Dec 2017

Focus
on Business
Take your business into the
future
BY DAVID PEARSON AND JESS RADICH*
MDNZ’s vision for 2020
As we head into the busy summer
months, using your time and
resources efficiently is a must
to ensure your business is running
smoothly and your patients are feeling
valued and coming back for more.
The rise of cloud-based accounting
software and other business applications
has been a game changer for business
owners. Being able to access real-time
information enables informed and timely
decision making and having transactions
flow directly from your bank removes
the need for time consuming data entry,
allowing you to spend more hands-on
time in your business.
As business advisors, we are more
than aware of the time pressures put on
small business owners. Planning staff
rosters, processing payroll, inventory and
planning purchases leaves little time
for other important areas like engaging
with your patients or keeping your team
motivated and productive.
Real time accounting software and
other business applications can help
streamline your business while making
your life a whole lot easier. Here are
some key apps to consider, streamlining
your entire operation, giving you time to
focus on the things you love about your
business.
Reporting
Reporting add-on software provides
core KPIs and enables benchmarking for
your optometry practice in a way that
can be easily visualised and understood.
Financial information is pulled from your
accounting software in real time and
presented in a way most meaningful to
your practice, customised by you.
Futrli and Spotlight Reporting
applications are amongst the favourites.
Both apps deliver crucial, need-to-know
metrics required to help your practice
thrive. Seamlessly integrated with a raft
of accounting software, the app allows
you to view your business’ financial
information in easy to understand
reports or dashboards, which can be
customised. If you wanted to track how
a new product or brand is performing
during a ‘trial basis’, done! Want to
ensure your stock levels are at the correct
level for different stages throughout the
year? Easy! Alerts can also be set to notify
key people of changes in performance
or trends. Recognising each business
is different, both Spotlight and Futrli
allow you to create your own KPIs and
benchmarks. Plus you can break down
revenue streams, forecast, budget,
calculate gross profit percentages and
wages to sales ratios among many other
things.
This can help you plan and reduce risk
to grow your practice. Giving key staff
members access to certain reports can
also incentivise them to set and achieve
targets for themselves and the company,
while also increasing accountability and
understanding.
Data Entry
Even though we live in a tech savvy
world, there still seems to be a lot of
paper. Invoices can quickly pile up, while
disgruntled suppliers wait in the wings.
A lot of business owners take care of this
themselves, when in actual fact it is far
more efficient and cost effective to pay
someone else to do it. Being the face of
your business will pay off far more than
sitting in the back-office mulling over
accounts payable data entry, especially if
this is not your strong suit.
20 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS December 2017
An easy to way to get all your
invoices processed quickly is to use a
document collection and management
software tool, such as Receipt Bank or
Hubdoc. Email, take a photo or scan
an invoice or receipt into the software
and it will do the rest. The technology
extracts all relevant data from the
document and automatically enters
the key components into your chosen
accounting software along with the
source document electronically attached.
Payroll and staff management
In a busy practice, staff rostering can
be a nightmare and dealing with casual
employees hired to help over the busy
period adds to its complexity. One of
the most popular cloud based payroll
apps is FlexiTime. Multiple customised
templates can be created as a starting
point each week and FlexiTime provides
you with the option of viewing your
rosters in hours as well as dollars which
is great for forecasting. The software
also has clock-in, clock-out functionality
ensuring labour costs are accurate as
staff are only paid for the hours they
work. And once a payrun has been
processed, the information is sent
directly to your accounting software to
be reconciled – no need for manual data
entry. It’s great for employees too as
they can apply for leave and view their
payslips through the employee portal all
from a smartphone.
Point of sale
A reliable point-of-sale (POS) system is
vital for the retail side of your practice.
A good system can do more than just
process transactions, it can track sales,
manage inventory, automate ordering
and help with pricing and again is
all integrated with your accounting
software so you can identify where
profits are and aren’t being made.
The Vend app is a powerful backoffice
tool, allowing you to streamline
processes and align staff and product
supplies with demand. The front end is
easy to use and works on any device and,
if your business ever needs to operate off
site, you can process sales from a tablet
offline, which then automatically syncs
when you are back online.
All businesses today should be utilising
the wide range of information systems
business solutions available to them.
Using apps such as these outlined above
will help you work smarter, not harder in
your business. You will thank yourself for
them, when you’re finally spending all
your Sundays at the beach!. ▀
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
*David Pearson is
managing partner
and Jess Radich is
information systems
business manager with
chartered accountants
and business advisors
BDO Central (NI).
Jess is passionate
about ensuring her
clients have the right
accounting software for
their business and the
knowledge and skills
to maximise their use.
For more information,
contact Jess at Jessica.
radich@bdo.co.nz
or David at David.
Pearson@bdo.co.nz or
visit www.bdo.nz
Chris and Annie Bradley, Phillippa Pitcher, Dr Andrew Thompson, Di Goldsworthy and Henry Ford. In the background: Allan and Viv Jones
BY PHILLIPPA PITCHER, MDNZ GENERAL MANAGER
Macular Degeneration New Zealand (MDNZ)
unveiled its vision for 2020 at a cocktail party
in October, generously hosted by The Kelliher
Charitable Trust in Parnell, Auckland.
MDNZ gathered key supporters and donors together
to remind those present about the devastating effects of
macular degeneration and how sight can be saved, and to
hear how MDNZ’s Vision for 2020 campaign will help fight
this terrible disease. Vision for 2020 aims to raise $150,000
a year, over three years to raise awareness about MD among
the 41% of people over 50 years of age in New Zealand who
remain unaware of it, yet are at risk of developing it.
Using the Kelliher Trust art gallery to highlight our
work, MDNZ distributed glasses, kindly donated by MSO
(previously Mike Sladen Optical), that simulated vision loss
from macular degeneration. We encouraged guests to look
at the art wearing the glasses so they could understand
the devastating effect of the disease. We also took the
opportunity to auction artworks by emerging artists that
raised $3,000 for MDNZ’s work, which is still unsupported
by the government.
Goodbye from NZOSS 2017
As 2017 draws to a close, students are drowning
their exam sorrows in copious amounts of caffeine,
consolidated by thoughts of summer, BBQs and
quality beach time around the corner. This marks the 5th
year that NZOSS has been in operation, a progressive year
filled with milestones, challenges and rewards.
Right from the beginning, we were thrown into sign-ups
and Round the Bays. For the first time we worked with the
School of Optometry to run separate orientations for Part 2
students, as well for Part 4s and 5s. We introduced the first
ever NZOSS newsletter, ‘The Lookout’, while the biennial
NZOSS BBQ, pub crawl and camp were all well-received,
and our new buddy system was deemed effective in further
bridging the gap between year levels.
We also ran two seminars this year: ‘2017 and Beyond’
was targeted towards senior students with invited speakers
providing some insight regarding the industry and our
future careers; while ‘How
to BOptom’, involved older
students talking about their
experiences of surviving tests
and other shenanigans at
optometry school.
We kicked off the second
half of the year with the
annual quiz night, attracting
the largest turnout to date.
The winning team scored free
tickets to the hugely anticipated
annual EyeBall – a magical
night enjoyed by all! We also
introduced the inaugural,
sponsored NZOSS Cocktail
Party, which allowed students
to socialise with lecturers and
network with professionals in
the industry.
We are getting more and
more well-known throughout
the optometry community and
the overwhelming support and
BY ALICIA HAN, OUTGOING NZOSS PRESIDENT
Our ambassador and founding trustee, Viv Jones
spoke about her experience of vision loss from macular
degeneration and how being aware and proactive not only
saved her sight, but improved it. Board chairman, Henry
Ford introduced the Vision for 2020 campaign and inspired
attendees to consider how they could contribute.
To kick start the campaign and to encourage others to
contribute, a generous donor granted MDNZ $25,000 a year
for the next three years. MDNZ’s event at the Kelliher Trust
helped secure the donation as the donor could see we are
engaging with our major donors and supporters and this
would amplify their contribution.
The evening had a lovely atmosphere in the delightful
surroundings of quality artworks. Attendees all said they
really enjoyed the evening and are keen to learn more about
Vision for 2020 and our work. If you would like to know
more, please visit http://mdnz.org.nz/
connections from all of you who are reading this column is
what keeps us running. Of course, none of this would have
been possible without our generous sponsors, the student
body and the School of Optometry.
On behalf of the graduating class of 2017, I would like
to say a huge thank you to everybody who has supported
us, especially the supervisors, lecturers and staff for your
endless dedication and patience to teach us and help us
grow as clinicians.
Finally, a big thank you to my colleagues on the 2017
executive team for all your hard work. It has been so much
fun working with you and getting to know you all. I am
so proud of what we have achieved. Best of luck to Nick
Lee, NZOSS new president for 2018, and the newly elected
committee. The students can’t wait to see what 2018 will
bring.
With warmest regards, Alicia ▀
Goodbye from the 2017 NZOSS Executive: Alice Jackson, Andrew Kim, Darina Khun, Katarina Marcijasz, Nick Stuhlmann,
Alicia Han, Menaga Manokaran, George Stewart, Gemma Ji, Marna Claassen and (2018 president) Nick Lee