Bookkeeping for Berkeley Mental Health Practices
Bookkeeping for therapists, psychologists, and group practices in Berkeley. Aretha keeps your books current and tax-ready, and you work with her directly.
A Bookkeeper for Berkeley Clinicians
Berkeley may have more therapists per person than anywhere else in the country. Walk down Shattuck, or up Solano, or through the Elmwood, and you pass suite after suite of clinicians seeing clients. It is a good place to practice. It is also a place full of very capable people running a business they never planned on running, where the books get pushed to a weekend that keeps not showing up.
I’m Aretha Dirde. Bookkeeping for therapists and other mental health professionals is the only work I take, and I do it myself from my office in Lancaster for practices all over the country. Before this I spent more than fifteen years as a licensed nurse in mental health, so I already know the language and the rhythm of your days. You will not have to explain your work to me before we can talk about your numbers.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly Bookkeeping
Full-service bookkeeping on a steady monthly rhythm. Transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, and a short set of reports that shows what the practice brought in and where it went. Short enough to read between sessions, and if a number looks odd you call me and I walk you through it in plain words.
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Some practices come to me with two years of unopened statements. Others have a QuickBooks file full of guesses from a busy season. We start wherever you actually are, record and reconcile the periods that were skipped, correct what was entered wrong, and then keep it current so the pile stops rebuilding itself.
Tax-Ready All Year
Tax-Ready All Year
I do not prepare tax returns. What I do is keep your books in the shape your tax preparer wants to receive them. Office rent, license renewals, consultation groups, continuing education, and your city business license all sit where they belong, so winter turns into a short handoff instead of a month of digging through email.
Payroll and 1099s
Payroll and 1099s
If your practice already has a payroll system up and running, I will run it each pay period so your associates and front office staff are paid right and on time. At year end I prepare 1099s for contract clinicians, supervisors, and vendors. I don’t set up new payroll systems, and I say so before you ask.
The Practices I Work With in Berkeley
Berkeley’s clinical community runs deep. Training programs keep sending new clinicians into the area, associates finish their hours and open their own doors, and consultation groups meet in office suites and living rooms all over town. Most of the practices I serve have somewhere between one and ten people, and most of the owners started with no business background at all. Bookkeeping for therapists and counselors in private practice looks different from bookkeeping for a shop on Fourth Street, and it should.
East Bay office rent is real money, and plenty of Berkeley clinicians hold low-fee slots on purpose because that is the kind of practice they want to run. Both of those things make accurate books matter more. When the numbers are current you can see what a week of clinical hours actually earns, what your overhead is taking, and whether your sliding scale is sustainable at the level you set it. If you would like to see where yours stand, book a consultation with me and we will talk it through.
Solo Therapists and Counselors
Solo Therapists and Counselors
One clinician, a caseload, and a shared suite rented by the day or the month. I reconcile the deposits coming out of your practice management system to what actually hits the bank, keep private pay and payer deposits straight even though they arrive on different schedules, and separate practice spending from personal spending.
Psychologists and Assessment Practices
Psychologists and Assessment Practices
Testing and assessment work has a different shape than a weekly therapy hour. Multi-session engagements, report writing time, and mixed income from therapy, evaluations, and consulting at different rates. I track them separately so you can see which part of a mixed practice is really carrying the overhead.
Group Practices
Group Practices
Associates on splits or salary, front office staff, contract supervisors, and a growing set of moving pieces. I record compensation correctly, run existing payroll, prepare year-end 1099s, and give you reporting that shows margin by clinician so the decision about the next hire rests on numbers you trust.
Telehealth and Hybrid Practices
Telehealth and Hybrid Practices
A lot of Berkeley clinicians now see clients across California by video, sometimes with an in-person day or two each week. Platform and EHR subscriptions, merchant processing fees, and payouts that need matching to sessions all get reconciled, and home office records stay clean for your tax preparer.
Questions About This Area
You're in Lancaster. Can you still keep the books for my Berkeley practice?
Yes. All of my work happens remotely, and I have clients from here in California to the East Coast. We meet by video or phone, statements and access come through securely, and you never have to drive anywhere or find parking.
What does monthly bookkeeping cost?
Full-service bookkeeping starts at $165 per month. Your rate depends on how many accounts you have and how much activity runs through them. I'll give you a real number after we talk, not a range you have to guess at.
My books are more than a year behind. Is that going to be a problem?
No. It's one of the most common reasons people call me, and I don't have any interest in making you feel bad about it. We record and reconcile the past periods, get you current, then keep it that way month to month.
Do you file my tax return?
I don't prepare tax returns. I keep your books clean, reconciled, and tax-ready so your tax preparer has everything they need. If you'd like, I'll send your year-end reports straight to them.
Do you handle insurance billing or claims?
No. I don't do claims, credentialing, or coding, and I won't pretend otherwise. My work is the bookkeeping side, which means the deposits and payments that land in your accounts get recorded and reconciled correctly.
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.
