Bring an operations lead, a clinician, someone from billing, and the person who handles staff paperwork. Use fictional data throughout the demo. Ask each person to note the steps they would still need to perform in a spreadsheet, an email thread, or another tool.
1. Follow a family from inquiry to enrollment
Start with a fictional referral. Ask the vendor to capture guardian details, insurance information, the requested service, and the family’s availability. Move the family into review, onto a waitlist, and then into an active client record.
What has to be entered again after enrollment? Who sees the outstanding forms and authorization work?See Little Files’ intake workflow
2. Hire someone, then renew their paperwork
Use a sample RBT or BCBA application. Follow screening, orientation, and the move to an employee record. Assign role-specific documents, issue a certificate, and renew one that has expired. Ask to see both the current document and its earlier signed copy.
Does recruiting connect to the employee record? Is document issuance different from simply uploading a PDF?Explore staff and credential management
3. Make a deliberately difficult schedule
Give the vendor a fictional week with therapist leave, a family’s hard availability constraint, a preferred time, an existing appointment, and limited authorization units. Ask how automatic scheduling handles each condition and how a coordinator reviews a change.
Which conflicts are prevented, which are warnings, and which checks are still manual?Review the scheduling workflow
4. Take a session through a payment and a denial
Do more than open the billing dashboard. Complete a sample session, inspect the provider and service details, prepare a claim, and resolve a missing field. Then post a payment, record a denial, and explain the remaining balance.
Which payer or clearinghouse connections are included? How do corrections affect the session, claim, payment, and patient responsibility?Explore clinical and billing workflows
5. Let a guardian and an employee complete a form
Ask for a walkthrough of each portal using sample accounts. Assign a form, complete and sign it, return it for review, and locate the approved copy. Then change the template and check what happens to the completed document.
Can requirements differ by client service and employee role? Can staff find the version that was actually signed?Inspect forms, certificates, and document history
6. Account for work outside clinical billing
Request therapy materials against a staff budget. Try one purchase inside the approval limit and one outside it. Receive the order, assign a tablet, transfer it to another employee, and confirm its return.
Are purchasing and inventory part of the platform, an added module, or work your team will keep doing elsewhere?Follow purchasing and inventory
Comparing CentralReach, Office Puzzle, and Little Files
CentralReach describes practice management covering intake, scheduling, billing, and documentation. Office Puzzle presents scheduling, clinical documentation, and billing as an all-in-one ABA platform. Review each vendor’s current offering directly: CentralReach practice management and Office Puzzle.
Little Files’ ABA practice management offering connects these clinic workflows with applicant intake, employee administration, individualized document issuance, and purchasing and inventory. Use the same examples with every vendor to establish the fit for your team. A feature name alone does not tell you how the workflow behaves.
This guide is written by Little Files. It is a buyer’s evaluation framework, not an independent ranking or a claim that another vendor lacks a capability. Product scope and commercial terms can change; confirm them in writing.
Make security and contracts part of the evaluation
Before using real patient information, establish which organization processes the data, what agreements are required, where the data goes, and how access and incidents are handled. Ask for the BAA, relevant service-provider arrangements, security documentation, retention terms, and the process for returning or deleting data.
HHS explains that cloud providers processing protected health information can be business associates, with obligations that extend beyond signing an agreement. Read the HHS cloud computing guidance and include qualified legal and security reviewers in your decision. Little Files’ security and BAA page describes the conversation to have with our team.
A scorecard you can use in every demo
| Record this | What a useful answer includes |
|---|---|
| Demonstrated workflow | The exact sample steps completed and the person responsible for each. |
| Work left outside the system | Manual re-entry, spreadsheets, external tools, or additional services. |
| Included scope and cost | Modules, users, locations, onboarding, integrations, support, and any usage fees. |
| Migration and exit | Import formats, historical documents, responsibilities, export formats, and termination terms. |
| Security evidence | BAA scope, access controls, provider review, incident procedures, and data handling. |
Keep unresolved questions next to the demonstrated results. A clear list of what still needs confirmation is more useful than a score based on assumptions.