2023 is coming to a close but before we bring on 2024 (can you believe it?), there are important considerations remaining for 2023.
Gather the logins, passwords and security questions/answers.
Let’s say you are an Office Manager and you have an accident that leaves you incapacitated. Where does the practice owner find all the logins and passwords for all the websites and software?
It is no longer “are there passwords?” I am amazed how many doctor owners I speak with that do not know the actual passwords but also have no idea where those vital practice passwords are secured. If it is your business, you should know and secure those passwords, as you would valuable patient information.
Any practice is still a business. Create a list of all the practice’s business financial information, which is then secured, somehow, somewhere:
- Practice software and accounting software: Admin logins and passwords
- Bank websites: logins, passwords, security questions/answers
- CareCredit or Lending Club or other: logins, passwords, security questions/answers
- Merchant Card Provider: logins and passwords
- Practice Credit Cards: logins and passwords
And to be clear, the admin login and password is information that only the Doctor Owner should know. Everyone who has access to any of the software has their own login and password, not the Doctor Owner’s, including the CPA for QuickBooks.
If the practice has changed banks, credit cards, practice software, patient payment plan providers or merchant card providers in the past three years, note the prior organizations as well.
What about a password vault to secure the passwords but have them all in one place in case of an emergency? Keeper, Bitwarden, LastPass, and Dashlane are just a few options of password management programs to consider.
Do your homework: what is the best way to secure the practice’s passwords? BUT whatever you do, a sticky note under the front desk keyboard or stuck to the monitor is NOT a solution!
Download digital copies of financial information.
Not all financial institutions are created equally. Sometimes the practice’s bank does not keep an indefinite history online.
Create a folder on the computer’s hard drive, that will be included in all practice digital backups, called: Financial Information. In that folder, create another folder called: 2023. In that folder, create separate folders: Bank, Credit Card, Merchant Card Service, Patient Payment Plans (Care Credit), etc.
You can also create a “Paid Invoices” folder, then create monthly folders (January, February, March, et al.) to store the paid invoices in the month they were paid, not sent by the vendor. Make sure the month the invoice / statement is saved as is the corresponding month of the payment date, such as “06082023 NYP Technology.”
Download digital reports for the following, by month for the year, in the Financial Information folder:
- Bank statements. Download the statement and save it as “0117” for January 2017’s bank statement. If there are multiple business accounts, save it as “9876 0117” to designate the last four of the account number then the month and year. Or create a separate folder for each bank account.
- Credit Card statements. The same as the banks, except there may be a variety of practice business credit cards. Be sure to create a folder for each credit card entity in the Financial Information folder.
- Merchant Card statements. Statements can most often be accessed from their website but what I have found more informative is downloading the individual patient charges in a format that can be then converted to an Excel spreadsheet. The detail most often does not download the credit card numbers or names but will show dates, individual charges and refunds. The beauty is in the detail but, of course, that only works if you have Microsoft Excel. Because of the vast number of daily charges, most merchant card companies limit the months of transactions that can be download so it is important to download to keep the financial history if needed to review any charges or, the dreaded, not recommended, credit card refunds.
- Patient Payment Plans. CareCredit only keeps up to 15 months of detailed information online. Download a monthly funding report, which displays the patient’s sales amount, the discount fee and the net funding. Lending Club provides this information online as well but not all patient payment plan providers provide this important information to the practices online.
End of year deposits.
Unfortunately, many of you will not read this until the new year. If a patient payment is entered into the practice management software before January 1, then that deposit needs to be in the bank prior to January 1. The only exception is credit card transactions, which there are typically few at the end of the year due to practices being closed for the holidays.
If the practice’s CPA requests deposits be “held” to the new year, all collections cannot be entered into the practice software until the year they are deposited. Holding collections from being deposited seems antiquated since the advancement of practice software tracking payments.
But, again, if the CPA requests the practice do this, verify the request. If the CPA has not given direction to “hold” deposits, make sure that all the payments that are entered into the practice software are then deposited into the bank. Period.
Likewise, if an EFT Insurance deposit has been deposited into the bank prior to the end of the year, make every effort to enter that deposit in the practice software before January 1.
I strongly advise against “backdating” in the practice software to a deposit date. If backdating is done after January 1 to account for an EFT Insurance deposit made prior to the end of the year, enter a note in the payment as to the date of deposit. But, again, this is not something I recommend.
There is more detailed information about what to do at the end of the year in my book Money In, Money Out available on Amazon. AND, purchasing a book gives the reader online access to the many checklists available for downloading.
AND, as a gift to you, you can download a Year End Practice Checklist here.
Happy New Year!