Allied health practices · Owner led · $1M to $20M
Fractional CFO for allied health practices
Business advice for owners of physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, speech pathology, podiatry and dietetics practices, including practices with NDIS revenue. We help you turn a full diary into a healthy margin, plan for each change in NDIS price limits and build a practice that someone will want to buy.
Who we work with
Owner led single discipline and multidisciplinary practices turning over $1M to $20M, with clinicians employed, contracted or both, and clients funded privately, through health funds, Medicare, the NDIS and other schemes. Many owners still carry a caseload and run the business in the hours left over.
That often leaves one question unanswered: what the practice earns for its owner once a market wage for clinical work is paid. That figure is where we start, because it shapes what you can invest, what you take home and what a buyer will pay.
We also work with GP and medical centres and dental practices, and the Healthcare Hub explains how practice economics differ.
The decisions we help with
Clinician utilisation
The share of each clinician’s paid hours that is billed, and where the rest goes: notes, reports, gaps, cancellations and travel. A few points of billable share are often worth more than a price rise.
NDIS and private mix
How much of the practice depends on the NDIS, health funds, Medicare or private fees, and what each earns per hour once the work around it is counted. We show which mix supports the practice you want to run.
Price limit changes and claiming practice
What each year’s NDIS price limits mean for your margin, and whether the practice claims what the pricing arrangements allow, from non face to face work and reports to cancellations and travel. For 2026 to 2027, occupational therapy and speech pathology stayed at $193.99 an hour and physiotherapy at $183.99, while psychology rose to $252.99 (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026 to 2027, effective 1 July 2026, checked 18 October 2026).
Contractor or employee models
Whether clinicians are better engaged as employees or contractors, what each costs once leave, superannuation and payroll tax are counted, and how the model affects retention. Payroll tax rules differ by state and change often, so we work through them with your tax adviser.
Waitlists
A long waitlist can mean the practice is underpriced, short of the right clinicians or losing time to unbilled work. We find out which before you hire or raise fees.
Adding disciplines
Whether a new discipline, site or service line brings referrals and profit or spreads management thin. We model the first year’s cash as well as the revenue, and when a sale or a partner buy in is ahead, a practice valuation, whether for a physiotherapy business or a multidisciplinary group, sets the starting point.
Illustrative example · Multidisciplinary allied health practice · NDIS 39% of revenue
Unchanged NDIS price limits, rising wages
A physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology practice turns over $2.5 million with a margin of 9 per cent. Five full time equivalent clinicians work mainly with NDIS participants and bring in about $960,000 a year. From 1 July 2026 the NDIS price limits for occupational therapy, speech pathology and physiotherapy stayed where they were, while wages kept rising. A 4 per cent rise on those five clinicians alone costs about $25,000 a year, with no matching price rise to recover it.
The time records tell the story. The NDIS clinicians bill 58 per cent of their paid hours against 71 per cent for clinicians seeing private patients. The gap is reports and other non face to face work that the pricing arrangements allow to be claimed but the practice was not claiming, and travel between home visits spread across the city. Claiming that time under the service agreements, using the non face to face and report line items introduced on 1 July 2026, and rostering home visits into area blocks lifts billable time to 66 per cent without seeing a single extra participant.
58% to 66%
Billable share of paid hours, NDIS clinicians
+$133k
Revenue a year from time already worked
9% to 12%
Practice profit margin, after the wage rise and the extra administration
$0
Price increase needed
Illustrative example, built from typical figures for a practice of this kind and the NDIS pricing arrangements for 2026 to 2027, not a client engagement. What can be claimed depends on each participant’s plan and service agreement.
Source: NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026 to 2027, effective 1 July 2026; the schedule now in force, effective 24 September 2026, keeps these limits unchanged. Checked 16 October 2026.
How an engagement runs
Every engagement starts with a diagnostic. In the first weeks we read your financial statements and practice management data, including billable hours by clinician, cancellations and NDIS claims, along with service agreements, contractor arrangements and payroll. You get a clear view of what drives your profit, where cash sits and the decisions that matter most this year.
The work then settles into a monthly rhythm: a short report on profit and cash, a rolling forecast and a meeting to decide what happens next. We work alongside your accountant, bookkeeper and practice manager and never replace them. Most of the work is virtual, with visits to the practice when they help, and the fractional CFO service page sets out the full scope.
Tools for allied health practices
NDIS price limit impact
What this year’s NDIS price limits and your next wage rise mean for your margin, and the billable share that absorbs them. Open the NDIS price limit impact.
Allied health practice valuation
An indicative range for your practice, based on maintainable earnings after a market wage for every owner clinician. Open the allied health practice valuation.
Practice budget template
A 12 month budget for your practice from a few plain questions, ready to download for Excel with its formulas. Open the practice budget template.
Also useful for practices:
- Indicative Valuation Range: a first view of what your practice could be worth.
- Payroll to Revenue Benchmark: whether clinician and administration wages sit in a sensible range for your revenue.
- Revenue per FTE Calculator: revenue for each full time equivalent clinician, a quick check on utilisation.
- Debtor Days Diagnostic: how quickly plan managers, funders and private clients pay.
- Cash Runway Calculator and Buffer Check: how long cash would last through a slow claiming month.
Articles for allied health practice owners
- The billable hour gap most allied health practices have never measured
- The payor mix question every allied health practice faces
- The July cash gap that catches NDIS providers
- The June surge that makes allied health results look better than they are
- Why a physiotherapy diary can be full while the margin is thin
- What a psychology waitlist really tells you
- The maths behind a fully booked psychology practice
Every article that mentions allied health is in the blog library’s allied health view.
Common questions
Do you replace our accountant?
No. Your accountant keeps the tax returns, BAS and year end accounts, and your bookkeeper and practice manager keep running the day to day. We add the forward looking work: forecasts, profit by clinician and by funding source, and the numbers behind decisions on fees, staffing and growth. We share what we find with your accountant, so everyone works from the same figures.
What does it cost?
The fractional CFO partnership starts from $3,750 a month. Engagements usually stay at the starting price. Some need closer oversight or a deeper assessment, and the scope and fee rise to match. The pricing page explains how everything is sized, and Find your fit confirms your price from your practice’s details.
Do you work with practices outside Brisbane?
Yes. We work with practices across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, and further afield across Australia. Most of the monthly work happens over video calls and shared reports, with visits to the practice as each engagement needs, so distance changes little. The locations we serve page has the detail.
Should we take on more NDIS work?
It depends on what NDIS work earns your practice for each paid hour once reports, travel, cancellations and the extra administration are counted, and how reliably that time is claimed. We compare it with your private and health fund work at the 2026 to 2027 price limits and your own billable share, then show what a larger NDIS caseload would do to margin and cash.
What do you need from us to start?
Read only access to your accounting software, the last two years of financial statements, reports from your practice management system, and your service agreements and contractor arrangements. A first meeting with you and your practice manager covers how the practice runs. Nothing needs to change in your systems before we start.
Turn a full diary into a healthy margin
A 45 minute discovery call is complimentary, and you will come away with at least one practical observation about your practice.