Stop running your agency on three vendors that don't talk to each other.
If you're at 30-200 employees, you probably have ADP Workforce Now (~$45/employee/month) for payroll, SimplePractice or TherapyNotes ($50-99/clinician) for charting, and a separate clearinghouse for billing. None of them know what a billable session is. Your office manager re-types data three places every Friday.
AgenciesForge replaces all three with one AI-native platform that knows clinical context. ~$15K-30K/year savings at 30-100 employees, plus the 8 hours/week your office manager gets back.
The numbers at 50 employees
| Line item | ADP + SimplePractice stack | AgenciesForge |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll (ADP Workforce Now ~$45/emp + add-ons) | ~$2,800-3,500/mo | included (when shipped Q1) |
| Charting / EHR (SimplePractice Practice × 50) | $2,500/mo | included |
| Clearinghouse | $300-500/mo | built in (Stedi) |
| ePrescribing | $80/mo | built in (WENO) |
| Fax (HIPAA) | $80/mo | built in (iFax) |
| Telehealth | $35/mo | built in (Daily.co) |
| AI scribe | $150/mo | built in + learning |
| Outcomes platform | $100/mo | included |
| Workers comp (separate carrier) | premium varies | partner-bundled (Hourly) |
| Time entry reconciliation (office manager) | ~8 hrs/wk labor | auto from EVV + signed notes |
| Monthly software | ~$6,000-7,000/mo | $1,099-1,500/mo |
| Per-year savings | ~$54K-66K |
The structural problem with ADP + SimplePractice
These tools don't talk to each other. Your office manager:
- Pulls hours worked from SimplePractice (session note timestamps + EVV)
- Reconciles against staff-entered timesheets
- Manually enters totals into ADP Workforce Now
- Reviews ADP's pay run for errors
- Approves
- Reconciles ADP gross payroll to clinical billable units
- Files exception reports when clinicians' billable hours don't match paid hours
Five hours minimum. Often eight. Every week. Because the systems don't share data.
AgenciesForge collapses all 7 steps to 30 seconds:
- AI Forge: "Run my payroll" → AI cross-references the week's signed notes + EVV check-ins + productivity rollup → pre-populates the pay run
- Pre-run audit: AI catches hours-without-notes, expired credentials, OT violations, garnishment priority issues
- Operator clicks Approve → embedded payroll vendor (Gusto or Check, your choice) processes
- Done.
Office manager gets 8 hours/week back. Compounded over a year: ~400 hours = $20K of saved labor.
What ADP Workforce Now genuinely does well
- HR consulting tier. Dedicated HR rep at higher tiers. We partner with Bambee for an equivalent ($99-300/mo separately).
- 75-year tax-compliance moat. They've filed more 941s than anyone. Our embedded payroll (Check or Gusto Embedded) handles this — same compliance, different brand.
- PEO option (TotalSource). Co-employer model takes employment liability off the agency. We don't compete — different regulatory category.
- Benefits marketplace depth. Aggregated carriers. Our roadmap has this via Allay or Gusto Embedded's marketplace.
- Native mobile app. Real iOS / Android. Shipping our equivalent React Native build Q1, DSP-first.
If those are dealbreakers, ADP wins. For most mid-market BH/DD agencies that need basic payroll + benefits + WC bundled — AgenciesForge wins on price, AI, and clinical context.
What AgenciesForge does that ADP literally cannot
ADP doesn't know what a "billable session" is. They don't see your EVV data, your signed notes, your credentials, your patient outcomes, your claim denials. So they can't:
- Auto-derive time entry from EVV + signed notes — you're typing manually
- Block payroll when credential expires — you can pay a clinician for billable work they weren't legally credentialed to do
- Outcome-link compensation bonuses — you can't easily reward patient improvement
- Cross-reference paid hours against billable revenue — you don't know your effective per-clinician margin
- Predict capacity based on hiring + denial rate — you don't know if hiring a new LCSW pencils out given your current denial trajectory
- Use chart RAG to answer "what happened with this employee's caseload last month" — chart context doesn't exist in ADP's universe
These aren't future roadmap items for us — they ship today through the auto-learning loops.
Feature-by-feature
| Capability | ADP Workforce Now + SimplePractice | AgenciesForge |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll | ADP — best-in-class tax compliance | Embedded (Gusto or Check) |
| Pricing model | $45-60/emp/mo + add-ons | Capacity-tiered, no per-seat |
| Implementation time | 60-90 days | 2-4 weeks |
| Time entry | Manual or separate ADP TimeClock | Auto from EVV + signed notes |
| Charting / EHR | Separate vendor | Native |
| Clinical-context-aware payroll | Impossible | Native |
| Pre-run AI audit | None | 12-point audit |
| Variance explainer | "Payroll is $X" | "+3 hires, +12hr OT for Dr. Smith, -PTO" |
| Workers comp pay-as-you-go | ADP Insurance | Hourly partner (roadmap) |
| Benefits marketplace | ADP Marketplace | Allay / Gusto Embedded (roadmap) |
| HR consulting | Add-on / included higher tiers | Bambee partner |
| PEO / employer-of-record | TotalSource | Concede |
| Industry specialization | Generic | BH/DD/HHC native |
| MUI / incident reporting | None | Native, state-rule-routed |
| EVV multi-vendor | None | Sandata + HHAeXchange |
| AI clinical assistant | Generic Copilot | 20+ auto-learning loops + chart RAG + denial scoring + federated learning |
| Mobile native app | ✓ | Q1 ship |
| All-in-one platform | No (payroll only) | Yes (EHR + clearinghouse + eRx + fax + telehealth + payroll + WC + benefits) |
| Brand age | 75 years | New |
When ADP still wins
Three customer profiles where we honestly recommend staying with ADP:
- >200 employees with dedicated HR department. You have the staff to manage complex HR. ADP's depth fits.
- You want PEO (co-employer model). ADP TotalSource is purpose-built.
- You require dedicated HR business partner contracts. ADP includes this at higher tiers. We partner with Bambee but it's a separate vendor relationship.
For the remaining 80% of small-mid BH/DD agencies — we're the better trade.
How a switch works
- Demo. 30 minutes. Walk through your actual operation.
- Sandbox. Try AgenciesForge with imported patient/employee data, no commitment.
- Payroll vendor selection. You pick Gusto Embedded or Check based on terms we present.
- Parallel run. Run AgenciesForge alongside ADP for one pay cycle. Verify everything matches.
- Cutover. Cancel ADP at end of contract term. Single-vendor going forward.
Migration takes 4-8 weeks parallel. Total elapsed: ~60 days.
FAQ
Can I trust your payroll tax filings?
The actual tax filings happen through Gusto Embedded or Check — both publicly file thousands of 941s/940s/W-2s every quarter under SOC 1 Type II audit. We're the customer relationship + AI layer; they're the regulated infrastructure.
What if I need ADP's PEO (TotalSource)?
Stay with ADP. PEO is a co-employer regulatory product; we don't compete and won't try.
My HR rep at ADP knows our business — what about that?
We partner with Bambee for dedicated HR-as-a-service ($99-300/mo separately). Not identical to ADP's tier-3 HR rep but the right fit for most agencies in our segment.
When does payroll actually ship?
Q1 2026 pending Gusto Embedded / Check partner approval (currently in their 4-8 week review cycle). Until payroll lives natively, we work with whatever payroll vendor you have — the EHR + clearinghouse + clinical AI value props apply today.
Next step
Bring your last ADP invoice and your last SimplePractice / TherapyNotes invoice. We'll do the math live.
Pricing claims sourced from public ADP Run / Workforce Now pricing as of 2026-Q2; SimplePractice public pricing same period.