How to start an occupational therapy private practice is partly an operating question: which clients and ages will the clinic serve, who will do each task, and how will records and appointments move? This checklist also helps teams considering how to start a pediatric therapy practice with speech therapy or physiotherapy in Canada outside Quebec.
This page is not legal, regulatory, tax or financial advice. Use fictional client information when testing a workflow.
Ask your own professional college or association about current practice expectations, funders about their processes, an accountant about tax and business records, and counsel about the proposed clinic. This page does not state a licensing, insurance, tax or legal requirement. Check current original sources before making a decision.
If you are researching how to start your own occupational therapy practice or how to start an occupational therapy business, keep a list of unanswered questions and the person who will confirm each answer.
Write down the services and age groups the clinic intends to serve. A pediatric clinic may plan occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, physiotherapy or ABA services; each discipline needs a named owner for intake, sessions, plan review and family updates.
The same role map helps when considering how to start a speech therapy private practice or how to start a private practice as an SLP. Confirm any professional or supervision questions with your own college or association.
For each proposed service, map the rooms, equipment and accessibility questions to discuss with the team and appropriate advisers. A team planning to start a pediatric physiotherapy practice may need a different space and equipment list from an OT or speech clinic.
When considering how to open a speech therapy clinic in Canada, sketch the family’s journey from first enquiry through intake, consent, a scheduled visit, a session record and a reviewed note. Decide who follows up when a form or appointment changes. Ask the appropriate professionals to confirm consent and record practices for the clinic.
Plan recurring visits, staff and room conflicts, reminders and cancellations. Decide where the current treatment plan lives, how a clinician reviews a note, and what the family can see.
Choose how families send requests, complete forms and receive updates. Assign responsibility for recording a completed service, reviewing its documentation, entering any funding amount or hours, and preparing an invoice. Keep the service record separate from any funder decision about payment.
TherapyCRM can prepare invoices from completed sessions with approved documentation. It does not submit insurance or government claims, including Ontario Autism Program claims. Ask funders about their processes and an accountant and counsel about the proposed billing approach.
Test a fictional client through intake, a recurring appointment, a versioned plan, a session record, clinician review, a family update and an invoice. Check roles, exports and current plan and free trial terms against the clinic’s own checklist. This is an operating exercise, not a start-up cost estimate.
TherapyCRM serves practices in Canada outside Quebec and is available in English only. It is practice management software with a clinical record, not a physician EMR, and has no EMR certification. It has no telehealth or video visits and does not submit insurance or government claims, including Ontario Autism Program claims. Clinical and business decisions remain with the clinic.
Start an operating checklist for services and ages served, team roles, space and equipment, intake, scheduling, records, family communication, billing and software. Ask your own professional college or association and advisers to confirm current requirements.
Map the services, age groups, team roles, space, intake, consent, scheduling and documentation workflow. Confirm professional questions with your own college or association before acting on the plan.
Cover services and ages served, roles, rooms and equipment, scheduling, intake and consent, records, family communication, billing and funding records, and software evaluation. Assign an owner to each step.
This guide gives no start-up cost figure. Obtain current quotes for the clinic’s proposed space, equipment, team, services and software, then ask an accountant to review the assumptions.
Ask your own professional college or association about practice questions, funders about their processes, an accountant about tax and business records, and counsel about the proposed clinic. Check current original sources.
No. TherapyCRM can prepare invoices from completed sessions with approved documentation, but it does not submit insurance or government claims, including Ontario Autism Program claims.