Finalizing a note marks it as the official clinical record for that session and locks it from further editing.
Steps
Make any final edits to the draft
Click Finalize at the top of the note, next to Copy and Export
A confirmation appears under it — "Finalize and lock this note?" (if your retention settings delete the recording or transcript at finalize, it says so here)
Click Finalize to confirm
The session's status changes from Ready to review to Finalized. All sections become read-only, and so do the session's times, CPT code and mental status exam. The Finalize button becomes Unlock…, and the session panel's Details tab shows the date you finalized under Status. The note is now part of your clinical record.
Why finalize?
Three reasons:
Medical-legal clarity. A finalized note represents the documented record of what happened in the session, at a specific time. Editing it later muddies that record.
Triggers downstream behavior. When you finalize a session note, Confidant uses it to update the patient's case overview (the running summary that gives context to future generations).
Frees the session. Once finalized, the note becomes part of the previous-session context shown to the AI when generating the next session's note for this patient.
Before you finalize, check…
Are the client's diagnoses right? They're in the session panel's Details tab under Billing › Diagnosis (the same list as the client page), and they print on exports. Search by code (e.g.
F41.1) or name (e.g.anxiety).Do the session times and CPT code match what you'll bill? Check Details › Length and Details › Service — both lock when you finalize.
Are there any patient quotes you want to scrub (privacy, consent, accuracy)? Edit before finalizing.
Does the recap make sense as a pre-session re-orient? It'll be the first thing you see next time.
Is there anything the AI invented that didn't actually happen in the session? This is rare but worth a final scan.
What you can still do after finalizing
Copy the note text to paste into your EHR
Export it as a PDF or a text file
Read the transcript for reference in the Transcript tab
What you can't do after finalizing
Edit any of the SOAP/DAP sections
Edit the recap
Regenerate the note (the existing one is the record)
Change the session times, CPT code or mental status exam
The client's diagnoses belong to the client, not the session, so you can still update them; a change shows up in future notes and exports.
Unlocking a finalized note
There are situations where a finalized note genuinely needs to be edited — a transcription error you didn't catch, a later discovered correction, an addendum. Click Unlock… at the top of the note (where Finalize was), then Unlock to confirm. The note, its times, CPT code and exam become editable again. Finalizing it again records a new finalized date.