Why would you use a project management tool that doesn’t offer specific features for your ABA clinic when there’s a tool that does? A practice management tool, if you will. The answer, indeed, the only possible response, is that you simply didn’t know what you were missing out on.
Project management software like Clickup or Monday.com is an excellent software solution for many businesses that don’t have highly specific needs. Sure, you can organize, plan, and manage your resources and your projects.
But if you’re running an ABA clinic, you do have those needs, so you should be using a purpose-built practice management software like ABA Engine.
That’s where these other software options fall short.
And it’s where ABA Engine shines.
After all, the Harris Poll recently found that clinicians spend nearly 28 hours per week on administrative duties. And the burden is even higher for medical office staff. Those are hours your staff could be dedicating to client-facing work.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how general, generic tools are limiting your capabilities. We’ll also look at why purpose-built software matters, including its real-world impact. Finally, we’ll discuss what a purpose-built software tool like ABA Engine can do for you and how we’re distinct from our competitors.
General project management software falls short of meeting the needs of your ABA clinic. You’ll end up turning to another app, or another two apps, for features like communication and data tracking. So now you’re on multiple applications, dealing with multiple logins and platforms, and spending way more time than necessary on admin tasks. Here are just a few headaches you deal with when it comes to generalized tools:
Scheduling is the heartbeat of an ABA clinic. Unlike many businesses, you’re matching clinicians with very specific skills and certifications to clients who have individualized treatment plans. General tools don’t account for:
Without a dashboard that displays clinician expertise and client needs side-by-side, your scheduling team spends hours making manual matches, resulting in mistakes, double bookings, and missed sessions.
Further complicating matters, generic project tools typically don’t handle automated reminders or confirmations well. This lack means administrative staff must constantly follow up with families to confirm appointments or handle cancellations, increasing no-shows and frustrating families who want easy communication.
Of course, you don’t want the private sessions tracked. But you do want to be able to track your clients’ journeys through the clinic as well as your therapists’. Your software likely doesn’t allow you to view your onboarding and intake processes in a single glance, nor does it have space for you to upload certifications, insurance information, and more. Trying to do this manually has been shown to take 49% of the physician’s day, with only 29% devoted to patient care.
Beyond just tracking client and therapist journeys, clinical and behavioral data form the backbone of effective treatment planning and progress evaluation. Purpose-built ABA software enables detailed logging of therapy sessions, goal tracking, and behavior incident reporting. These are all linked directly to each client’s profile. This integration allows clinicians to review trends over time and adjust treatment plans accordingly, fostering data-driven decisions that improve outcomes. Without this centralized tracking, clinics risk fragmented data that limits clinical insight and undermines the quality of care delivered.
Speaking of insurance, clinics are hard-pressed to find ABA practice management software that can track your compliance, especially with HIPAA. Your staff is likely currently tracking everything manually and hoping against hope that you don’t get audited. In 2023, over 133 million Americans were affected by healthcare data breaches. There are several regulations you want to be sure you’re on top of with each client and therapist, and HIPAA-compliant ABA tools will help you do that.
Sadly, they’re not easy to find.
Compliance is more than just a checklist. It’s a continuous, dynamic process requiring vigilance as regulations evolve and audits become more frequent. A purpose-built ABA management system includes built-in safeguards such as encrypted communications, role-based access controls, and audit trails that document every data access or change. This creates a transparent compliance environment that reduces risk and fosters trust with clients and insurers. Clinics relying on generic tools miss out on these proactive protections, increasing the chances of costly breaches and reputational damage.
So what do you end up doing? You come up with all kinds of manual workarounds. You get creative. You have multiple apps, tons of paperwork, and hours of labor on the books that add up fast. Physicians spend two hours of admin time for every hour they spend with patients. Along with those manual workarounds and multiple apps comes human error, which only adds yet another layer of complications.
Manual workarounds might seem like a quick fix, but they often introduce inefficiencies that compound over time. For example, copying data between systems increases the risk of transcription errors, lost files, or outdated information. This not only wastes staff time but can also delay critical decisions or cause billing errors that affect cash flow. Furthermore, juggling multiple tools creates frustration and burnout among clinicians and administrative staff, lowering morale and increasing turnover. All of these harm the clinic’s ability to provide consistent, high-quality care.
When IntakeQ entered the scene, it felt like a solution had finally arrived. After all, it offered practice management software that helped healthcare professionals address client intake. The software streamlines the onboarding process and even deals with specialized assessments.
The problem is that intake is pretty much all IntakeQ does. Which makes sense, of course. It’s all in the name. But if you’re running an ABA clinic, you still need help with the rest of your full clinical operations.
You should have robust workflow management for teams with multiple roles, including therapists, coordinators, and billing staff. IntakeQ doesn’t offer this level of comprehensive support, which means teams often have to rely on additional software or manual processes to manage day-to-day tasks.
Moreover, you need to be able to fill out detailed clinical reports, communicate seamlessly and securely with parents and caregivers. Plus, you’ve got to be able to scale your clinic efficiently as your caseload grows. IntakeQ doesn’t support these critical functions, leaving many clinics searching for a more integrated and purpose-built solution.
Look, you wouldn’t use a butter knife to perform surgery, and you shouldn’t use general-purpose project management software to run a healthcare clinic.
Purpose-built software is different. It’s designed specifically for your workflows. Every single feature in ABA Engine has been designed by our founder, Erica Kinnebrew, with real ABA clinics in mind.
How? Because she worked in ABA clinics for years, and she saw what was missing.
Purpose-built practice management software helps with everything from onboarding new families to managing authorizations. And from tracking credential expirations to communicating securely with staff and caregivers.
Here’s why it matters:
ABA Engine is purpose-built for the day-to-day realities of ABA clinics, helping your team move faster with less friction. Instead of juggling forms, checklists, and communication across multiple apps, your entire intake-to-care process can live in one secure system with ABA practice management software. We automate tasks like form tracking, appointment reminders, and credential alerts. This reduces your administrative overhead significantly.
Admin hours per clinician or staff member. Reducing non-billable admin hours can increase available time for client sessions and improve staff productivity. Clinics that use purpose-built automation solutions report a measurable drop in time spent on manual follow-ups and redundant tasks.
General-purpose software doesn’t account for the regulatory and clinical documentation demands of ABA. ABA Engine was built with compliance in mind, from HIPAA-secure messaging and document storage to real-time alerts for credential expirations and authorization deadlines. Rather than relying on spreadsheets or memory, your clinic gains an always-on system that reduces the risk of compliance violations and helps you stay audit-ready. ABA clinic software is designed with you in mind.
Missed authorization or credential expiration rate. By automating compliance reminders and securely storing required documentation, ABA Engine helps clinics reduce costly oversights and increase confidence during audits or insurer reviews.
When your practice management software is aligned with your clinic’s real-world workflows, everything moves more smoothly. This goes from onboarding new families to assigning the right clinician. A centralized, integrated platform like ABA Engine reduces communication gaps, prevents delays, and ensures no critical step gets missed. The result is a better experience for families and a more responsive clinical team.
Time from intake to first session & family satisfaction score. Streamlined intake and scheduling processes lead to faster service initiation, which directly improves client engagement and overall satisfaction with your clinic’s care experience. This is the entire goal of ABA Engine, to provide purpose-built software for ABA clinics. So you can be done with generic and general tools you have to twist to work for you. It can be your clinic’s digital backbone.
| Feature | ClickUp | Monday.com | Smartsheet | IntakeQ | ABA Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Client Data Tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Progress Reporting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Billing Support | X | X | X | X | On Roadmap |
| HIPAA Compliance | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Communication Tools | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customization Options | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integration with Other Tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | NA | ✓ |
Bottom Line: ABA Engine stands out as the best option by combining all the core features of leading platforms, making it the only all-in-one solution designed specifically for ABA clinics.
You understand the clear difference between generic software and software designed specifically for ABA clinics.
Not just healthcare. ABA clinics.
Not just intake. All clinic operations.
Now, let’s take a look at what one of the ABA clinics we’ve helped has to say about making the switch to purpose-built software.
In the end, you’ve likely heard the old expression: if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. It’s time to change. If you keep sticking with your old tools that really don’t work for you, you’re wasting time, money, and energy that could be better spent with your clients.
ABA clinics service an absolutely critical function in communities across the country, and you deserve software designed with your specific needs in mind.
ABA Engine was built by someone who’s walked in your shoes, someone who understands the complexity, urgency, and compassion that defines your work. It’s more than just software; it’s a system designed to support your mission. Whether you’re a growing practice looking to scale or a well-established clinic trying to streamline operations, ABA Engine can simplify your processes and help your team thrive.
To get a better look at how ABA Engine can truly revolutionize your clinic for the better, book a demo with us today. We’re excited to help.
Below are some questions we asked our founder, Erica, to help you get to know her, and our organization better. You can learn more about us at our website.
It is the software I needed when I was building and scaling my ABA companies. It didn't exist until now with ABA Engine.
I wanted a better way to track, manage, and communicate with new families as they were coming into services. I was collecting all the documentation and info needed to get them through the weeks to even months (in some cases) long intake process.
Also, I wanted to visually see where families were in the intake process and make sure we had the correct employee pipeline to fill the needs of our intake.
We pride ourselves on the intake workflow for new clients coming into services. We also have an excellent onboarding workflow for new employees coming into the company. Finally, we offer stellar tracking of expiration of authorizations and/or staff credentials.
We’re currently building out the full platform experience for our users to include billing, invoicing, and data collection.
I really wanted to add speed to services for families with less stress because communication and clarity in the process are at the front and center of the way the software is built. Also, this software takes a tremendous amount of administrative burden off staff as they navigate constant growth and new families and new employees.
ABA Engine offers wrap-around communication that includes AI language translation - text, Slack-like portal messages, and integrated email.
We also provide automation and alerts - scheduling, authorizations, process, task creation, and form sending and completion.
We focus on refining existing features to ensure a seamless user experience before introducing new ones. Some users may opt to become testing partners and gain early access to upcoming feature releases.
