The appointment books are filling up and holiday shopping needs to be completed, all while managing the many the day-to-day tasks of running a practice. While this does not leave much free time, there is one more crucial item for your yearend to-do list: Create a 2024 Budget.
Often overlooked, budgeting is a critical business step that doesn’t have to be a cumbersome, time-consuming task — and the PECAA Member Business Advisors can help you get it done! We have created a simplified budget planning template to get you going in a few simple steps — just follow the instructions below, and the template will calculate your projected revenue, expenses, and net profit.
Instructions for completing the template:
- Input 2023 Collected Revenue
- Input expected 2024 growth rate
- Input any monthly loan/equipment payments you have
- Save a copy or duplicate the sheet before writing over any formulas in the following steps
- Adjust monthly revenue to reflect seasonality
- Adjust any expense percentages, if substantial variance from industry averages
- Account for any one-time events, such as the purchase of equipment or staffing changes
Budget Planning Template Example
In 2023, Dr. Seebetter of Dr. Seebetter’s Vision Care had a revenue of $750,000, and the practice estimates that it will experience a 10% growth rate in the coming year. Dr. Seebetter also has monthly loan payments in the amount of $1,500, $500, and $1,000.
Based on the numbers entered, the template provides us with projected earnings for Dr. Seebetter’s Vision Care. However, we know it is unlikely that Dr. Seebetter’s revenue and expenses will be the same month-to-month. So, we need to customize the template to fit the estimated changes to the practice in 2024. First, adjust the revenue of your historically busy months up and slower months down, to better reflect seasonality (having month-by-month revenue for 2023 will be helpful here). Next, consider expenses — if your expense structure varies from national averages built into the template, adjust the percentages to reflect that. Another example would be for those of you on every-other-week payrolls – you will want to adjust the salaries number to reflect the two months that have three payrolls.
This budgeting template can be utilized to help better understand expected monthly performance and when to expect cash flow surpluses or shortages — just make sure to customize the template to fit your specific practice projections.
Once you have completed the initial draft, reach out to the PECAA MBA team for review and discussion. We can help you hone in and finalize your budget, so it is ready to help guide your business decisions in 2024.
