Fees and earnings

How a session fee is divided, and how to read and reconcile your earnings screen.

What comes off a session

Four deductions, all from your payout. Nothing is ever added to what the client pays.

Deduction	Amount
Platform fee	2.5% of the session
Introduction fee	$20–$75, once per new client, by discipline
Card processing	Stripe’s actual cost
GST	10% on Open Therapy’s two fees

The full table of introduction fees by discipline, and how GST is applied to each line, is on Fees.

The shape of it

First session — \$180

Line	Amount
Client pays	$180.00
Platform fee (2.5%)	−$4.50
Introduction fee (Psychologist)	−$45.00
Card processing	−$3.36
GST on Open Therapy’s fees	−$4.95
You receive	$122.19

32.1% deducted, almost all of it the one-off introduction.

Every session after — \$180

Line	Amount
Client pays	$180.00
Platform fee (2.5%)	−$4.50
Card processing	−$3.36
GST on Open Therapy’s fees	−$0.45
You receive	$171.69

4.6% deducted.

Over a course of care the blended rate lands under 10%. Two ways to improve it:

Use your own booking link

Clients who arrive through it carry no introduction fee at all.

Price your initial consultation properly

The introduction fee lands on the first session. A realistic initial fee protects your margin on it.

The introduction fee is capped at what a session can carry after processing, the platform fee and GST. A cheap or free first session nets you nothing rather than putting you in debt to us.

Your earnings screen

Earnings in your workspace, and the numbers on it are real rather than estimated.

The chart

Twelve months of net earnings, oldest first, with the current month flagged. Months with no work are shown as empty rather than skipped — a chart that skips them implies a busier year than you had.

Totals

For this calendar month and for all time:

Figure	Meaning
Gross	What clients paid
Platform fee	2.5% total
Introduction fee	One-off fees charged in the period
Processing fee	What the cards actually cost
Fee GST	Tax on Open Therapy’s two fees
Net	What reached you
Sessions	Count
New clients	First sessions, whether or not an introduction was charged

Settlements

One line per session: gross, each fee, net, the platform fee rate that was in force, whether it was a first session, and its status.

Status	Meaning
Pending	Settled, not yet transferred
Settled	Divided and queued
Paid out	Transferred to your Stripe balance

Payouts and invoices

Payout lines show the period, the date paid, the amount and the status — processing, paid or failed. Fee invoice lines show the reference, period, subtotal, GST and total.

Waiting on you

The queue of sessions that have finished but haven’t been recorded as attended or missed. Nothing settles and nothing transfers until you clear it. See Managing sessions.

Fee changes never re-price the past

Every settlement stores the rate that applied when it was made. A rate change tomorrow applies to new sessions only — it cannot re-price what you earned yesterday.

Reconciling

1. Start from the payout

   A payout is the sum of the settlements transferred in that period. It’s your net.

2. Match it against settlements

   Filter settlements by Paid out for the period.

3. Take fees from the invoice, not the payout

   Your deductible expenses are on the platform fee invoice, which shows them ex-GST with the GST separated. See Invoices and tax.

Don’t reconstruct your fees by subtracting net from gross. The invoice is the document your accountant needs, because it separates GST you can claim from fees you can deduct.