Bookkeeping for Anchorage Mental Health Practices
Remote bookkeeping for Anchorage therapists, counselors, prescribers, and group practices. Work directly with Aretha, one time zone away.
Remote Is Normal in Anchorage
If you practice in Anchorage, a good share of your work already happens through a screen. Clients in Palmer and Wasilla, down on the Kenai, out in communities off the road system. Video sessions in January when the roads are bad and nobody should be driving. Supervision calls with a colleague two time zones away. Working with a bookkeeper who sits in California is that same habit applied to the back office, and for a telehealth practice it fits the way you already run things.
My name is Aretha Dirden. I spent more than fifteen years as a licensed nurse working in mental health before I ever opened QuickBooks, and now bookkeeping for mental health professionals is the only work I do. You deal with me directly. No account manager in the middle, no handoff to someone who has never spoken with you. We share documents securely, your bank feeds carry most of the load, and we talk by phone or video whenever you want to.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly bookkeeping that keeps you current. Transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, and a short set of reports each month that tells you what the practice earned and what it kept. Written so you can take it in between sessions.
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Books that were never started, or books that exist and nobody trusts. I handle both. We go back as far as we need to, get every account reconciled, and give you a starting point you can believe.
Payroll for Practices With Staff
Payroll for Practices With Staff
If your payroll system is already up and running, I run it for you every pay period so your clinicians and front desk staff are paid right and on time. Payday stops living in your head.
Records Your Tax Preparer Can Use
Records Your Tax Preparer Can Use
I do not prepare returns. What I do is keep the year clean and organized so the handoff to your preparer takes an afternoon instead of a month. Reports go straight to them if you would like.
Anchorage Practices I Work With
Anchorage holds close to forty percent of Alaska’s population and a large share of the state’s private mental health practices. Demand runs high all year and heavier through the dark months, then the calendar shifts again in summer when families travel, fish, and take leave. That swing shows up in a practice’s bank account, and monthly books are how you see it coming instead of feeling it in August.
Most of the practices I work with have between one and ten people. Rent, utilities, and freight on anything shipped north cost more here than they would in most of the Lower 48, which makes an honest expense picture worth real money. If your caseload is full and the money side keeps sliding to the bottom of the list, book a consultation with me and we can look at where your books actually stand.
Therapists and Counselors
Therapists and Counselors
LPCs, LMFTs, and clinical social workers practicing solo or with a colleague or two. I reconcile what your practice management system says you earned against what reached the bank, keep business and personal spending apart, and show you what a full week of sessions really brings in.
Group Practices
Group Practices
Practices with associates, an office coordinator, and a supervisor or two. Compensation splits and salaries recorded correctly, payroll run for systems already in place, year-end 1099s prepared for contract clinicians, and reporting that shows what each clinician adds.
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
This is the corner of the field I came from. Alaska leans hard on PMHNPs, and a medication management practice with short visits and high volume is familiar ground for me. Nothing about your clinical day needs explaining before we can talk about your numbers.
Addiction and Recovery Counselors
Addiction and Recovery Counselors
Alaska carries real demand for substance use care, and the practices meeting it usually mix individual sessions, group work, and payment arrangements that vary by client. I keep those revenue streams separated so you can see which part of the practice is holding up the rest.
Questions About This Area
You're in California and I'm in Anchorage. Does that actually work?
It does, and it works well. The bookkeeping happens through secure document sharing and connected bank feeds, so none of it depends on us being in the same building. Alaska clinicians already run a good part of their practice this way. You work with me directly every month, wherever either of us is sitting.
Is the time difference a problem?
Anchorage is one hour behind me, so your morning is my late morning. If you want to talk at 8 am before your first client, that is 9 am here and I am already at my desk. Most of what we do happens by message anyway, and I answer the same day.
What does it cost?
Monthly bookkeeping starts at $165 a month. Payroll starts at $150 a month for practices whose payroll system is already set up. Catch-up and clean-up work is quoted per engagement after I look at what you have. You get a real number before you commit to anything.
My books are a year behind. Is that a problem?
No, and you are in good company. Practices fall behind because clinical work comes first and there are only so many hours. I gather statements, record and reconcile period by period, and bring everything current. Then we move into monthly service so it does not pile up again. No lectures about how it got this way.
Do you file my taxes or handle insurance billing?
Neither one. I do not prepare tax returns. I keep your books accurate and organized so your tax preparer has clean records, and I am glad to send reports straight to them. I also do not do insurance billing, claims, credentialing, or coding. That stays with your biller. My part is making sure what lands in your bank account is reconciled against what your practice records show.
Helping the People Who Help Others
Let's Start With
a Short Conversation
Tell me where your books stand right now, even if the honest answer is that nobody has looked at them in a year. I'll ask a few questions and give you a clear idea of how I can help.
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