Hello? Is anyone out there?
September 7, 2010 | 
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What are you doing to drive new patients to your dental practice? Are you doing anything to make existing patients aware of new procedures you might be providing? Is your dental practice well-known in the community? If you answered “No” to the above questions you probably should take a hard look at incorporating social media into your marketing strategy.
Social media is word-of-mouth on a much larger scale than the normal one on one conversation that you may be used to. While you may think of Facebook and Twitter when you hear the term social media it goes beyond those two sites. Believe it or not those sites are not just the province of young people. Many adults are now active participants on Facebook. It has been reported that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is adults over 35 years old.
I do not profess to be an expert on social media. In fact I am just the opposite as I fall into that over 35 group that is now just becoming active in social media. I see the awesome potential that social media can bring to the marketing strategy for your dental practice. But don’t just jump into the water without having a plan. Read everything you can and take a course to make sure you create a brand for your dental practice that is consistent with how you want to be perceived by the community.
Do you have a website? Was the website professionally designed to help draw potential patients to your practice or was it something thrown together because it was the “thing” to do? If it was just done because you heard you needed a website then you were probably throwing money out the door: Money, which probably could have been put to better use.
Once you have established your social media sites you will need to keep them active. While this will take some time with proper planning it will not be as time consuming as you may think.
Take the time and gather the knowledge to properly position your dental practice in the new world of social media. I think you will find that it can be an important tool to help market your dental practice to both existing patients and new patients in your community.
Questions for Larry the Accountodonist?
larry.goldberg@glassjacobson.com
IRS Requires Electronic Tax Deposits
September 7, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
IRS will eliminate use of federal tax deposit coupons after 2010.
Thus, firms will have to wire deposits of all taxes to IRS…payroll taxes, corporate income taxes and estimates, excise taxes and the like. Currently, employers can use paper coupons if their annual deposits don’t exceed $200,000.
Only very small firms will be exempted from depositing electronically… employers with $2,500 or less in quarterly employment taxes that pay their liability when filing their returns. All other coupon users must switch to making deposits by wire using Treasury’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. For information on enrolling for electronic deposits, go to www.eftps.gov or call 800-555-4477.
Questions?
or
bart.scheffel@glassjacobson.com
Gotcha! Avoiding Fraud and Embezzlement
August 31, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
As the owner(s) of a dental practice you are forced to wear many hats: producer, financial officer, human resources administrator, and many others. To further complicate matters your dental practice probably employs less than ten people. This is just the type of situation that lends itself to embezzlement. With so few employees you need to implement strong controls to minimize the chances of your dental practice becoming the victim of theft.
In your quest to provide the highest quality service and maximize your profit you may not want to be bothered by all of the other “stuff” that takes place away from the dental chair. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you need to stick your nose into the various financial aspects of your practice.
Here are some of the controls you can put into action. This is by no means an all encompassing list.
- Have the mail placed unopened on your desk when it is delivered. This will allow you to scan through the insurance and patient payments as well as vendor payables. You don’t need to examine every check you receive.
- Try to have a different employee record patient payments from the person who initially recorded the patient fees.
- Make it your business to take the deposit slip to the bank or better yet get a check scanning machine and eliminate the bank trip altogether.
- Make it a point to check the day sheet at the end of the day. Look for adjustments and question any that you need any adjustments you need an explanation of. Make sure the deposit agrees, to the penny, to the cash and check collections for the day. Check the credit card batch slip to make sure it agrees with your day sheet. Confirm that any credit card refunds are reflected on the day sheet.
- Handle accounts payable yourself and don’t delegate this to an employee. With an open checkbook at their disposal that “trusted” employee may not be so trustworthy.
- Check the petty cash balance at the end of each day to make sure it balances with any activity.
Embezzlement doesn’t involve just money. I recently heard of an instance where an employee was the recipient of many nice “free” prizes just for ordering dental supplies. The employee in charge of ordering dental supplies for the office used a mail order dental supply company. Special gifts such as laptop computers, Keurig coffee makers, Bose speakers and gift cards could be received by ordering at retail prices in lieu of discounted prices. Whenever the supply order arrived the employee would insist that they be allowed to check in the order. Then the employee would shred the invoice. It was only by accident (as is usually the case) that this scheme was uncovered.
By having someone other than the person who placed the dental supply order check in the order the dentist may have prevented this theft from taking place. Also, the dentist should make sure she/he gets a copy of all supply invoices, no exceptions.
The biggest deterrent to embezzlement is good controls and a dentist who sticks his or her nose into the various financial aspects of their business. By making the staff aware that you check the numbers on a daily basis can go a long way to making sure you are not a victim.
Questions for the Accountodontist?
larry.goldberg@glassjacobson.com
More Health Care Reporting Requirements…
August 31, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Employers- the new health care reform package requires you to report the value of the health insurance coverage you provide employees on each employee’s annual Form W-2 after 2010.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( PPACA) imposes a number of new reporting requirements, although the IRS emphasized that the reporting is only for informational purposes only and does not affect an employee’s tax liability.
Applicable employer-sponsored coverage is coverage under any group health plan made available to the employee by the employer which is excluded from the employee’s gross income under Code Sec. 106 or would be excluded if it was considered employer-provided coverage under Code Sec. 106. Applicable employer-sponsored coverage also includes coverage under a federal, state or local government group health plan.
Some items are excluded, such as coverage for long-term care, accident or disability income.
Employers must report the aggregate or total cost of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. Employers need not provide a specific breakdown of the various types of medical coverage, the IRS explained.
Here is a complete list of the Reporting Requirements for the Form W-2.
Questions?
5 Tax Tips for the Recently Married
August 24, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
If you recently got married or are planning a wedding, there are some important steps you need to take to avoid stress at tax time. Here are five tips from the IRS for newlyweds to keep in mind.
1. Notify the Social Security Administration Report any name change to the Social Security Administration, so your name and Social Security Number will match when you file your next tax return. Informing the SSA of a name change is quite simple. File a Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card, at your local SSA office. The form is available on SSA’s website at www.socialsecurity.gov, by calling 800-772-1213 or at local offices.
2. Notify the IRS If you have a new address you should notify the IRS by sending Form 8822, Change of Address. You may download Form 8822 from IRS.gov or order it by calling 800–TAX–FORM (800–829–3676).
3. Notify the U.S.Postal Service You should also notify the U.S. Postal Service when you move so it can forward any IRS correspondence.
4. Notify Your Employer Report any name and address changes to your employer(s) to make sure you receive your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, after the end of the year.
5. Check Your Withholding If both you and your spouse work, your combined income may place you in a higher tax bracket. You can use the IRS Withholding Calculator available on IRS.gov to assist you in determining the correct amount of withholding needed for your new filing status. The IRS Withholding Calculator will even provide you with a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, you can print out and give to your employer so they can withhold the correct amount from your pay.
Questions?