You can run an affordable, HIPAA-aware clinical system on the Google Workspace you already pay for. The setup is well worth it. There's just one step it never solves — and that's the step Practice Pad was built to close.
iPad app · On-device encryption · US & Canada
If you're a solo or small-practice therapist, you've probably heard the pitch — and it's true. A paid Google Workspace account, a signed Business Associate Agreement with Google, and a little structure will give you a legitimate, low-cost clinical system on tools you already know. No $79-a-month platform. No vendor owning your records.
The common DIY build looks roughly like this:
Intake and consent, with responses routed to a private Drive folder.
Scheduling, reminders, and teletherapy without a second subscription.
A color-coded, client-by-client filing cabinet you fully control.
A running ledger of sessions, and simple income and expense tracking.
It works. Therapists run their whole practices this way, and they own every byte of it. If you want a thorough walkthrough of the setup itself — BAA, plan selection, folder structure — there's good, detailed content out there dedicated to exactly that, and I won't repeat it here.
Because setup was never the real problem. The real problem shows up on Tuesday at 4:50pm, between sessions.
Here's the gap nobody mentions when they hand you the folder structure. Google Workspace is a brilliant place to store a clinical record. It does nothing to help you create one.
You handwrite during the session, because that's what keeps you present with the client. Then, after the session, you retype it all into a Doc or a Sheet, name the file, and drag it into the right client folder. Every note. Every day.
That double-work is the tax on the DIY Workspace EHR. It's also the single most common reason therapists give up and go back to a $79 platform that at least types with them — trading their data ownership away to buy back twenty minutes a day.
You shouldn't have to choose between owning your records and reclaiming your evenings. That's the whole reason Practice Pad exists.
Practice Pad isn't another EHR asking you to move in. It's the one piece the DIY setup is missing: it captures the note during or after the session and files it into your Google Drive — the same folders you already built. Nothing to migrate. Nothing to hand over.
Write your note with Apple Pencil the way you always have — in a DAP, SOAP, BIRP, or narrative layout, or a template you design.
Your handwriting is converted to structured, editable clinical text right on the device. Nothing is retyped, and nothing leaves your iPad to do it.
Finalize, and the note syncs to your own Google Drive and Master Session Ledger — filed in the right place, named correctly, no dragging.
Practice Pad creates a Practice Pad folder in your Drive and works only with the files it puts there. It doesn't read, browse, or touch the rest of your Drive — a deliberate limit that keeps the app's access to your account as narrow as the work requires. Your records live in your Workspace, under your Google account, governed by the BAA you signed with Google. If you ever cancel, the notes are already yours and already there.
Precision is a trust issue in this field, so here it is plainly.
$15 / month
$22 / month
Every tier includes a 14-day free trial. Available in the US and Canada.
For the Cloud tier, yes — the whole point is that your records live in your Workspace under a BAA you sign with Google. Practice Pad syncs into it; it doesn't replace it. If you'd rather not sync to Google at all, the Secure tier captures and exports notes entirely on-device, with no Workspace required.
Practice Pad is designed to be HIPAA-aware, and we'll sign a Business Associate Agreement with you. But no app is "HIPAA-compliant" on its own — compliance is something a practice maintains through its own policies, safeguards, and behavior. We give you an architecture that supports it and we're honest about where your responsibilities begin.
On your iPad, encrypted, and — on the Cloud tier — in your own Google Drive. Practice Pad Technologies does not keep copies of your clinical records on its servers. If you cancel, your notes are already in your Drive and on your device.
No — and that's intentional. The app only works with the folder it creates in your Drive. It can't see or open the rest of your Drive, which keeps its access to your account as limited as possible. It's a privacy feature, not a limitation to work around.
Docs is where a finished note goes. Practice Pad is how the note gets written without retyping it. You handwrite, it converts your handwriting to structured text on-device, and it files the result into your Drive for you. It removes the manual step between the session and the stored record.
Yes, on the Secure tier. Practice Pad can sync your calendar feed from those platforms and export finished notes by clipboard or PDF, so you can keep your existing EHR and just stop retyping your notes into it.
Keep the Google Workspace EHR you already built. Add the one piece that finishes it.
Built by an LPC · On-device encryption · US & Canada