Following on from the popular series written by the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA) on the basics of GP accounting, we have now consolidated all 10 parts into a fantastic free guide for you to download and keep. If you missed the series on the blog and are wondering what it is all about,…

Bookkeeping in the Cloud Introduction Cloud accounting and payroll software has been available for several years now and products have improved consistently as new features are added. Having your software stored on a desktop restricts what you can do and how you can work. The advent of Covid-19 led us to do more things online…

How to deal with incoming/outgoing partners Changes among the partners is a common feature of general practice. In an ideal world succession planning is a regular item on the agenda for partnership meetings so an impending retirement shouldn’t come as a surprise. But even with good planning changes can still occur with short notice. These…

How to account for property Property used by the practice falls into two main categories; – owned premises (by the partners or some of the partners) and leased premises. Reimbursements If the partners own the premises they will receive either a notional or cost rent from the NHS. Notional rent is a market rent assessed…

What to get out of your annual accounts meeting It is normal practice to have a meeting with your accountants once the draft accounts have been prepared. This gives you and the partners the opportunity to discuss the accounts, resolve any queries so they can be finalised, and discuss financial matters likely to arise in…

Using the accounts to benchmark financial performance Information from the practice accounts can be used for financial benchmarking, which helps practices see how profitable they are compared with their neighbouring practices, or more widely across their local area and nationally. Benchmarking can also help the GP partners assess their investments in the practice and their…

How pensions are shown in the practice accounts Pension costs for the NHS pension scheme are split three ways: Employee standard contributions – these are a based on different rates for different tiers of earnings Employer contributions – fixed currently at 14.38% with a further central top-up by the NHS in England, Wales and Northern…