If you are a private practice therapist with a busy schedule, you might find yourself making the decision to hire an office manager or administrative assistant to help manage your workload. But how do you find the right person for you? How much should you pay them? Should you hire full-time or part-time help? Is it okay to hire a virtual assistant? Read on for the answers!

What is the difference between an administrative assistant and an office or practice manager?

An administrative assistant can be a part-time or a full-time support person who helps you with one or more of the following duties: scheduling appointments; answering calls and emails; private pay and insurance billing; greeting clients; and keeping the office space organized. You might hire a part-time administrative assistant to only take care of your scheduling or your billing, or you can bring in someone full-time to handle multiple roles. 

If you decide that you want to focus only on therapy and delegate all administrative duties to someone else, then you will want to hire an office or practice manager. They should be able to handle all of the duties of an administrative assistant as well as additional duties such as: bookkeeping and budgeting; ordering office supplies; hiring and supervising other administrative personnel; managing payroll; maintaining insurance; handling business licenses and registration; and more. Office managers typically have at least a bachelor’s degree and expect to be paid a higher hourly rate or an annual salary. If you are part of a group practice, you will probably want a full-time office manager, but if you are a solo practitioner, you may be able to get by with part-time help. 

Should your assistant work in the office or virtually?

If you need someone to greet clients and maintain a physical office space, then you may want someone to come into the office at least part of the week. An admin can keep office supplies stocked, maintain order and cleanliness in the office, walk clients through completing paperwork, collect payment, and answer client questions on site. Some admin applicants may prefer to come into the office because they may not have a quiet space to work from home or they may be interested in the social aspect of the position. Working with an admin in-person enables you to directly supervise them and to answer their questions in real-time. You might want to consider an in-office admin if they are inexperienced and need an extra amount of training or if you have concerns about whether they are getting the work done. 

Allowing your assistant to work virtually will open up your pool of applicants significantly. You can hire someone who needs to be at home for one reason or another, and you can choose from applicants from all over the country (and possibly find someone who would be willing to work at a lower rate). If you exclusively work with virtual clients, then a virtual assistant will be a necessity. But you can still consider virtual assistants even if you have a physical office space. Most EHRs offer electronic intake forms and the ability to save credit cards in client portals so there is no need to collect physical paperwork or payment. However, I recommend that you choose from experienced applicants if your admin is going to work from home, so that you can be more confident of their ability to get the work done in a timely and correct way. Another option is to require the admin to start in-person and gradually move toward virtual work once they have proven their abilities. 

How should you pay an administrative assistant or office manager?

Admin assistants are usually paid hourly at a rate anywhere from minimum wage up to $25 per hour depending on your location and their skill level. 

Office or practice managers command a higher pay than administrative assistants. They typically expect to be paid an annual salary regardless of whether they are working full-time or part-time. How much you will pay depends on your location and how large your practice is. 

In order to determine how much to pay, I recommend researching what other administrative assistants or practice managers in your area are getting paid by looking through employment websites such as Indeed. 

Check out my previous post on how to decide whether you need an office manager or administrative assistant for your practice.

If you would like more information about how to set up and manage your own therapy practice, you can get all of this and more by purchasing my Step-by-Step Program to Starting Your Own Therapy Practice (Coming Soon!). I am also available for hourly consulting services.

Hi. I’m Cindy Donley, a private practice consultant with over 20 years of experience helping businesses grow and succeed. I am the co-founder and director of operations for a group therapy practice established in 2011, which was started as a solo practice and now employs seven full-time therapists and has tons of referral sources and a constant influx of new clients. I now work helping therapists like you start up successful therapy practices. Contact me if you are ready to start your own practice!