Heard Review 2026

Last updated: May 2026

What Is Heard?

Heard is the financial back office service designed specifically for therapists and mental health practitioners. The product combines monthly bookkeeping, quarterly tax estimates, year-end tax filing, and financial advisory tailored for solo and small group practices.

The pitch is therapy-specific finance expertise. Generic bookkeepers and CPAs do not understand therapy practice nuances: how insurance reimbursement timing affects cash flow, supervision pay structures, sliding-scale revenue recognition, therapy-specific deductions, S-corp election strategy for clinicians. Heard's accountants have served therapy practices specifically, which means less explaining required.

The product targets solo therapists in private practice and small group practices (2-10 clinicians). Larger practices typically have in-house bookkeeping; very small side-hustle therapists may not need monthly bookkeeping yet.

How Heard Works

Onboard by connecting bank accounts, payment processors (Stripe, Square), and practice management software (SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, TheraNest). Heard pulls transaction data automatically.

Monthly bookkeeping happens behind the scenes. Heard's accountants categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, and produce monthly financial statements. You see profit, expenses by category, and cash flow without doing data entry.

Quarterly tax estimates show what to save for federal and state taxes. Most solo therapists structure as LLCs taxed as sole proprietorships or S-corps; Heard calculates estimated tax payments to avoid year-end surprises.

Year-end tax preparation includes federal and state returns. Heard accountants understand therapy-specific deductions: home office, continuing education, professional licensure, supervision costs, malpractice insurance. The tax return ties together your practice income and personal taxes.

Financial advisory helps with practice growth decisions: hiring associates, setting fee structures, S-corp election timing, retirement plan setup. The advisor checks in quarterly to discuss strategic moves.

Heard Pricing in 2026

Essential: $149/month annually. Monthly bookkeeping, quarterly tax estimates, basic support.

Standard: $209/month annually. Adds year-end federal and state tax return preparation.

Premium: $299/month annually. Adds dedicated CFO-level advisor and advanced planning.

Compared to hiring a local CPA ($150-$300/hour for ad-hoc work, $2,000-$5,000+ for year-end returns), Heard's monthly pricing covers everything bundled. For most solo therapists, the math works.

Where Heard Wins

• Therapy-specific expertise: accountants who already understand the practice model.
• Bundled tax filing: bookkeeping plus year-end return in one fee.
• Connects to practice tools: SimplePractice, TherapyNotes sync natively.
• Monthly visibility: financial dashboards updated regularly, not just at tax time.
• S-corp guidance: when and how to elect S-corp for tax savings.

Where It Falls Short

• Therapy-only: other professions need general accountants.
• More expensive than DIY accounting: $149-$299/month vs QuickBooks Self-Employed at $15.
• Limited customization: workflow assumes typical therapy practice structure.
• Group practice complexity: works for small group practices but larger practices may outgrow.

Heard vs Bench vs Pilot vs CPA + QuickBooks

Bench targets general SMB bookkeeping. Less therapy-specific knowledge.

Pilot targets venture-backed startups. Higher cost, different audience.

CPA + QuickBooks is cheaper but requires more therapist time to manage. Solo therapists often spend 5-10 hours/month on bookkeeping themselves.

Local accountant works but quality and therapy expertise vary widely.

Who Should Use Heard

Solo therapists in private practice: built exactly for this.

Small group practices (2-10 clinicians): shared bookkeeping with supervision pay structures.

Therapists who hate bookkeeping: outsource to specialists rather than struggling with QuickBooks.

Therapists considering S-corp election: get expert guidance on timing and structure.

Skip it if: you have under $40K/year in practice revenue (the monthly cost is high vs DIY), you run a large practice (in-house bookkeeper makes sense), or you operate outside the US.

How Heard works

Heard is a financial platform built specifically for therapists in private practice. It is not a DIY accounting app. The subscription bundles done-for-you monthly bookkeeping, quarterly tax estimates, annual business and personal tax filing, business banking, and payroll, staffed by bookkeepers and tax preparers who work only with mental-health practices. The dashboard shows income streams, expense breakdowns, and tax payment status, but the books themselves are kept by humans behind it.

Onboarding starts with a free consultation call, where they confirm they can support your practice. You then get platform access, connect business bank accounts and credit cards with read-only access so statements pull automatically each month, and attend an onboarding webinar. The team does roughly two weeks of catch-up bookkeeping for the current tax year to bring you current.

From there the rhythm is monthly, quarterly, and annual. Each month they categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, apply tax-compliance adjustments, flag deductions, and issue reports, while your job is reviewing transactions and confirming filing details. Quarterly they produce personalized tax estimates. Annually they prepare and file federal and state business and personal returns for your approval. Premium adds S corp election support, accountable plan setup, and compliance work. Payroll is a separate add-on you run yourself, with setup help included. Support is unlimited messaging and phone, with bookkeeping replies in one to two business days.

Where Heard wins

• Narrow by design. The bookkeepers and tax preparers specialize in therapy practices, so deduction treatment and S corp questions get answered in the context of the profession rather than generically.
• One subscription replaces a stack. Bookkeeper plus tax preparer plus payroll, with the S corp and accountable-plan work included on Premium instead of billed hourly.
• Low ongoing effort. Bank connections are read-only and statement pulls are automated, so your monthly job is reviewing rather than data entry.
• Banking and support are bundled. Business banking carries no monthly fees, and support is unlimited messaging and phone rather than a ticket allowance.
• A defined path if you are behind. Catch-up bookkeeping is an add-on at $99 per month of work needed, so a practice with messy books can still onboard.

Where it falls short

• No free tier and no trial. Entry is $129/mo (Lite, billed annually), and Lite does not include annual tax filing, which costs $750 extra. The realistic all-in for a solo therapist is closer to the $169/mo Essential plan.
• Annual billing is a hard commitment. Annual subscribers are locked in for the full year and it is non-refundable. Only monthly subscribers can cancel anytime, and monthly costs 15% more.
• Group practice support is restricted. Only single-ownership group practices qualify. Multi-owner partnerships and co-owned practices are explicitly excluded, and group practices also require the $255/mo Premium plan.
• No published EHR or practice-management integrations. The site does not mention SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or similar, so client-billing data does not appear to flow in automatically.
• No à la carte options. You cannot buy just the annual filing, and payroll is an extra $39/mo plus $6 per employee on top of Premium.
• The underlying accounting software is not disclosed. That matters if you ever want to take your books elsewhere.

Who should use Heard

Solo therapists, counselors, and single-owner group practices who want bookkeeping and taxes fully off their plate and are comfortable paying a monthly retainer for profession-specific expertise. The value concentrates at Essential or Premium, particularly if you are electing S corp status, since that work is included rather than billed separately.

Skip it if you co-own a practice with a partner, because multi-owner practices are not supported. Skip it if you want software you operate yourself, or if you only need a tax return prepared once a year, since there is no tax-only option. And skip it if you expect your EHR billing data to sync into your books automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions