Our client is a Melbourne based two partner medical practice. Like most medical practices of this size, our client had an internal staff member acting in dual capacities, as practice manager and bookkeeper.

They had identified various risks associated with this arrangement, such as one of the roles being neglected and/or the person having insufficient experience in both fields. For this reason, they sought to implement an outsourced finance solution, allowing their internal staff to focus solely on practice management.

We were engaged complete finance outsource solution in an ongoing basis and to also provide support to the new practice manager.

How we helped

We were engaged to provide a full finance outsource for our client to support the practice manager. This included:

  • Bank Reconciliations
  • Accounts payable
  • Payroll
  • Superannuation & payroll tax lodgements
  • Month end reporting pack
  • Liaising with suppliers and external accountants
  • Attend regular meetings and updates with owners
  • Support with all ad hoc finance tasks

In devising our outsourced solution, we recommended various efficiencies and improvements to their existing processes.

These included:

  1. Accounting System: To allow us to provide an effective finance outsource, we transitioned their accounting system from Quickbooks to Xero. This provided capacity for the accounting software to integrate with their practice management software, efficient preparation of the month end reporting and access for our client’s external accountants to work with live data. This also facilitated us providing comprehensive accounting support without needing to be onsite at the clinic at all times.
  2. Payroll: Part of the payroll process requires to submit timesheets for review by management. Prior to our involvement, the entire process was a paper-based system that was inefficient and time consuming for both staff and management. Transitioning the accounting software to the cloud allowed them to submit these electronically directly to Xero for review and processing, significantly reducing the administrative time spent processing payroll.
  3. Cashflow: Prior to our engagement the owners did not have live accounting data and accounts payable reports and as a result were unclear of their cash outflow commitments and when these were due. Since implementing Xero, our team can now raise batch payments for approval by management, which has significantly reduced the preparation time of the payment process, and can generate live accounts payable data that is accessible to the owners as required.
  1. Month End: We work collaboratively with our client’s external accountant to prepare their records for month end reporting to the owners. Due to the efficiencies realised through our specialist staff resources, templates and cloud based systems, the month end preparation time has been significantly reduced. We are then able to extract the key financial information in a timely manner to provide to their accountants, for inclusion in their month end finance report to the owners.

Workflow flexibility

Throughout the month the client’s finance requirements can vary. There can be heavy demands on the finance function, particularly during preparation of month end reports. Conversely, there are periods during the month where the finance workload is significantly reduced as compared to month end.

This varying workflow would be very difficult for them to manage with an internally staffed finance team. However, by engaging shared resources in Australia and Sri Lanka we were able to devise a solution for our client that allowed them us to scale our support level depending on workflow requirements at any given point in the month.

Result

By leveraging our team of specialists to implement their finance function and run it on an ongoing basis, our client achieved a complete finance outsource that allowed their key internal staff to focus on practice management.

This has provided the owners with a greater level of confidence in the information being maintained in their finance system and the management reports that they use to run their business.