BUSINESS OF PRACTICE: MANAGING ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
Fig. 1. Cashflow Gap. 5. Keeping Score
Fig. 2. Average Days Accounts Receivable Formula. *EOM mean (End of Month).
who is not aligned can be devastating to the practice cash flow and culture.
4. Cash Flow
Whether keeping up with pharmaceutical bills ormak- ing the months payroll are struggles, understanding how AR relates to cash in the bank and the timing of invoices are important concepts. If a gap develops meaning bills are due and there is no cash, often AR is the problem. In essence if practices/practitioners have to pay formedications before receivingmoney for using those medications (client invoices) it is hard to keep up with those bills and others in the practice. A cash flow gap (Fig. 1) will be reviewed in case presentations.
Monitoring the business proactively is very important. The key is the word “proactive.” This is done with defining metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that help tell a story about AR. One of the best metrics is a measure called Average Days AR. When calculated monthly it provides a very quick snapshot of the practice. This KPI measures how many days it takes on average to receivemoney beginning fromthe day the service was provided. The calculation is in Fig. 2 For example, if payment terms for clients are net 30days, KPI should never be above 30days. Creating a custom AR dashboard (example in Fig. 3) that ismonitoredmonthly will illustrate if AR policies are effective. The result of proactive monitoring is an increase in cash flow andmore.
6. Impact
Finally, how does a poorly managed (low) AR impact the business? The lack of cash is obvious,