Many physiotherapy centers set their session price by looking at nearby centers, then keep it unchanged for years. As rent, salaries and supplies get more expensive, the owner finds at the end of the month that sessions are many and profit is small, sometimes none at all. Physiotherapy session pricing shouldn't start from competitors' prices but from your own center's costs. In this guide we explain a practical way to set a price that covers your costs and keeps a net margin, even as costs rise.
Why copying nearby centers isn't enough
- Every center's costs are different: rent, number of therapists, how salaries are paid, and how many hours are actually booked.
- A price that's profitable for a full center can lose money for a center whose schedule is half empty.
- A fixed price while costs rise every month means your margin erodes quietly.
Step 1: Work out the real monthly cost
Add up everything the center pays in a month:
- Salaries: fixed pay, and pay per attended session.
- Fixed expenses: rent, electricity and water, internet, subscriptions.
- Variable expenses: supplies and consumables, maintenance.
- Large occasional expenses, such as buying a device: spread them over 12 to 24 months instead of loading them onto one month.
This only works if expenses are recorded completely, so record every expense with its category from day one.
Step 2: Work out the cost of a treatment hour
Divide the monthly cost by the treatment hours actually delivered, not by the center's opening hours.
Example: a center costs 60,000 EGP a month and delivers 300 treatment hours. Cost per hour = 60,000 ÷ 300 = 200 EGP. A one-hour session priced at 200 EGP makes no profit at all.
Step 3: Add your target margin
Decide the net profit you want from revenue, say 15%. Then:
- Minimum price = cost per hour ÷ (1 − margin) = 200 ÷ 0.85 ≈ 236 EGP, rounded to 240.
- Add a small safety buffer for surprises: late payments, discounts, or a quieter month.
- Set the price per length: a 45-minute session isn't always three quarters of the hourly price, but it must never be below its cost.
Step 4: Excuse and absence fees
A slot a case misses without notice isn't free: the therapist is there, the room is booked, and fixed costs are paid.
- Absence fee: roughly the cost of the empty slot.
- Late excuse fee: lower, because you may fill some of those slots with other cases.
- Announce these fees to cases clearly from the start, and apply them to everyone.
Step 5: Control discounts
Discounts are useful, but they eat profit if nobody tracks them.
- Set clear reasons for discounts: contracted organizations, more than one case sharing one phone number, or session packages.
- Know who gave each discount and what discounts cost the center this month.
- Never allow a discount that takes the price below the cost per hour.
Step 6: When should you raise prices?
- When your costs have risen noticeably since your last price change.
- When your margin stays below target for several months in a row.
- It's better to raise prices in two steps rather than one big jump, and to tell cases in advance when and why the change happens.
Common pricing mistakes
- Working out cost per opening hour instead of hours actually delivered.
- Forgetting the pay of owners who work as therapists.
- Discounts with no reason and no tracking.
- Ignoring sessions that haven't been paid yet.
- Keeping the same price for years while costs rise every year.
How PTset helps you price
- Price lists by service and length, a separate list for contracted organizations, and a special price for a specific case when needed.
- Excuse and absence fees for each service.
- Discount tracking: every session keeps its list price, so you see the discount in amount and percent, its reason and who gave it, with a Discounts report and automatic discount rules.
- Budget and reports: income, expenses and salaries in one place, so you know your real margin.
- Price advisor: from your center's own figures, it works out the minimum price, excuse fee and absence fee for every service and length that keep your margin at the target you set, and lets you apply the increase all at once or in two steps 3 months apart.
Also read how to choose your center's management software and how to prevent recording errors, follow What's new in PTset, and watch the tutorials on the PTset YouTube channel.
Get started
Start with the free plan, which never expires, learn about the platform on About PTset, and find answers in the Help center.
Start now: create your free account, see the plans, or talk to us on WhatsApp and we'll help you set your center's prices.
