Top five for pre 1 July 2019
It's nearly the 2020 financial year!
Now is the time to get busy and ensure an excellent kick off to the new year.
Here are our top five things to think about before 1 July 2019.
Switch on STP
Single Touch Payroll (STP) is not optional! From 1 July 2019 employers will need to report payroll and superannuation information to the ATO in real time via an approved electronic method. If you are not using a cloud based accounting or payroll system you will need to find an alternative way to lodge. If you don’t have a solution on how you will report, we can help you here: https://calendly.com/growthmd/stp
Get ready for SDRS
Brush up your team’s Medicare claiming knowledge and billing procedures now and be ready to start 1 July 2019 in tip top compliant shape. From 1 July 2019 the Medicare Shared Debt Recovery Scheme (SDRS) officially begins and has the potential to see Health Practices share in practitioner debts for amounts deemed as incorrectly billed to Medicare. If you haven’t discussed the SDRS with your team (both practitioners and administration) we recommend you set aside time to do this pre 1 July.
Super Changes
From 1 July, the ATO will be able to consolidate low balance super accounts where a contribution hasn’t been received in 16 months. I hear you asking, “how does this affect me”?
We have worked with many health practitioners who have retained their previous superannuation fund (e.g. QSuper for doctors working with Qld Health) even after switching to another fund or an SMSF as their main super account. In many cases this is to retain beneficial or exclusion free insurance coverage. Often the balances of these accounts are low and only topped up as required. It is important to act if you have additional super accounts with low balances as there is a risk of losing default insurance cover if your account remains inactive on 1 July of this year.
2020 Tool Kit
If you looked back 10 years, we bet you thought back then that health practices would be digital, connected and paperless by 2020. Most practices are not there yet, but the good news is that an array of tools are available to push your practice closer to that 2020 vision. The start of the 2020 financial year is the perfect time to take steps in implementing automation and efficiency tools that streamline and simplify businesses processes. With so many tools on offer it can be confusing but with the right advice on selection and implementation, taking the first steps is easy. A few which we love: BetterConsult, ReceiptBank, Cubiko, Tanda, Surgical Partners and Xero.
1980 v 2020 accountants
Are you still working with an accounting firm which fees you on a time (per the minute) basis - which we think is more circa 1980 than 2020? The new financial year is an opportunity to transition to a more modern approach to accounting. What do we mean by modern? Guaranteed annual fees, technology advice and reviews, included support line, flexible after-hours communication times and 100% cloud-based systems.
This is what we do at GrowthMD and you can find out more here: