Accounting Procedures
Every office needs to clearly establish and communicate accounting and management procedures to insure that the business is running properly. You should discuss with your financial advisors the basic procedures they recommend as well as review the procedures suggested by your accounting system. Once you have established your procedures, document them, and clearly explain them to staff.
Filopto is a real-time system which means that every element in Filopto is fully integrated and automatically updates the required tables for accurate reporting. Although Filopto has many tools to mitigate possible issues, financial fraud can still be done by malicious individuals. It is your responsibility to put in place the security safeguards and procedures needed for your office. One of the most important procedures to put in place is the Bank Deposit procedure.
Bank Deposit Procedure
It’s important to operate the business office of your practice as if it were a bank. That means specific procedures are followed and enforced every day to ensure an accurate accounting of all monies. These steps are necessary even if you have a small practice and fully trust all employees who handle financial transactions. Monitoring the process of collecting and depositing payments lets you know if errors are being made and gives you a basis for preventing them. A daily routine to balance sales with the bank deposit prevents employee carelessness and possible embezzlement in the future.
The balancing of the cash drawer and depositing the receipts into the bank should be delegated to staff, but the process should be reviewed by the practice owners. Staff members may email the production and bank deposit report each day to the owner or leave the printed document in a predetermined place. The deposit should be entered into a financial software program (such as QuickBooks) and the owner must review it daily. Any discrepancies should be immediately addressed.
Multiple Cash Drawers
Accurate accounting of deposits every day is made easier by using multiple cash drawer trays. These trays are used alternately every other day. Each drawer tray starts out, for example, with exactly $200 in cash in various denominations of bills and coins to make change. Cash, credit card receipts, personal checks and insurance checks are added to the drawer as the payments are entered into the Filopto practice management system.
How to Balance the Deposits
There are two distinct steps your staff will perform to balance the cash drawer. One is closing out the drawer and the other is balancing the drawer with the Bank Deposit report. You can decide when these activities work best into your office routine based on your staffing levels and how busy the office is at certain times of the day. But once you decide on a time of day, we recommend you stay consistent. A consistent routine improves accuracy and is less likely to be forgotten or modified.
The closing of the cash drawer is generally performed at the end of the business day. To close the drawer, the staff runs and prints Filopto's Daily Production and Bank Deposit for a Day reports and the cash drawer is exchanged for another drawer. At this point, the cash, checks and credit cards slips in the drawer, minus the $200 starting cash, should exactly equal the total payments shown on the Daily Bank Deposit report. The production report provides an overview of the activities done during the day. It is a management tool which can help you better manage the office. ( Also see Eye on Your Business for other management tools available in Filopto).
The cash drawer and the corresponding Bank Deposit report can be balanced at that time or may be stored until a more convenient time the next day if you have a secure place to store the cash. You will need a place to keep the cash drawer when not in use anyway, so you may want to have a lockable cabinet or safe. Balancing the drawer consists of adding up the cash (less the $200 starting cash), checks and credit card slips and seeing if it equals the day’s payments on the report. If it does, the drawer is balanced and the employee places her initials on the report. If it does not balance, the staff member must review every transaction until the error is found, and then make any required correction in Filopto and on the Bank Deposit.
Bank deposits
A bank deposit is made every day and you should not allow the receipts from one day to be added to another day or partial day. This makes it easier to track past deposits if it becomes necessary and the regimental nature discourages theft. If you do not wish to have any funds held in the office overnight you may use a night depository at the bank.
Other reports you should verify on a daily basis are:
Production report: It summarizes all activities for the period selected. By verifying this information you should be able to get a overview of what happen for the selected period.
Sales: Various sales reports are available that can list the sales done for a day or period permitting a verification that all proper transactions have been recorded. (example: Daily Sales Activity Summary, The sales activities can be compared to the appointments for that period since most appointments should result in a sale (see appointment report for a Given period).
Write-Off and Void : Filopto contains reports on all Voids and write-off which can indicate to the administrator improper use of these features.
Accounts Receivables: Various reports are available that can provide a detail listing of who is owing money to your business. These reports should be reviewed on a regular basis to insure a proper collection standard.
Eye on Your Business: Provides an analysis of some key measurement for your business, you should familiarize yourself with the various measurements as they can indicate opportunities for growth as well as provide oversight on your business.
Filopto offers extensive reporting capabilities able to provide analysis of products, services and overall activities of your business. It is recommended that you review the various reports available ( print our the report listing) and identify the reports that are key to the success of your business strategy and that you review them on a regular basis.
