Cliniko help in Australia: support, setup, training and ongoing admin, honestly compared

We run one of the services on this list. DotVA places offshore VAs who do ongoing admin inside a clinic’s Cliniko account, from 10 hours a week. We do not sell one-off Cliniko setup, data migration or training packages, and we are not Cliniko’s support desk. If you have a how-to question, need a new account built, or are moving from other software, other rows in this table are the right place to look and we are not. That is the most useful thing we can tell you, so it comes first.

The method is the same as our comparison of Australian VA agencies. Every claim about another provider comes from its own website, checked on 11 November 2026 and linked in the table. Where a figure is not published we write “not stated publicly” rather than guess, and where a site does not say where its people are, we do not assume. A provider is only here if its own site names Cliniko in text.

Cliniko’s website lists connected apps (software that integrates with it), but we did not find a directory of consultants or setup partners, so the setup services below are independent businesses.

The services at a glance

Provider	What kind of help	Published price	Where the people are	One-off setup or migration?	Ongoing admin in Cliniko?	Terms
DotVA Cliniko virtual assistant (that’s us)	Managed offshore VA: one dedicated person who works in your Cliniko account to your direction	$12-17/hr admin, $18-25/hr specialist, AUD ex GST, from 10 hrs/week	Philippines, working Australian business hours	No. We do not sell setup, migration or training packages	Yes: bookings, wait list, forms, invoices and follow-up	No lock-in contract; stop any time in the first 14 days, then 30 days’ notice; free replacement any time
Cliniko support	The software company’s own support by in-app chat and email, plus help guides, written training for reception staff and a setup video course	Free with every subscription; the subscription starts at $45 a month for one practitioner on its pricing page, which sets the currency by the visitor’s country; its terms say fees exclude taxes	Founded in Melbourne; team remote around the world	A managed data transfer from 20 listed systems, at no charge, booked in advance; we found no setup-for-you service on the pages we checked	Not offered on the pages we checked; support answers questions about the software	No minimum contract term; 30-day free trial
Time Well Spent	Admin and virtual reception team with a Cliniko setup and support service, sold alone or with its phone and admin packages	Not stated publicly	Melbourne office	Yes: builds new accounts, tidies existing ones and handles the migration from another system; one-on-one Cliniko training, online or in person	Yes: ongoing Cliniko management, phones and admin	Try for three months, or a 12-month term with 50% off onboarding
Sage Admin Solutions	Back-office admin and practice software setup for Zanda, Halaxy, Cliniko and Splose; no traditional phone answering or reception service	Setup from $1,089 incl GST, quoted per practice; ongoing admin not stated publicly	Melbourne-based	Setup with agreed training and handover, aiming for 21 business days; data migration is not currently offered	Yes, in regular sessions reserved for your practice	Not stated publicly
Virtual Connect	Allied health admin by hourly rate, weekly retainer or project	Amounts not stated publicly; projects priced per task	Not stated publicly	Yes: lists setup of Cliniko (staff schedules, appointment types, forms, reminder templates, billable items, online bookings); projects can include online staff training	Yes: weekly retainer, 5 hours a week minimum	No lock-in contracts
PractiCal VA	Sole operator: practice admin, one-off projects and system setup packages	Retainers from $550 a month; one-off projects from $55/hr with a 2-hour minimum; setup packages quoted on enquiry (GST basis not stated)	Not stated publicly	Yes: setting up and configuring Cliniko, quoted on enquiry	Yes	No long-term commitment
HELLO PEOPLE	Independent software company that connects Cliniko to accounting, payment, reporting and booking systems	Fixed price per written scope; amount not stated publicly	Perth; says its work is written by its own team in Australia	A one-off integration build. Account setup and staff training are not listed on its Cliniko page	Not listed on its Cliniko page	One-off build plus an optional support plan
Therapy Assist	Small admin service for psychologists and mental health practitioners; the same person each week	$200 a week for 4 hours up to $750 a week for 15 hours (GST basis not stated); weekends +20%	Not stated publicly; core hours are Sydney time	Not listed on its services page	Yes: bookings, invoicing and correspondence in Halaxy or Cliniko	No lock-in; two weeks’ notice
Clinic Admin	Managed offshore admin staff: one full-time team member trained in Cliniko before they start	Not stated publicly; quoted per full-time role in Australian dollars	Supervised office in Balanga, Philippines	No one-off package listed; its Cliniko page describes form, online booking and template configuration as part of the ongoing role	Yes, full time	Its FAQ says no recruitment fees and no exit penalties; its terms set 30 days’ written notice and allow early termination fees for shorter notice
StaffingSolutions.io	Offshore VA recruited, hired and managed by the provider; says Cliniko experience is reference-checked	From $14/hr + GST for a full-time dedicated team member, billed in Australian dollars; no placement fee	Manila, Philippines; Queensland-headquartered company	Not listed on its Cliniko page	Yes	Three-month minimum term, then month to month; first-week refund; free replacement

Checked on each provider’s own pages on 11 November 2026. “Not stated publicly” means we could not find the figure on the provider’s public pages; it is an observation, not a criticism.

Two more offshore options name Cliniko. HealthDoers advertises allied health VAs “From $24,000 /year” (currency and GST basis not stated). It says there are no lock-in contracts; its terms set 30 days’ written notice and a security deposit per role. Tarino is a recruiter that screens for Cliniko: $5,000 once per placement excluding GST, $250 of it upfront and the rest on hire, after which you engage and pay your Philippines-based hire directly.

Our row in full is on pricing. If a 30-minute call beats ten tabs, book a discovery call, and if another row fits your clinic better we will tell you on the call.

Three products share one label

Searches for Cliniko help, a Cliniko consultant and a Cliniko virtual assistant land on three different products.

1. Software support (Cliniko). How to use a feature, why something is not working, what a setting does. Cliniko says support is 100% free by in-app chat and email, and a May 2024 Cliniko blog post says support officially runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, with an eye kept on things over the weekend, in writing instead of by phone. Support explains the software. Someone still has to run the diary.
2. A one-off setup, data move or training job (Cliniko’s own transfer service and guides, Time Well Spent, Sage Admin Solutions, Virtual Connect, PractiCal VA). Someone builds the account around how your practice works: appointment types, forms, templates, billable items, online bookings. Sage Admin Solutions includes training and handover; Time Well Spent offers one-on-one training; Virtual Connect lists online staff training as project work. HELLO PEOPLE does a different one-off job: connecting Cliniko to your accounting and reporting systems.
3. Ongoing admin done by a person inside your Cliniko account (DotVA, Time Well Spent, Sage Admin Solutions, Virtual Connect, PractiCal VA, Therapy Assist, Clinic Admin, StaffingSolutions.io, HealthDoers). Bookings, the wait list, intake forms, invoices and follow-up, every week. Tarino finds you a person to hire directly for the same work.

Most frustration comes from buying one when you needed another. A VA is not a faster route to a setup project, and a setup project does not answer the phone in March.

What the options cost

These figures use each provider’s published price. Where we have multiplied or divided, that is our arithmetic, not the provider’s quote.

Option	Published price	What that buys
Cliniko support	Free with every subscription	Answers by chat and email, help guides, training guides and a setup video course
Cliniko data transfer	No charge, booked in advance	A managed transfer from 20 listed systems
Sage Admin Solutions	From $1,089 incl GST	A one-off practice software setup with training and handover
PractiCal VA	From $55/hr, 2-hour minimum (GST basis not stated)	A one-off job from $110
Therapy Assist	$400 a week for 8 hours; $600 for 12 (GST basis not stated)	Ongoing admin at a $50 hourly equivalent
DotVA admin VA	$12-17/hr ex GST	10 hours a week for $120-170 a week, about $520-736 a month
StaffingSolutions.io	From $14/hr + GST, full-time	A full-time VA; its page puts that at roughly $29K a year

Cliniko charges by practitioner, and admin and reception users are free and unlimited, so an assistant’s login adds nothing to the subscription whichever provider you choose. With us, a $500 deposit is credited to your first invoice.

How to compare them

1. Question, project or weekly work? A question goes to Cliniko. A project has an end date and a handover. Weekly work needs the same person back every week.
2. Moving systems? Check Cliniko’s transfer list first. Its transfer guides say dates are sometimes booked months in advance, so book before you set a go-live date. For systems not on the list, its CSV tools import patients, contacts, products and billable items, and cannot directly import treatment notes, appointments or invoices.
3. Who trains your team? Cliniko’s guides are free. If you want a person to walk staff through it, ask whether training is in the quote. Sage Admin Solutions says its setup includes it, and Time Well Spent sells one-on-one training with no price published.
4. Which claims do you run? Cliniko’s help centre says Medicare, DVA and health fund claims go through Tyro Health, a separate company with its own account and fees, and that NDIS claims cannot be made through Cliniko. Ask each provider who lodges and whose login is used. A DotVA VA prepares invoices and claims in Cliniko and follows up rejections and unpaid accounts; lodgement set-up and portal logins stay with the practice.
5. How many hours? Under five hours a week, a small package such as Therapy Assist’s fits. We start at 10. Clinic Admin and StaffingSolutions.io price a full-time person.
6. What are the exit terms? They run from no lock-in at all, through two weeks’ or 30 days’ notice, to a three-month minimum term, and Time Well Spent offers a 12-month option. Read the terms page as well as the marketing page.

Access and privacy: set this up before anyone logs in

Cliniko has published a guide for practice owners who use virtual receptionists, and it applies to every provider on this page, us included.

• One login per person. Cliniko says not to share a single “Virtual Reception” login between several people.
• The lowest role that does the job. Cliniko has six security roles. It says a Scheduler will never see financials or treatment notes, and that a Power receptionist cannot see a patient’s medical information, add users or export data. It recommends keeping the Administrator role to the practice manager.
• Two-factor authentication. Cliniko calls it the single most important thing you can do to secure your account.

Giving an overseas assistant access to client information is, in most cases, a cross-border disclosure under APP 8 of the Australian Privacy Principles: you must take reasonable steps to make sure the overseas recipient handles the information in line with the APPs, and you generally remain accountable if they do not. That obligation sits with you as the practice disclosing the information, and it applies to our VAs as much as to the other offshore rows. This is general information, not legal advice. Our guide to hiring an offshore VA legally covers the obligations.

Our own practice, which is a policy and not a legal requirement: the VA has their own Cliniko login on the role you set, any other credentials are shared through a password manager, and a confidentiality agreement is signed before day one. The detail is on our data security page. Where a provider does not say where its people are, ask before you grant access.

Who should pick whom

• A how-to question, or something is not working: Cliniko support first. It is free, and the answer comes from the people who make the software.
• Moving from Halaxy, Nookal, Splose, Zanda or another listed system: Cliniko’s own data transfer, at no charge. Book early.
• A move you want handled for you: Time Well Spent says its team handles the migration into Cliniko; ask which systems and which records it can bring across. If your system is not on Cliniko’s list, ask Cliniko first. Sage Admin Solutions says it does not currently offer data migration.
• A new account built for you, with training, at a published starting price: Sage Admin Solutions, whose practice software setups start from $1,089 including GST.
• A setup or staff training project from a service that lists what it configures: Virtual Connect. For a small one-off job by the hour, PractiCal VA from $55 an hour.
• Setup, phones and ongoing admin from one team with a Melbourne office: Time Well Spent.
• Cliniko connected to Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks or Power BI: HELLO PEOPLE.
• A few hours a week of admin for a psychology practice on Cliniko: Therapy Assist, from $200 a week for four hours.
• A full-time offshore team member: Clinic Admin if you want a supervised office in the Philippines; StaffingSolutions.io for a published starting rate; Tarino if you would rather hire the person directly for a one-off fee.
• 10 to 30 hours a week from one dedicated person in your Cliniko account, at a published hourly rate: that is the clinic we built DotVA for. You meet a shortlist of matched VAs before you choose, so ask each about their Cliniko experience. If your account is not set up yet, do that first with one of the options above. See what the work looks like on our Cliniko, physiotherapy and allied health pages.

Run your own numbers

Price your hours on the VA cost calculator and check our tiers on pricing. Our comparison of allied health virtual assistant services covers providers that work in Halaxy, Nookal and Splose as well, along with the AI receptionists that book into Cliniko, and the allied health virtual receptionist page shows how a dedicated receptionist runs. If the right answer for your clinic is one of the other names in the table, we would rather you find that out now than in month two.