct 20–31). With nobody: “Nobody else works your inbox.”
• Remove someone with the × (“Ada Lee no longer works your inbox.”). A row your practice set shows a lock instead; an Out of Office row offers Change it in Out of Office, which opens that time away.
• Attach someone (when your practice lets people share their own inbox) opens Who should work your inbox? People who can’t work inboxes are greyed out with the reason. Pick one: “Ada Lee can now work your inbox.”

Inboxes I work

• Each inbox you work now, with why (for Out of Office, Until Fri, Oct 31 · Out of Office), and coverage still to come (From Mon, Oct 20 · while they’re away). With none: “You don’t work anyone else’s inbox.”
• Detach stops you working an inbox you or its owner set up: “You no longer work Ana Rivera’s inbox.” If you are also covering for them, you keep it until the time away ends: “You still work Ana Rivera’s inbox while you’re covering.”
• Attach to an inbox… (providers, when the practice allows it): choose Whose inbox?, read “Ana Rivera will see that you work their inbox.”, then Attach (or Back). “You now work Ana Rivera’s inbox.”

Managers also see Manage everyone’s inbox access, which opens Admin → Messaging (Admin: Inbox access).

Decide who works whose inbox: Admin → Messaging → Inbox access

Inbox access (Who can work whose inbox) is the fourth section of Admin → Messaging, for practice administrators, the owner, and office managers who may manage practice settings. Anyone else reads “Only practice managers can change who works whose inbox.” Every change saves at once; there is no Save button.

1. Turn it on. Switch on Let people work each other’s inboxes (off by default): “Inbox access is on.” Two more switches appear, both on to start: Providers can attach themselves to a colleague’s inbox (“From their own Inbox. The colleague always sees who works their inbox.”) and People can share their own inbox (“Anyone whose inbox can be worked may add people to it from their Inbox.”). With both off, only managers attach people.
2. Share an inbox. Press Share an inbox, choose Whose inbox, then tick the people under Who works it (providers and staff, searchable with Find a person by name or role), and press Add 1 person (or Add 3 people): “Ada Lee now works Ana Rivera’s inbox.” “Each person still sees only the folders they could open in their own inbox, and can’t sign for anyone.” You can set this up while the switch is off: “It starts working when you turn inbox access on.”
3. Review the list. By inbox shows one card per inbox (name, role, 3 people work this inbox, Add); By person shows one card per person with the inboxes they work (Works 2 inboxes). Find a person filters both.
4. Remove someone. Press × on their chip: “Remove Ada Lee from Ana Rivera’s inbox?” — “Ada Lee stops seeing Ana Rivera’s inbox right away. Nothing in the inbox changes, and you can add them again any time.” Choose Remove or Keep.

Turning it off

Switching Let people work each other’s inboxes off while people work inboxes asks Pause inbox access?: they stop right away, who works whose inbox is kept so turning it back on picks up where it left off, and “Out of Office still attaches people while someone is away.” Choose Pause inbox access or Keep it on.

Review and co-sign notes, one at a time or several at once

The Co-sign folder (Co-sign requests) holds signed notes waiting for a supervising clinician’s co-signature. While co-signing is on, it shows for providers ticked under Who can co-sign, for co-signers marked Can see all co-sign requests, and for practice administrators. A provider who has ever been assigned a request keeps the folder after co-signing is turned off, so nothing is stranded. Setting it up, and how notes get here, is in Co-signing; the Report is in Co-sign report.

1. Work the Pending list. Each row shows the patient, the note type, the author and when the note was signed. When your practice sets Co-sign within, rows show Due Oct 25, or Overdue · 2 days in red once that day has passed, and the header reads 3 overdue. A request a supervision rule created is marked Rule, or Rule · controlled substance when the rule sent it because a controlled substance was prescribed in the visit. The list is sorted by due date (requests without one last), then oldest first. Completed lists co-signed requests, newest first.
2. Narrow it down. With due dates on, the Overdue chip, with its count, shows only late requests. Filters offers Author, Signed from and Signed to (dates in the practice’s time zone); Clear all resets them. The search box (Search co-sign requests) matches the patient, note type and author in the loaded rows.
3. Open a request and read the note. The reading pane shows the note type, Open chart, Co-signer: Ana Rivera, Requested by supervision rule when a rule sent it (Requested by supervision rule · controlled substance when a controlled substance was prescribed in the visit), the due date, the AI summary, and the full signed note.
4. Co-sign it. Under Statement source, keep Practice default or pick one of your dotphrases (Hero starts from the one you used last), edit Co-sign statement, and press Co-sign note. The next pending request opens. A completed request shows Co-signed by Ana Rivera, the date and time, and the statement.

Comment on a note or send it back for changes

Under Feedback in the reading pane you can write to the note’s author without leaving the Inbox. Type in Comment for Sam Chen, then choose:

• Send back for changes moves the request to Sent back and opens the next pending note. The author sees Changes requested by Ana Rivera on the note, with your comment, and fixes it with an addendum or replies without changes.
• Comment only sends the comment (a question, for example) and leaves the request pending.
• Co-sign note with a comment typed co-signs the note and sends the comment with it: Your comment goes with the co-signature and to Sam Chen by Team Chat.

Notify Sam Chen by decides how the author hears about it. Team Chat sends a message from you in your chat with them, with a link that opens the visit note. To-do puts a to-do on their list, Note changes: Progress note · Jane Doe, due on the request’s due date when it has one; a to-do goes with Send back for changes only. Tick either, both or neither. Your choice saves the moment you change it (Saved) and is used on every note after that. A channel that can’t reach this author is greyed out with the reason, for example Team Chat is turned off for this practice. The action still goes through, and the author still sees your feedback on the note. If a message couldn’t be sent, the pane says so and offers Retry.

1. Notes waiting for their authors are in Sent back. Newest first. The pane reads Sent back to Sam Chen on Nov 1 · waiting for changes. Withdraw takes it back (the author’s to-do closes), or you can co-sign it as it is.
2. It comes back to Pending by itself. When the author signs an addendum, the request moves to the new version and returns marked Revised, and their to-do closes. Show changes underlines what was added and strikes through what was removed since the version you sent back. If the author replies instead, the request returns marked Author replied with the reply.
3. Read the history. Feedback history lists every comment, send-back, reply, new version and the co-signature, with who and when, and whether the Team Chat message and the to-do went out.

The Pending count, the Inbox badge, Overdue and co-signing several notes at once cover notes waiting for you, never sent-back ones. You always co-sign the version you are reading: if the author signs an addendum while a request is still pending, the request moves to the new version too (Updated by the author).

Co-sign several notes at once

When your practice turns on Allow co-signing several notes at once, every pending row you can co-sign gets a checkbox.

1. Select the notes. Tick rows, or press Select all 12 to co-sign above the list. It selects the rows loaded so far; press Load more first to include more. The bar above the list shows 3 selected.
2. Press Co-sign 3 notes. The window lists every selected note with its patient, note type, author and signed date. If one doesn’t belong, press Cancel and untick it.
3. Choose the statement and confirm. The same Statement source and Co-sign statement go on every note. Tick I have reviewed each selected note. (required), then press Co-sign 3 notes.
4. Check the result. 3 notes co-signed means all went through. If some could not be co-signed (for example, one was cancelled a moment earlier: “This co-sign request has already been resolved.”), the rest are still co-signed and the window lists each note that was not, with the reason. Press Close and handle those one at a time.

See every co-signer’s requests (medical directors)

A co-signer marked Can see all co-sign requests, and a practice administrator, gets a Mine | All co-signers switch; an administrator without a provider profile sees All co-signers only. In All co-signers each row also names its co-signer, the Overdue chip and the header count cover the whole practice, and Filters adds Co-signer.

• Reassign. Open a pending request. Under Manage this request, choose a co-signer in Reassign to (anyone ticked under Who can co-sign, including yourself if you are; never the note’s author) and press Reassign. The due date stays the same.
• Cancel. Cancel request… asks “Cancel this co-sign request?”; choose Cancel request or Keep it.
• Only the assigned co-signer can co-sign. Anyone else reads “Only Ana Rivera can co-sign this note.” To review it yourself, reassign it to yourself first.

The assigned co-signer sees Manage this request on their own pending requests too: they can reassign any of them, and cancel one a supervision rule created.

Read the monthly co-sign supervision report

In the Co-sign folder, Report (beside Pending and Completed) shows how each clinician’s notes are being co-signed, one month at a time: Supervision report · 2026-10. It is there for co-signers, for co-signers who can see all requests, and for practice administrators. Choose the Month in the list pane (it starts on the current month, in the practice’s time zone); the table fills the reading pane, one row per clinician:

A co-signer sees Clinicians you co-sign for: the clinicians whose rule names that co-signer, or who have a request assigned to that co-signer on the month’s notes, and only that co-signer’s requests are counted. A co-signer who can see all requests, or an administrator, sees Every clinician and every request. Download CSV, under the month, saves the same table; it holds no patient details. A month with nothing to show reads No signed notes for this month.