Payday means a weekend with the diary
The clinic works with several clinicians on different terms. One is paid per session. One gets a percentage of fees collected. One is paid per appointment type, with a different rate for new and follow-up patients. A locum covered two weeks in the summer on a day rate.
At the end of each month the manager exports the diary, cross-checks it against billing, removes the did-not-attends that should not be paid, adds the extra session someone covered, and works it out in a spreadsheet. Then a clinician queries their statement, and the manager has to rebuild the working to show where the figure came from.
Why this stays a manual job
Payroll software handles salaried staff well. Sessional, percentage and self-employed arrangements are harder, because the inputs come from clinical activity rather than hours, and the rules differ per person.
The data needed is split across systems. The diary knows what was booked. The billing system knows what was charged and collected. Cancellations, did-not-attends and cover arrangements live partly in notes. Contract terms sit in individual agreements. The spreadsheet is where all of that is stitched together by one person.
Because the logic lives in a spreadsheet, it changes quietly. A rate gets updated in one cell and not another. Last month's file is copied and edited. When there is a disagreement, it is hard to show exactly how the number was reached.
What manual pay calculations cost
| Cost | What happens |
|---|---|
| Manager time | Days each month spent on calculation and checking |
| Errors | Wrong rates or missed sessions, corrected next month if spotted |
| Queries | Clinicians questioning statements they cannot trace |
| Relationships | Good clinicians frustrated by late or inconsistent pay |
| Key-person risk | Only one person understands the spreadsheet |
The relationship cost is real. Sessional clinicians often work across several clinics and can choose where to spend their time. Pay that is late or hard to understand is a reason to choose somewhere else.
How we automate the calculation
- Each clinician's agreed terms recorded in a structured way: session rates, per-appointment rates by type, percentage of fees and whether that is billed or collected, and how cancellations and non-attendance are treated.
- Activity data pulled from your diary and billing systems through their APIs or exports: sessions worked, appointments completed, fees billed and received.
- Cover and ad hoc sessions recorded in a simple form, so they are captured when they happen instead of remembered at month end.
- A calculation engine that applies each clinician's terms to their activity and produces a line-by-line statement showing how the total was reached.
- Statements shared with clinicians for checking, with a way to raise a query against a specific line.
- Approved figures exported to your payroll provider for employed staff, or to Xero or QuickBooks as bills for self-employed clinicians who invoice you.
The terms themselves are yours. We make sure the calculation follows them consistently and shows its working. Questions about employment status or tax treatment belong with your accountant, not with software.
A month end that takes an hour
At the end of the month the calculations are already done. The manager reviews exceptions: an unusual session, a query from a clinician, an appointment with no billing record. Clinicians receive a statement they can follow line by line, so fewer queries arise, and the ones that do are about a specific item rather than the whole total.
When terms change, they are updated in one place with an effective date, so the old rate applies to old sessions and the new rate to new ones.
Someone other than the manager can now run the month end, because the logic is in the system rather than in one person's spreadsheet habits. Holidays and handovers stop being a risk to paying people on time.
Does this sound like your clinic?
- Clinicians are paid on several different arrangements
- Pay is calculated in a spreadsheet from diary and billing exports
- Cover sessions are recorded on paper or remembered at month end
- Clinicians query statements you struggle to explain
- One person is the only one who can do the pay run