Social workers

Software for social workers in private practice

A private caseload, a signed note and an invoice. Not a child-protection register and not your agency’s statutory forms.

Social workers in private practice need a client file, a diary and a way to invoice. They do not need a statutory case-management system built for a government department, and this product is not one. If your work is court-ordered statutory cases inside an agency’s prescribed system, stay in that system. If you see clients in private practice, the questions below are the relevant ones.

Software for social workers on this page means Reach + Within: enquiries, the clinical or client record, bookings and billing. The fee is from R500 a month per clinician. Admin users are free. Medical aid claims are coming soon. We do not imply that a private social work practice can submit scheme claims from this software today.

A file that matches private practice

Within keeps one record per client: contacts, consent, assessments you choose to record, session notes and documents. You write the note or, with consent, you let Assist draft from a recording and you sign. Assist does not diagnose and does not sign. The consent standard is the same one in recording therapy sessions and in the POPIA guide.

Social workers are accountable to the South African Council for Social Service Professions as well as to POPIA. This page does not quote an SACSSP retention number, because we did not take one from a current SACSSP primary document. Check the council’s own guidance, and read the HPCSA booklet quotations in how long to keep records only as the health-professions text they are, not as a silent rule for social work.

Write notes the client could read. Keep process reflections that identify the client inside the record, or keep them fully anonymised. Do not keep the only copy in a personal messaging app.

Boundaries this product will not cross

It will not manage a child-protection register. It will not replace your agency’s statutory forms. It will not alert emergency services. If a client is in immediate danger, follow your duty and local emergency numbers. The waiting-list guide, running a list fairly, says the same thing for therapy practices: software is not a crisis service.

A secure family report link can share an approved report with someone the client has agreed may receive it. It is not an open window onto the file. Couples and family sessions need a written rule about whose information is whose before the second meeting.

PA or admin staff can book and bill without the note. An audit trail shows who opened what. Sign-in with a second factor is coming soon. Outcome scales are coming soon.

Money

Invoices and statements are part of Reach. Claims to a medical scheme are not, yet. Say that to clients who assume every health-adjacent system submits claims. Pricing is explained on South Africa pricing. Psychologists and registered counsellors, whose regulators differ, have separate pages: psychologists and registered counsellors.

If you are comparing local practice systems, Bookem publishes entry prices below R500 and a medical tier we do not match. If that tier is the job, choose it. If the job is a private caseload with one record from enquiry to signed note, watch the demos or start a trial on demo clients.

Hosting is in the EU (Netherlands). You remain the responsible party. Put the location in the notice you actually hand to clients. If a funder asks where the record is stored, answer with that location and your own retention period, not with a certification we do not hold. The South Africa home links the other profession pages if you share a practice with a psychologist or a registered counsellor.

Related reading

• South Africa pricing
• POPIA and therapy notes
• Running a waiting list