In the healthcare sector, revenues and expenses are extremely variable. While general appointment rates tend to be steady throughout the year, staff wages, training costs, medical supplies, equipment hire and utility bills are always fluctuating. It means creating a comprehensive annual budget for your practice can be a challenge.

There are a few basic steps you can follow to prepare a flexible annual budget and keep track of your expenses.

1. Find your revenue sources.
Determining exactly how your private practise is generating revenue is the first vital step towards financial transparency. A practice management software – such as PPM – will produce automated reports – including how much revenue was generated by each code. Reviewing this data throughout the year will quickly show you which procedures are most profitable.

2. Identify major payers.
Whether you invoice individual patients, insurance companies or private healthcare providers, its important to review your revenue reports according to payers. Assessing this data regularly will help you forecast the reimbursement rates for each payer, and ensure you understand the balance between patients, codes, bills and revenue.

3. Review Contracts.
In private medical practices, you’re tied in to a wide range of different contracts. From equipment hire and utility bills to healthcare staff and insurance companies – each agreement will have a huge impact on your practice’s finances. Calculating your contractual expenses is the first step to planning for an overall monthly budget. And once you’ve budgeted for all these costs, you’ll know which funds you’ll have available for miscellaneous expenses.

4. Streamline your office schedule.
All private practices are busy, but ensuring your schedule is well organised will go a long way to aid your budget forecasting. With PPM Software’s scheduling function, you can make minor adjustments to the practice diary in real-time – reducing waiting times for patents and ensuring your day runs as smoothly as possible.

5. Minimise expenses.
As in every area of our lives, reducing how much you spend can be a challenge. Budgeting in a private practices is about much more then finding ways to save money on pencils – it’s all about establishing good working relationships with suppliers from across the sector.
There is an effective tool to help you handle all these responsibilities : Private Practice Manager.

By integrating private practice management software into your medical centre, you’ll have access to automated budgeting solutions. PPM Software is a powerful tool for analysing and organising all financial data. You can enter data and alter forecasts and reports in real-time, enabling you to track changes to your expenses and witness the results. You’ll also gain from unique accountancy reports and customised accountancy resolutions – enabling data to be presented in graphic and tabular form.

In short, PPM Software is the comprehensive tool you need to help handle your private practice budget.