The rest of running a practice, in the same place as the parts work
Most practitioners we talk with pay for a second platform to handle booking, agreements, payment and video, and use Parts Companion for the sessions themselves. We're considering building that side too, for practices that bill their clients directly. None of it exists yet. Your answers decide whether it should, and what comes first.
Two subscriptions for one practice
Over the past year the same picture keeps coming up in conversations with practitioners: one platform for the calendar and the payments, Parts Companion for the sessions, and the cost of both weighed against each other. Here is what we heard, and what we'd do about it.
Intake as a sequence, not a to-do list
You set it up once: a free discovery call people can book, your agreement sent for signature, a short intake form in your own words, then a link where the new client picks a weekly time and saves a payment method. Each step opens on their phone, with no account to create, and you can see where everyone has got to.
Your questions, in your words
Ask what you'd ask anyway: short and long answers, yes or no, a few choices, a date, a scale. Change the form whenever you like; anyone who already answered keeps the questions they saw. The answers are for you alone.
What the client opens on their phone
A discovery call lands only in the times you keep for calls. The intake form arrives once the agreement is signed.
One calendar, and payment follows the session
Clients book a recurring weekly time, or a single session, in the hours you set. Your Google or Outlook calendar keeps its own events out of the way, and anything booked here shows up there. When a session ends you mark it complete, and the client's saved payment method is charged.
Payments, per client
A payment method saved at the first booking, your own rate for each client, and a cancellation window you set. Receipts go out on their own. If a payment doesn't go through, the client gets a secure link to try again, and you can waive a charge or refund one at any point.
The emails go out for you
Confirmations, reminders and receipts, in your name, your color and your wording. Nothing from a session ever appears in them.
A reminder that we meet Thursday, Sep 17 at 11:00 AM (ET). Your video link is below — open it a few minutes early.
Sasha
The calendars and video you already use
A secure link, and the client decides about recording
Clients join from the link in their reminder, with no account and nothing to install. Recording the audio is their choice, made on their own screen, and both of you can see when it's on. The recording is yours to listen back to. If you'd rather stay on Zoom, every booking gets its own meeting and the link travels with the reminders.
Your records are yours, in both directions
Help bringing your client list, upcoming appointments, past notes and billing history across, with a chance to look it over before anything lands. And an export of the same records whenever you want one. Whether your current platform takes records back is something we're still checking.
Two ways to have it
These prices are a proposal. The back-office plan stands on its own, and Practitioner Companion stays what it is today at $79 a month. Together they'd be $109.
Parts Companion is a not-for-profit project. Paid plans cover the cost of running it, and it's always free for clients.
What would a first version have to include?
A practice-management platform does a great deal, and we wouldn't build all of it. The honest question is which parts you'd consider the floor. Mark each one for your own practice. Where the line falls across everyone who answers is what decides the first version.
Your answers decide what we build first
Each one takes a tap. Your name is asked once so we can follow up if you'd like us to, and nothing here is published or attributed. A note on any answer is welcome, and entirely optional.
Where does your practice live today?
How do your clients pay you?
If we built this, what would you want from it?
Say a first version did intake, scheduling, billing and video, and nothing else. Where would that leave you?
Which piece would you want first?
For video sessions, which would you use?
The proposed prices: $49 a month for the back-office plan, or $109 a month for everything. How does that land?
If you moved, what would have to come with you?
And what should we call it?
Thank you for thinking this through with us
If you'd rather write than tap, an email is just as good. Partial answers are welcome, and so is “this doesn't fit my practice, because…”. If you'd like to be among the first to try it, we'd love to know that too.
Reply by email instead