Bookkeeping for Philadelphia Mental Health Practices
Remote bookkeeping for therapists, group practices, and prescribers across Philadelphia and the Main Line. You work directly with Aretha.
Bookkeeping for Philadelphia Practices
Philadelphia has one of the deepest clinical communities in the country. Penn, Temple, Drexel, and Jefferson graduate new clinicians every year, and a lot of them stay, build a caseload, and eventually hang a shingle. Add the practices spread along the Main Line and you have thousands of small offices run by people who are excellent at clinical work and far less interested in categorizing bank transactions. I am Aretha Dirden, and I do bookkeeping for mental health professionals in private practice.
I spent more than 15 years as a licensed nurse working in mental health before I ever opened QuickBooks. That background is the reason clients tell me the first call feels easy. Nothing about your day needs explaining to me. We work remotely, you deal with me directly rather than a rotating team, and I keep Eastern time in mind when we schedule so our calls fit between your sessions.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly Bookkeeping
Transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, and a monthly report you can read in a few minutes. Starting at $165 per month. If something in the numbers looks strange to you, call me and I will walk you through it in plain language.
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Catch-Up and Clean-Up
Some practices have never had their books done. Others have books that were done badly, with miscategorized entries and accounts nobody has reconciled in a year. I handle both, and I do it without a lecture. Most of my clients started right here.
Payroll and Year-End 1099s
Payroll and Year-End 1099s
If your payroll system is already up and running, I can run payroll each pay period so your clinicians and staff are paid on time. I also prepare year-end 1099s for associates, contract supervisors, and vendors. I do not set up new payroll systems.
Tax-Ready Books
Tax-Ready Books
I do not prepare returns. What I do is hand your tax preparer organized, reconciled records with the documentation behind them. Philadelphia practices tend to have more filings on the list than most, and your preparer should be starting from clean numbers rather than chasing you in March.
Philadelphia Practices I Work With
A Center City suite with three therapists splitting the rent. A solo LCSW seeing clients out of Mount Airy. An assessment practice near University City juggling testing hours and report writing. A group practice in Bryn Mawr or Wayne with five associates and a waitlist. An ABA provider in the Northeast with a team of technicians. The practices look different from the outside and the owners ask me the same three questions. Am I making money, are my books current, and is tax time going to be a scramble again.
Most of the practices I work with have somewhere between one and ten people. That is the size where the money side has gotten complicated enough to hurt and an in-house bookkeeper still makes no sense. If you have been doing this yourself on Sunday nights, I would be glad to take it off your hands.
Solo Therapists and Counselors
Solo Therapists and Counselors
Session revenue reconciled from your practice management system deposits to the bank, private pay and insurance payments arriving on their own separate rhythms, and business spending separated from personal for good. You end up knowing what a full week of clinical hours actually earns you.
Group Practices
Group Practices
Associate splits, W-2 staff and 1099 contractors in the same practice, and owners who cannot tell whether the newest clinician is helping or costing them. Group practice bookkeeping means recording compensation correctly and showing margin clinician by clinician, so hiring the next person is a decision instead of a guess.
Prescribing Practices
Prescribing Practices
Psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatrists running medication management with high visit volume and short appointments. I came out of nursing, so this world is familiar territory. Revenue reconciled, practice costs tracked honestly, and reports short enough to read between patients.
Telehealth Practices
Telehealth Practices
Plenty of Philadelphia clinicians now see clients across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware without leaving a spare bedroom. Platform subscriptions, EHR fees, and merchant processing charges are real costs, and I reconcile payouts to sessions so the numbers reflect what you kept.
Questions About This Area
You're based in California. How does that work for a practice in Philadelphia?
It works the same way your telehealth sessions work. I connect to your bank feeds and QuickBooks Online, we talk by phone or video, and I schedule around Eastern time so calls land in your day and not at the end of it. My clients are spread across the country and I have never needed to be in the room to keep good books.
Do you actually understand how a mental health practice runs?
Yes. I was a licensed nurse for more than 15 years working in mental health before I started keeping books. You will not have to explain intakes, no-shows, sliding scale, supervision hours, or why your deposits never match your session count exactly. That part is already familiar to me.
What does monthly bookkeeping cost?
Full-service monthly bookkeeping starts at $165 per month. Your number depends on how many accounts you have and how much activity runs through them. I give you a flat monthly price after we talk and I look at what you have, so there are no surprises later.
My books are way behind. Is that a problem?
No, and you are in good company. A lot of practice owners reach out with months or years of untouched transactions. I bring everything current without any commentary about how it got that way, then we move into monthly service so it does not pile up again.
Do you prepare tax returns or handle insurance billing?
Neither one. I keep your books tax-ready and hand clean records to whichever tax preparer you use here in Philadelphia. Insurance billing, claims, credentialing, and coding stay with your biller or your EHR. My side of it is recording what actually landed in the bank and reconciling it accurately.
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.
Other Areas
