How many clinical revenue accounts does a counselling practice need?

A practice with a mix of practitioners needs two. One sits at the GST free rate for practitioners recognised in a listed health service such as psychology or social work, and one sits at the taxable rate for the rest. A practice whose practitioners are all on one side of that line can run a single clinical account and leave room for the other.

Can a tracking category do the job instead of a second account?

A tracking category cannot carry the tax split. It does not change a line's tax rate, and the activity statement is prepared off accounts and rates. The canonical template also notes that Xero allows two active tracking categories and that Practitioner and Location usually take both slots, which is why the funding source lives in the account code.

Which canonical template should a counselling practice start from?

Start from the psychology with booking deposits template. Its own note covers talk therapy practices with a similar funding and booking deposit pattern, and its accounts already separate clinical work by funder, with reports, supervision and products sitting in taxable accounts of their own.

Where do employee assistance sessions go?

Employee assistance sessions go in an account of their own, at the taxable rate. The employer or the assistance provider engaged the practice, so the recipient of the supply is a business, and the ATO's position is that supplies by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free. Both templates that carry the row code it taxable and give it a separate account.

Do I need a separate account for every practitioner?

A separate account per practitioner is not needed for GST. The tax split needs two clinical accounts, not one per person. Practices do sometimes run a sales account per practitioner because Cliniko and Zanda can route revenue that way, and the cost is a longer chart. Practitioner level reporting is what a tracking category is for.

Templates

Counselling practice chart of accounts

A counselling practice needs two clinical revenue accounts, not one. Counselling is not a listed health service, so a session is taxable by default. It is GST free where the hour is a listed service the practitioner is recognised in, such as psychology or social work. Split on that line first, then by funder, and keep reports, supervision and employer contracts in their own taxable accounts.

Key facts

What sets the clinical account: The practitioner's registration, rather than the appointment type. Counselling is absent from the listed health services, and psychology and social work are both on the list²
The template to start from: Psychology with booking deposits, whose own note covers talk therapy practices with the same funding and booking deposit pattern⁵
GST free clinical account: 400 Clinical services, private patients, at the GST Free Income rate⁵
The second clinical account: The canonical templates carry no row for a clinical account chosen by the practitioner's registration, because they key revenue on the funding source. A practice adds one beside 400, at the GST on Income rate, where its BAS agent has settled that a practitioner's work is taxable⁵
Employer funded work: 407 Employee assistance program contracts, at GST on Income, in an account of its own beside the clinical accounts⁵
Who the recipient of the supply is: Whoever engages the health practitioner, which is often the patient and is sometimes another business. Supplies of services by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free³
What appropriate treatment means: The practitioner assesses the person, works out a course of action to preserve, restore or improve their wellbeing as far as their training allows, and supplies a treatment their profession generally accepts as appropriate⁴
Reports and assessments: Account 420 at GST on Income in all three canonical templates, named Reports, assessments and medico-legal in the psychology template⁵
Where the funder lives: In the account code. Xero allows two active tracking categories and the template spends both on Practitioner and Location⁵
What Cliniko maps: A default Xero sales account for invoice items and a default Xero tax rate for tax exempt revenue, with optional overrides for billable items, products and practitioner invoice items⁷
What Zanda maps: Calendars run for different disciplines or practitioners can be pre-mapped to specific Xero sales accounts, with two Xero tracking categories set alongside⁸

Why a counselling chart does not split on the payer alone

A health chart of accounts is usually built funder by funder. In a listed profession that mostly holds: clinical sessions carry one rate across the patient funders, and the funder column tells a Medicare deposit from an NDIS one. A counselling practice has a second split underneath, and it is the one that changes the tax rate.

Counselling is not one of the health services the GST Act lists. The same hour can be GST free when the practitioner is recognised in a listed service such as psychology or social work, and is taxable when they are not. Two counsellors in one practice, seeing private clients on the same afternoon at the same fee, can belong in two different revenue accounts. One clinical account hides that.

What decides which clinical account a session lands in

The ATO sets three conditions, and all three have to hold before a health service that is not a medical service is GST free. Read them in order, because the first one is the one counselling falls at.

Health services that are not defined as medical services, are GST-free, if all the following apply: it is a listed health service; the service is performed by a recognised health professional in that listed health service or, under certain circumstances, their assistant; the service is generally accepted in that listed health profession as being necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply.²

Is the service a listed one? Psychology and social work are listed. Counselling is not, and the ATO adds that a service cannot just be similar to a listed one.
Is the practitioner recognised in that listed service? That means registered, permitted or approved under state or territory law, or a member of a professional association whose registration requirements are the same in every state and territory.
Is the service generally accepted in that profession as necessary for appropriate treatment?

So the answer travels with the person delivering the session. A practitioner recognised in more than one listed service supplies GST free work to the extent it is a listed service, and the practice needs somewhere to put the rest. The treatment argument is on the counselling GST page; this page is where the money lands.

The revenue accounts to start with

The canonical template for a talk therapy practice is the psychology one, and its own note covers practices with the same funding mix and booking deposit habit. These are the revenue accounts a counselling practice reads first.

The revenue accounts a counselling practice reads first⁵¹

Account	Xero tax rate	What lands there
400 Clinical services, private patients	GST Free Income	A session billed to the client, where the practitioner is recognised in a listed service
401 Clinical services, Medicare	GST Free Income	A Better Access session, bulk billed or claimed by the patient, where the practitioner is an eligible psychologist, occupational therapist or social worker
407 Employee assistance program contracts	GST on Income	Sessions bought by an employer or by the provider holding the contract
420 Reports, assessments and medico-legal	GST on Income	A report or assessment written for somebody other than the client
421 Supervision, training and workshops	GST on Income	Supervising another practitioner, and training or workshops
422 Cancellation and no-show fees	GST Free Income	A cancellation or no show fee, defaulted to the rate of the clinical session it replaces, so a cancelled EAP, supervision or taxable session needs an item override
424 Products	GST on Income	Workbooks and assessment materials sold to a client

What the table does not carry is a clinical account at the taxable rate. The templates key revenue on the funding source, and a counsellor's registration is not a funding source, so no row says it. Where a practice's BAS agent has settled that a practitioner's work is taxable, the practice adds a clinical account beside 400 at the GST on Income rate and maps that practitioner to it.

The standing rules a counselling practice touches

Five rows carry most weeks. Three are funder rows and two are category rows that outrank the funder. The private row carries the psychology template's own reason, so a counselling practice reads it against its practitioners' registrations.

Plate 1Five rows off one canonical template: two funders at the GST free rate, one at the taxable rate, and two categories that set the rate themselves.

Read down the tax rate column and the pattern is plain. The funder moves the account and mostly leaves the rate alone. The category and the recipient are what move the rate. A chart built on funders alone leaves a counselling practice guessing.

Reports, supervision and products do not move

A few accounts stay put whoever delivered the work. A report written for somebody other than the client is the clearest: all three canonical templates post it to the reports account at the GST on Income rate.

Plate 2A report for a third party, as every canonical template posts it. This is the row that does not move with the practitioner.

Products sit in their own taxable account for the same kind of reason: a workbook a client takes home is not part of the treatment. Supervision the practice bills to another practitioner is coded taxable by default, and the psychology template attaches a note asking the practice's BAS agent to confirm it, so it stays a question here.

Employer funded counselling has its own account

When an employer or an employee assistance provider engages the practice, the recipient of the supply is a business rather than the person in the room. The ATO's wording is that the recipient is whoever engages the health practitioner, that it will sometimes be a business, and that supplies of services by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free.

Both templates that carry an employee assistance row code it taxable, in an account of its own, and they pick different codes for it. The employee assistance funder page has the money side and the EAP GST page has the treatment. For the chart the point is narrower: this revenue belongs in neither clinical account, because those two are split on registration and this one on who engaged the practice.

The clearing accounts under the revenue accounts

Revenue accounts answer what was earned. Clearing accounts answer what has been paid and not yet matched to a bank line. The psychology template carries one per settlement path, as bank type accounts coded BAS Excluded, so a clearing movement is not counted as a sale.

The GST answer sits on the revenue leg, where the session was posted. The clearing leg is BAS Excluded in every canonical template, because the money moving through it was recognised as income already.
One clearing account per settlement path keeps the balance readable: it holds work invoiced and paid but not yet matched to a deposit.
A balance that will not come down is a payment matched without being received, or received without being matched.
A booking deposit is a liability until the session is delivered, which is why this template exists rather than the plainer allied health one.

What the practice management system can map

A chart is only as good as what the practice system can route into it. Two systems counselling practices use publish what they map, and both map the dimension this chart needs.

Cliniko: the integration sets a default Xero sales account for invoice items and a default Xero tax rate for tax exempt revenue, with overrides documented for billable items, products and practitioner invoice items.
Zanda: where a practice runs multiple calendars for different disciplines or practitioners, those calendars can be pre-mapped to specific Xero sales accounts, and two Xero tracking categories can be set alongside.

That per practitioner mapping happens to fit. In a mixed counselling practice the practitioner is the variable that sets the tax rate, so a sales account per practitioner routes the two clinical accounts with no rule about the service booked. The cost is a longer chart and a mapping to update as people join and leave.

Why the split lives in the account code

The obvious alternative is one clinical account with a tracking category separating the two treatments. The template's own note explains why that seat is taken: Xero allows two active tracking categories, a practice usually wants Practitioner and Location, and the funding source has to live in the account code instead.

Tax rate splits behave the same way. A tracking category does not change a line's tax rate, and an activity statement is prepared off accounts and rates rather than off tracking. A split that has to reach the activity statement belongs in the account code.

Setting the chart up in Xero

Ask the practice's BAS agent, once, which practitioners are recognised in a listed health service. That fact decides which clinical account their sessions belong in.
Create the two clinical revenue accounts: the GST free one for recognised practitioners, and a taxable one beside it.
Add the funder accounts the practice bills, then reports, supervision and training, cancellation fees and products, each in an account of its own.
Add one clearing account per settlement path, as a bank type account coded BAS Excluded.
Map each practitioner or calendar in the practice system to the clinical account their work belongs in, and settle the tax rate the system sends for revenue that is not taxed.
Take the chart and the practitioner mapping to the BAS agent before the first sync, not after the first quarter.

What Ledger Map does with the chart

Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, approved before anything syncs. Each invoice line resolves through it to the account and the tax rate the practice's own chart carries, a funder's deposit is posted as one balanced document set against its clearing account, and one exact match is left in the bank feed.

A line the map cannot resolve becomes a question with the options laid out, rather than a silent posting into the practice default. In a counselling practice that line is usually a session by a practitioner whose registration nobody wrote down. The rest of the library carries the same shape for a different mix.

Questions

How many clinical revenue accounts does a counselling practice need?
A practice with a mix of practitioners needs two. One sits at the GST free rate for practitioners recognised in a listed health service such as psychology or social work, and one sits at the taxable rate for the rest. A practice whose practitioners are all on one side of that line can run a single clinical account and leave room for the other.
Can a tracking category do the job instead of a second account?
A tracking category cannot carry the tax split. It does not change a line's tax rate, and the activity statement is prepared off accounts and rates. The canonical template also notes that Xero allows two active tracking categories and that Practitioner and Location usually take both slots, which is why the funding source lives in the account code.
Which canonical template should a counselling practice start from?
Start from the psychology with booking deposits template. Its own note covers talk therapy practices with a similar funding and booking deposit pattern, and its accounts already separate clinical work by funder, with reports, supervision and products sitting in taxable accounts of their own.
Where do employee assistance sessions go?
Employee assistance sessions go in an account of their own, at the taxable rate. The employer or the assistance provider engaged the practice, so the recipient of the supply is a business, and the ATO's position is that supplies by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free. Both templates that carry the row code it taxable and give it a separate account.
Do I need a separate account for every practitioner?
A separate account per practitioner is not needed for GST. The tax split needs two clinical accounts, not one per person. Practices do sometimes run a sales account per practitioner because Cliniko and Zanda can route revenue that way, and the cost is a longer chart. Practitioner level reporting is what a tracking category is for.

Sources

Open questions

No search result capture exists for this query, so the answer landscape behind this page is argued from its structure rather than measured. The differentiator above should be checked against a real capture before this page is published.
The Cliniko article read for this page names a default sales account and per item, per product and per practitioner overrides, and does not print the order they apply in. Which override wins on a line is left to the practice's own test in Cliniko.
The canonical templates key revenue on the funding source, so none of them carries a row for a clinical account chosen by the practitioner's registration. The second clinical account described here is a practice decision the templates do not make.
Whether a particular counsellor is a recognised health professional in a listed service turns on their own registration and on whether their professional association has uniform national registration requirements. This page does not settle it for any individual.
Supervision billed to another practitioner is coded taxable by default in the templates and carries a note asking a BAS agent to confirm it, and the ATO material the corpus holds leaves the point open. It stays a question here.
health.gov.au did not answer an automated fetch on 4 September 2026, so the list of eligible Better Access providers is carried from search result extracts of the department's own page rather than from a fetched body, and the source is tagged secondary. Whether a particular practitioner meets the eligibility requirements for those items is a question for that practitioner's own registration.

Better Access initiative
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
secondary
GST and health: other health services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health: recipient of the supply
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health: appropriate treatment
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Psychology with booking deposits, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
Allied health by funding source, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
Integrate Cliniko with your Xero account
Cliniko. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 28 Jul 2026.
primary
Exporting to Xero
Zanda. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary

Review

Last reviewed 3 Sep 2026 by Shane

General information for Australian allied health practices, not tax advice. Confirm a treatment with your BAS agent or accountant before you post it.

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