Who Should Do This
Organization setup is typically completed by the practice owner or office manager, with guidance from the onboarding team. These settings affect billing, compliance, and system behavior across the entire practice, so they should be reviewed by someone with decision-making authority.Understanding Your Account Structure
Before you begin configuration, you need to answer one foundational question: should your practice operate as a single StrataEMR account, or as multiple separate accounts? Most practices use one account. But if your organization runs two financially independent business units, with separate billing workflows, different payer mixes, and separate administrative operations, you may need two. This decision shapes how your billing, reporting, and user access work from day one. It is much harder to change after go-live.Single Account with Multiple Facilities
A single account with multiple facilities is the right structure for most practices. All of your locations live under one StrataEMR login. You get aggregate reporting across locations, a shared fax inbox, and centralized scheduling and task management. Users can be assigned to specific facilities if you need to limit what they see, but all data lives in one place. Choose this structure if:- Your locations operate under one business entity, or share billing workflows and payer contracts
- You want a roll-up view of your entire practice’s performance across locations
- Your clinical or admin staff work across multiple locations
- Your patients are seen at multiple locations
- You want one fax inbox and one task queue for the whole organization
Separate Accounts
Separate accounts are the right structure when two entities truly operate as independent businesses — with different payer mixes, separate billing teams, and no need for a combined view of both. Choose this structure if:- Your entities have meaningfully different payer mixes or billing workflows that need to stay completely separate
- Each business unit manages its own finances independently and doesn’t need aggregate reporting across both
- Structurally the two businesses are seen as separate and administrators of each would not use a combined view
Not Sure Which Is Right?
Talk to your onboarding lead before configuration begins. This decision affects your billing setup, user management, and reporting from the start. Getting it right upfront is much easier than restructuring after go-live.Practice Information
Your core business information is configured by the StrataPT onboarding team based on your new client application. Once your account is live, updates to some of these fields will be managed by StrataPT, they are not directly editable after setup to prevent typos that could affect billing. If you need to update any of these after go-live, submit a support ticket and the StrataPT team will make the change. The following fields are set during onboarding and locked after go-live:- Legal Business Name — your practice’s full legal name as registered. Appears on claims and patient-facing documents.
- Tax ID — your federal Employer Identification Number.
- Organization NPI — your Type 2 (group/organizational) NPI. Each of these three fields can be overridden at the facility level for locations that bill under different credentials. If any facility field is left blank, it inherits the organization-level value.
- Business DBA — your “doing business as” name, if different from your legal name.
- Organization NPI for HETS (if different) — some practices use a separate NPI for eligibility verification. Leave blank if yours is the same as your Organization NPI.
- Time Zone / Disable Daylight Saving Time — controls how appointment times and timestamps display. Set to match your primary location’s time zone.
- Auto-Save Documents — how frequently StrataEMR auto-saves clinical notes in progress. Defaults to After 1 Minute.
- Google Reviews URL / Facebook Page Ratings URL — if you use StrataEMR’s patient satisfaction surveys, these URLs control where the “Share Your Review” follow-up links point. Optional, but worth setting before go-live if you actively manage online reviews.
Identifiers
StrataEMR requires several identifiers for billing, claims submission, and regulatory compliance. Some are configured directly by your team; others are gathered by StrataPT during onboarding and managed on your behalf. NPI (Type 2 — Group/Organizational): Your practice’s organizational NPI. This is different from individual provider NPIs, which are configured separately at the user level. If you’re unsure which NPI to use here, verify with your credentialing team — entering a Type 1 (individual) NPI will cause claim rejections. Tax ID / EIN: Your practice’s federal Employer Identification Number. This must match exactly what’s on file with your payers. Taxonomy code: Collected by StrataPT during your new client application. Your onboarding lead will confirm the correct code(s) for your practice specialty and payer mix. Medicare PTAN: Collected by StrataPT during onboarding via your PTAN letter. If you don’t yet have a PTAN because credentialing is still in progress, billing to Medicare cannot begin until one is issued — your onboarding lead can advise on timing.Billing Defaults
Billing defaults are organization-wide settings that govern how StrataEMR handles charges, claims, and billing workflows. These defaults can often be overridden at the facility or payer level, but the organization-level settings serve as the baseline.Important: Billing defaults directly affect revenue. If you’re unsure about a setting, ask your onboarding lead before saving. Changes to billing defaults after go-live can affect in-flight claims and should be made carefully.
Additional Organization Settings
Several things you might expect to configure upfront are handled differently in StrataEMR. Practice hours are not set during onboarding. You’ll configure them directly on your schedule once your account is live. Document templates come pre-loaded with StrataEMR’s default template library — no setup required before go-live. If you have a specific clinical workflow the defaults don’t cover, talk to your onboarding rep about customization options. Letterhead is generated by the StrataPT team using the contact information from your new client application and the logo you upload to your onboarding dashboard. Letterhead is configured at the facility level, so each location can have its own. Staff login credentials are issued by the onboarding team before go-live. Every staff member should update their password the first time they log in. Credit card processing is configured in Menu Bar > Settings > Credit Card Processing using your Authorize.net credentials. If you already have your Authorize.net API Login ID and Transaction Key when you complete your new client application, you can provide them there and the onboarding team will configure it during setup. MIPS participation is collected on your new client application. If you indicate that your practice participates in MIPS, the onboarding team will enable the MIPS setting and load the appropriate MIPS templates into your account before go-live.Verification
Before moving on to facility setup, verify the following:- Practice name and contact information are correct
- NPI (Type 2) is entered and verified
- Tax ID / EIN is entered and verified
- Taxonomy code(s) are correct
- Billing defaults have been reviewed with your onboarding lead
- Any payer-specific identifiers are configured
Next step:
- Configuring Your Facilities — Set up your practice locations, hours, and provider assignments.