The Fair Work Ombudsman has published an excellent guide to hiring new employees online which can be found by clicking here but we thought it would be worthwile to summarise the guide here and add a dental-specific flavour.

Step One: Know the law

If you’re going to be an employer you need to understand Australia’s National Employment Standards to know your responsibilities and the rights of employees, particularly when it comes to leave entitlements and termination.

If you haven’t negotiated an enterprise agreement with your employees then a modern award will set out the minimum wages and conditions that apply. For the dental industry the award is MA000027 Health Professionals & Support Services Award 2010. There are two key documents which can be found online regarding the Health Professionals & Support Services Award:

Click here to open the full award including all conditions and definitions.

Click here to open the current 2016/17 pay guide for the Health Professionals & Support Services Award. Please note these pay rates are adjusted each year at 1 July.

You also need to be across your taxation and superannuation requirements as well as record-keeping requirements and your obligations regarding workplace health and safety (as soon as you hire your first employee don’t forget to register for Workers Compensation insurance with your relevant State body).

Step Two: Think about hiring

It is important to consider the types of personalities, without discriminating of course, that you would like in your business…people that match your style and temperament. This will obviously lead to a happier workplace.

The importance of defining the roles that are required within the practice cannot be emphasised enough. Breaking down all of the duties required and assigning them to specific roles within the practice will ultimately lead to a more efficient team who understand their responsibilities clearly (and a more efficient team leads to a better bottom line at the end of the day).

When you’re interviewing prospective employees a clear list of their duties will also allow help you to understand if they have the skills and/or experience for the role.

For the dental profession you also need to include the appropriate immunisations and licences as part of your hiring checklist.

Step Three: Attract the right people

Make sure you include plenty of detail with regard to the required skills and experience when advertising the role…it’s best to ensure that hopeful candidates meet the criteria before coming in for an interview, this just avoids anyone’s time being wasted.

And advertise everywhere to get the best applicants.

Step Four: Choose the right person

Shortlist applicants for the most suitable fit before interviewing. Click here for Fair Work’s online course ‘Hiring employees’ which provides some excellent insight into good interviewing skills.

Step Five: Offer of employment

Along with a phone call you should always provide a written letter of offer outlining the duties and employment conditions. Along with the employment offer you should send all necessary paperwork for compliance including the Fair Work information statement, tax file number declaration and superannuation choice forms. This compliance can now be done electronically via nifty tools like Deploy Onboarder to make life super easy for you.

Getting things off on the right foot with new employees is critical to a happy and productive workplace…a comprehensive approach to hiring is the best start. Good luck with it!

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts firm specialising in the Dental industry. Call 1300 855 721 if you wish to discuss how we can help you or please click here to submit an enquiry and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

A successful practice is built on sound decisions made early in the life of the business. Here is a quick checklist of items that need to be ticked off to get the business off the ground, some may not apply in all cases but this is a good foundation from which to build:

o Financing – personal or financial institution?
o Leasing – find location, negotiate lease
o Building – zoning and building permits, find a builder
o Fitout – find a builder
o Business structure – sole trader, partnership, company or trust?
o Company registration if required – ASIC
o Tax registrations – ATO (ABN, GST and PAYG withholding)
o Insurances – workers’ compensation, business insurance, public liability insurance, personal insurances eg life and income protection
o Licences and permits – council, state, federal, x-ray, waste management, infection control
o Equipment – purchase or lease/finance?
o Hiring practice staff – HR manual, check appropriate licences, immunisations, reference checks
o Hiring dentists – employ on payroll, as contractors or self-employed?
o Dental laboratory provider – find and choose, this could be a long and fruitful relationship for both parties
o Practice management tools – choose practice management software and accounting software

This is by no means an exhaustive list but a great place to start if you’re thinking about what it takes to start your own practice. You should always seek legal and financial advice when considering starting a business as there is much to consider.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts firm specialising in the Dental industry. Call 1300 855 721 if you wish to discuss how we can help you or please click here to submit an enquiry and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

1. Should we employ dentists on payroll or take on self-employed dentists?
2. What is the best method for paying self-employed dentists? Should lab fees be deducted?
3. What is our strategy for patient acquisition? How will we market the business?
4. What qualities and experience do we seek in our office staff?
5. Which practice management software should we use?
6. Which bank should we use for our HICAPS and EFTPOS services?
7. Which accounting software should we use?
8. Should we engage an external bookkeeper to manage our accounts?
9. How do we train our staff on receipting and stock ordering?
10. Which suppliers should we use for our dental materials and supplies?

These are but a few of the critical questions that any dental practice owner will ask themselves at the appropriate time.

The reality is that profit margins are usually very low in running a dental practice so making the correct calls on these matters is all important to the bottom line. Bad decisions can ultimately result in poor profit margins and cash flow pressure.

As with any small business, efficient processes and measurable KPI’s are extremely important to business success and improved profits. We specialise in documenting efficient processes for your staff and help you identify the key KPI’s for your business to maximise profits.

Monthly financial and KPI reporting is essential to achieving the goals of the practice and our concise reports provide all of the key data required. New patient figures and profit margin reports are presented to the business owners each month to show where the business has been and is heading allowing management to refine the strategic plan and goals for the business.

With a number of dental practices as clients we specialise in dental bookkeeping and dental accounting end to end. We can help you grow your business and meet your profit objectives with our proven systems and experience with the dental industry, call us today to discuss how we can help.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team for your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

1. Do you find yourself doing bookwork on a weekend or late in the evenings?
2. Do you run a non-computerised accounts system?
3. Do you have paper all over your desk including invoices and receipts?
4. Do you use your bank balance as the only guide to how well your business is going?
5. Do you feel you are often guessing as to what the rules are on how you should allocate various expenses?
6. Do you have continual frustrations with the inventory management inside your business?
7. Do you find that your business struggles with cash flow because you don’t have enough hours in the day to work on sales and ‘business improvement’?
8. Do you run out of time to review your business’ financial performance at the end of each month?
9. Is your time worth more than $75 per hour?

If you answered yes to any of these questions above, then it’s pretty obvious that you could benefit from our services…it’s at least worth a call to see how we can help!

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team for your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

Technology

It didn’t take long to catch on but cloud software is now seen as the norm. With cloud accounting at the core, and our favourite Xero in particular, it’s now much easier for the client and internal accountant or financial controller to collaborate. Some major benefits to cloud accounting, and cloud software in general for that matter, are:

1.      Information is accessible anywhere, any time;

2.      Data is centralised in one location avoiding duplication and all of the associated headaches that it can cause;

3.      Sharing is easy and secure;

4.      Backups are managed by the software provider;

5.      No installation or IT maintenance;

6.      Affordability – we are lucky enough nowadays to have access to programs online that are more powerful than those that only big business could afford just 10 years ago…and for what is usually only a minimal monthly subscription;

7.      Powerful financial insight can be gained with great accounting software like Xero, and enhanced by utilising specialist software in unison.

Staffing Hassles Gone

An inexperienced or inadequate accounts team can lead to inaccurate reporting, basic compliance being overlooked, a large overhead expense, poor business planning and timely information not being received for making business decisions.

By outsourcing your accounting you can avoid all of this and ultimately drive business performance more effectively with consistent, timely and appropriate financial reporting.

Outsourcing to a reputable provider like The Finance Dept also offers you the opportunity to easily scale up your accounts operation as your business grows, without having to worry about hiring new staff.

Efficiency Improvements

I don’t think I’ve ever met a business owner that doesn’t appreciate a good, efficient system and the related benefits to their business. In the same way as an engineering firm might adopt a new piece of design software to speed up the delivery of a project, outsourcing accounting (done right) takes administration pressure away from the business internally allowing everyone to focus on core business.

Huge Dollar Savings

All of those employment costs that mount up leave the equation when you outsource accounting. It’s not just wages and super that make up payroll costs to a business…it’s recruitment costs like advertising and recruitment agencies, the burden of leave and replacing people, workers compensation insurance, payroll tax (if the payroll is large enough), and more.

And don’t forget those overhead costs indirectly related to employment…rent, electricity, IT hardware and software, cleaning, amenities like tea and coffee, the list goes on.

The dollar savings can be quite simply staggering when you outsource this key, but non-core, function to a specialist provider.

Accounting Expertise

Since a specialist outsource accounts firm specialises in various accounting services, you receive expert attention for all of your company’s accounting needs. This expertise can potentially exceed what a full-time employee may be able to contribute, as a specialist firm deals with all types of situations that an employee may not have exposure to in their everyday role.

A professional firm will provide you with routine updates on the financial health of your business by way of the most appropriate reporting specific to the industry. The benefit of being provided with an objective point of view on where the business is headed and can improve is priceless.

There’s never been a better time to benefit from sending the accounts offsite.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team for your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

The Finance Dept is a 100% paperless office. That’s right, not even as much as a post-it note on any desks here. Over the past couple of years we’ve worked hard to make sure we’re practicing what we preach to our clients – the paperless office. There are so many cool, and inexpensive, toys these days available on the internet to make the paperless office dream a reality.

Some examples of great cloud software that we use to make it a reality in this office include:

Microsoft Office 365 – for easy collaboration via cloud storage (Google apps are great too);
Xero – “beautiful” cloud accounting with electronic document storage;
Receipt Bank – more electronic document storage and processing for those pesky receipts and invoices – snap a photo of a receipt and toss it…done. Best friends with Xero;
Remember The Milk – a recent addition to our stable…online task management;
Adobe – signing documents electronically (there’s a heap of ways to do this);
Practice Ignition – online proposal tool especially for accounting businesses;
MailChimp – online email marketing;
eWAY – online processing of credit card payments;
Lucid Chart – awesome charts and workflows created in the cloud;
FormSite – online forms and surveys with workflow – easy to build with no coding required;
GovReports – online preparation of Business Activity Statements;
Internet Banking – who doesn’t use this nowadays?;
Twitter & LinkedIn – no brainers for social media marketing these days!.
The list goes on and is growing all the time.

We’d quite frankly rather be working on business development, or not have to work through lunch because of time wasted ploughing through piles of paper. There are varying levels of how far you can take it, we’re not suggesting every SME go out and purchase the fancy document management systems that big organisations use. No need for TRIM or ELO, just sturdy electronic filing processes and great cloud software products…like those mentioned above but specific to your business needs.

Seven great reasons to go paperless:

Easy storage

With an electronic filing system in place, all paper documents that come into your office can immediately be scanned and digitally stored while all incoming electronic documents can be simply saved to the appropriate location. Efficient and accessible to all.

Time savings

It is no longer necessary to waste time looking for documents. Document searches can be done quickly and give results in seconds. All the documents are stored in the same organised manner, and are easy to retrieve.

Simplicity

With an electronic management system, you can simplify many business processes. Users can action or authorise tasks and transfer data with the touch of a button. Ordering goods and authorising invoices, are just two of the best examples of daily tasks that become more efficient when done digitally.
Digital document management can let you create security settings and give all authorised users the ability to view the same documents. This makes it easy when more than one user needs access to a single document, or in cases when the company is on multiple sites.

Business development

With time saved, management can spend their time more productively on developing the business. How beneficial would it be to the bottom line if every executive had an extra 1-2 hours in a day to spend on getting new business?

Security

An electronic filing system stores the documents on secure servers, whether internal or in the cloud. This means that only authorised users are able to retrieve the documents, making it more secure than paper which can easily fall into the wrong hands.

Better customer service

Electronic systems allow you to access all customer data from one central location, retrieving information quickly and efficiently when required. A central database allows your business to proactively communicate with customers individually or on mass.

Return on investment

Small and medium sized businesses barely need to spend any capital in order to move to a paperless office. Perhaps a few monthly cloud-based software subscriptions, most of which would fall well below $50 per month. These are cost effective choices that will most certainly see a return on investment almost immediately.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team for your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

Our firm is a great example of not just the highest level of efficiency in accounting practices for our clients but of administration efficiency in general. A few examples that we use to cut down on administration internally include:

We use online proposal software that utilises our base list of service offerings for delivery of professional proposals in quick time. No more fiddling around with Word docs plus our clients can accept or decline and make comments electronically without having to print a single piece of paper;

Our website is linked to our cloud-based sales management system and client database so that all enquiries automatically filter through all channels and ensure no lead is ever lost;

We’ve developed a suite of online forms for anything from our systems and management audit to new employee information to invoice requests. All of which link through to our central support desk on submission;

We use project management software to keep a track of where each client’s engagement is at, and to assign tasks throughout the team accordingly;

We use screen-sharing software to meet with clients regularly without having to leave the office. Great for productivity and our clients benefit also by not having to pay for our travel;

We electronically file all source documents alongside the transaction in our Xero accounting file making the filing cabinet obsolete… the same 100% paperless accounting system we use for our clients;

We use the Receipt Bank app and our smart phones to snap photos of business receipts while on the run, ultimately ending up in our accounting file. Another system we train our clients to use in pursuit of the paperless office and maximum efficiency.

These are but a few, the point being that cloud programs generally offer huge time savings in the area of the business to which they specialise. But the key to automation is linking these programs to create an automated office platform that eliminates both unproductive time and the risk of human error.

The technology is already there, it can be a minefield with numerous providers offering different variations on similar programs but, with our experience and knowledge, we can help you towards automating your entire office…not just the internal accounting component.

When the office as a whole runs in a highly automated fashion you can make adjustments to the business as a result of the increased capacity to staff…and most importantly the end result is more money back on that all important bottom line.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team for your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

You make decisions all day. The minor decisions are but a blip on your radar and don’t really register as a “decision”. Major decisions, those pivotal points in your business, can be quite monumental and, sometimes, not even deliver a result.

So let me ask you this: Are you sabotaging the big decisions in your business by not having all of the relevant information at your fingertips?

Want to make speedy business decisions in your business? You need the necessary information to do so.

Here’s what can be done. Make sure you have systems for the following:

•Marketing – methods you are using to capture the interest of your ideal client and how you are keeping tabs on the leads (software: a Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM));

•Sales – defined sales process and relying on the CRM;

•Admin – client communication and organising of deliverables (utilises CRM and project management system (PMS));

•Client Services – developing the client relationship and management of deliverables (software: PMS);

•Resources – planning in relation to sales forecasting (software: PMS and accounting system);

•Production & Delivery – the actual product or service and completion (software: scheduling & PMS);

•Accounting – the end result of all the above business processes, which can show the wins and losses of all systems;

•Make sure your accounting system is up to date, all the time;

•If numbers are not your thing, make sure you have a great support team around you – accounts specialist, CFO, tax accountant.

Sounds daunting right? Particularly if you don’t have all of those systems operating effectively yet. They’re all as important as each other, but if you require a starting point then I suggest do the marketing (ie CRM) first then the accounting system. In the early stages of your business you can get by with systems just for those two, and work on the fly for the rest.

Without those two your decisions will neither be fast, nor effective. If you have all of these functions in place, your decision process will be much more effective with relevant and timely information at your fingertips.

And my best tip – when creating these systems in your business, pick software that allows integration between all of those functions eg Xero and CapsuleCRM. This ability skyrockets effective decision making to another level entirely, allowing for super-fast decision making. No excuses.

What systems do you need to put in place?

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team to your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

In the past, firms of a reasonable size would have had to employ an in-house accounts person, whether that be on a full-time or part-time basis, with all of the associated overheads to take on this role. But the times are a changing, progressive firms are realising now more than ever that it makes sense to outsource non-core activities like the accounts and the benefits are enormous.

Cloud Accounting

Cloud accounting software like Xero, our favourite, has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years and it’s still early days really. The technological revolution has allowed for an electronic accounting data file to be saved securely in the cloud for access by multiple persons at any time through a web browser. It’s real-time data available and accessible like never before.

Ultimately it’s this accessibility to business owners that has led to rapid growth in accounts outsourcing across larger businesses like architect firms, public relations agencies and advertising agencies as opposed to smaller businesses traditionally. Why? Transparency – the biggest fear that business owners have about outsourcing is the concern that they lose control because they don’t have a staff member or team sitting in the next room that they can see and request information from readily.

Cloud accounting makes the whole process 100% transparent because you can see at any time a snapshot of where things are at by simply logging in to the accounting package via the web. Has the bank been reconciled?, what are our current debtors?, what debtors are overdue? Questions that can all be answered quickly and precisely with a few clicks of a mouse. The concerns around “are they doing what I’m paying them to do” are removed altogether and the focus moves to utilising the financial data on hand.

Fixed Monthly Pricing

Traditionally, an outsourced accounting firm would charge an hourly rate for their services. Why? If the scope of work is the same each month then an experienced service provider should be able to quote a fixed monthly price that encompasses all aspects of the regular workload. Sure, there’ll be things that come up which will require additional scoping, for example an unexpected ATO audit, but these occurrences are rare.

A fixed monthly fee for services removes the additional cost concern around communication also. You want to know that you can pick up the phone or fire off an email at any time as normal to request some information from your accounts team without it costing you extra. After all, an in-house team member wouldn’t charge you extra for their time!

And more to the point, you can almost guarantee that a fixed monthly fee will save you thousands and possibly even tens of thousands of dollars compared to all of the costs of having an in-house accounts person or team. There’s some handy dollars back on the bottom line, or redirected elsewhere in the business, to help gain that all important competitive advantage.

Better Reporting

Many business owners understand the importance of lead indicators as opposed to lag indicators in business. The most successful businesses are the most proactive businesses who gain a significant competitive advantage by seeking out lead indicators to continuall make adjustments and improvements in their business.

An exceptional outsourced accounts provider, like The Finance Dept, will work with your business to define and report on your specific business or industry’s key performance indicators to help you identify trends and act accordingly, ahead of the competition. A reactive business owner, on the other hand, will never maximize the potential of their business because they will postpone change until it’s too late, making decisions based on lag indicators.

Systems

Great systems and processes make for prosperous businesses. A successful outsourced accounts process will only work efficiently and effectively with clearly defined systems. Many business owners and/or senior executives are unaware just how disorganised their accounts system may be, simply because great systems and technology haven’t been utilised and enforced.

The external nature of outsourcing very quickly highlights the need for proper systems. Great systems are critical to be able to leverage the relationship and allow everyone working within the business to continue to do so with minimal disruption and maximum benefit.

Professional services businesses we service here at The Finance Dept include:

Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing Agencies

Architect Firms

Consulting Firms

Dental Practices

Engineering Firms

Recruitment Agencies

It really does work and the benefits are immense. Technology, systems and communication are the key.

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm utilising qualified accountants at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team to your business. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller.

Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.

Systems

Great systems are key to the outsourced accounts process working efficiently and effectively. Many business owners and/or senior executives are unaware just how disorganised their accounts system may be simply because great systems and technology haven’t been utilised and/or enforced.

Some examples of great general systems we utilise here at The Finance Dept for our clients include centralised accounts email addresses, paperless filing systems for all accounting data and clear workflow charts to avoid any confusion around roles. Great systems are critical to be able to leverage the relationship and, as the outcome should be, allow everyone working within the business to continue to do so with minimal disruption.

Communication

Communication can often be neglected as it can be seen as harder with an outsourced accounts team. In reality, communication should be just as simple as dealing with in-house staff. A change in mind-set and an open communication policy by the offsite accounts team are important to breaking down this barrier.

A reason for holding back on communicating with offsite professionals can often be the assumption of additional costs. A fixed monthly fee for services removes this barrier and assists with nurturing a better business relationship. You want to know that you can pick up the phone or fire off an email as normal to request some information from your accounts team without it costing you, after all an in-house team member wouldn’t charge you extra for their time would they?

Regular communication in the early days is always recommended to nurture and fine-tune systems and raise any concerns for both parties. Once things are running smoothly, communication can be cut back to less regular and more spontaneous to keep the same sort of relationship as you would have with an in-house financial controller or accounts team. It’s worth noting that technology such as Skype and Go To make screen sharing easy these days…just like sitting with your in-house staff member.

So really it’s not too different to the way you would go about things normally – get organised with great mutually beneficial systems and communicate with your offsite accounts team in virtually the same way as you would an in-house team. All of the benefits of outsourcing your accounts will flow on from there. (Read our article – Ten Reasons To Outsource The Accounts)

The Finance Dept is a Brisbane-based accounts outsourcing firm providing minimum degree-qualified accounting staff to our clients at a fraction of the cost of an in-house accounts team. We are an offsite (not offshore) alternative to having an in-house accounts team or financial controller. Call 1300 855 721 or click here to see if you should take your accounts offsite.