Building a Macro Set That Actually Saves Your Providers Time

Every chiropractic provider knows the frustration of retyping the same subjective findings, objective measurements, and treatment plans visit after visit. ChiroTouch addresses this with a macro system embedded directly in the Chart Note Editor, accessible from both the Provider All-in-One application and the ChiroTouch Basic application. A macro set can hold up to twenty text buttons for each of the four SOAP sections—Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan—organized under menu buttons that keep the screen uncluttered. When a provider clicks a macro button, the programmed text drops into the note, and any charges or diagnoses linked to that button post automatically. For a practice running six or eight patient visits per hour, that reduction in keystrokes adds up to meaningful minutes at the end of each day.

What separates a well-built macro set from a basic text shortcut is the use of advanced macro fields. Instead of inserting a static string like "patient reports pain in the lower lumbar region," a provider can drop in a SPINE-LR field that prompts them to click the exact vertebral segment and laterality right on a visual spine diagram. Other built-in prompts include ASK (a free-text question the provider answers in the moment), CHOOSE ONE or CHOOSE ANY (multiple-choice selections from a custom list), DATE, NUMBER, and REGION (A through E) for broader body-area capture. Patient-specific fields such as FIRST_NAME, BIRTH_DATE, CURR_DX, and REFER_PHYS pull live data from the chart, so the note stays accurate without the provider hunting through tabs. Setting these up once in the Macro Setup Tool means every subsequent note starts with the right structure already in place.

Office managers and front-desk staff play a supporting role that is easy to overlook. When a provider wants to copy a prior note into a new one, the Copy button in the Macros section lets them pull any previous appointment's text and select which SOAP fields to bring across. If the team is transitioning between providers or onboarding a new doctor, having a shared macro set with consistent naming conventions keeps documentation uniform across the practice. ChiroTouch support staff should be familiar with the Macro Setup Tool path—Setup Macros in the left navigation pane, then New Macro Set, Copy From an existing set, and the step-by-step creation of menu and text buttons—because a significant share of setup questions that reach the Customer Success Team involve macro configuration. Walking a new practice through the initial build, confirming that advanced fields prompt correctly, and verifying that bundled charges post to the right account codes prevents a lot of downstream reconciliation work.

One practical tip that tends to get missed: you can attach both charge codes and diagnosis codes directly to a macro text button. When the provider clicks that button mid-note, the associated CPT or procedure code and the linked diagnosis are saved to the appointment immediately, without a separate billing step at the end of the visit. This is especially helpful in insurance-billing practices where the alignment between documented findings and posted charges matters for claim accuracy. The provider can still review and adjust codes later using the Code button in the lower-right corner of the Chart Note Editor, which displays all diagnoses and charges already added to that visit. Pairing that workflow with the Patient Statements feature in the Accounting module—where statement batches are generated as XML files and exported to a clearinghouse—closes the loop from the exam room to the patient's mail, all within the same ChiroTouch environment.

Finally, remember that the macro system is designed to be customized per practice and per provider. The Set Name drop-down lets a doctor switch between a sports-injury macro set and a general wellness set without leaving the note. The Hide Macros and Show Macros buttons free up screen real estate when a provider needs to type a longer narrative. And the Flag button adds a colored marker to a chart note so that follow-up items jump out in the Chart Notes list. None of these features replace clinical judgment, but they remove the repetitive typing that pulls focus away from the patient in front of you. A thirty-minute investment in building a clean macro set pays back on every single visit for the life of the practice.

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