Software for private-pay speech therapists: parents, plans and monthly billing

In pediatric speech therapy the patient is four and the client is a parent with a full calendar. The parent books, pays, signs, asks whether the school's IEP covers this, and cancels when daycare sends the kid home with a fever. Divorced parents may both need to sign. Weekly sessions run for months, school breaks reshuffle everything, and out-of-network families want a superbill every month.

From the first call to weekly sessions

1. A parent finds you through a pediatrician, a preschool or a local parents' group. Your Link in Bio page offers a free 15-minute phone consult and lists your evaluation fee and session rate.
2. The consult form asks the child's age, the main concern in a few words ("not many words at 2", "lisp") and which days work. Nothing diagnostic: that's for the evaluation.
3. Book the evaluation as a 90-minute meeting type charged at booking, at the clinic, at home or at the preschool, with the place written in the meeting type's location.
4. Send your Good Faith Estimate as a PDF with Document Tracking and see that the parent opened it. One estimate can cover a course of weekly sessions for up to 12 months.
5. After the evaluation, send a proposal for the plan: weekly 45-minute sessions for 12 weeks, billed monthly, with your policy on missed sessions in the terms.
6. Consent, the cancellation policy and the release for talking to the child's teacher go out for e-signature. Add both parents as signers when custody requires it; each signs from a phone.
7. Give the parent a single-use booking link for each session, or open a paid "Weekly session" meeting type so they pick the slot. Bill a flat monthly fee as an invoice that repeats on the 1st, or bill the sessions held each month.

A typical week

• Monday: you record a 3-minute video at your computer showing the parents of a 6-year-old how to practice /r/ at dinner. They comment at 1:40 asking about a word list.
• Tuesday: two sessions at a preschool and three at the clinic. One parent cancels at 7 a.m.; the refund window is 24 hours, so the paid session isn't refunded.
• Wednesday: a family accepts a 12-week plan and both parents sign the consent by evening.
• Thursday: you send the home-practice PDF for a late talker and see that the parent read every page.
• Friday: the monthly invoices are already out from last week's schedule; you log a new set of picture cards and the preschool parking in Expenses.

All 13 tools, one by one

Scheduling, E-Signatures, Invoicing and Screen Recording do most of the work for a private-pay SLP. The others help now and then.

• Link in Bio: a page for parents' groups and your Instagram with the free consult, evaluation fee, session rate and where you see kids (clinic, home, preschool).
• Short Links: a QR code on the flyer at pediatricians' offices and preschools, with clicks counted per office so you know who refers.
• Forms: a short waitlist form for families when your weekday afternoons are full, with age, area and available days.
• Scheduling: a free phone consult, a paid evaluation and a weekly session type, with the clinic, home or preschool written in each one's location.
• Proposals: the therapy plan after the evaluation (sessions per week, length, monthly price), accepted by the parent online.
• E-Signatures: consent, cancellation policy and the release to talk with teachers, signed by one or both parents from their phones.
• Document Tracking: home-practice PDFs and your Good Faith Estimate, with a view of which pages the parent actually read.
• Screen Recording: short videos recorded at your computer that show parents the home exercise, up to 5 minutes on Solo; parents comment at the exact second.
• Notes & Boards: a board of families by stage (waitlist, evaluation, in therapy, on break for summer) using the parent's name, plus your materials to-do list.
• Time Tracking: rarely needed. Use it when a private school or a daycare pays you by the hour for screenings.
• Invoicing: a monthly invoice per family that repeats on the 1st or lists that month's sessions, with card payment and reminders 3 days before and after the due date.
• Expenses: therapy materials, apps, CEUs, ASHA dues and mileage between preschools with receipts.
• Automations: a no-show email with the booking link, and a message to waitlist families when you add new slots.

FERPA, Medicare and estimates

• FERPA covers schools and districts that receive U.S. Department of Education funds. A private practice working directly for parents generally isn't covered, but if you also work under contract for a school or district, the records you keep for it can be education records under FERPA. Keep that work in the district's systems and out of SoloWOS.
• Speech-language pathologists can't opt out of Medicare. That matters if you also see adults on Medicare, not for a pediatric caseload.
• When a self-pay patient schedules care at least 3 business days ahead, the No Surprises Act requires a Good Faith Estimate within 1 business day of scheduling (within 3 business days when the visit is 10 or more business days out), and CMS expects you to tell self-pay patients about that right on your website, in the office and when they book.
• Before you keep seeing a family that moved to another state, even by video, check both states' licensing boards for their telepractice rules.

HIPAA: who can use SoloWOS and for what

HIPAA applies to health care providers who send health information electronically in standard transactions, such as billing insurance. A cloud service that stores protected health information for a covered provider is a business associate and needs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). SoloWOS doesn't sign BAAs and isn't HIPAA compliant.

• If you bill insurance electronically, you're a covered entity: don't put your clients' health information in SoloWOS. Keep using your EHR or practice-management system for anything clinical.
• If your practice is cash-pay only and never bills insurance electronically, HIPAA may not cover you, but state health-privacy laws can still apply. Ask your lawyer before you rely on that.
• Either way, keep intake forms and booking questions administrative (name, email, preferred time, reason for the visit in general terms) and leave clinical questions for the visit and your records system.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS or SimplePractice: which fits

Choose SimplePractice or TheraPlatform if:

• You need session notes, goals and a BAA in one place.
• Families ask for monthly superbills to send to their insurer.
• You do teletherapy and want the video, games and notes in the same system.
• You bill insurance; TheraPlatform says its clearinghouse connects with more than 2,000 payers.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• Your notes already live in a clinical system and you want the parent side handled: consults, signed plans, home videos and invoices.
• You sell screenings to daycares and private schools and need proposals and contracts for those.
• You want one price for booking, e-signatures, document tracking, screen recording and invoicing.

Prices and features checked between October 17 and 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Scheduling with the free consult and the paid evaluation, E-Signatures for the consent with both parents as signers, and Invoicing with a monthly invoice per family. Screen Recording earns its place once you send your first home-practice video.

Free tools that help

• Retainer calculator to turn weekly sessions into a flat monthly fee.
• Freelance rate calculator for your session rate.
• Invoice late fee calculator for the families who pay the month late.
• Mileage deduction calculator for home and preschool visits.
• Client intake form template to adapt into an administrative consult form.

What SoloWOS won't do for a speech therapist

• No session notes, goals, progress reports or evaluation reports.
• No superbills, insurance claims or Medicaid billing.
• No teletherapy video or therapy games; add your Zoom link to the meeting type.
• No recurring bookings: weekly sessions are booked one by one, from single-use links or your booking page.
• Forms can't take file uploads, so parents can't send you a prior evaluation or an IEP that way (which keeps it out of SoloWOS anyway).
• Reminders by email only.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.