Time to Get those Figures in Order!


It’s that time of year again, when those green forms from the Revenue appear in the letter box, and you promise yourself that this time next year it will be a different story. This time next year, you’ll have found a way of keeping track of your practice finances, so that you’re not facing a climb up Mount Everest in order to meet the submission deadline of 31st October.

Except that, this year, the deadline isn’t the 31st October, unless you plan on calculating your own tax liability. This year, for the first time, there may be a penalty for not calculating your own tax liability, unless you submit your return by 31st August 2014.

clocksSo this is a wake up call. Time to get moving on getting your figures for the year ended 31st December 2013 sorted out.

Doing the bookkeeping and accounts for most therapy practices is not a big job. Generally, there are one or maybe two sources of income, easily identified. And there are a limited number of relevant expenses too, again, easily identified. However, that’s easy for me to say, I am an accountant after all. But for many, especially those who have never had any training in accounting, even the concept can be overwhelming.

To make it easier, here are some tips to make managing the problem a little easier:

  1. If the task overwhelms you, take it slowly, one piece at a time. If possible, get someone to help.
  2. Make it a regular task; daily is best, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Don’t leave it longer than weekly if possible. You think you’ll remember what that item was, but you won’t!!
  3. Pay as many expenses as you can by cheque, credit card or bank transfer. That way, your credit card or bank statement will be a record of what you pay for. Ideally, have a separate bank account and credit card reserved solely for business use. That way, you don’t have to wade through lots of personal expenses to find those related to the business.
  4. Keep receipts for everything you pay out, especially things that are paid for in cash. Keep a separate wallet or envelope with you, write on the receipt what it’s for if that’s not obvious, and pop in the receipt into the wallet. At the end of each month, sort the receipts into types of expenses, putting like items together, and into date order, clip them together, and put them into an envelope marked with the month they contain.
  5. You can use your diary as a basic record of fees earned. If you like, you can transfer the details (coded if desired to protect client confidentiality) in to another form later.
  6. Don’t know what information you need to record?
  • For income: Date, Name or code, Amount, What it’s for (if you have more than one type of income) and where it’s been Photo no (20)lodged / spent.
  • For expenses: Date, Payee name, What it’s for, Amount, How it was paid (Cash, cheque, credit card). It’s easier to sort out later if you keep cash payments together, cheques together etc
  1. Records can be hand written or computerised (on a spreadsheet or bookkeeping package). They can be arranged in any way that facilitates collating the information into accounts. If you get an accountant to complete and submit your tax returns, they can help you to set up your records in a way that easy for you, and helpful for them.