Bookkeeping for Seattle Mental Health Practices
Monthly bookkeeping, catch-up work, and payroll for Seattle private practices. You work directly with Aretha, and your books stay ready for your tax preparer.
Bookkeeping for Seattle Practices
Seattle has one of the larger private practice communities on the West Coast. Therapists with offices in Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, and West Seattle. Psychologists doing assessment work near Northgate and the U District. Prescribers and group practice owners spread across the metro, plus a lot of clinicians who see their whole caseload on video from a room at home. Office rent and software costs run high here, caseloads stay full, and the bookkeeping usually gets whatever hour is left at the end of the week.
I’m Aretha Dirden, and I keep the books for mental health practices all over the country. Before this I spent more than 15 years as a licensed nurse working in mental health, so the way your days actually run is already familiar to me. Bookkeeping for therapists is the whole of what I do, I do the work myself, and Seattle sits in my own time zone, which makes finding a few minutes to talk simple.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Monthly Bookkeeping
Transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, and a short set of reports you can absorb between two sessions. Steady every month, starting at $165 for practices with 1 to 10 people.
Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Catch-Up Bookkeeping
For books that were never started. A year of statements, two years, sometimes more. I record and reconcile one period at a time until your practice is current, then we keep it there.
Clean-Up Bookkeeping
Clean-Up Bookkeeping
For books that exist and nobody trusts. Duplicate entries, personal charges sitting in practice expenses, accounts that have never reconciled. I find what went wrong, fix it properly, and give you numbers you can believe again.
Payroll and 1099s
Payroll and 1099s
If your payroll system is already up and running, I process each pay period so associates and admin staff are paid on time. At year end I prepare and file 1099s for contract clinicians, supervisors, and vendors.
Seattle Practices I Work With
The Seattle practice owners who reach out usually got here the same way. Someone left a hospital system, an agency, or a community clinic, opened a private practice, and grew faster than planned. A year or two later there is a second clinician, a subscription list nobody remembers signing up for, and a bank balance that never quite explains itself. ABA and behavioral health teams land here too, where technician payroll has to be right every single period.
What practice owners ask me for is consistent. Books that are up to date, financials ready for the tax preparer, a clear view of financial health, and an honest answer about whether the practice is profitable. That is what monthly bookkeeping is for. If that sounds like the piece you’re missing, book a consultation and we’ll talk through where your books stand today.
Solo Therapists and Counselors
Solo Therapists and Counselors
Private pay deposits and insurance payments arrive on different schedules, sliding scale and late cancellations move the monthly totals around, and personal spending has a way of wandering onto the practice card. I sort all of it out each month so a full week of clinical hours shows up correctly in the numbers.
Group Practices
Group Practices
Three clinicians, six, ten. Associate pay recorded correctly whether it runs on splits or salary, W-2 staff and contractors kept straight in the books, and reporting that shows margin per clinician so you know whether the next hire pays for itself.
Telehealth Practices
Telehealth Practices
Plenty of Seattle clinicians see clients across Washington without ever renting an office. Online therapy practices carry a real stack of platform fees, EHR subscriptions, and merchant processing charges, so I reconcile payouts against sessions and keep the small leaks visible.
Psychologists and Prescribers
Psychologists and Prescribers
Assessment engagements with report hours attached, mixed therapy and consulting income at different rates, and medication management schedules with a high visit count. I came out of nursing, so none of this needs explaining before I can record it the right way.
Questions About This Area
You're in California. Can you really keep the books for a Seattle practice?
Yes, and it works well. Everything I do happens remotely through file sharing, email, phone, and video. Lancaster is in the same time zone as Seattle, so a quick call before your first client or after your last one is easy to schedule.
What does it cost?
Monthly bookkeeping starts at $165 a month. Payroll processing starts at $150 a month for practices that already have a payroll system running. Catch-up and clean-up work is quoted per engagement once I see what shape the books are in, and you get an exact number before anything starts.
My books haven't been touched since I opened. Where do we start?
We start where you are. If the books were never done, that's catch-up work, and I record and reconcile period by period until your practice is current. If the books exist but are full of miscategorized entries and unreconciled accounts, that's clean-up. Either way, I have seen it before and no lecture is coming.
Do you handle insurance billing or claims?
No. Claims, credentialing, and coding stay with your biller or billing service. My work begins with the money that lands in the bank. I reconcile those deposits against your practice records so the books match reality.
Do you prepare tax returns?
No. I keep your books tax-ready and hand clean, organized financials to whoever prepares your return and your Washington filings. Most clients tell me tax season gets a lot quieter once the books are current.
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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