Do you always move your definition of success just a little bit further away? I do. When I was 23, I was a divorced single parent with no university qualification. Back then if somebody had told me of my personal and professional life today, I would have been over the moon - amazed -proud. A success. But truthfully, I don’t feel like I have reached success yet. Yesterday my husband asked me to take some time to acknowledge our recent wins. He reminded me that I should be proud of how my business has evolved in such a short time and the professional successes we have had. I find that hard to action. I don’t think I am alone. I see so many accomplished colleagues and clients always striving for the next achievement without acknowledging the ones they have already nailed. Maybe this is due to our fast-paced daily life, or perhaps it is our thirst to continually feel like we are winning or getting ahead? Women (and mothers in particular) often feel guilty for taking time out to give themselves a pat on the back. I always remind my clients of how far they have come in their businesses journey — time to follow my advice.

Do you use benchmark data to gain insights into the performance of your practice? Comparing your numbers, side by side with those of your competitors and colleagues will snapshot the key areas of focus for your business. It’s not expensive and it’s not time consuming for you. Common benchmarks we like to look at: - Revenue per FTE dental practitioner - Overhead as a percentage of sales - Staffing costs as a percentage of sales - Rental as a percentage of sales - Average spend per patient visit - Average annual number of visits per patient Our director Kelly Chard works with Dental and Medical practices all over Australia on getting their individual numbers and performance right.

This weekend GrowthMD is putting in some overtime to finalise business plans for a client with an exciting Australia wide medical offering. I know I harp on about business planning a lot, but do you know why? Because 80% of SMEs don’t have a plan for their business. Connected to this - 60% will fail within the first 3 years. Don't wing it. Don’t be an amateur.

I saw something today on LinkedIn. It bothered me. The author was questioning the definition of an accountant. Her own interpretation of an accountant is somebody that “solves your problems - in a way you may not understand”. Why did this bland definition bother me? I am sure many accountants would be chuffed with this definition. We sound almost magical! I thought about this for a while and came up with my answer. I am not a clean-up person. I don’t solve your problems. Well, this isn’t entirely true. I probably will solve your problems if you are in a pinch – but I don’t want to. Taxation and accountancy problems, in 99% of cases, stem from a failure to plan, a failure to follow the advice or an inability to obtain information. If you are my client, we are working together from day one to avoid future catastrophes or “problems” actively. Nobody likes being the clean-up guy. I much prefer being the lead safety / navigator car guy. So please don’t think of me as somebody who solves your old tax problems. I don’t do behind the scenes. If I fixed your problems behind the scenes like some magic woman you may be impressed. You may be temporarily happy, and you might even pay me a little more this year. But I am not helping you. I am providing you with a quick fix and then letting you loose on a new financial year with no more knowledge or smarts than before. I am not educating you. I am allowing you to be dependent on me to fix the problems again in the future. I don’t speak unique accountant language. Once upon a time an accountant may have sat across the table from you in a suit and tie, calculator in hand and told you which section of the Tax Act 1936 you had breached. You would have sat there bewildered and wondering what sort of secret language this person was talking. Not anymore. I, along with my progressive peers, prefer to explain your finances to you in straightforward “real speak”. The aim is always using language and concepts that you understand. If overhead, I may not sound impressive with my plain language, but I can promise you that you are getting value from this conversation. If you can understand it – you can take action. So where IS the magic in accounting then? When clients and accountants proactively work together. Discussions are authentic. Transparency is a priority. Now, this is when Accountants are magic, and this should form the definition of a great accountant.

We are super excited to announce we are finalists in the Australian Accounting Awards. The Australian Accounting Awards are regarded as the industry’s most prestigious accolades - recognising excellence across the entire accounting industry. The awards pinpoint professional development and innovation, showcasing both the individuals and firms who are leading the way in the industry. Finalist - GrowthMD - Innovator of the Year Innovative businesses, at a time of intense disruption and evolution, are taking advtantage of the ever-growing opportunities in the accounting industry and securing their success as long-term players. This award recognises the most innovative business in the accounting industry in Australia, acknowledging the business that best developed and capitalised on innovation during the 2018 calendar year. Finalist - Kelly Chard - Thought Leader of the Year Thought leaders in the accounting industry champion its growth, development and success by voicing new and challenging ideas. This award recognises an individual within the accounting industry who has shown a committed passion and aptitude for improving the industry. The recipient of this award will personify business leadership, and be entrepreneurial and committed to the industry. They will also support the growth of new industry entrants as well as the delivery of training, education and mentoring.

Budget takeaways for those in working in medical and dental practices.

GP practices are busy places, with constantly evolving business processes, staff turnover and compliance issues to navigate. And like all busy businesses at some point errors or omissions unknowingly slip through the cracks. Over the last few months though, we have seen several recurring compliance issues in GP practices. And while often these overlooked issues are small, they do need attention now to ensure they don’t snowball into costly problems as your practice grows. 1. Overstated practice income GP practices typically engage doctors who are running their own business as a consulting GP.  They will then agree with the doctor on a service fee (paid as a percentage of the GP’s billings) for the use of the practice’s rooms, staff and systems. The key concept in this arrangement is that the GP is running their own business and they are providing services directly to patients via their own Medicare provider number. Practices may receive the GP’s patient income as collection agent under the services agreement – however, this does not mean that these patient fees should be declared and shown as income of the practice. The revenue of the practice from these GPs is the Service or Management Fee collected. To most practice owners and managers, this is no surprise and falls into accounting 101 for medical practices. However, we have been alarmed over recent months to have seen a number of practices reporting all GP (including non-employee GPs) income as sales and revenue of the practice. Presenting financial data in this way may risk the practice exposing themselves to additional taxation and obligations such as payroll tax, superannuation and employee entitlements. This may also trigger issues with incorrect Business Activity Statement reporting, reporting misleading practice income to lenders and ruling out access to small business tax relief in the future. 2. “Forgetting” the GST collected In most cases, GP income is GST free. However, some services such as the provision of medical reports, and supplementary or cosmetic services will attract GST. The GST on these services provided by a GP to the patient should be reported as GST collected by that particular (non-employee) doctor – not by the practice. We have seen many practices who don’t report  GST collected correctly when providing billings reconciliations and paperwork to GPs. In turn, GPs are not correctly accounting and remitting GST in their own business BAS. On a per doctor, per fortnight basis the GST impact is likely to be small (which is why many practices do not account for it correctly!) however over a period of months to years and with many GPs this GST this mistake could be sizeable. On a compliance level for the practice, if GST is not disclosed correctly to GPs, it is also possible that applicable GST is not being recorded at all. In this case, the practice is running the risk of retaining GST receipts which should have been remitted to the ATO. 3. Slack billing, receipting and bank reconciliation processes Medicare billing and reporting of correct income and GST amounts is ultimately the provider GP’s responsibility. Although the practice may provide the administration in these areas under an agreement, this does not take away from the GP being the ultimate supplier and provider of services. Therefore, it is imperative that practices deal with recording and reconciliation of patient fees billed and cash collected to a high standard – not only for their own benefit but for that of their GPs. Many GPs take little interest in the accuracy or processes around billing and receipt collection at the practice level – trusting that the practice has a methodical and accurate system in place for this. In reality, many practices are using generic accounts and lump sum clearing entries to manage their collections and align their bank account and accounting system to the practice management system. Often individual receipts or amounts due from Medicare or Health Funds cannot be traced should the need arise. Unexplained variances at the end of each month or quarter are the norm. In the worst cases, cash collected from patients on behalf of a supplying GP has been used in the practice to fund practice expenses (such as petty cash, maintenance or staff amenities) and is never actually banked or accounted for correctly. With no check and balance in place, internal fraud is, unfortunately, a common business risk, leaving both GPs and practice owners unaware and out of pocket. 4. Nurses and support staff allowances missed GP practices or their advisers need to be on top of the relevant awards for employees. In most cases, the Nurses Award and the Health Professional and Support Services Award 2010 will be relevant. Navigating through the levels and pay points for employees can be a challenge, and by the time the practice has completed this exercise, allowances are often forgotten. Mandatory allowances are frequently overlooked – such as uniform allowances, on-call allowances, telephone allowances and meal allowances. Disgruntled employees not in receipt of their correct allowance payments have often been the cause of a workplace and payroll audit. Needless to say, disgruntled employees and audits are not a pleasurable experience for the practice or the wider team and should be avoided at all costs. 5. Missing records This issue is not specific to medical practices, however, we do see that many practices do not have a systemised and streamlined system for maintaining evidence of expenditure. This can partly be because of the rise of cloud-based systems where bank accounts are directly linked to accounting software and often expenses are recorded form the bank account data rather than an invoice. Additionally, it is quite common that the practice owner is the bill payer for the practice and the administration staff and practice managers may never actually see some of the bills or invoices coming through the practice. A reminder that in general records need to be kept for 5 years and can be kept in electronic format. Address issues now. If you suspect your practice could be lacking in one of these areas take steps to rectify this situation now. With modern accounting tools and automated technology, systems can be put in place to accurately reconcile and account for billings and GST collected on behalf of practice GPs – saving time and ensuring the integrity of the practice’s processes.  If record keeping systems or employee entitlements need reviewing, take the time to talk to your adviser about getting up to date with best practice methods.

Assuming that all medical and dental practice owners want the same thing for their practice, and their career reminds of the old saying “all men prefer blondes”, it just isn’t the case. As a practice owner in 2019 you undoubtedly have well-meaning financial information and advice firing at you from all directions. Daily you read and hear information from a range of sources regarding practice growth strategies, tax minimisation, ATO and billing compliance, passive income stream building, practice valuation goals, reducing costs and implementing automation and technology changes. This well-meaning information overload can be exhausting without even considering the information exposed to clinical and patient-related matters. Of course, it is great to be informed and to position your practice for success. But sometimes it is time to stop and focus on the things that matter, to you as an individual, to your personal goals and your unique practice. My client: Knowing when to shift the goal posts Last week I met with one of my successful multi-site owner clients for our regular quarterly strategy meeting. In previous meetings we focused quite heavily on financial KPIs – profit results, billing and consult data, new patient numbers, growth projections, break-even points etc. All things successful practices “should” be monitoring and tracking. By mid-meeting I could tell that this data wasn’t cutting it. These financial metrics, while necessary, are not linking back to the priorities and direction of the client right now. While in the previous quarter, the client’s family and personal circumstances had been running smoothly. This quarter a change started to occur, and it became apparent that the balance of financial versus home life focus was out of whack. This quarter the success factors were not about dollars. They were about life – managing time, family and life stresses. So, we switched up the conversation and the KPIs accordingly. Now alongside the profitability figures, there exists KPIs focused on leave taken and planned, self-gauged stress rating and presence at school pickups/events. The focus on fee revenue has been expanded to monitor and grow non-owner reliant revenue. The emphasis on expenditure has shifted to cost v benefit and time saving rather than just reduction. Success is not only financial I love financial KPIs and metrics (I am an accountant after all) and can’t stress how important it is to know your business results and to know how to use this data to make smarter decisions. As a rule, though, financial goals alone will not deliver success. Achieving your financial goals enables your personal, family and lifestyle goals. Sometimes the financial goals may have to be put on hold or adjusted so that you don’t lose sight of the personal goals. While hard to do when you are responsible for a busy practice and the people employed and working from within it – which is why you need to be aware. Think long-term There are times when financial metrics are crucial and will be the critical KPIs to monitor – for example when setting up a new practice or planning for a practice sale. However, if you are looking for long-term success, your accountant and advisers should be encouraging you to focus on the key drivers in your individual success story – understanding what family and lifestyle goals are important to you right now and in the future and weaving this into a financial and business strategy that will last the distance. A great accountant or adviser will be relatable and “get” the direction that you want for your practice and your life. They will be personable, realistic and hold strong personal and business experience. Success for your practice is not about achieving someone else’s vision. It is not just about the numbers – it is about weighing and analysing the numbers – and then using them to enable you to achieve what matters most to you.

Single Touch Payroll will apply to small employers (less than 20 employees) from 1 July 2019 - what do you need to do to be ready?

Yes, I'm in Japan, for work, of course, speaking at the Business for Doctors conference in Niseko. So what better location to talk about travel allowances and deductions.