Monday, July 27, 2015

July 27 My take on a new Texas bill



May I have your attention?
Fingers poised on my keyboard, I’m trying to formulate exactly what I am thinking at this moment.  Let me take the emotion, frustration and cursing out and see if it helps.  
[deep breath]
My home state of Texas passed a new bill (SB 519) that goes into effect September 1, 2015 that may affect consultants in the dental industry.  A big thanks to my colleague Duane Tinker for the heads-up email blast!  If you do business with Texas dentists, this could affect you.  Keep reading.
Basically, this is the bill.  You must register as a Dental Support Organization (DSO) if you provide two or more of the following services to a dentist: 
(A)  office space, furnishings, and equipment;
(B)  staff employed by the dental support organization;
(C)  regulatory compliance;
(D)  inventory or supplies, including dental equipment and supplies;
(E)  information systems;
(F)  marketing and advertising;
(G)  financial services;
(H)  accounting, bookkeeping, or monitoring or payment of accounts receivable;
(I)  payroll or benefits administration;
(J)  billing and collection for services and products;
(K)  reporting and payment of federal or state taxes;
(L)  administration of interest expense or indebtedness incurred to finance the operation of a business; or
(M)  insurance services.

Basically, the way the bill is written, this pretty much includes all vendors, exhibitors, and speakers.  But, wait, there are exceptions:
(1)  an accountant providing only accounting services;
(2)  an attorney providing only legal counsel;
(3)  an insurance company or insurance agent providing only insurance policies to a business; and
(4)  entities providing only investment and financial advisory services.

Wasn’t this half of the DSO list?  Why didn’t they just leave them out of the bill in the first place?
When registering with the state, the DSOs must provide the following information:

  1. the DSOs name and address
  2. the name and address of each Texas dentist the DSO has entered into a business agreement to provide two or more business support services
  3. the name of the dentist that owns 10% or more of the DSO
  4. the name of each person who is not a dentist and owns 10% or more of the DSO
  5. a list of all the business support services provided by each dental client.

It is an annual registration that must be filed no later than January 31st and if you add or discharge clients, you must file a corrected registration each quarter.  Basically, it’s a VISA to provide services to dentists in the state of Texas.
According to the Sponsor’s Statement of Intent, the State Board of Dental Examiners was instructed to survey the dentists and collect information about the DSOs.  And, according to the SSI, the State Board of Dental Examiners can request information of the DSOs.
What the heck?  Some of the wording in the bill affirmed my suspicion that this was an attempt to reign in Medicaid fraud.  Yes, it’s a concern.  I’m not sure why since the state of Texas is one of the lowest ranked providers of Medicaid.  But it is certainly an official someone’s agenda.
If you are a provider of any of the services that is listed in this bill, which pretty much includes all the vendors, exhibitors, consultants that I know, this is what it means.
You have to register all your Texas dental clients if you provide two or more services.  So, limit your service offerings to only two and you will be safe.
And, if you are a dentist, better make sure that your DSO is registered with the state of Texas, or you will be asked to provide that information by the Board.
Sarcasm aside, which has been extremely difficult, I know their intent was not to limit small business consulting firms in the state of Texas.  But it is how it is written.  Period. 
And the monitoring of this program is going to be a nightmare.  What’s the cost?  Is it worth it?
They obviously didn’t talk to any Dental Support Organizations prior to writing this bill about the economic impact of not being able to do business in the State of Texas, unless that’s what they want.  Since this feels they are going after a different fish than my species, why didn’t they write in some parameters, like DSOs over $1,000,000.00 or DSOs providing support to Texas dentists of over $500,000.
A typical DSO does not provide services only for the state of Texas.  I live here but am national in scope, providing only roughly 10% of services MAYBE in Texas.  Most DSOs don’t “live” here and a small part of their client base is here.  But that is irrelevant.  If you provide only ONE dentist two listed DSO services, you must register, according to the bill.
By the way, the bill does not state what they will do with the list of dentists that are having services provided to them.  There is a purpose to gathering that information.
I’ve contacted two House Members, who coincidentally, did not vote for the bill.  I’ve contacted the Texas Dental Association.  I’ve contacted the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, since I perform dental embezzlement examinations in the State of Texas.  I’ve contacted an attorney for an interpretation for the scope of my business that will be affected.
Why?
It’s a $1000 per day fine if you provide services to dentists under the structure of the bill and do not register. 
Sometimes it seems like they have nothing else to do.  I tried to eliminate all the sarcasm, but sometimes I just can’t.  Beware and check back - I'll keep you posted.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

July 23 As a speaker...



The National Speaker’s Association is an amazing collection of clever folks spread across the world in every industry known to mankind.  When you say “speaker” most everyone associates their industry + motivation of some kind.   As I witnessed at the National Speakers Association Annual Conference this past week, it is so much more expansive. 


When I hear amazing speakers that compel me to be a better person, compel me to be a better speaker, compel me to be a better business woman, my future audiences and clients receive the intense benefit.  It is certainly an investment of time and money to attend these conferences but I’m looking forward to implementing the new skills, new thoughts and new lectures for the benefit of my future audiences and clients.

Let me tell you about one of those who spoke.


Left to Tell: A Story of Peace, Hope and Forgiveness was written by Immaculee Ilibagiza, whom in 1994, survived the Rwanda genocide that murdered her family.  She survived by being confined in a 4x6 bathroom with five other women, for three and a half months, without talking, and eating only scraps of food that their protector could salvage from the garbage.


There were two tribes in Rwanda while she was studying to be an engineer in college.  Immaculee spoke about the national radio and how it had been spreading negativity and hate about her tribe.  When the president’s plane crashed, they knew the other tribe would begin to kill them all.  


And they did.  The Hutu killed the Tutsi and moderate Hutu tribe members for one hundred days.  An estimated 1 million humans were killed:  elderly, babies, adults, and children were slaughtered, bodies being left in the streets to decay.

Only one brother survived because he was outside the country.


She received the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace 2007.  She met the men that killed her Mother, Father, and two brothers.  And she forgave them.


You can watch videos on her website at Immaculee.com, where you can see the size of the bathroom, as well as hear her story and her faith.


We are so isolated in America.  I’m often amazed at the hate that is spread through social media, through television, through radio.  We are surrounding by a social discontent.   Yes, we are a more “civilized nation.”   But, when I heard her talk about the days leading up to the genocide and saw so many parallels to what I hear in America today.  Are we a civilized country?


It’s up to us.  We must be different.  We must influence the hate-talkers and soften their hearts, one toe at a time.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

July 14 Just Say No To QuickBooks Online

I get a lot of questions about QuickBooks Online. Sorry, at this time, I still do not recommend the QuickBooks Online version.  


If you have used the QuickBooks Pro PC version, then you become quickly aware that you have sacrificed quite few benefits for a whole lot more money.    In fact, you won’t find many Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisors that recommend online...yet.    It’s typically accountants (not QuickBooks certified) who want access to your financial information on a more regular basis that do not understand what is given up on your end product-wise, or don't realize the value of what's been given up.  
 

Let me explain.  A practice typically only uses 15% of QuickBooks, as all Accounts Receivable is maintained in your practice management software.  There is no estimating, billing, invoicing or receiving payments in QuickBooks for a professional practice using practice management software.   It is much more important that the accounting system you use for your 15%, be easy to use, in the manner you need to use it, producing the fruit of the financial organization:  astute reports to enable wise future financial decisions at any time.


Many of QuickBooks Pro’s customization features are not available online.  You cannot move accounts in the manner you want in the Chart of Accounts as the entire list is in alphabetical order, parent and subaccounts.  The order I recommend is by the “weight” of the practice area, with Doctors Expenses always being last since those expenses are subjective.


The design of your chart of accounts is the most important aspect of the reports you can review.  Being able to inactivate any old accounts, vendors, employees, etc, is not available online. They can be deleted, which is odd.  This removes them from the list but you can restore them at a later date if needed.  This is not a smooth process.  


Customizing reports is not available online without purchasing add-on products.   The Profit & Loss reports I recommend, with expenses given as a% of income, is not available.   In fact, there are fewer reports and fewer modifications and filters available to use.


For example, if you inactivate a Balance Sheet account and it has a balance, QuickBooks Online creates a journal entry for you.  If you delete a Vendor and they have a balance, QuickBooks Online creates a journal entry.  I searched QuickBooks Online help and the alternate answers made me laugh but it is certainly nothing I would ever recommend.  


The online banking part is completely different and not as accessible to so many financial institutions as the desktop version (i.e. paying bills).   You cannot pay bills directly thru the online version to your bank (Direct Connect) as you can with QuickBooks Pro, without going thru the Intuit payment network, additional cost.


Since I recommend upgrading every two years, let's compare the costs.  The cost for the Essentials version ON SALE is $452.64 for two years vs. $189.99 (Costco) for the desktop version.    That’s a $262.65 difference, if there is no need for add-on products.  More money for less product.  A wise choice?


The only reason anyone converts to QuickBooks Online is because they want to access online.  As far as the CPA, they only need access quarterly (at most), so sacrificing for quarterly access seems a bit extreme.   There are much wiser choices and a variety of other options.


You can access your QuickBooks desktop version remotely, through GoToMyPC for $11.95 month ($114.72 annually).  You can access through Windows Remote Desktop or through logmein.com for free, which is what most practices do since they want access to their practice software as well.  


There are so many available choices for remote access that sacrificing product for convenience needs to be a moot point.  Yet, just last week, I had two phone calls from practices who were convinced to take their QuickBooks online by their CPA.  It causes me to wonder why a CPA would make such a recommendation when it is so clearly not the same product.


If you have used QuickBooks before, you will see quite visibly what you are sacrificing.  There is a reason I have not written a book specifically for the Online version.  There are too many tasks & features in either the Getting The Most Out Of QuickBooks or Advanced QuickBooks For Your Practice book that cannot be accomplished in QuickBooks Online.  


However, this appears to be the direction Intuit is taking with Intuit.   There may be a day when a desktop version is no longer available.  When QuickBooks Online evolves to equal a QB Pro desktop version, then I will recommend it.   Until then, absolutely not.