Making your medical consultancy more efficient with Xero

When you’re running an independent medical practice or consultancy, there’s one area where you’re likely to need some help and professional guidance – and that’s ensuring that your practice is an efficient and profitable business.

Managing the financials and accounts with Xero

As a business (and likely as a limited company) you’ll need to keep financial records, produce annual accounts and submit your tax returns etc. But if you’re imagining piles of paperwork and complex spreadsheets, the positive news is that accounting has gone digital and moved online.

Xero online accounting software forms the financial heart of your medical practice. It makes the process of keeping your books, managing your accounts and ticking your financial compliance boxes as simple and straightforward as possible.

By managing your accounts in the cloud with Xero, you get:

• 24/7 access to your business numbers, from your smartphone, tablet or laptop
• A clear Xero Dashboard that shows all your important numbers in one place
• Cloud storage of all your important receipts, invoices and paperwork.

Xero has another string to its bow. It’s not just accounting software, it’s also a business platform with access to over 600 different apps in the Xero App Marketplace – a store full of cloud solutions and business tools that help you make your practice as efficient as possible.

Getting paid on time and cashflow

To quote a well-worn phrase, ‘Cash is King’ and that means it’s vital that your practice is paid on time. The easier it is for your clients to settle their bill, the faster you will have that money in your bank account – and the more positive the practice’s cashflow position will look.

Having Xero at the heart of your business systems makes this process of getting paid far easier – especially when you consider the many payment, cashflow and credit control apps you can integrate with from the Xero app store.

• Send online invoices from Xero – and email your bill direct to the customer, removing the need for paperwork and getting you paid more quickly.
• Take payment with GoCardless – use GoCardless to automatically take payment via Direct Debit from client’s bank accounts, as soon as the invoice is due.
• Automate your debt management with Chaser – if invoices become overdue, use the Chaser app to send out automated personalised emails to clients, requesting payment.
• Forecast your cashflow – get a forward-looking view of your cash position by using the Fluidly or Float apps to understand where the potential cash holes may be in the future.

Running your appointments system and admin

That’s the financial side of the business taken care of. But what about the actual running of the practice? This is where cloud software comes to the rescue again.

There are a wealth of Xero apps designed specifically for the health and medical sector. But for our money, Timely is the perfect addition for a busy medical practice.

Timely integrates seamlessly with your Xero accounts and gives you a simple way to manage your clients, appointments, staff and sales – all done online through your browser.

Making your practice more profitable

Cloud technology certainly takes some of the heavy lifting away from running your medical practice. But to achieve the full potential of your business, you also need a trusted adviser.

At Day Accountants, we love working with entrepreneurial practices to help them push their business to the next level. We can provide you a full accounting service, custom real-time reporting on sales and profits and give you the commercial guidance you need to make your practice.

If you’re running your own medical practice and want to take the next step in its business evolution, please do get in touch for a chat.

Get in touch and see how we help your medical practice