Page 5 - April 2017 Newspaper

T op 5 QuickBooks Tips

for Medical Practices

How do you use your practice management
QuickBooks at your med- system, such as patient
ical practice? Are you get- counts, number of proce-
ting the most out of it? dures and denied claims.
My colleague, Meredith
Tucker, CPA, is a Certi - 4. Use “classes” or “loca-
fied QuickBooks Pro - tions” for financial report-
Advisor and entrepre- ing
neurial services manager Consider using “classes”
who works with busi- or “locations” to help man-
nesses, including medical age costs and track per-
practices, on financial formance of a practice with
reporting and analysis, multiple locations. For
tax planning and compli- BY KEVIN N. FINE, MHA example, you may want to
ance. She offered a few track revenue by each loca-
tips that can help medical practices use tion to determine its profitability. Classes
QuickBooks more effectively and effi- can also be used to track performance of
ciently to manage their financial data. different service lines, which can be
helpful for practices with multiple spe-
1. Use bank and credit card feeds cialties. You can use classes for any
Using the online banking feature to meaningful breakdown of your business
import bank and credit card transactions that you want to see reporting for.
in QuickBooks can nearly eliminate the To set up a class in QuickBooks Online
need for manual data entry and provide or the desktop version, click the
more time to analyze results versus key- "Company Preferences" tab and select
punching transactions. Bank and credit "Use Class Tracking." Now you are ready
card feeds are easy to set up, and they to add classes using the list function.
can help you classify and manage trans- Please note that every transaction in
actions. You can organize your data using QuickBooks (e.g., entering a bill, enter-
automatic rule setup and batch transac- ing an invoice) will now prompt you for
tion management. a class, so don’t forget to enter one or
that transaction will go to the class
2. Reconcile monthly “Unassigned.”
Reconciling your bank and credit card
accounts in QuickBooks on a monthly 5. Consider upgrading to Quick Books
basis will help you maintain the data Online
integrity of your books and avoid a major Business owners in many industries,
year-end clean-up. You can catch and from healthcare to financial services, are
correct common errors, such as improp- making the switch to the cloud by hous-
erly posted or forgotten charges, as the ing their financial data online. Moving to
year progresses instead of waiting until QuickBooks Online can bring better effi-
December. ciency and accessibility as well as the
To use the credit card reconciliation convenience of automatic upgrades and
feature in QuickBooks, go to the backups.
“Banking” drop-down menu at the top of If it’s a good fit for your practice,
your screen and select the “Reconcile” QuickBooks Online can provide real-
option (as with bank reconciliations). time, on-the-go access and collaboration
Your credit card accounts have registers for you as the business owner as well as
available where all charges and payments for your accounting professional and
can be entered. bookkeeper. Having secure, yet easily
accessible shared data means the days of
3. Build a management dashboard sending backup files are over; everyone
Work with your accountant to build a can work from the same, constantly
monthly management dashboard to help updated set of clean data.
you track key performance indicators Speak to your Certified QuickBooks
(KPIs) for your medical practice. ProAdvisor to learn more about how you
Tracking and reporting key data on a reg- can better use QuickBooks for your med-
ular basis can be critical to helping your ical practice.
practice grow and thrive.
The data should include KPIs from Kevin Fine is a director of healthcare
QuickBooks financial reports, such as advisory services in the Miami office of
overhead expenses, operating and total Kaufman Rossin, one of the Top 50 CPA and
margins, and outstanding A/R, which is advisory firms in the U.S. He can be
an important indicator of cash flow. The reached at kfine@kaufmanrossin.com.
dashboard should also include KPIs from

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