Bookkeeping is a concept, typically defined as the systematic recording of the facts that show the position of a business.

 

Meanwhile, a bookkeeper is a person who has an in-depth knowledge of the maintenance of such records and is trained in operations liking preparing the bills, checks, drafts and the like.

 

 

There are two main methods of bookkeeping, namely single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping.  

 

In whichever form it is maintained, bookkeeping plays a very significant role in an official set-up in a doctor's office. The most important aspect or role of the bookkeeping section is the Payroll. The bookkeeping section records salaries and taxes earned and paid by every employee. In addition, the payroll department also ensures that the appropriate federal, state and local taxes are deducted.

 

An efficiently managed bookkeeping system in a doctor's office helps in clearing the status of a series of key information, such as the exact cash position,         the bank balance estimates, payments overdue and the like.

 

Being professionals in the field of medicine, doctors and physicians can often falter on the aspect of bookkeeping, which can further prove detrimental in the very interest of the enterprise.

 

In this section, we've listed some of the most important and basic principles of bookkeeping which should be strictly followed by doctors.

 

It is important to maintain paper and electronic records of all financial transactions. In some cases, doctors prefer not to save receipts of smaller amounts such as £25 or less.

 

Having such receipts in record helps in providing backup documentation at the time of claiming deductions.

 

It is important to hire professional services to handle the bookkeeping. A competent and skilled bookkeeper can do the job much better than the doctor himself.

 

For proper bookkeeping in a doctor's office, it is important that the authorities concerned track reimbursable expenses properly. This is especially important in case of small payments made by doctors for official purpose through their credit cards, which must be tracked with the right procedure.

 

All the employees, whether full-time, part-timers, freelancers or independent contractors should be classified appropriately for the purpose of proper bookkeeping.

 

This can result in misfiling when it comes to filing taxes since the rules differ on the basis of the specific category of employees.

 

The employees responsible for bookkeeping should be informed of all the transactions well in time. All possible receipts and relevant documents should be provided in order to avoid any errors.

 

Monthly reconciliation should be done with the bank statement each month, to ensure that any possible errors or omissions are avoided.

 

It is also important to have a complete back-up ready of all the information regarding bookkeeping. This is especially crucial in cases where the records are stored electronically which can further experience unexpected technical faults.

 

The number and kind of expenses should be categorized in a proper manner. Both, over categorization as well as under categorization can be detrimental to the bookkeeping process.