Jacob Courtright, Author at Whalen CPAs

The benefits of having a well-trained front office team

Jacob Courtright on June 29, 2023

The front office team is the first point of contact for your customers. They are responsible for making a good first impression, providing excellent customer service, and resolving issues. A well-trained front office team can make a big difference in the success of your business.

Here are some of the benefits of having a well-trained front-office team:

Increased customer satisfaction: A well-trained front office team can provide excellent customer service. They can answer questions, resolve issues, and ensure customers are satisfied with their experience. Most importantly, the front office team is a part of the patient triage because they help patients discern the type of appointment they need and what services will likely be part of the treatment. It is essential to set office guidelines regarding the questions to ask patients when they call in so that the clinical team can have the best information available to them to improve treatment.
Increased case acceptance: A well-trained front office team can help to improve treatment plan acceptance. Team members should be trained to help patients understand the flow of treatment, it’s timing, and costs and should be able to answer questions about expected outcomes. The front office staff is often instrumental in helping patients become more comfortable with their proposed treatment plans by perceiving hesitancies and involving the clinical team to answer lingering doubts.
Improved efficiency: A well-trained front office team can help to improve efficiency. They will be able to handle customer inquiries and requests quickly and efficiently, freeing up your time to focus on other tasks.
Reduced costs: A well-trained front office team can help to reduce costs. They can prevent insurance coding mistakes, identify patient data errors, and address payment issues. These services are critical to the health of any practice.

If you want to improve the success of your business, it is vital to invest in training your front office team. Many resources are available to help you prepare your team, such as online courses, books, and seminars. By investing in training, you can ensure your front office team is ready to provide excellent customer service and help you achieve your business goals.

Here are some tips for training your front office team:

Start with the basics: Make sure that your team members understand the basics of customer service, such as how to greet customers, how to answer questions, and how to resolve issues. The team leader, often the office manager, should be able to implement the provider’s vision for the practice. These leaders should have some input into decision-making regarding office policy. They should dedicate themselves to overseeing that the team performs collaboratively to meet the stated goals of the office.
Provide ongoing training: Don’t just train your team once and then neglect further training. Provide ongoing training so your team members can stay up-to-date on the latest customer service techniques. Ensure that the training program extends to all new hires and that the seasoned personnel are up-to-date on all office policies or procedural changes.
Set clear expectations: Ensure your team members know your expectations. Set clear goals and expectations for customer service, and provide feedback so your team members can improve their performance. Remember, to be unclear is to be unkind. Many people are anxious to perform well in their roles. Stated expectations are the standards by which performance is judged, so clear communication of the expectations can improve employee job satisfaction.
Reward good performance: When your team members do a good job, reward them. Approval will help to motivate them to continue providing excellent customer service in the future. A reward does not always have to take a monetary form. All people enjoy hearing they are valued team members. Recognizing a job well done will help with employee compliance and satisfaction.

By following these tips, you can train your front office team to be their best. A well-trained front office team can make a big difference in your business’s success and your enjoyment of your practice. Contact Us to get more tips.

Why some small businesses are switching to tax-basis reporting

Jacob Courtright on June 26, 2023

Accrual-basis financial statements are considered by many to be the gold standard in financial reporting. But with the increasing cost and complexity of today’s accounting rules — in particular, the updated lease guidance that went into effect last year — some private companies are seeking a simpler alternative to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The solution for some is to switch from accrual to income tax-basis reporting.

What’s causing the shift?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued several major accounting rule changes over the last decade, including updated guidance on revenue recognition and credit losses. But the most onerous for private companies has generally been the updated guidance under Accounting Standards Codification Topic 842, Leases. Although the updated standard was published in 2016, it finally took effect on January 1, 2022, for calendar-year private companies — after being amended and deferred several times.

Many privately held companies failed to understand the scope of the changes until recently. And it requires far more work than most anticipated.
To alleviate the burdens of complying with the new rules, some private companies are now opting to use a special reporting framework, the most common of which is tax-basis reporting. This is popular among small businesses because they can use the same methods and principles as they do to file their federal income tax returns.

What’s the difference?

Under accrual-basis accounting, revenue is recognized when earned (regardless of when it’s received), and expenses are recognized when incurred (not necessarily when they’re paid). This methodology matches revenue to the corresponding expenses in the proper period. So it minimizes fluctuations in profit margins over time and facilitates comparisons with other companies.

Under tax-basis accounting, transactions are recorded when they relate to tax. Essentially, you have one set of accounting records for both book and tax purposes. Historically, tax-basis reporting was used by companies that didn’t have complex financial affairs and didn’t need up-to-date information about their financial situations. Often these companies transitioned to accrual accounting as they grew and developed more sophisticated financial reporting needs. The pendulum is shifting away from accrual-basis reporting as companies become fed up with implementing major updates under GAAP.

However, there’s a risk to switching accounting methods: An unexpected change could upset investors and lenders, who generally prefer accrual-basis statements. GAAP is designed to prevent companies from overstating profits and asset values. By contrast, the tax rules are designed to maximize tax revenue for the government, so they generally prevent companies from understating profits and asset values.

What’s right for your business?

Choosing the right accounting method for your business depends on your financial needs and accounting skills. Some businesses use a hybrid approach, incorporating elements from two or more methods. The method you’ve used in the past may not be appropriate for your current situation. Contact us to help you find the optimal approach.

Are you married and not earning compensation? You may be able to put money in an IRA

Jacob Courtright on June 22, 2023

When one spouse in a married couple not earning compensation, the couple may not be able to save as much as they need for a comfortable retirement. In general, an IRA contribution is allowed only if a taxpayer earns compensation. However, there’s an exception involving a “spousal” IRA. It allows contributions to be made for a spouse who is out of work or who stays home to care for children, elderly parents, or for other reasons, as long as the couple files a joint tax return.
For 2023, the amount that an eligible married couple can contribute to an IRA for a nonworking spouse is $6,500, which is the same limit that applies for the working spouse.

Benefits of an IRA

As you may know, IRAs offer two advantages for taxpayers who make contributions to them:

Contributions of up to $6,500 a year to a traditional IRA may be tax deductible, and
The earnings on funds within the IRA aren’t taxed until withdrawn. (Alternatively, you may make contributions to a Roth IRA. There’s no deduction for Roth IRA contributions, but, if certain requirements are met, future distributions are tax-free.)

As long as a married couple has a combined earned income of at least $13,000, $6,500 can be contributed to an IRA for each spouse, for a total of $13,000. (The contributions for both spouses can be made to either a regular IRA or a Roth IRA, or split between them, as long as the combined contributions don’t exceed the $13,000 limit.)

Higher contribution if 50 or older

In addition, individuals who are age 50 or older can make “catch-up” contributions to an IRA or Roth IRA in the amount of $1,000. Therefore, for 2023, a taxpayer and his or her spouse, who have both reached age 50 by the end of the year can each make a deductible contribution to an IRA of up to $7,500, for a combined deductible limit of $15,000.

However, there are some limitations. If, in 2023, the working spouse is an active participant in one of several types of retirement plans, a deductible contribution of up to $6,500 (or $7,500 for a spouse who will be 50 by the end of the year) can be made to the IRA of the nonparticipant spouse only if the couple’s AGI doesn’t exceed a certain threshold. This limit is phased out for AGI between $218,000 and $228,000.

If you’d like more information about IRAs or want to discuss retirement planning, contact us.

Why can’t my profitable business pay its bills?

Jacob Courtright on June 19, 2023

If your profitable business has trouble making ends meet, it’s not alone. Many business owners mistakenly equate profits with cash flow, leading to shortfalls in the checking account. The truth is that there are many reasons these numbers might differ.

Fluctuations in working capital

Profits (or pretax earnings) are closely related to taxable income. Reported at the bottom of your company’s income statement, they’re essentially the result of revenue earned minus operating expenses incurred in the accounting period. Under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), companies must “match” costs and expenses to the period in which the related revenue is earned. It doesn’t necessarily matter when you pay for a product or service.

So, inventory items that are in progress or are completed but haven’t yet been sold can’t be deducted — even if they’ve been long paid for (or financed). The cost hits your income statement only when an item is sold or used. Your inventory account contains many cash outflows that are waiting to be expensed.

Other working capital accounts — such as receivables, accrued expenses, and payables — also represent a difference between the timing of cash outflows and the matching of expenses to sales. As businesses grow and prepare for increasing future sales, they need to invest more in working capital, which temporarily depletes cash.

Capital expenditures and financing transactions

Working capital tells only part of the story, however. Your income statement also includes depreciation and amortization, which are noncash expenses. And it excludes capital expenditures and financing, which both affect your cash on hand.

To illustrate, suppose your company purchased a new piece of equipment in 2022. Expanded bonus depreciation and Section 179 allowances permitted your company to immediately deduct the purchase price of the equipment, which lowered its taxable income for 2022. After making a modest down payment, the remaining amount of the purchase was financed with debt, so actual cash outflows from the investment were minimal in 2022. Throughout 2023, your company has been making loan payments, and the principal repayment portion of these payments reduced the company’s checking account balance but not its profits.

Capital contributions, dividends and stock repurchases

You also can link discrepancies between profits and cash flow to owners’ equity accounts. For example, owners might pay out dividends based on their personal financial needs, regardless of whether the business is profitable.

Dividends (or distributions) paid to owners lower cash on hand, but they have no effect on the profits reported on the company’s income statement. Likewise, additional capital contributions and stock repurchases will hit the company’s checking account without affecting profits.

Efficient cash flow management

It’s important for business owners to understand the key differences between profits and cash flow. Some growing, profitable companies will experience cash shortages. And some mature “cash cows” will have ample cash on hand, despite lackluster revenue growth. If your business is facing a cash crunch, contact us for help devising strategies to improve cash flow. We can help your business pay its bills on time and find resources to seize value-building opportunities.

How to leverage AI in your accounting department

Jacob Courtright on June 2, 2023

Many people speculate that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace humans for certain work-related tasks in the future. But accounting and finance jobs may be safe — at least for now.

Recent study

Brigham Young University recently put AI to the test. Academic researchers administered an accounting exam covering such topics as accounting information systems, auditing, financial accounting, managerial accounting, and tax. The results? Undergraduate students scored an average of 76.7%, compared to only 47.4% by AI-powered ChatGPT. In particular, the study found that humans outperformed AI in several key areas, including tax, financial, and managerial assessments.
AI may not yet be advanced enough to handle complex, managerial-level accounting and finance tasks. But it can be leveraged to automate certain lower-level accounting duties. Examples of tasks where you can eliminate manual (human) intervention include journal entries, bank reconciliations, and some aspects of the budgeting and forecasting process.

Getting started

To begin automating these accounting processes, consider taking the following five steps:

1. Inventory manual processes. Prepare a list of manual processes and rank them by complexity and the number of hours to administer them. This provides a prioritized list of automation candidates. Select the most straightforward process to convert first.

2. Standardize processes. Automation works best with standardized tasks and processes. So, you’ll need to apply a standard approach to all transactions. Identify exceptions and scrutinize why they exist and how they can be eliminated.

3. Focus on the source data. Accounting data often exists in different formats and locations, which doesn’t facilitate automation. So, you’ll need to centralize your accounting data using a consistent structure and format.

4. Document requirements. Many types of AI software solutions exist. Identify the functionality and capabilities you’ll need and use this list to screen potential providers.

5. Conduct robust testing. Before relying on the output generated by AI software, test the output to make sure it’s accurate and reliable. Such testing should use statistically valid sampling techniques. You’ll also need to consider judgmental sampling procedures, which allow team members to select transactions based on their training and experience.

Putting AI to the test

In general, the use of AI software can minimize data entry errors, reduce processing time and lower costs. However, getting it to work in the accounting department of a business takes some initial legwork and a fresh mindset. It also may affect the procedures a CPA performs when preparing your financial statements. Contact us for more information.

Author: Jacob Courtright

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