What does working together month to month actually look like?
The honest answer is that most months are quiet on your end. You spend a little time with me up front, and after that the work happens in the background while you see clients.
Getting started is the busiest part, and it usually takes about an hour of your time. I need view access to your business checking account and business credit card, access to your QuickBooks Online file, and whatever deposit or payout summary your practice platform can produce. That last piece is what lets me match what the practice earned to what actually landed in the bank. I am only looking at the money side of your practice. Nothing about your clinical notes or client records comes into this work, and I never need it.
Once access is in place, the rhythm settles. Through the month I categorize transactions as they come through so nothing piles up. After the month closes and your statements are available, I reconcile every bank and credit card account so the books agree with the bank rather than approximating it. That reconciliation step is the part a lot of do-it-yourself bookkeeping skips, and it is the reason those numbers stop being trustworthy.
Then I send you one short list of questions instead of pinging you all month. Usually it is a handful of items, something like an unfamiliar vendor charge or whether a purchase was for the practice or for you personally. You answer when you have a gap between sessions.
After that, your reports go out. Profit and loss, balance sheet, and a note from me in ordinary words about what moved and what I noticed. My goal is that you can read it in a few minutes and actually understand your practice’s health and profitability. That reporting is the heart of full-service bookkeeping, which starts at $165 a month depending on the size and complexity of your practice.
In between, you can message me. You are working with me, not a queue or a rotating team, so when something needs explaining, I am the one who explains it. If your practice also uses payroll processing, bill payment, invoicing, or year-end 1099s, those fold into the same monthly rhythm. In January, your books go to your tax preparer already tax-ready. The return itself and any tax planning stay with that professional, which is where they belong.
Everything is handled remotely on your schedule, wherever your practice is. Bookkeeping for mental health professionals is all I do, so nothing about how your practice runs needs to be explained to me.
If this sounds like the kind of steady support you have been wanting, book a consultation with me and we will talk through what your month would look like.
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
I've been running my practice through my personal checking account. How do I untangle it?
This is the most common thing practice owners tell me, and it is completely fixable. The fix has two parts, opening dedicated business accounts for everything going forward, and sorting the historical mix so the practice's real activity gets recorded properly.
Read answerWhen can my practice afford to add another clinician?
You can afford an associate when the arithmetic works, meaning their pay, the extra overhead that comes with them, and several months of a partial caseload all fit inside what your practice actually collects. Your books supply those numbers, and the decision stays yours.
Read answerWhat software should a small practice run its money on?
Three pieces cover almost every small practice. The practice management platform you already use for scheduling and client payments, QuickBooks Online for the actual books, and a business bank account underneath both, connected so the deposits reconcile.
Read answerShould my associates be W-2 employees or 1099 contractors?
Classification is not really a preference you get to pick. It turns on how much control the practice has over the associate's work, and associates who see the practice's clients on the practice's schedule often land on the employee side of those tests. The call belongs with employment counsel and your tax professional, and I make sure the books and payroll records match whichever answer is true.
Read answerI offer sliding scale to a good share of my caseload. What should my books show me about it?
Your books should show your effective rate per session, the gap between your posted fee and what you actually collect, and how much of your weekly caseload sits at a reduced rate. Those three numbers tell you what sliding scale really costs and how much of it your practice can carry.
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 answer
