> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://handbook.helendelovely.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Production Bonus

> How the per-session bonus works for clinicians, and how it's paid.

Clinicians earn a guaranteed base salary plus a published, fixed per-session bonus. The formula is in your offer letter and on the practice's hiring site, and it doesn't change without 30 days' written notice.

## The published formula

| Role | Base salary       | Sessions 1 to 10 per week | Sessions 11 to 20 per week | Sessions 21 to 32 per week |
| ---- | ----------------- | ------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------- |
| LCSW | \$46,000 per year | Covered by base           | \$70 per completed session | \$85 per completed session |
| CSW  | \$38,000 per year | Covered by base           | \$50 per completed session | \$62 per completed session |

These are the figures as of September 2026. Your offer letter controls if it differs.

## How it works

* Your base salary covers your first 10 completed sessions in each week.
* Sessions 11 and up in a week earn the fixed per-session amount, in two tiers, by role.
* Tiers are counted **per week, Monday through Sunday**. Weeks are never averaged together. A 6-session week and a 26-session week are a 0-bonus week and a 16-bonus-session week, not two 16-session weeks.
* Only completed sessions count. Cancellations and no-shows don't, even late ones. The base salary is what protects you on a slow week.
* Bonus is a fixed dollar amount per completed session regardless of how the session is paid for. Payer mix never changes your paycheck.

## The cap

Eight sessions a day and 32 sessions a week is the maximum, always. It exists to prevent burnout, and it's enforced in scheduling. You can't exceed it to earn more, and nobody will ask you to.

## How it's paid

The bonus is **calculated and paid monthly**. After each calendar month closes, the per-week bonuses for every week that ended in that month are added up and paid on the first regular payroll run after month-end. Your pay statement shows the bonus separately from base.

The monthly process:

1. By the third business day after month-end, the practice manager pulls the completed-session report from PracticeOS for each clinician.
2. You get the count and confirm it, or flag a discrepancy, within two business days.
3. Helen approves the counts.
4. The practice manager enters the bonus in Gusto for the next scheduled run.

Weeks that straddle two months belong to the month in which the Sunday falls.

## Check your own math

The formula is published so you can verify your own paycheck. Do it, every month. If the count doesn't match what you delivered, tell the practice manager that week. We'd rather fix a miscount than have you quietly wonder.

## What counts as a completed session

A session counts when the client attended and the session is documented. A session that's held but not documented within the standard in [Documentation standards](/clinical-practice/documentation-standards) may be held back from the bonus count until the note is complete.

## How this fits total pay

Base plus bonus is your cash compensation. On top of that sits a monthly [benefits allowance](/pay-and-time-off/benefits-allowance), which you can take as cash or direct toward benefits you elect. See [Benefits elections](/pay-and-time-off/benefits-elections).