Airbase vs Procurify for Outpatient Physical Therapy Networks

Most PT clinic purchases are small: resistance bands, therapy putty, tape, small modality accessories. A card-based model with a generous per-clinic limit lets a clinic director restock without routing every fifteen-dollar purchase through an approval chain, and Airbase's onboarding tends to be faster for a team of clinic managers who aren't going to become procurement experts. The tradeoff is that visibility into spend by category across clinics depends on consistent transaction tagging, which takes discipline to maintain.

Once a network passes a certain number of locations, the aggregate spend on small purchases adds up to something worth managing centrally, especially software seat licenses that quietly renew clinic by clinic without anyone comparing what each location actually needs. Procurify's requisition-based structure makes it easier to see that aggregate picture and catch redundant subscriptions or underused equipment before renewal. The tradeoff is more setup time and a workflow that can feel heavier for a clinic manager who just needs more tape.

Many PT networks land on a hybrid: a low, no-approval-needed limit for routine clinical supplies handled through cards, and a requisition path for anything recurring, like software licenses or equipment leases, that should be reviewed centrally before it renews. Both platforms can support this split; the decision is really about which one your clinic managers will actually use consistently without workarounds.

EMR add-ons, scheduling tools, and patient engagement software often get purchased clinic by clinic when a director hears about a tool from a colleague at another network. These subscriptions rarely get canceled even when a clinic stops using them. Set a quarterly review of software spend by clinic, comparing seats purchased against seats actually logging in, since this category typically has more waste than physical supplies do.

Modality equipment and larger rehab equipment usually involve a lease or a multi-year commitment, not a one-time purchase, and that decision shouldn't sit with the same approval threshold as routine supplies. Route equipment leases to whoever owns capital planning for the network, with enough lead time to compare options rather than defaulting to whatever a sales rep is pushing that quarter.

Pilot with a handful of clinics that represent your range, a high-volume flagship location and a smaller satellite clinic, before extending group-wide. Confirm clinic directors actually use the mobile request path for routine restocking rather than falling back on old habits, and that your finance team can pull software and equipment spend by clinic without manually combining several exports. A rollout that only works smoothly on paper usually reveals its gaps in the first real renewal cycle.

Check these points before extending the rollout to every clinic:

• Pilot with a handful of clinics that represent your range, such as a high-volume flagship location and a smaller satellite clinic.
• Confirm clinic directors use the mobile request path for routine restocking instead of falling back on old habits.
• Check that finance can pull software and equipment spend by clinic without manually combining separate reports.
• Schedule a quarterly review of software seats purchased against seats actually logging in, clinic by clinic.
• Route equipment leases to whoever owns capital planning, with enough lead time to compare options.

Outpatient PT networks often run local referral programs and community marketing that get lumped into general clinic spending, making it hard to tell whether that spend is actually driving new patient volume. Track it as its own category from the start rather than mixing it with clinical supplies, so a clinic director or the corporate office can look at referral spend against new patient counts without pulling apart a mixed expense report first.

A network that grew partly through acquiring therapist-owned practices often inherits clinics with very different purchasing habits than the ones built from scratch. A formerly independent clinic's director may be used to ordering equipment with much more autonomy than a corporate location's manager has. Rather than forcing every clinic onto identical limits immediately, set a transition period where acquired clinics keep a slightly wider purchasing window while they adjust to the network's standard process.

Payer mix matters here too: a clinic network billing mostly through insurance contracts has less discretionary purchasing flexibility than one running a significant cash-pay or membership model, since reimbursement timing affects how much cash is comfortably available for discretionary equipment upgrades. If your network leans heavily on slower-paying payers, prioritize automating the categories that most directly affect cash timing, like recurring software renewals, before spending setup time on lower-stakes categories like routine supply restocking.