Have you audited your tech stack lately?
Do you know whether the software you’re using for payroll, accounting, client communication and more is the best option?
We go over 5 of our favorite private practice software subscriptions you should be using in your private practice. They’ll save you time, energy, and many headaches!
The transcription of this video is below:
Your Private Practice Tech Stack
Hey, it’s Nate from Navigator Bookkeeping and I’m here today to talk about your private practice tech stack.
So, whether you’re just thinking about starting a private practice or a group practice or you already got one in the works and you’re just auditing your Private Practice Tech Stack and all those subscriptions, let’s talk about some of those best choices because as a bookkeepers, we see those tech stacks, we see how much those recurring subscriptions cost, those can add up.
Audit Your Private Practice Tech Stack
They can get to be a large overhead cost for you every month, month after month after month. So number one, even before we get into the Private Practice Tech Stack, it is good to kind of do a quick audit of those every couple of months, make sure you’re not paying for things you don’t want to be paying for, and make sure that any subscriptions you’re done with are canceled.
So just good stuff to think about, but let’s get into that tech stack before I get too much into the bookkeeping weeds because that’s where I’ll always go.
1) Document Storage, Email, & Everything Else – Google GSuite
So first, let’s start out with the basics. How are you communicating with your team, with your clients? Do you have document storage? For this, I’d say use Google GSuite. This is going to hook you up with Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google emails, also called Gmail, and if you use Google GSuite, you get all these documents for a pretty low fee.
Usually, it’s $6 per person per month. So even if you have a relatively large team, this is not going to be a huge fee. It also works really well between all different devices, it’s easy to share access with people. And in my opinion, it is much easier to use than the Microsoft Suite of options. So, yeah, G-Suite’s cheap, it’s easy to use, most people know how to use it, and it gives you tons of tools you can use, even going as far as calendars, chat, and things like that. So that’s the base in my mind.
2) Team Communication – Slack
Second, let’s talk about how you’re going to communicate with your team with your private practice tech stack. Now, Gmail and chats within a Google would be great, but you also might want something to chat with people a little more quickly, to have different channels. I really like Slack. Now, I don’t see too many private practices using Slack. I see other kinds of marketing businesses, things like that with more employees using it, but I think it can be really helpful.
You can have a channel with each specific employee as well as you can make teams of people that you can have different chats with. It also lets you call people just to have audio-only meetings. You can also have video meetings. So, it’s just a great way to connect with your team to do quick check-ins if email feels a little too cumbersome. The free version is pretty robust. So, you can definitely check out that as well.
3) Accounting Software – QuickBooks Online
Now, let’s talk about how are you going to keep track of all of your numbers? Of course, I’m going to go with QuickBooks Online. There’s lots of options out there, Xero, FreshBooks, your Microsoft Spreadsheet, a piece of paper, but in my mind, QuickBooks Online is the best option hands down.
Their prices have gone up over time, which I don’t love, but it integrates with many other apps. It’s probably the most well-known software. So you’re going to find lots of bookkeepers and accountants who have experience using this. And in my mind, it’s user-friendly and it’s easy to generate reports that are going to be really helpful to you.
It can connect to all of your bank accounts, your credit cards, and you definitely should do that so that it’s as automated as possible. And they’re really increasing their automated features so that it runs by itself more and more as much as possible.
3b – Don’t DIY your bookkeeping
Now, you still should work with an accountant or a bookkeeper to do your bookkeeping. That’s not something you should, as a business owner, as a private practice owner, be doing. It’s just not a good use of your time. But QuickBooks Online is still going to give you the best access, best visibility into the financial story of your business, at least in my mind, but I’m super biased. I love QuickBooks even when the price keeps going up. Come on, QuickBooks. Alright, so that’s your accounting software.
4) Payroll – Gusto
Then let’s talk about payroll in your private practice tech stack. Now, there’s lots of payroll options out there. You maybe have heard of the big options like ADP or Paychecx. Maybe your accountant offers payroll for you, and that’s an okay option, but, really, my favorite option is Gusto. Some people say Goosto. It is Gusto, though. I’m 99% sure. I didn’t look that up before making this video, but I’m going with gusto.
It connects with QuickBooks online, it’s easy to use, the dashboard, when you log in, is just perfect, so easy to find things, so easy to find a report, so easy to find where your money is going, plus it integrates with a lot of benefits, whether those are health benefits, retirement benefits, there’s all these integrations.
Gusto is really a suite of options for you as a business owner. Best of all, it’s easy for your employees to go in, to update their information. It’s easy for you as the employer to go in and update employee information and change their pay, change their information, make sure everything is working as far as they’re withholdings. It’s just great.
There’s always going to be issues, there’s always going to be people who don’t like different payroll providers, but for me, Gusto is the best especially when you’re moving from kind of doing it in-house or having someone manually do it, don’t do that. Gusto is going to take all that work off your plate, they’re going to pay all your taxes for you, file all the forms for you as far as payroll is required. Man, it’s great. So definitely think about that and, yeah, consider that. It’s really nice to use.
And by the way, I’m going to have links for all these below this video. So, if you’re like, “How do I find this?” or “Where is this?” Let me know then I can get you links for all these. I also have discounts for a couple of these if you’re looking for a discount. Gusto, I can probably get a discount for, QuickBooks, same thing. So, if you’re looking for discounts on either of these, reach out. I’m happy to help you out with that depending on the situation.
So, we talked about G-Suite, we talked about QuickBooks, we talked about Gusto, we talked about Slack. The last one I’m going to talk about is your CRM/messaging and contact.
5) HIPAA Compliant CRM/Marketing – Therasaas
Now I’ve seen a lot of private practice owners lately talking about, “I need a HIPAA compliant communication software, I need something where everyone’s information is being stored so I can track it, but it’s also HIPAA compliant, and I need something in one place,” and usually people are dealing with a patchwork of different software to do this. This just may be the area of your private practice tech stack you don’t realize you need, but could be a game changer.
Grasshopper for my phones and mailer lite for my newsletter and maybe a spreadsheet for my CRM. And a CRM, by the way, is just where you track your incoming customers and potential customers, if you don’t know that. But a lot of therapists and a lot of private practice owners don’t have a great CRM software. Maybe they just even have a piece of paper where they just have kind of a wait list written down or a Spreadsheet, and there’s no good system where you can keep track of everyone, keep in contact with everyone.
There’s a relatively new software called Therasaas, and this is made specifically for private practices and specifically group practices. What it’ll do is it connects to your website, connects to your phone, connects to your email, and everything runs through one place, so that all your communication with prospective clients is in the same place, all of your prospective clients are all listed so you can kind of see where everyone is, have they reached out, have we scheduled an intake, are they a client that’s sticking with us, and everything’s all connected, so you can see all of your communication.
So any emails you send, any texts you send, it’s all in the same place. It’s all HIPAA compliant. This is really nice because it’s specifically made for private practices instead of trying to kind of make a lot of other non-private practice-centered software work for you as a private practice owner.
So, I really love this because whenever you can get something that’s specific for your niche, that’s the best. Honestly, it’s so great. So definitely feel free to check that out. I know not too many people know about it yet because it’s pretty new, but I know quite a few businesses who have started using it already and they have just been in love with it so far.
Links Below, Give us Feedback on your Private Practice Tech Stack!
So there’s a link below for that as well if you want to check that out. So that’s my private practice tech stack. There may be things that I’m missing. So, if there’s any tech that you really love in your practice, any pieces of software that you’re like, “We couldn’t live without this,” reach out and let me know. We can always make a second version of this, but, yeah, happy to hear your comments. If you have any questions, please comment below this video as well and look for those links right below here and check those out. We’ll see you in the next video.
Links for our Private Practice Tech Stack:
CRM & HIPAA compliant email/phone software: TheraSaaS
Payroll: – Gusto – https://gusto.com/
Accounting: QuickBooks Online – https://quickbooks.intuit.com/
Documents/Emails: – workspace.google.com
Team Comms: slack.com