This article is written by Jenni Salisbury,
Practice Management Administration & Support Service
The end of the financial year can be a time when accountants are chasing us down, reviewing all our outstanding invoices, and wondering why we haven’t done more to follow up and get paid!
If this sounds familiar, don’t be overwhelmed, it’s actually a perfect time to get things in order and use this time of year to your advantage. There are some great things about the EOFY that can help you grow and improve your practice (and recoup some of those outstanding invoices 😉).
Here are 7 ways to make this End of Financial Year period beneficial for your health practice.
1. Chase Up Outstanding Accounts
Get paid!
Nobody wants to work for free, and often, a gentle reminder to clients to pay outstanding invoices is all it takes to make those little red dollar signs disappear!
First, run a report on all outstanding invoices:
In Zanda, you can do this by going to Reports > Financial > Invoices & Payments. Use the filters to select the date range you are interested in, and select Unpaid Invoices Only.
To send them, simply click on the Cog and select Email Share.
Hint: If you want to view or edit the invoice without leaving the report, right-click the invoice number and select ‘Open in new Tab’.
Alternatively, you can run a report for ALL outstanding invoices.
In Zanda, go to Reports > Aged Receivables
The practices we work with often find that a quick call to their client results in payment over the phone. If you don’t have an admin team and feel uncomfortable making these types of calls, then this is a good time to enlist the support of a virtual assistant (VA) to do this on your behalf. A VA creates a buffer between you and your clients and removes any awkwardness you may feel when making these calls yourself, allowing you to maintain the professional relationship between you and your client.
If you invoice third parties, you’ll find that many of them are eager to pay before the end of the financial year (so they can claim the expenses earlier). So use this period to improve your cash flow!
Get your invoices sent early and follow up on all your outstanding invoices.
2. Record Client Payments
Often, practices appear to have multiple outstanding invoices that have actually been paid into their bank accounts, but not reconciled in Zanda.
Now is the time to review your bank statements and look for any payments on outstanding invoices. Enter the payments into Zanda and get your accounts up to date!
Did you know you can quickly apply a single, bulk payment to multiple invoices? To do this, go to Sales > New Payment, select the client, and then add the payment. You’ll then see any outstanding invoices related to that client. Simply select the invoices you’d like the payment applied to and click Save.
3. Pay Outstanding Invoices & Bring Forward Purchases
Before the financial year ends, it’s a good idea to pay any outstanding invoices so that your accounts more accurately reflect the complete year.
You might also want to bring forward any purchases so that you can claim a deduction in this financial year. Do you need to order more stationery, signage, other supplies, or even other services? If you’ll be paying tax this year, it could be smarter to bring these forward. Check with your accountant first, but you may also be able to prepay certain expenses and claim the deduction in the current financial year.
4. Claim All Your Deductions
Make sure you take some time to think through all the deductions you can legitimately claim in your business tax return, as it’s easy to overlook some of them. It can help to go through your bank and credit card statements to see what you’ve spent money on to help jog your memory.
Here’s some information from the Australian Tax Office about the business operating expenses you can deduct (and here’s another checklist of tax deductions for small businesses).
5. Supercharge Your Referrals
The end of the financial year is an ideal time to re-engage referrers who haven’t sent you a new client in a while. Often, we might think of doing this at the end of the calendar year, but really, this isn’t as effective. Practitioners are often distracted by Christmas, their own holidays, and may even close down for a while. But the financial year gives you an excuse to make contact while most people are still operating business as usual.
To use Zanda to re-engage referrers, go to Reports > System > Inactive Referrers.
Simply enter your date range and voila – your inactive referrers and their contact details will appear. You can even use Zanda to create and send a letter to these referrers.
Reach out to your existing referrers, too. Often, a clinic may have many practitioners working there, but only one or two of them actually refer clients to you. Update them on your current team, areas of specialty, consulting hours, etc. Ask the reception team to forward your information to all practitioners, not just your current referrers. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect!
6. Re-Assess Your Pricing Structure
From our experience at Practice Administration & Support Service, we’ve found that September/October is the best time of year to increase your fees. The EOFY has passed, and Christmas is not on our minds just yet. Now is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your current price structure and think about whether it may be an appropriate time to increase your fees.
It’s always a good idea to let your clients know in advance that your fees will be increasing. Draft up an email template now to bulk send to your clients one to two months prior to the fee increase, and ensure you detail the date the increase will be implemented.
7. Work Smarter, Not Harder
We all strive for this, but we don’t always achieve it. The EOFY is the perfect time to look at your business and your role in the business.
If you’re a practitioner who practices in and runs your own business, then no doubt you’re working long hours, seeing as many clients as possible to maximize your cash flow. In your spare time, you’re replying to emails, returning missed phone calls, sending invoices… the list goes on.
Now might be the time to consider whether your business would benefit from some administration support. You may not have the budget for a full-time receptionist, but you may be able to outsource some of the tasks that take up your precious spare time.
Think about this: for each hour of admin you outsource, you could:
a) See more clients = Increased revenue
b) Work ON your business = Increased revenue
c) Take an hour for YOURSELF = Decreased stress levels (Winner!)
See, the End of Financial Year doesn’t have to be so bad!
With the right systems in place, it’s actually pretty easy to have everything in order.
Guest contributor Jenni Salisbury is the founder of Practice Management Administration & Support Service, and has over 15 years of experience in practice management, admin, and reception in various sectors, including mental, allied, and natural health.