Cash flow is a widely used tool to diagnose the financial health of a business, and it represents the movement of cash inflows and outflows in a given period in the company. Therefore, it is important to know that even the smallest calculation error can hinder the progress of your projections made from this tool.
When dealing with your clinic's finances, it is important to be aware of some details, just like in any other business. Cash flow can be analyzed daily, weekly, monthly, or annually, but no positive results will be obtained if these data are not accurate. Below are some possible mistakes made when structuring the cash flow of your business, so that you, the administrator, can reverse any negative situation about your clinic's finances.
Mix clinic money with your money
Before taking any action, it is important to create an exclusive bank account for the clinic's finances. Even if you have a small office where you will be the only health professional working, having separate bank accounts will help you separate personal finances from company finances.
In this sense, it is possible to affirm that this is the main reason why the manager should not mix personal finances with those of the clinic: so that the results are more accurate. This rule applies not only to expenses but also to receipts unless that receipt is invested in the clinic. You can learn more about it in our article "The importance of separating personal finances from clinic finances".
Post only receipts and forget about expenses
Although it seems obvious, many managers end up not posting their income and expenses, or in some cases, they just post the receipts, which means that the cash flow does not provide information about the real situation of the clinic.
Let's analyze: how will you know what your net profit is if you don't have the amounts spent on expenses at hand? After all, profit is the amount received from the sale of a product or service after subtracting the expenses with its acquisition, or manufacturing. Therefore, there is no point in keeping an eye on the entrances, if you are not monitoring the exits.
Do not categorize receipts and payments
Including your income and expenses in categories is essential to monitor the financial health of your business more assertively. The financial categories help the manager to identify which types of receipts are most profitable, and which expenses are the source of the greatest expense.
Before sorting your finances into categories, it is also important to remember that your payments are divided into costs and expenses. When we talk about cost, we are referring to the amount spent on services and goods applied in the production of other goods and services. Expenses are expenses related to goods and services used to maintain the company's activity.
Both costs and expenses can be classified into fixed and variable, and after including them in a category, you can also create subcategories. For example: when creating a category "Fixed expenses", you can create the subcategories "salary", "rent", and "internet", as these are expenses that will always have the same amount and will be paid monthly. When creating a category "Variable expenses", you can include "taxes" for example, and in the future generate a report to analyze when you spent the most money on that category.
Count on receipts not yet paid
In some cases, such as when the patient uses an insurance plan, it is common for him to be attended to immediately by the health professional, but the clinic will only receive the cost of the consultation sometime later when the insurance plan receives the patient's TISS guides and thus performs the procedure. transfer of the amount to the clinic. In some cases, some clinics accept payment by postdated check, which is nothing more than a "payment promise".
What often happens is that when they include their receipts in the cash flow, some managers end up placing these values on the date the service was provided, and they did not even receive such an amount. This causes an inconsistency in the flow and makes the information confusing and erroneous.
This type of receipt should be included in the cash flow only when the money enters the clinic. Let's say that a consultation took place in January, but the agreement only transferred the amount in March, so that amount should appear as a receipt from March, and not from January.
Do not use management software for clinics
With medical software, it is possible not only to keep the agenda more organized and use an electronic medical record, but it is also possible to count on aid in the financial question, as it is much easier and more practical to make the entries of your receipts and payments.
To better understand, let's analyze the case mentioned above, about having unpaid receipts. With software such as Ninsaúde Apolo, you can post this receipt to the system normally, thus recording the date of the appointment. On the due date, you must include the date on which you are likely to receive the money, however, the payment date must remain blank, and you can report the status of the security as "unpaid". When the payment is made, just edit the title informing the payment date, and this information will automatically enter into your cash flow.
With Ninsaúde Apolo it is also very easy to divide expenses and income into categories and subcategories. To do this, register them in the system as soon as you start using them, and when launching a receipt or payment, just select which category this title belongs to, and subcategory, if any. You can find out more details on how Ninsaúde Apolo's cash flow works through our article on the subject.
Now that you know how to avoid cash flow errors, how about automating your clinic with Ninsaúde Apolo? Get in touch through the Apolo.app website and check out more details.