Why would a psychiatric nurse practitioner choose a bookkeeper who used to be a nurse?
Let me give you the honest answer first. The bookkeeping part should be the same high standard no matter who you hire. Reconciling accounts, categorizing transactions, closing out a month accurately, that is a craft, and you should expect it done well by anyone you pay to do it. What my 15 years as a licensed nurse in mental health changes is everything that happens around the work.
You do not have to explain your world to me. When you say your Thursday ran twenty two follow ups and three intakes, I know what that day felt like and I know roughly what it should look like in the numbers. I know your practice system’s report and your bank deposit are two different things that need to line up every month. If your state requires a collaborating physician arrangement, I know that is a real recurring cost that deserves its own line so you can actually see what it costs you. That is the kind of context behind my bookkeeping for prescribing practices, and none of it needs a glossary first.
The tempo matters too. Prescribing practices run faster than talk therapy practices. Shorter visits, more of them, and documentation that follows you home at night. So I group my questions and send them in one short message instead of five. I do not call during clinic hours. I build monthly reports you can read in a few minutes and understand without a translator, and when something looks off, I tell you plainly.
Knowing where my work ends is part of this as well. I do not handle insurance billing, claims, credentialing, or coding. I do not prepare tax returns either. I keep your books accurate and tax ready so your tax preparer gets clean numbers, and questions about tax amounts or strategy stay with that professional. I run payroll for practices whose payroll system is already set up.
Beyond the nursing years, I am a QuickBooks ProAdvisor at Level 2 with the Gold Badge, and you work with me directly every month rather than a rotating team. Bookkeeping for therapists, prescribers, and other mental health clinicians is the only thing I do. Monthly service starts at $165 right now, and I am glad to walk you through what your practice would need.
Nursing was taking care of people. This is taking care of the people who take care of everybody else. If that sounds like the kind of help you want, book a consultation with me and we will talk about where your books stand.
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
What 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 the difference between profit and the cash in my account?
Profit measures what your practice earned and spent over a period of time. Your bank balance shows what is sitting there at one moment, after payment lags, big annual bills, tax set-asides, and owner draws. Both numbers are true, and they answer different questions.
Read answerCan you run payroll for my group practice?
Yes, as long as your payroll system is already up and running. Aretha processes payroll every pay period and makes sure it posts correctly in your books. She does not handle initial payroll system setup, so a brand new practice would establish that first with its provider.
Read answerHow do you keep my financial information secure?
I only need financial records, never clinical ones. Documents move through secure file sharing rather than email, I work in QuickBooks Online under my own user login, and I use read-only bank connections instead of shared passwords wherever the bank supports it.
Read answerHow much should I set aside from each payment so taxes never surprise me?
Common guidance runs 25 to 30 percent of profit, and your tax preparer should confirm the right figure for your situation. The percentage applies to profit rather than to the full deposit, so knowing your real profit number is what makes the reserve accurate.
Read answerWhat should an addiction counseling practice's books account for?
Separate income by the kind of work behind it, since individual sessions, groups, assessments, and education programs earn very differently for the time and space they use. Your books also need a consistent way to record sliding scale fees, payment plans, and partial payments, plus clear tracking of group revenue and unpaid balances.
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