Materials Needed

Let’s begin by reviewing the different materials that you’ll need to gather so that you can complete the forecasting tool in its entirety. You will need a current version of Microsoft Excel. This being the most commonly used spreadsheet available, we do recommend it, unlike some other free tools that won’t have the exact compatibility that this spreadsheet requires. You will also need the previous two calendar years of profit and loss statements for the practice. You want to print these out in year to date format. You will also need the total number of doctor days worked for the previous calendar year, split up into each individual month. You should also have the projected doctor days for the current calendar year, divided by month as well. you will also need the receipts for the previous calendar year for the past 2 years. receipts are also commonly called cash or collections, depending on your terminology. This essentially is the total amount received from all payor sources, meaning insurance and patients alike. We’ll also need the sales for the previous 12 months. This is the charges entered into your practice management software or EHR at the time of service. You may use whatever form of sales your practice management or EHR software gives you easily, you can use gross sales or adjusted gross sales, it doesn’t really matter. As long as you keep it simple and use the exact same information each time. So, use gross sales every time or adjusted gross sales everytime, as long as they’re the same each time. you will also need the cost of goods for the previous two years as well as the previous calendar year divided by month. This is the total monthly amount that you spent on frames, ophthalmic lenses, and contact lenses. It’s important to understand that you may need to take some time to divide your total cost of goods out for each of those individual categories. You will also need what we refer to as fixed operating expenses. Fixed operating expenses for the purpose of this spreadsheet are simply the amounts that you pay each individual month, that don’t change, no matter what you do. The things that usually fall into the fixed operating expenses category are things like rent or your mortgage, as well as any loan payments. Typically anything else changes based on what you do each individual month.  you will also want to separate out staff operating expenses. For the purpose of this spreadsheet, we’re referring to hourly or salary employees only, not to include any doctors. You’ll want to gather up the total wages paid, separated out, as well as any benefits or PTO that was paid or anything else that has to do particularly with your staff such as uniforms, training, or travel expenses for your staff.

Next, you will want all of what we refer to as your variable operating expenses. This is everything else that is an expense in your practice with the exception of cost of goods, staff operating expenses, or doctor wages. next you will want to separate out total doctor compensation. We recommend that you split this out for each doctor on their wages, as well as what you’ve paid in any benefits or continuing education or travel for your individual doctor’s.

Next you’ll want to calculate for the previous calendar year the total number of hours that the clinic was open to see patients, estimations are okay as long as you’re close. Next, you’ll want to calculate the total number of comprehensive exams for the previous calendar year, given by all providers. you’ll also want to gather the total number of hours paid to all staff for the previous calendar year. This is for hourly and salary employees, but not to include any doctors. Once you have all of this information, you’ll be ready to begin entering into our forecasting tool that we will walk through together.