Private Practice Plugged In: 5 Software Tools I Rely On as a Canadian Private Practice Dietitian

Please note that this blog post contains affiliate links. I only recommend tools I use and genuinely believe are useful for dietitians in private practice.

I have been running my private practice for 13 years, and I have learned that efficiency is not always about working faster. It comes from using the right technology to create systems that keep the business running smoothly while protecting my time, energy, and ability to care for clients.

As Dietitians, we aren’t taught a lot about Private Practice in school. Sure, there are a few classes here and there on communications and accounting, but no one is actually teaching you how to open a business or how to run a business efficiently.

You may be the best, most compassionate Dietitian in the world, but it’s so easy to get bogged down and burnt out when admin tasks start to take over your day.

Want to avoid burnout and show up to client sessions with empathy, compassion, and gain more capacity to help people (which is probably why you became a Dietitian in the first place)? 

Here are 5 systems that my private practice couldn’t survive without

Practice Better

As a Dietitian in Private Practice, the way I earn income is by seeing clients 1-on-1. This means that I need a place where I can book client appointments, keep track of clients and any charting and documentation associated with client visits, meet with clients virtually, send and keep track of invoices and payments, send forms, and communicate securely with clients.

While I can cobble together a bunch of different programs to do that, or do it manually, Practice Better helps to streamline my business and save me a lot of time.

Practice Better does a lot of heavy lifting in my business. In fact, I use it for:

• Charting

• Client booking

• Scheduling

• Virtual client meetings

• Invoicing

• Course creation

• Client forms & waivers

• Client communication

• and Food journaling

Not only do I use it for each of the tasks above, but I also have automations and templates set up so that repeatable tasks can be done automatically without a lot of input from me. It helps my business run smoothly, and I find that clients really like it as well. When you are able to optimize Practice Better, it can save a lot of time, which can allow you to help more clients and earn more money without adding extra hours to your day.

Heidi

Heidi is an AI transcription software that helps with charting. Unlike Practice Better, which I have been using for several years now, Heidi is new to my practice. I was actually fairly resistant to using AI in my business, partially because I had used Practice Better’s AI tool for charting and hated it (sorry Practice Better). However, Heidi was recommended to me by another RD, and I decided to test it out. 

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t want to like Heidi. I didn’t want another software to pay for when I had already optimized my Practice Better charting templates, and they were working perfectly fine. BUT I tried it, and lo and behold, I loved it. I am a chronic over-charter and Heidi actually made my charting fast enough that I could add additional clients to my day without worrying that I would be working all evening. I could actually add my Practice Better templates to Heidi and teach it how to chart like me. Plus, because Heidi doesn’t actually have access to all my client data, it’s simply recording what happens each call, I felt a bit safer about my client data.

Wave

Wave is my trusty accounting software that I have been using since my business started. While I don’t use it to invoice or take client payments (I have Practice Better do that), I do use it to keep track of my income and expenses throughout the year and save and store receipts. I have also provided my accountants with access to my Wave account so they can pull reports and documents during tax season. As a business, you have to keep track of your finances.

While you can definitely keep track of this info in Excel or Google sheets, I love Wave’s ability to easily track everything, run reports, and allow me to view historical data and trends in my business so I can plan for times in my year when I know I will be more profitable and when clients tend to take breaks, and I can focus on back-end operations or new services (or take a vacation myself). 

Kit

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is my email marketing platform. As part of my business, I send a weekly newsletter to my clients and anyone else who has signed up for my newsletter or various freebies on my website. Email marketing helps to keep me top of mind for my clients, and it also helps to explain my approach to potential new clients. While I have tried other email marketing software platforms, the two things that keep me with Kit are:

• The visual automations, which allow me to see which of my various freebies are getting traction, what’s bringing in subscribers (a landing page, a simple “enter your email here” in a blog post, or a link in another email) and where those subscribers are at in a mailing sequence

• The ability to tag and segment my mailing list so that I can send specific emails only to those who I think would really benefit from them, and thus reduce the likelihood of people unsubscribing

If you don’t have a way to regularly keep in touch with your clients, you may be leaving money on the table.

Google Workspace

This one may seem obvious to you; many people use Google for many things, but I want to be clear that when I say Google Workspace, I mean the paid version of Google. In this era where AI is taking over, some people may see a free Gmail account (one ending in @gmail.com) and be unsure if this is an actual business.

In order to build trust, I think it’s important to spend a few dollars a month to have a dedicated email for your business that matches your website. This looks more professional, plus this gives you access to other Google tools.

I personally have just switched over to using Google Meet instead of Zoom for non-client meetings because I was already using Google, and this saves me some money. I also use Google Docs and Google Chat whenever I take on Dietetics Practicum students to help communicate with them virtually and keep projects and documents organized.

As an additional incentive to use a paid Google Workspace, email marketing providers like Kit and Mailchimp warn users that if they have an email account that ends in @gmail.com it can impact how many of your emails are delivered to your email subscribers. It can be a lot of work to get emails out to clients on a regular basis, so you don’t want that hard work to go to waste if the emails aren’t actually landing in the inboxes they need to be.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, running a private practice is tough! You're trying to give amazing care, but you also have to deal with all the admin stuff that can feel overwhelming. The real magic of the right technology isn't just saving minutes so that you can see more clients (although that is nice), it's getting back the emotional energy you need to actually be there for your clients. 

When you look at tools like Practice Better for keeping everything organized, Heidi for quickly getting those session notes done, and Wave for making sure the finances aren't a headache, you're building a practice that won't burn you out. Then you have Kit to help you stay connected with people via email and Google Workspace to keep your operations looking professional and running smoothly.

By getting these systems in place, you can finally stop feeling buried under paperwork and refocus on the truly rewarding part of your job: using nutrition to help people change their lives. Seriously, investing in the right tools is the best way to invest in your own well-being and the future of your practice.