Accounting software for UK therapists
Track therapy income and expenses in HMRC self-assessment categories, keep receipts against the right transaction, and export accountant-ready records in one click — built for sole-trader counsellors and psychotherapists, and ready for Making Tax Digital record-keeping as it rolls out.
No credit card required. From £10.99/month.
Why therapists dread bookkeeping
Most therapists did not go into private practice to become bookkeepers. Client payments land in one place, receipts pile up somewhere else, and the “proper system” never quite gets built. Then January arrives and there is a year of records to reconstruct from bank statements and a shoebox of receipts.
Generic accounting tools are built for shops, freelancers, agencies and consultancies — not for talk-therapy private practice. They assume you invoice from spreadsheets, know your way around double-entry, and enjoy configuring a chart of accounts. Most therapists want none of that. You want records that hold up for HMRC without evenings and weekends lost to admin.
Sessionly is not a general-purpose ledger. It is a practice management platform with income, expenses and receipts built into the same app as your calendar, client records and invoicing. Your diary produces the invoices; your paid invoices become income; expenses land in HMRC categories as you go. At tax time, you export a single CSV.
How Sessionly organises your therapy finances
Sessionly's finance page has one job: make sure every pound of income and every allowable expense is captured, categorised correctly, and evidenced. Nothing more elaborate than that.
Income from invoices, without double entry
When a client pays an invoice you raised in Sessionly, that payment shows up on your finance page as an income row — with the client (or clinical record code), session date and amount already filled in. You do not re-key sales into a separate ledger. Session activity in your calendar becomes an invoice, and a paid invoice becomes an income record.
Expenses in HMRC self-assessment categories
Every expense you log is filed against one of the standard HMRC self-assessment categories: Office & Administrative Costs, Travel Costs, Staff Costs, Cost of Goods / Stock, Premises Costs, Financial Costs, Legal & Professional Fees, Marketing, Advertising & Subscriptions, Training & Development, Clothing (Specialised) and Capital Allowances. These are the same categories your accountant expects to see and that map directly to the Self Assessment tax return.
Receipts attached to the transaction
Each expense entry can carry a receipt image or PDF — room-hire invoice, CPD confirmation, supervision receipt, software subscription statement. Receipts are stored securely alongside the transaction, so at year end nothing important is lost in an email inbox or a physical drawer.
Supervision sessions auto-log as expenses
Book a paid supervision session in your calendar using a supervision session type and Sessionly automatically creates a matching expense entry on your finance page — categorised, dated, and linked back to the calendar event. Change the date or price and the expense stays in sync. Everyday clinical costs become records without a separate admin step.
Making Tax Digital
What Making Tax Digital means for UK therapists
HMRC is gradually moving sole traders and landlords to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. As the thresholds phase in, more self-employed therapists will be required to keep digital records of their income and expenses and to send quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software — rather than filing a single once-a-year Self Assessment return the way most sole traders do today.
You can read Mark's longer explainer in the blog post on HMRC Self-Assessment for therapists, which covers what records HMRC expects sole-trader therapists to keep and how MTD for Income Tax is being introduced.
What MTD-friendly record keeping looks like
At its core, MTD for Income Tax expects two things: your records live in digital form (not paper receipts stuffed in a drawer), and each transaction is captured with enough information — date, amount, category — that quarterly updates can be produced from them. Sessionly is designed for exactly this: each income and expense entry is a structured digital record, categorised, with receipts attached where relevant.
Where Sessionly fits — and where a filing tool or accountant fits
Sessionly is where your records are kept. It is not a filing tool — Sessionly does not send anything to HMRC on your behalf, and does not calculate your final tax liability. When it is time to send a quarterly update or your final return, you either hand your records to your accountant, or use an MTD-compatible filing tool that reads your records and files on your behalf.
If you already use Xero or FreeAgent for accounting, the Sessionly integration pushes your invoices straight into them — so your accounting app carries the underlying figures your accountant or filing tool needs. If you don't, Sessionly's CSV export gives your accountant everything they need in a single file. Either way, the day-to-day record-keeping happens where your calendar and client work already live.
Two paths to your accountant
Different practices work in different ways. Sessionly gives you two ways to get records to your accountant or into your wider accounting stack — pick whichever fits how you already work.
Direct integration with Xero and FreeAgent
If you already use Xero or FreeAgent — or your accountant does — connect Sessionly to your account once via the Integrations settings and invoices raised in Sessionly are pushed straight into Xero or FreeAgent as invoices. Client contacts are created on first push. Paid status is pulled back into Sessionly on a schedule, so an invoice you (or your accountant) mark paid in Xero or FreeAgent shows as paid in Sessionly too — the two systems stay in step without you manually reconciling.
Accountant-ready CSV export
If you're not on Xero or FreeAgent — or you'd rather hand your accountant a clean spreadsheet at year end — export a single CSV from Sessionly. Income from paid invoices sits alongside expenses categorised by HMRC self-assessment category, with dates, amounts and receipt references. It imports cleanly into any accounting tool that reads CSV, and works fine as a straight handover to an accountant.
You can use both — connect Xero or FreeAgent for the invoice flow, and export CSV at year end for archiving alongside receipts. The choice is yours.
From £10.99/month. Bookkeeping included.
Finance page, HMRC categories, receipt uploads, CSV export — plus your calendar, clinical notes, outcome measures, invoicing, CPD logging and supervision tracking. One price. No accounting add-ons required for most sole-trader therapists.
See full pricing →What is accounting software for therapists?
Accounting software for therapists helps sole-trader counsellors and psychotherapists keep organised digital records of income and expenses, categorised against HMRC self-assessment categories, so Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital record keeping are calm rather than a January panic. Sessionly builds these records into the same app as your calendar, client records and invoicing — auto-generating income from paid invoices, tracking expenses with receipt uploads, auto-logging paid supervision sessions as expenses, and either pushing invoices directly into Xero or FreeAgent or exporting a single accountant-ready CSV, depending on how you work.
Frequently asked questions
Does Sessionly file my tax return?
No. Sessionly is where you keep your income and expense records — not where you file with HMRC. When it is time to submit your Self Assessment, you either use HMRC’s own service, hand your records to your accountant, or use a filing tool of your choice. Sessionly gives you the underlying records in a clean, categorised, exportable form.
Is Sessionly MTD-ready or does it work with Making Tax Digital?
Sessionly is MTD-friendly record keeping. You log income and expenses digitally, categorised against HMRC self-assessment categories, with receipts attached where relevant — the kind of digital records MTD for Income Tax expects sole traders to keep. Filing quarterly updates or the final return is done through an MTD-compatible filing tool or your accountant’s software; Sessionly is the source your records come from.
Which expense categories does Sessionly use?
Sessionly uses the standard HMRC self-assessment expense categories: Office & Administrative Costs, Travel Costs, Staff Costs, Cost of Goods / Stock, Premises Costs, Financial Costs, Legal & Professional Fees, Marketing, Advertising & Subscriptions, Training & Development, Clothing (Specialised), and Capital Allowances. These are the categories your accountant expects to see and that map to Self Assessment.
Does Sessionly work alongside Xero or FreeAgent?
Yes. Sessionly covers most solo-practice and agency scenarios end-to-end — invoices, expenses, receipts, HMRC categories and CSV export in one place. If you prefer to run finances through a dedicated accounting app, Sessionly integrates directly with Xero and FreeAgent and they work well together: invoices raised in Sessionly are pushed into your Xero or FreeAgent account, client contacts are created on first push, and paid status flows back into Sessionly on a schedule so what you mark paid in your accounting app shows as paid in Sessionly too.
How does receipt tracking work?
When you log an expense, you can attach a receipt image or PDF directly against the entry — room hire invoices, CPD confirmations, supervision receipts, subscription statements. Receipts are stored securely alongside the transaction, so at year end everything a supporting record needs is in one place, not in a shoebox or a scattered email inbox.
Does Sessionly track supervision as an expense automatically?
Yes. If you schedule a supervision session in your Sessionly calendar using a supervision session type with a price, Sessionly creates a matching expense entry on your finance page automatically. Change the date or price and the expense stays in sync. It is one less admin task and one less receipt to remember.
How far back does Sessionly keep my records for HMRC purposes?
Your finance data lives in your Sessionly account for as long as you are a customer, and can be exported as CSV at any point. HMRC generally expects sole traders to keep records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year, so most therapists export a full-year CSV after each tax year and archive it alongside the year’s receipts.
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From £10.99/month for solo practitioners. £49.99/month for agencies with up to 25 therapists.
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