I'm embarrassed to show anyone my books. What will you think of me?
Honestly, I think it took something to ask the question. Close to half the people who reach out to me open with some version of an apology before they ever tell me what they need. If you were worried you would be the only one showing up with a mess, you are not.
Before I did this work, I was a licensed nurse for more than 15 years, most of it in mental health. I sat with people on some of the hardest days of their lives, and they trusted me with things far heavier than a year of uncategorized bank transactions. Nobody got a lecture from me then, and nobody gets one now. Books that got away from you are a much smaller confession than the ones my patients used to make.
Here is what I am actually looking at when I open your file. Which bank and card accounts are connected. How far back the last real reconciliation goes. Whether practice spending and personal spending got tangled together. Where the gaps are and how wide they are. That is a diagnostic, the same way taking vitals was a diagnostic. It tells me what the work will involve and roughly how long it will take. The state of the books is a starting point, and it is never a verdict on you.
It also helps to say the obvious thing out loud. Private practice bookkeeping is a skill nobody covered in your graduate program. You trained to help people, and then somewhere along the way you also became a business owner with a bank account, a payment processor, a stack of software subscriptions, and maybe staff. Falling behind is one of the most predictable things that happens to a practice owner who is busy seeing clients. Falling behind is common. Staying behind is the part that is optional.
So bring me whatever exists. Statements you have not opened, a QuickBooks file you stopped logging into, a folder of receipts, or nothing organized at all. Catch-up bookkeeping gets scoped and priced after I look at the real situation, so neither of us is guessing. Once you are current, monthly bookkeeping keeps it that way, and I will go over current pricing with you when we talk.
If the only thing standing between you and current books is the thought of someone seeing them, book a consultation with me. You will get plain answers and no judgment, and we can start from wherever things actually are.
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.
More Questions
What kind of practice fits AD Keeps The Books best?
Mental health practices with one to about ten people, anywhere in the country. Solo therapists, psychologists, LCSWs, addiction counselors, psychiatric nurse practitioners, group practices, telehealth practices, and ABA providers. If you want your books current and a bookkeeper who already speaks your language, you're the fit.
Read answerWhat does it actually cost to run a therapy practice?
Established solo practices commonly run somewhere between $1,500 and $5,000 a month in overhead, and lean virtual practices often come in well under that. Those figures move around and are worth verifying. The number that matters most is your own, and your books can tell you exactly what it is.
Read answerWhat's different about bookkeeping for a psychologist who does testing?
Testing behaves like a second business inside the same practice. The engagements run long, the money often arrives on a different schedule than the work, and materials cost real money, so testing revenue and testing costs belong in their own categories.
Read answerWhat should I look at in my reports each month if I only have ten minutes?
Look at four things. Revenue compared to last month and the same month last year, the few expense lines that actually move, profit for the month, and cash on hand. That is enough to know whether the practice is healthy, and anything that looks strange can be a quick conversation.
Read answerHow do I know if my session fee is too low?
Private-pay fees commonly run around $100 to $200, with specialty work higher, but that range is only context. Your real answer comes from what your practice costs, what you need to take home, and how many sessions you can sustain. Clean books make that arithmetic honest.
Read answerWhat's the difference between catch-up and clean-up bookkeeping?
Catch-up is for books that were never done, meaning months or years with nothing recorded. Clean-up is for books that exist but cannot be trusted because things are miscategorized, unreconciled, or duplicated. Both end the same way, with accurate current books and a monthly rhythm going forward.
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