Welcome to Heard! We're excited to support your private practice as your financial back office. An essential first step to ensure success with your Heard account is to clearly understand the steps to get started. Below are the steps to help you quickly set up your account and get the most out of your Heard subscription.
Account Setup
Connect designated Business Bank Account(s): To complete your bookkeeping and taxes, you must connect your designated bank accounts for your business - used exclusively for your practice, such as credit and debit cards. Heard connects with your bank through Plaid, a trusted service that securely pulls your banking information into Heard. We can only access your transaction history when your bank is connected to Heard. We can't move money for you or do any banking on your behalf. You can learn more about what we see; how does Heard use Plaid?
Fill in transaction gaps: To start bookkeeping, you may need to upload your bank statements for any months we can't pull automatically through Plaid. Your dashboard will show you exactly which accounts and months are needed.
These Account Setup steps are also the start of your catch-up bookkeeping journey. Once you complete them, your bookkeeper takes over. See the Catch-up bookkeeping section below to understand what happens next.
What if I don't have a designated bank account for my business?
You won’t be able to proceed with onboarding until you’ve connected a designated bank account for your business to Heard.
If you don't have a business bank account yet, or you're ready to open a new one, Heard Business Banking, powered by i3 Bank, is the simplest way to set it up. It's built for therapists, included in every Heard plan at no extra cost, and your transactions sync to your Heard books automatically. No monthly fees, no minimums, and your Heard Visa Debit Card is included. For more, please see: Using a designated business bank account for your practice
Please complete this step as soon as possible to proceed. If you have used a personal bank account for business transactions, you’ll be able to add those transactions after onboarding.
Catch-up bookkeeping
Once your accounts are connected, your bookkeeper begins bringing your books up to date. You can follow along from your home dashboard, look for the "We're catching up your books" card, which shows your real-time progress through four stages:
- Sync and auto-categorization — Heard imports your transactions and automatically categorizes them. We typically reach 80–85% coverage on our own — no action needed from you.
- Prepare for bookkeeping — You may have a few tasks to complete before your bookkeeper takes over, such as connecting accounts, filling in transaction gaps, or cleaning books of personal charges.
- Bookkeeping review — Your bookkeeper is actively working. You'll see Waiting on Heard (we're on it - nothing to do) or Action Required (your bookkeeper needs something from you before they can continue).
- Books complete — Your bookkeeper has finished your catch-up books. You'll see all four stages in green, along with a confirmation on your dashboard.
Onboarding
- Getting Started - Today at Heard Session: Once you've finished setting up your account, you can register for a live session hosted by our Activation Team for an overview of Heard and a step-by-step walkthrough of each menu item. We also reserve time for a live Q&A session.
- Clarify Transactions: During catch-up bookkeeping, you'll see an Action Required banner on your home dashboard with a direct link to those items. For example, a transaction from Amazon does not describe what was purchased, and your bookkeeper will mark it for your review. You can also find flagged transactions at any time under Bookkeeping > Transactions > Needs Review.
- Payroll: S Corporations can sign up for Heard Payroll to maintain compliance with IRS regulations.
Your Practice Profile
The practice profile is located under the Your Practice> Profile section on the left side of the Heard dashboard. The profile is a set of forms that ask for the basics of your practice: business name, entity, address, EIN, etc. Below are a few definitions that may help you prepare for this portion. These three sections include.
- The 'Your Practice' section includes information about your business name and contact details.
- Business entity: Your form of business determines which income tax return form you must file. If you need help deciding which one to use, please refer to this IRS help article. *S Corporations only: Please upload a copy of your CP261 Letter or Form 2553.
- Employer Identification Number (EIN): A nine-digit number assigned by the IRS. Please upload a copy of your EIN paperwork and state registration related to your business entity.
- In the Tax Information section, please complete your filing status (e.g., married filing jointly) and your Tax Entity Type. Your business is most likely taxed as a sole proprietorship or an S Corporation.
- The Personal Information section lists helpful personal contact information. We do not share this information or make it public.
Messages
You can use the Messages tab to reach out to our team. When you first join, you will be greeted with a "Welcome to Heard!" message.
It can be helpful to read through and respond to the Welcome to Heard message to collaborate with the bookkeeping team. This helps ensure that the bookkeeping for your private practice is set up for success from the beginning. To learn more, Why is bookkeeping important?
Transactions
We have some quick videos below that will walk you through a general overview of your transactions section, how to review needs review transactions, and how to add additional transactions.