Can you run payroll for my group practice?
Yes, as long as your payroll system is already up and running. That is the one condition I want to be upfront about. If you have a payroll provider in place and your people are already in the system, I run payroll every pay period so your clinicians and admin staff are paid right and on time.
Setting up a payroll system from scratch is the piece I leave to others. Registering with the federal and state agencies, opening withholding and unemployment accounts, choosing a provider, and getting that first configuration correct is its own project. If your practice is starting from zero, your payroll provider almost always has an onboarding team that will walk you through it, and your tax professional can weigh in on the parts that touch taxes. Once that foundation exists, I take it from there and keep it running.
Here is a simple way to tell whether your practice is ready for me. You have an EIN, you are registered in the states where your employees work, you have an active account with a payroll provider, your employees have finished their onboarding paperwork, and you have a pay schedule with agreed compensation for each person. If that sounds like your practice, we are set.
A pay period with me looks like this. I collect hours or confirm salaries, apply what your practice has agreed to for each clinician, look the run over for anything that seems off, submit it, and then make sure the wages and payroll liabilities post cleanly in QuickBooks. That last part matters more than people expect, because payroll is usually the largest cost in a group practice, and books that record it properly are what let you see whether adding the next associate is actually working. You can read more about how payroll processing fits alongside monthly bookkeeping.
Most group practices I work with have a mix of W-2 employees and 1099 associates. Payroll covers the W-2 side, contractor payments get tracked all year, and I prepare 1099s in January. The question of whether a clinician should be an employee or a contractor belongs with your attorney or tax professional, and the books record whichever answer is true for your practice. Tax rates, wage thresholds, and filing dates also shift and vary by state, so confirm current figures with your provider or tax preparer.
I spent more than 15 years as a licensed nurse in mental health before this work, so bookkeeping for therapists and group practices feels like familiar ground to me. If you would like to hand payday off to someone dependable, book a consultation and let’s talk about how your payroll is set up today.
Helping the People Who Help Others
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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
I'm leaving agency work to start a private practice. What financial setup do I actually need?
You need less than you think. A business bank account, a QuickBooks file set up for a practice instead of a generic business, a simple monthly rhythm starting your first month, and records your tax preparer will want at year end.
Read answerMy practice is brand new. When should bookkeeping start?
At the beginning, ideally before your first client payment arrives. A practice that opens with a separate business account, a proper QuickBooks setup, and a monthly rhythm never needs a cleanup later, and starting right costs far less than untangling a year of mixed records.
Read answerWhich parts of my practice make the most money?
You can only answer this if your books split revenue by service line and you know roughly how many hours each line takes. Individual sessions, couples work, groups, testing, supervision, and workshops all earn differently per hour of your time once direct costs come out.
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 does the practice actually pay beyond an employee's wages?
The wage is only the starting number. Employer payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, and benefits all sit on top, which is why a 60 percent W-2 split and a 60 percent 1099 split are completely different economics for both sides.
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