Clinical documentation and recordkeeping requirements are often a burden for behavioral health care practitioners. The importance of clinical documentation is sometimes overlooked. Many behavioral health practitioners in private practice improperly maintain legally required adequate clinical records in order to avoid possibly having to disclose these confidential records at some later date if a patient requests them, or if the patient becomes involved in legal action and places his or her mental or physical state at issue of concern. Legally mandated clinical documentation and recordkeeping serve several important purposes, all of which are equally applicable to agency and private practice settings. We will discuss these topics, as well as ethical and effective clinical documentation, right patients, payor standards and value-based care.