Many doctors, dentists, and other health care providers struggle with the challenges of running their practice. Accounting and bookkeeping tasks are crucial to helping medical offices operate more smoothly. Thus, whether you leave bookkeeping and accounting to outside providers or hire in-house expertise, you want to increase operating efficiency, improve cost containment strategies, and maximize the collection of receivables.
When assessing your accounting practices, ask yourself two important questions:
- Do you understand and have the skills and knowledge to make advantageous decisions relating to increasingly complex situations in which you find yourself?
- Should you oversee an office manager more closely, sign your own checks, and scrutinize accounts, or hire a professional to evaluate your practice and prepare a comprehensive financial assessment?
Financial Administration
As with any business, how you handle your accounting procedures is an important factor in the success of your practice. Some practices may not be able to afford a full-time, financial administrator or accounting professional. Finding qualified accounting assistance should be a priority for any medical office, and there are a number of available options.
Part-Time Accountant: Your medical office may benefit from employing a part-time accountant, who works on your premises and becomes completely familiar with the operations of the business and accounting challenges. If the accounting workload is light enough for one to two days per week, consider employing an accountant to work a set number of hours each month.
Junior Administrative Staff: Alternatively, you may hire junior administrative staff to take care of the basics, and contract an outside accounting firm to provide oversight, cash flow statements, monthly financial reports, and year-end closing of the books.
Experienced Tax Consultant: Preparing your annual tax returns is specialized work, and a medical office can benefit from the use of an experienced tax consultant to prepare tax returns that optimize your tax liability. Medical offices may be able to deduct a variety of business expenses, which will benefit the profitability of your practice.
Contact a financial expert to learn how you can benefit from the same kind of exceptional care you offer to your patients when dealing with your finances.