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Mental Health practice intake checklist
A therapy or psychiatry practice is a labor business wrapped in a payer lag. Nearly all cost is clinician compensation and nearly all revenue arrives when a payer decides. The items below let us report margin per clinician and forecast around credentialing.
This is what we ask for when a mental health practice comes on. Send what you have — nothing here is a prerequisite for starting. The list exists so we can tell you early what is missing rather than three weeks in.
1. Access and credentials
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Accounting file — admin or accountant access | QuickBooks Online, Desktop, or whatever you run. We work in your file, not a copy. |
| Bank accounts — read-only access, all accounts | Operating, savings, and any account the practice touches, including ones not currently in the books. |
| Credit cards used by the practice | Business and any personal card carrying practice expenses. |
| Merchant processor / payment portal | Deposits net of fees never tie to production without this. |
| Payroll provider access | Provider compensation is the largest line we have to get right. |
| Practice management system — reporting access | Read-only is fine. This is how we reconcile clinical activity to the money. |
2. Entity, history, and prior filings
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| EIN letter (CP-575 or SS-4) | Confirms the filing entity before anything else is set up. |
| Formation documents and operating agreement | Ownership percentages drive distributions and eventual valuation. |
| S-corp election (Form 2553), if applicable | Determines how owner compensation must be structured. |
| Business tax returns — prior two years | Our starting point for normalized earnings. |
| Prior-year financial statements | Tells us what the last preparer did and where they departed from accrual. |
| Trial balance and general ledger — prior 24 months | The raw material for the cleanup. |
| Chart of accounts export | Usually the first thing we rebuild. |
3. Banking
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Bank statements — prior 12 months, all accounts | Reconciliation from a known-good starting point. |
| Credit card statements — prior 12 months | Where uncategorized and personal spend usually hides. |
| Most recent completed reconciliations | Tells us how far back the file is actually trustworthy. |
4. Debt and leases
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Loan agreements and amortization schedules | Principal is not an expense. Without the schedule your profit-to-cash bridge is guesswork. |
| Equipment financing agreements | Capital vs. operating treatment changes both the P&L and the balance sheet. |
| Real estate lease or mortgage documents | Occupancy cost is a core overhead benchmark. |
| Owner loans to or from the practice | Frequently misrecorded as income or expense. |
5. Fixed assets
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Depreciation schedule from your tax preparer | So book and tax depreciation stop diverging silently. |
| Equipment list with purchase dates and cost | Feeds the schedule and the eventual valuation. |
| Leasehold improvement detail | Often expensed when it should be capitalized. |
6. Payroll and compensation
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Current payroll register | Baseline for provider and staff cost as a share of collections. |
| Employee roster with role and pay basis | Salary, hourly, production, or contractor — each behaves differently. |
| Owner compensation history — salary and distributions | The split determines what the practice actually earns without you. |
| Benefit and retirement plan documents | Real cost per employee, and a planning lever later. |
7. Insurance
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Professional liability / malpractice | Coverage and premium timing. |
| General liability, property, workers compensation | Standard overhead lines we benchmark. |
| Business overhead or interruption coverage | Relevant to the cash forecast. |
8. Owner and related-party items
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Personal expenses currently run through the business | We are not here to judge. We do need to identify them so earnings can be normalized. |
| Related-party arrangements | Building owned by you or a family member, family on payroll, management fees between entities. |
9. Getting it to us securely
This part is not optional.
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Use the secure link we send, not email | Everything here is either financial or protected health information. Email attachments are not an appropriate channel for it. |
| Business associate agreement signed before access | We execute a BAA with every practice before we touch a system that contains patient or client records. Ask if you have not seen one. |
| Grant access rather than exporting where possible | Read-only access to your systems is safer than a file sitting in someone’s downloads folder, and it stays current. |
| Tell us who else has access | Prior bookkeepers, former staff, and old accountant logins should be reviewed and removed as part of onboarding. |
10. Mental Health specifics
The section a generalist intake leaves out.
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| EHR access — SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, Valant, Alma, Headway | Session volume has to reconcile to billed and collected revenue. |
| Clinician roster — W2 vs. 1099, licensure, supervision status | The two cost structures behave differently and carry different risk. |
| Credentialing matrix — each clinician by each payer, with effective dates | The most common cause of cash stress in a growing practice. |
| Payer contracts and fee schedules | What each panel actually pays per session type. |
| Session volume and utilization by clinician — trailing 12 months | Contribution margin per clinician is the central number in this vertical. |
| No-show and late-cancellation rates | Fixed clinician cost against no revenue. Quietest margin leak in the vertical. |
| Revenue by payer — commercial, Medicaid, EAP, private pay, superbill | Five collection behaviors that most books collapse into one. |
| Contractor agreements | Reviewed against the actual working relationship. Classification exposure is real and buyers look for it. |
| Supervision agreements and associated cost | Rarely included in any margin calculation, and it should be. |
| Prepaid packages and IOP / PHP enrollment balances | Collected ahead of delivery. Liability, not income. |
| Authorization tracking process and current authorizations | Lapses produce denials weeks after the sessions were delivered. |
| Telehealth platform and state licensure by clinician | Coding and place-of-service requirements shift by payer and state. |
Mental Health intake checklist
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