Take one ordinary transaction at a physio clinic. A patient buys ten sessions for ₹4,000, pays ₹2,000 that day, attends six over three weeks with two therapists, misses two appointments, then asks for the balance. How many sessions are left, how much is owed, and which therapist did what?
General clinic software cannot answer that, because it was designed around one visit, one prescription, one bill. Physiotherapy software exists for that arithmetic. Everything else follows from the same idea: the unit of care is a course of treatment, not a consultation.
Packages and session counts
This is the first thing to test and the fastest way to cut a shortlist in half. A package is a number of sessions sold in advance, consumed over weeks, sometimes by several therapists, sometimes across two locations.
Have the vendor sell a ten-session package, mark six used, cancel one with a reason, and show the balance in sessions and in rupees on one screen. Then ask to extend the package by two sessions at a different rate, which breaks products where a package is a discount code with a nice name.
Therapists, not doctors
A physio diary has different constraints from an OPD list. Slots are fixed-length and often back to back, one therapist can be with a patient while another supervises the gym floor, and the same patient wants the same 7 am slot three days a week for a month.
So look for a therapist-wise calendar, not a single clinic calendar, recurring appointments created as a series and cancellable as one, and a utilisation view showing what share of each therapist's available hours were booked and attended last week. Utilisation is the number that decides whether a second therapist pays for herself.
Notes that run along a course
A progress note in physiotherapy is only useful next to the previous one. Pain score, range of motion in degrees, strength grade, a functional measure: these belong in fields you can compare, not in prose.
Ask to see three weeks of one patient's notes on one screen, measures beside each other, and whether the assessment template can be edited without calling support. An ortho practice and a neuro practice do not record the same things.
Home programmes and home visits
These are two different features, and sales calls muddle them. A home exercise programme means the patient leaves with the exercises, reps and frequency prescribed, in a form they will open. Ask how it is delivered, what the patient receives, and whether last week's programme is still on file after you change it.
Home visits mean scheduling by geography and time: three visits between 2 pm and 6 pm, travel time between them, a visit charge different from the clinic charge, and a receipt issued away from the front desk. Ask to book one.
Money that arrives in pieces
Part payments across a package are normal, and they are the most common place for revenue to leak. The system should show, per patient, sessions consumed against amount received, and a pending list you can work through. Our guide to stopping revenue leakage in clinic billing covers the wider habit; the physio part is that the debt attaches to a package, not a visit.
Registration rules changed this month
Physiotherapy is a recognised category under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021, listed in the Schedule as "Physiotherapy Professional / Physiotherapist", category number 2264, and described there as a professional who may practise independently or within a multi-disciplinary team, with a minimum qualification of a bachelor's degree.
The Commission has now notified the Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026, published in the Gazette of India on 9 September 2026 and in force from that date. Under them a person is entitled to practise a recognised profession after registration, meaning the name entered in the relevant State Register and in the Central Register and a UID number issued centrally, in a format such as IND-GU-08-2025-XXXXXXXXX with a QR code. Where no State Council exists yet, registration goes to the Central Register. Applications use Form R-1 and are decided within thirty working days. Registration runs five years, renewal is due six months before expiry, and renewal requires continuing professional development.
Two penalties bear on how a clinic describes its staff: using the description of an allied and healthcare professional without being registered carries a fine up to ₹1,00,000 on first conviction (section 57), and falsely claiming to be on the register up to ₹50,000 (section 56).
None of this prescribes a format for clinical records or a retention period, so do not believe a vendor who says the NCAHP requires their software. What it does give you is one practical requirement: store each therapist's registration number, State Council and expiry date, print the number on documents naming that therapist, and get a warning before a renewal falls due.
A buying checklist
Run these in the demo, on your own data:
Sell a package, consume part of it, take a part payment, and read off the sessions and rupees outstanding.
Book a recurring 7 am slot three days a week for a month against one named therapist, then move one occurrence.
Show last week's utilisation per therapist, booked against attended.
Open one patient's progress measures across three weeks side by side, and edit the assessment template without vendor help.
Schedule an afternoon of home visits at a separate charge and issue a receipt from the therapist's phone.
Store a therapist's registration number with its expiry, and produce a reminder before it lapses.
Export every patient record and the package ledger in a format you can open.
If more than two need a "custom development" conversation, the product was built for a single-doctor OPD and adapted later.
What ExaHealth covers, and what it does not
ExaHealth is general clinic software. It has no exercise library, no home-programme builder and no session-count package ledger, so it is not a physiotherapy system and a package-driven practice will feel that quickly. What it runs is the everyday clinic: an appointments calendar with the clinic's own booking page, a live queue with WhatsApp alerts, separate schedules and staff per location under one login, role-based access so the receptionist books without opening clinical notes, one-tap invoices showing who has paid, and reminders and receipts on WhatsApp with no app to install. It is an ABDM-certified PHR and health locker, so records link to a patient's ABHA with consent.
Before you shortlist
Published Indian prices for physio products are modest. PhysioCare PMS lists a flat ₹699 a month with no setup fee and a 10-day trial, and names package management with automatic session deductions. Physio Software lists ₹999 for one month, ₹3,999 for six and ₹5,999 for twelve, with a 15-day trial (both checked 18 September 2026). Subscriptions carry 18% GST, so read those as pre-tax. At these numbers the real cost of choosing wrongly is not the licence fee, it is a year of reception staff keeping a parallel register of who has sessions left. For the parts every clinic shares, see our piece on practice management automation.
To see whether those general clinic features fit alongside whatever you use for treatment plans, talk to the ExaHealth team.
Sources
National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (No. 14 of 2021),…
Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026: notification dated…
NCAHP notices current as of the check, including a public notice on physiotherapy and…
PhysioCare PMS: ₹699 a month flat, no setup fee, 10-day free trial, package management with…
Physio Software (physiosoftware.in): Silver ₹999 for 1 month, Gold ₹3,999 for 6 months,…
Frequently Asked Questions
Do physiotherapists in India need to be registered to practise?
Under the Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026, notified on 9 September 2026, a person is entitled to practise a recognised profession after registration, meaning entry in the State Register and the Central Register with a UID number. Physiotherapy is a recognised category under the 2021 Act. Where a State has no council yet, registration goes to the Central Register.
Can general clinic software handle a physiotherapy practice?
For a single therapist billing per visit, yes. Once you sell packages, run recurring slots for several therapists and take part payments across a course, the gaps show up at reception first, usually as a paper register running alongside the software.
What should I test first in a physiotherapy software demo?
The package. Sell ten sessions, use six, cancel one, take a part payment, and see whether the remaining sessions and the outstanding amount appear together without anyone doing mental arithmetic.