The month of the April fool

Tax Planning time is almost upon us, and that means it’s time for you to send us your information to prepare these reports to be able to plan the best possible strategy for you to maximise profit, take care of your personal super contributions and minimise tax before 30 June.  Don’t be an April fool – send the information now!

Odometer readings

If you have cars registered in a business name you will need to send us odometer readings at 31 March.

Chocolate is toxic for dogs

’tis the season of chocolate and other celebrations, and just as chocolate is toxic for dogs – poor planning is toxic to accountants and we believe the symptoms are similar to those of our canine friends who have ingested chocolatey goodness. So, it’s time to get everything sorted to minimise stomach cramps, projectile vomit, financial stress and panic come 30 June.

Things to give some thought to:

Super fund payment limits for yourself if you voluntarily contribute to your super fund.  You may need to get an up to date statement from your superannuation fund to ensure you don’t go over your contribution limit. ie. $30,000 if under 50 years in 2016-17, or $35,000 if turning 50 years old or older in 2016-17.

The Super fund contributions threshold will be changing for the next financial year. ie from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.  The maximum contribution cap for a super fund will be $25,000 for all ages.  This means you may need to change your payments and/or adjust your direct debits if you have those set up.  You do not want to go over the threshold.

You may also want to think about any equipment you may need in the near future and consider making the purchase prior to 30 June to get the deduction in this current financial year.  If you are currently eligible for the $20,000 equipment write offs bear in mind that this amount will be reduced back down again by the ATO in the new financial year possibly back to $1,000 but this amount is yet to be announced.

Brand new quarter

Our APL quarterly theme for last quarter was Remote & Travel.  The remote control car was a hit, the travel items around the office went down a treat, half of the inflateable palm trees are still standing and our KPI’s have been smashed.  We are pleased to announce that we will be rewarded for this quarters efforts by visiting Escape Hunt where we will be locked in a room together and given a mystery to solve.  The mystery needs to be solved before we are allowed out of the room (thankfully this is capped at 60 minutes).  It’s a game of team work, problem solving, compromise, negotiation and of course dress ups and a photo shoot – pretty much just another day at the office.

Our new quarterly theme is still being discussed.  We have a loose idea of what we want to achieve, but we are still discussing themes, online shopping potential and of course the reward.  So stay tuned.

Our latest rescue

As our Profitdiagnostix product has expanded we have had to recruit an extra set of paws.  We’d like to introduce you to Debbie, our latest addition to the Profitdiagnostix team.  She comes from an IT background and is super excited to be a part of the growing Profitdiagnostix team.  She will also be the voice and wagging tail you will most likely encounter when you call our APL office.  Team Profitdiagnostix and Team APL – she is a part of both worlds and we look forward to learning some of her tricks as well as teaching her some of our own.

Dog tails

It’s been a busy month at APL for the four legged staff members.  We had APL Dog Day last week where everyone bought their dog to work.  This isn’t anything unusual as there is always at least 2 dogs here, sometimes 3 (depending on Daisy’s mood ie. her need to be around German dessert and/or her sausage (dog) tolerance level), but to have 4 dogs in the office at the same time, and 2 other dogs visited in the afternoon made for some crazy fun times.

Here are some happy snaps from the day.

Beagle – Our CEO “Zack”, Sausage – “Strudel”, Border Collie – “Mya”, Maltese X – “Daisy”.

    

 

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the informations applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ & ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

 

Marching into March!

We are almost 3 months into 2017 and we just know some of you still feel like you are on summer holidays!  Along with preventatives for summer nasties such as ticks and fleas for our animal folk, we have some preventatives to share for painful nasties such as BAS, IAS, reporting and tax obligations for our client folk.

It’s still early in the year, so let’s get things sorted so we can just cruise through the rest of 2017 with minimal surprises.

Preventative #1

Know your obligations

Just as you would send your client’s reminders for their pets when they are due for vaccinations, make some calendar notes for when your IAS (if applicable), BAS, tax work, and tax payments are due.  You can put money aside for these things before they are due if you know ahead of time what to expect.  It will still be a painful jab, but at least you will be prepared for it.

You might even want to include yourself on your reminder system for when things are due so that you get a text or email leading up to the event.

Preventative #2

Know who is doing the work

As some clients might book in with a certain vet because they excel in a certain area of expertise, the same goes for your financial work. You need to choose the right team for the job. If APL doesn’t take care of all of these things for you, assign a person in house who will be responsible for these matters, or hire a qualified external bookkeeper.  Let the person know that they will be responsible for lodging and paying on time.  So many expensive ATO fees can be avoided if forms are simply lodged on time!

Make sure the person knows what is expected of them and is able to complete the work and most importantly, accurately and on time.  This will save you money in the long term.

Preventative #3

Send information when requested as soon as possible

It’s no use having a client come in with their sick pet, to sit in reception and wait – without filling out a form about the pet or it’s history, not communicating with you in any way although expecting you to be able to make an accurate diagnosis in a timely manner.

It’s similar in the accounting world. Some people never call, they never write … If we weren’t cold unemotional number crunchers with thick skins (from dealing with the ATO) – we could quite possibly feel like an abandoned litter in a cold lonely dark cage (but with Wi Fi and coffee).

If information is requested, it is because something needs to be prepared for you.  Without receiving the complete amount of information the work can be delayed.  This has a knock on effect and is unduly disruptive if working on a job.  We are unable to complete reports without completed questionnaires and this in turn will delay your reports, tax &/ or financials which could prove costly to your business if there is a serious problem that can’t be picked up because of a delay waiting on a completed questionnaire.

Solidarity March

This is the last month of our quarterly theme “Remote and Travel”.  It has gone quite well with Nicole working remotely from up north, our tax work being completed down south, and the rest of our APL team working hard in the Brisbane office taking care of everything else for you.  We will let you know if we have passed or failed this quarter, and if we will be rewarded!

Drug Rebate Points and Tax 

Last month we promised to explain your drug rebate points and tax position. Sorry in advance to those of you who love to spend your Provet Points on personal items and so have ignored the higher cost of purchases to the business, it’s not good news.

The ATO have a very similar example on their website:
Pamela has a painting business, and buys her paint from a wholesaler. The wholesaler has a program that entitles her to points that can be redeemed for shopping vouchers. Pamela redeems her points for vouchers worth $2,500 and uses these to acquire clothing for herself and her children. The $2,500 is taxable income and needs to be declared.

You may be burying your head in the sand thinking that the ATO won’t know, but how easy (and quite possible) is it that the ATO will audit a large international company such as Provet as part of Henry Scheinn. One look at their accounts will show that this program exists, one print out will give the ATO a full list of all their customers, and then the ATO know to check on you and make sure that you have declared anything you should have.

We suggest you choose your suppliers based on cost and service, don’t try get a personal kick back that the ATO can come after you for, it’s not worth it.

Dog tails

So this makes for the 3rd month of the year – which means only 9 more until we get more holidays!

During first quarter I have been sent to obedience school to learn how to behave like a gentledog, some manners, and maybe some agility although I think as a sausage I’m pretty agile already.  Who else can fit under low couches and grab crumbs like me?!  Certainly not my brother Zack.

If you are looking to sharpen up your signed document recall skills, excel at completed questionnaire fetch, or complete the bank statement and Xero comment obstacle course in a new personal best time then have a chat to the APL team and they may be able to reschool you too and help you with any bad habits.  They have good treats.

I’m up to date with my preventatives, have filled out all my obedience enrolment questionnaire on time, paid by the due date and really look forward to what the next quarter may bring.  The only surprises they have at APL are the ones I make. Under desks.

Marching off,

Strudel.

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the informations applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ & ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

 

 We are going to be offering you all a series of really great web events!

Lets face it, we are all busy and it gets hard to travel every time you want to learn something new – but there is so much cool stuff out there to learn. We are now offering ALL of you the opportunity to attend our fun web events which we will hold every 2 weeks on Wednesday at lunch time.

Once a month the web event will be for everyone and will deal with a relevant business issue in the profession. For this we are lining up some interesting guest speakers.

Once a month also, we will be hosting mini-workshops online for Profitdiagnostix users which will tie in with the issues discussed in the previous event and will focus on the actual measurement in your businesses of these issues.

For those of you who missed the first event with 4times TEDX speaker Paul Dunn, here is a link for you to view it. Discussion on how much pet owners are actually spending in practice and how to measure it.
https://vimeo.com/201105001

For those of you on Profitdiagnostix, please feel free to register for this mini-web-workshop on Wednesday 8th Feb, 1pm Brisbane time:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/0dd3aa3623c636c734538d7d4481ef37

This workshop will show you how to look at ‘average client spend’ in Profitdiagnostix. Compare it to your average transaction fee. Help you decide if you need to take action to increase profits in this area.

Finally, a way to measure pet insurance accurately

Measuring the strategic impact of pet insurance in practice has been very hard for anyone who has been focusing on this.

Firstly, most practice management systems do not have a patient field where it can be recorded. And if they do, the system still does not produce a report.
Secondly there is the scenario where a pet is logged as being insured this year, however the insurance is not renewed and this is never updated in the system.
Finally, there is the problem of ‘the pet is insured, but they have not come back to the practice for 3 years’.

We finally have a solution and have applied it successfully in Profitdiagnostix.
Rather than measuring insured pets, we feel it is better and more reliable to measure ‘claims’.
So every time an insurance claim is completed, a zero-priced item called ‘insurance claim completed’ is logged on the patient record. We then measure the volume of insurance claims – and this is proving to be more accurate. We can measure this compared to ‘client facing opportunities’ or active clients to compare between clinics.

What’s more, it’s better for record keeping. If a claim is queried by a pet owner, you will have record in the patients notes of the exact time, date and person who completed the claim.

Bottom of the pack:
Why playing possum is not always the best action to take if you own a business

Zack is a dog who is a couch potato and has an unusual life experience. His owners who were once exciting vets have now become boring accountants. They used to bring him into the exciting vet practice every day, now they bring him into a boring accounting office every day. This gives him a unique dog’s eye view on both professions.

Did someone say POSSUM!!!! Where is it, show me! GRRRRRRR!

Ah ok, false alarm it was just a figure of speech in one of the previous articles, but it has got me thinking as to why on earth possums get under my skin so much.

I’m a pretty placid dog usually. When delivery men walk into APL offices it does not even bother me enough to open my eyes, I just let them get on with whatever they are doing.

When vets come into the office I usually join them in the  meeting room with the accountants and have my tummy tickled, because I know that vets are suckers for tickling my tummy when they visit. I don’t even mind whan they tell my mom that my tummy is too big!

So why on earth would a harmless possum get me so fired up!

Maybe its the very fact that they are harmless – they make a bit of noise, scurry up and down fences aimlessly, ALWAYS run away. And of course, worst case scenario, if you capture one, they play dead (how cool is that) – guaranteed entertainment!

As exciting as possums may be, it is quite clear to me that they are not cut out for business ownership. Yet so many business owners mimic them!

How many business owners out there make a lot of noise and complain a lot, but when it comes down to implementation of strategies over 70% of them will fail to implement?

How many business owners make a lot of noise, but run away in the face of adversity? Or worse still, DO NOTHING (classic possum behaviour). For example, having to deal with a difficult staff member vs burying your head in the sand and hoping the problem will go away. More than half would not face the problem head on.

The result is that the possum-like behaviour encourages others to bully you and push you around. So don’t act like a possum, because you are not one! In my species I would say that a business owner has to be a ‘pit bull’, because I would not mess with a pit bull in the way I mess with a possum. The difficulty with Pitt Bulls however is that they are sometimes hard to reason with (depending on their socialisation of course, because I do know of a few nice ones).

But then if we take away the canine connotations, you are a human being – the most feared species on the planet, (plus you have opposable thumbs which makes me very envious)! All this and still capable of rational thought and giving tummy tickles!

So rationalise it: Don’t back down in the face of adversity, don’t let people get away with treating you badly, still be kind and considerate to those who treat you well. Assess and calculate your business strategies and implement them. Don’t let others hold you back from your dreams. In short, don’t be a possum.

Quick fun exercise, who would you rather be:

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ , ‘Daisy’ and ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

 

Happy New Year!

We have recently received the following information from the ATO regarding a change in withholding tax rates for employees who hold 417 and 462 visas.

Not everyone will be affected, however for those of you employing staff on working holidays there are instructions below together with a few links that will help you get things sorted.

Employees holding 417 and 462 visas

From 1 January 2017 tax rates are changing for working holiday makers who hold 417 and 462 visas. These rates are known as working holiday maker tax rates.

What you need to do

If you employ a working holiday maker who is in Australia on a 417 or 462 visa, you:

• must register with the ATO to withhold at the working holiday maker tax rate
• can visit border.gov.au/vevo to check your worker has a 417 or 462 using the Via Entitlement Verification Online service
• must withhold tax at 15% on income up to $37,000 and apply foreign resident tax rates on income over $37,000.

What happens next

The working holiday tax rates only apply to income earned from 1 January 2017.

If you currently employ working holiday makers you’ll need to issue two payment summaries this year:

• one for the period to 31 December 2016
• a second for any period to 30 June 2017

For more information:  https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Your-workers/Employers-of-working-holiday-makers/

If you use Xero, the instructions below will help get your payroll to reflect the changes.

https://help.xero.com/AU/Payroll-Employees-Backpacker-AU

What’s news at APL?

All staff (both 2 and 4 legged) had an enjoyable break over the holiday period and are thrilled to be back for another exciting year.

We managed to pass our last quarterly theme of “Smarter Not Harder”, by cutting down our wasted time and finding ways to do things more efficiently.  We will be rewarded with an afternoon at the local beach very soon.

Our new quarterly theme is “Remote & Travel” and our office is already covered in travel items, outback posters, airline logos, and traffic signs.  Our goal is to be able to all work remotely away from the office if we need to be away from the office for an extended period of time or even work offsite permanently.  Nicole will be first to try this out as she will be permanently relocating to Bundaberg at the end of the month but will continue working for APL Accountants remotely.

We’re secretly hoping someone buys a remote control car for us to chase, but so far we just have a bunch of posters to tear up.

We hope everyone has a great month.

Here’s to a great January.

Zack & Strudel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the informations applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ & ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

 

We wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season and a safe and prosperous new year.

Please note:  Our office will be closed from midday 22 December 2016 through to 3 January 2017.

For any urgent matters please contact Anne Lencioni – anne@aplaccountants.com.au

~*~

Twas the shift before Holidays, and all through the place,

Not a creature was stirring – it was such a quiet space.

All patient crates were labelled by the nurses with care,

In the hopes that the owners would soon be there.

 

The reception staff where nestled all snug in their chairs, 

With visions of the shift ending and running for the stairs.

The vets and nurses all dressed in their scrubs,

Had thoughts of the shift ending and being off to the pub.

 

When out in reception there arose such a clatter,

I spilt my coffee on my way to see what was the matter.

Away from the tea room I flew like a flash,

Tore open door, and out the front I did dash.

 

The light on the beasts in the middle of the room

As they crashed through the door way with an incredible boom.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature dachshund, and an old beagle near.

 

With a spring and a prance so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment these dogs weren’t sick.

More stubborn than mules, and ignoring their names, 

I whistled and shouted but they thought it was a game.

 

They sniffed and they snorted begging for treats,

But the shift had nearly ended and there was nothing to eat.

The best chance they have is to try and be good.

So the fat man in the red suit will bring them some food.

 

~*~

 

–  by Zack the poet and Strudel his muse (and a bonus Phteven Xmas photo just because we are all huge Phteven fans).

             

Work Smarter Not Harder!

Smarter not harder

Our new theme is in full swing, so we (by we, I mean the majority of us – the office dogs are just embarrassed) are bounding in to work each day and being more productive working smarter.  Is it because of the hanging inflatable tools, the construction hats, owls, palm trees, chalk boards, or magnetic alphabet on the fridge or perhaps just the mathematical times table on the back of the bathroom door?  It’s hard to say, but the APL team’s enthusiasm for quarterly themes appears to be at an all time high.  We are still hard at work, but getting things done more efficiently with the promise of some beach time at the end of the quarter if we succeed with our individual KPI’s that have been set.

It’s hard not to constantly think of the theme as no matter where you are in the office, there is something inflatable, colourful, hanging from the ceiling, or on the back of a door that is smacking you in the face.  Anyone that has visited our office in the last month or so would be aware of this.  Even random people from the street who come in just know that something is going on in here.  They probably think a 4 year old is having a birthday party, but that’s how we roll!

We would love nothing more (except maybe our beach time reward) than to see what you have done for your quarterly themes.  Please send us some pics at admin@aplaccountants.com.au for us to see the magic.  We will make a donation to our favourite animal charity through B1G1 on behalf of the winner each quarter.  So, let us know what you are doing!

              

              

The right tools for the right job

Numbers, calculators, deadlines, dates, payments, reconciliations are probably pretty boring to you guys, but they are a necessary evil. As accountants we can’t stress the importance of good bookkeeping and record keeping enough.   Without these you are unable to make sound financial decisions as you won’t have accurate up to date information.  Yes, this is sorted at end of year by your accountant, but it is often too late by then to make the changes if something has gone awry along the way.

Your bookkeeper should be able to produce an accurate profit & loss report for you each month.  This can be used to pick up any problems during the month and work on rectifying anything the following month or just keeping a watchful eye on anything that isn’t working.  If you wait until the end of year when your accountant does your tax you are often a few months or anything up to almost a year behind and this could prove costly to your business.  If your bookkeeper is unable to produce a basic profit & loss, it may be worth investing in a bookkeeping service that can provide this for you.

Profitdiagnostix (formerly SmartVetApp)

Many of our clients are now streamlining the business reporting process for themselves by using our Profitdiagnostix cloud based system. This system brings together your accounting software and your practice management software to give a true up to date snapshot of what is happening in your clinic.  This enables any issues to be sorted immediately.  Imagine if you have a new vet who is misbilling, a reminder system that is not working, or your client numbers are dropping? This would be extremely costly if you are unable to pick this up until the end of the year. With Profit Diagnostix you will have a report sent to you each week so that you can see at a glance what is happening in your business.

For more information please visit: https://www.profitdiagnostix.com/smartvetapp/

Telling tails

So the others warned me in advance.  I thought it was just an urban legend, or perhaps a hazing story that is meant to catch new pups off guard.  It wasn’t – I have been put in a sausage suit all in the name of office hilarity … or Halloween.

Just quietly, I kind of like it and hope I get more costumes.

 

The laughter woke Zack from his CEO lounge (bed) and he put me to work writing this newsletter. His assistant hasn’t been into the office lately, as she and I have a tough time pleasing the CEO together so she has decided to take some leave.  She now protects her house in her “I bark at ugly people” dress, and I am left to answer the office door turning away people that don’t like dogs, and attending to literary keyboard masterpieces.

I’ll start job hunting if they even consider putting me in one of those dresses.  That will be working smarter!

Don’t forget to send us pictures of your themes!

It’s been a pleasure,

Strudel.

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ , ‘Daisy’ and ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

 

 

Spring has well and truly sprung. It’s tick season and there is no better time to tick some spring cleaning items off your to do list.

Super news about how to pay your Super

The ATO has graciously extended the date for small businesses to get themselves sorted to meet the new Super Stream deadlines.  This date was 30 June 2016, however it is now extended to 28 October 2016.  What this means is that you will now need to pay all employee super by electronic means using your accounting software which will be great (really) because you will know what you are paying, how much you really owe, the super you have already paid and better still, the super you haven’t paid!  Once set up, it is as simple as ticking a few boxes and letting the magic happen for you.  No more cheques to mail, no more individual bank transfers, and less paperwork for everyone.  This is a good thing.

28 October 2016 is also the last day to pay superannuation that has been withheld for the 1 July to 30 September 2016 quarter.  So there is another reason that it is better to tick this off sooner rather than later if you haven’t already.

Your most valuable asset is your database

When was the last time your data base received a tummy tickle, a treat or a bit of love?  Your data base is not something that should be neglected as this is your #1 way of contacting every client at your practice.

Now is a good time to spring clean your data base and check that all of your clients information is up to date before the craziness of summer begins.  If you have the staff available, it is also a good time to throw a ball for some of your quieter clients and see if you can get them to return.  Even if you find out that they are choosing to play somewhere else, you can make a note of it and perhaps even find out why.

Also, remember to keep on asking those important questions to all clients coming in the door:

• What is your mobile number
• What is your email address
• Is your postal address still the same
• And for new clients ‘How did you hear about us’

AND then remember to update their records!

Quarter 2 – time for a new theme

It’s a new quarter, so if you have been playing along at home for a while you will know that all staff at APL Accountants will be furiously shopping for cheap inflatables on eBay for our new quarterly theme. We all have a budget of about $15 – $20 to go crazy with.

Our theme this quarter is – drumroll please – “Smarter not Harder”

Most of us are enjoying different challenges that we face with the ever changing world of technology and the way APL evolves.  Some of us are gaining certificates and/or diplomas in different courses to keep our knowledge up to date or learn something new.

There are huge internet/website/IT changes happening for the majority of us. While some of us still struggle to resize a picture for a webpage.  This is why our quarterly theme is about working smarter.  We are all being educated in one way or another in areas where we can improve our skills, knowledge, or just that space in our brain that stores stuff that will only be used at a trivia night (or APL client day.  Can emus walk backwards? Anyone!?).

You are probably wondering what we will do for our quarterly reward once we achieve all of this extra time we will have once our efficiency is just through the roof!?  You will need to stay tuned until January to find out if we have failed or succeeded with our theme, smashed KPI’s out of the park, or just got really good at trivia nights.

Bottom of the pack –
Pumpkins, skeletons, and ghouls – the whole thing scares me (written by CEO’s assistant ‘Strudel’)

Here is a picture of our CEO Zack and his assistant Daisy last year at Halloween. Daisy has subsequently been promoted to marketing where she loves her new role – chasing away non-veterinary customers who walk in the front door. No jokes here, the other day we had a motor car mechanic walk into the office and he left saying ‘it’s rude to have dogs barking at your customers’ – good job Daisy, if they don’t like dogs, we don’t like them!

Now back to the Halloween thing, I’m pretty concerned here as a newbie after seeing last year’s photos. It’s not my fault I’m a sausage dog, and I just get the feeling my Halloween costume is going to be embarrassing and have something to do with my breed. I’m trying to avoid the whole thing this year as I’ve heard talk about a hotdog costume and the thought of that just makes me want to do a ‘revenge poo’ in a place somewhere dark, hidden, and probably under a desk.

Last Year’s Halloween (Daisy and Zack)

Me, the author of the article having a nightmare about what may be in store for me this year over Halloween:

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until next month,

Strudel.

 

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack”, ‘Daisy’ and ‘Strudel’ are dogs and do not have opposable thumbs so have to type with their noses.

Let’s make our team WANT to come to work

I listened to an interview with Simon Sinek yesterday – the guy who did a famous TED talk on ‘why we do what we do’.

What he said struck a chord: ‘I want to create a world where people want to go to work’.

Just the previous week at one of our client workshops in Brisbane we felt a similar vibe in the audience of veterinary business owners when we discussed team engagement. For over 4 years we have been encouraging practices like yours to address intrinsic motivators in your team by doing fun things at the office like running quarterly themes, but the number of practices who have been brave enough to do this has been but a handful. However, this year we could see a slight spark in your eyes that perhaps this was not just a time consuming, ‘touchy / feely’ thing and that it could actually work!

As many of you also realise, one of the key topics at the AVBA this year will be about mental health in the profession to address the high incidence of mental health problems many employers are seeing.

So let’s not just ‘listen’, but let’s ACT! How sad it is that we have the best vocation in the world (yes, working with animals rocks), yet the workforce hates going to work? What have you done lately to make the workplace a fun-place?

The book ‘Mastering the Rockefellar Habits’ strongly suggests ‘themes’ in a business to engage the team, give them a common goal and make the workplace look fun. We have been doing this at APL Accountants every quarter for the last 3 years, and would never go back.

The technical part of having themes is pretty simple and loosely follows these rules:

• You need a quarterly strategy – for example promoting more dentistry. You need to be able to measure any improvements in this area of your business over the next 3 months.
• You give everyone in the business a $15 budget to buy decorations for the offfice that are in ‘theme’ with your strategy. In this case it could be pictures of smiling animals, fluffy toy animals dressed as tooth fairies or anything else your team can think of.
• The office gets decorated and stays decorated for a whole 3 months. Every day when each team member arrives, they are reminded of the key focus for the next 3 months.
• About once a week at one of your team meetings, progress in the strategy is discussed.
• At the end of the quarter, if success is achieved and the practice is performing more dentistry, a ‘celebration’ is held. It can be a meal out with everyone, an evening at the movies or any other fun activity. The amount you spend on the celebration can be linked to the degree of success

As you can see, it’s really simple – so why do so few businesses do it? Instead we leave our veterinary practices looking clean and clinical. Very few even have a staff room or private area due to space constraints. Our team has to think on their feet and appear to be cheerful to Mrs Jones when they just euthanised Mrs Smith’s pet 5 minutes ago. Then we are surprised they don’t like coming to work?

Having a theme in the office addresses 4 of the 6 intrinsic motivators – certainty (I know what the focus is for 3 months), belonging (encourages a feeling of ‘team’), variety (the office has different decoration every 3 months), praise (there is a celebration at the end). So in terms of ‘bang for your buck’, there are few other things that would address motivation on so many fronts.

Come on guys! Let’s shake things up a bit and theme it up every quarter! Here were some theme ideas that came up at the workshops:

• Dentistry: Pictures of smiling pets, fluffy toys dressed as tooth fairies
• Vaccinations / Follow ups / Repeat consultations: Boomerangs
• Increasing Active Clients: Pictures of people and pets exercising, community, growth
• Improve billing accuracy: Targets and dart boards, netball hoops
• Increase in house cytology: Bugs, ears, microscopes and magnifying glasses
• Telephone conversions: Telephones, megaphones, magnets

In fact, we are so determined that veterinary businesses are going to do these things that every time you send us a photo of ‘something fun’ in a veterinary practice we will buy a tree for an Orangutan in Borneo.
Send your pictures to admin@aplaccountants.com.au

You can see the giving impacts live on our website by clicking here (http://vetbusinessuniversity.com/welcome-community/)

Introducing our new office administrator

Last month our team was joined by ‘Strudel’ who will predominantly be engaged in management of paper documents which he does very well. This particular forte lies in the area of document shredding, which he performs with unequivocal enthusiasm.

He will report directly to Zack, the CEO and generally notifies him of office issues that need immediate attention by biting his tail which he finds far more effective than the traditional intercom.

Seen below having their ‘daily huddle’

For more information go to http://www.smartvetapp.com The standardised reporting platform for the entire veterinary industry.

Ground-breaking feature!! Measure your team’s ability to sell

Ok, so Dr X did the dental but who booked it in?

This is a problem that has been plaguing the veterinary industry for many years.

SmartVetApp now has ‘conversion’ reports that apply artificial intelligence which allows you to measure who booked in a procedure vs who did the job.

This can be applied across any number of invoice items or services.

Individual user performance dashboards will now look back 6 months for each user

Previous reports only gave 1 months feedback to each staff member about their performance. Feedback from you suggested that team members would get a better idea of their performance and improvements if they could look further back. So we have made line charts go back for 6 months to allow your staff to have a better idea of how they are progressing, and admittedly, it looks a lot better and will be a lot more motivational for your team.

 

Split into as many branches as you want and regroup as much as you want

For multi branch clinics you can now have one set of dashboards for each clinic and then a set of dashboards for the entire group or parts of the group.

A friendlier user interface

The ability now exits to have your dashboards categorised into various categories with a favourites section. This makes your favourite dashboards easy to find.

Cornerstone is now connected to SmartVetApp

Cornerstone users can now use SmartVetApp for more accurate reporting. Other systems include: RxWorks, BeeFree/IDEXX Neo, VisionVPM, OpenVPMS, VetlinkSQL

MYOB and Quickbooks desktop version can connect to SmartVetApp

Because many businesses are still using the desktop version of MYOB, we have enabled communication with this version of MYOB.

We also have a beta test for Quickbooks users so please contact us to find out about the compatibility to the various Quickbooks versions.

Coming soon

We have inititated development with EzyVet and Ciderhouse/CHS. We will keep you posted on how this progresses.

Please visit our website at http://www.smartvetapp.com for up to date information.

Or call us on 07 3488 0131.

 

There certainly are a lot of changes happening in the industry at this point, and it’s time to take proactive action if you want to keep your practice flourishing. With the corporate onslaught now gaining momentum, we have spent a lot of time assessing what needs to be done to carry on business in a profitable manner! Don’t worry, large corporate or small independent practice, there certainly are actions that you can take to carry on growing in spite of the changes.

In fact, taking action now and planning for what is to come will benefit all sizes of business as long as the management is proactive. Change is not a bad thing; it simply re-shuffles the deck allowing the proactive to get stronger and the inactive to fall.

In this article we will discuss one of the many key areas where we think you should react – health plans.

Let’s ‘make a plan’ – a closer look at health plans

A health plan or wellness plan is currently a very loose term to define a payment plan that allows pet owners to pay a monthly fee and spread their costs for routine services. What is or is not included in these plans varies considerably as well as whether services and products are completely included or just discounted.

We have been watching health plans very closely and monitoring the movement in other countries to carefully assess how and when to put these into action and what should be included. Let’s face it, whether you like them or not, health plans for pets are on their way in. Corporate veterinary groups LOVE them, and although there may be a significant number of arguments against them, large veterinary groups are using them as a marketing tactic to establish a clear point of difference to smaller independent practices.

So at this point it seems at least prudent to have a foot in the water when it comes to having a health plan for your practice. But how exactly do you achieve this when you consider:

• The administrative overhead they can create
• How do you manage payments and deal with cancellations in a clear and efficient manner?
• How much should you offer and at what price?
• Should you be discounting products, giving products for free or a combination of both?
• How do you promote them and make sure that clients are clear with regards to what is included vs what is not included?
• Should you use a third party provider to do this and pay a hefty commission or handle the financial side yourself?

All these questions need to be answered when you decide to initiate a wellness plan in your clinic. And all these issues can be overcome if one believes the significant increase in client spend that is currently being talked about in the UK.

But there are clearly correct and incorrect ways to do this. It is possible to offer too much and risk the workload of the clinic increasing exponentially with client spend! Imagining a significant increase in client spend, but the bulk of that spend is on over the counter products and pet food. On the back end the business is offering free consultations and blood testing which results in exponentially higher costs in wages and materials. These are careful considerations that need to be looked at.

We will keep you updated as we brainstorm and continue to research this space over the next few months with a view to having a health plan created for all clinics who attend our level 2 workshops this year. For now, remember these careful considerations:

• Don’t be afraid of wellness plans, it is likely that you will have to implement them in the near future
• Technology is likely to come to the rescue when looking at the administrative overhead of these plans – every month subscription and direct debit software improves, and there are likely to be solutions out there which although not perfect, will be good enough.
• There are also options of farming out the administration to a third party provider
• Be careful of offering too much on a plan – it’s easier to add features later rather than take features away. So we would advise a conservative approach initially.
• To keep yourself in the game with the corporate onslaught, having a foot in the water with health plans is a smart move.

Client workshop

We will be discussing wellness plans at our workshops. Places are filling quickly for both venues, so please contact our office and book your place to avoid disappointment.

The dates are:

Brisbane – 2 September 2016 (Level 1)
Brisbane – 3 September 2016 (Level 2)
Sydney – 28 October 2016 (Level 2)
Sydney – 29 October 2016 (Level 1)

Level 2 is recommended if you have attended 2 previous workshops with us.

Monthly Reporting

There are so many benefits that come with staying on top of your business and KPIs on a regular basis that we have decided to offer monthly reporting. Also, so many people have asked us for a monthly reporting service, that we have now taken action and are happy to offer monthly reporting to those of you who want it.

The main difficulty you would find with monthly reporting is that it requires that you get information together every month – and we all know how busy things can get, so sometimes this becomes really difficult.

But now there is a solution to this! For those of you wanting monthly reporting, we will install SmartVetApp in your practice. This will automatically extract all the data from your system, so there will be no more time consuming digging around finding KPI’s and reports, it will all be done for you! All you will have to do is turn up for your monthly meeting.

If you are interested in going over to a monthly review, please let us know.

 It’s worth being ‘chilled out’

Zack is a dog who is a couch potato and has an unusual life experience. His owners who were once exciting vets have now become boring accountants. They used to bring him into the exciting vet practice every day, now they bring him into a boring accounting office every day. This gives him a unique dog’s eye view on both professions.

Pictured above: Recovering in the APL office after my hospital ordeal, surrounded by get well soon party balloons from all the staff – like I care. 

The weirdest thing happened last month! I was diagnosed as having congestive heart failure! Not only as a result of being somewhat mature, I have a congenital heart defect. It really got me thinking about offering the best to all patients, because I’m one of the lucky ones.

I needed some lumps removed and a lameness investigated, so before the anaesthetic, Dr Andrew had a listen to my heart and there was a murmur. Something that was not there before and could easily have been attributed to my age and investigated no further. After all, I am a healthy (although somewhat lazy) individual and I do go jogging once or twice a week (although my dad has complained that I am a bit slow).

However, as a key member of staff at APL, I have medical insurance (comes with the job), and Mom was insistent that I go see a specialist (Dr Brad at VSS). On presentation, Dr Brad’s attitude was just like everyone else, commenting that I do have a significant murmur but that I was asymptomatic. After all, while he was listening to my heart, I almost dragged everyone across the room to try to get to that drawer of liver treats that every vet I visit has. Nevertheless, we decided that it was prudent to scan my heart.

What a surprise that was! I have a patent ductus arteriosus and a dodgy left ventricular valve. I am also in fact in severe heart failure (although in truth it has never bugged me – you see, I was born with it and somehow now I have compensated). Even Dr Brad was very surprised that my lifestyle had not been affected significantly and that I was still as happy as ever. But a few lessons learned from this experience:

– Pet insurance rocks, now that I’m on Vetmedin I really get my value for money
– Don’t ASSUME that a case is ‘just an old dog murmur’, or ‘just a lipoma’ etc. Offer the best diagnostic approach and let the owner decide.
– Last but not least – IT PAYS TO BE CHILLED OUT – probably the only explanation as to why I have been asymptomatic beyond everyone’s belief is that I spend 90% of my day relaxing.

So all of you reading this newsletter, take a moment, a deep breath and remember that your health comes first.

Please Note: Many of the comments in this publication are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances. In particular, please note that ‘Zack’ is a dog and does not have opposable thumbs so has to type with his nose.