GST. Most medical services are GST-free, but not everything a practice supplies is. Some services and products are taxable, and the mix affects your BAS and the GST credits you can claim. Coding this wrongly is a common and costly error.

Practitioner arrangements. Doctors may work as employees or as independent contractors, often under a service or facilities agreement where the practice charges a fee for rooms, staff and equipment. The way these are structured, priced and documented affects tax, super and payroll obligations.

Payroll tax. State revenue offices have taken a close interest in payments between practices and contracting practitioners, so the arrangement needs to be assessed properly in your state.

Superannuation. Payments to contractors who are engaged mainly for their labour can still carry super obligations, even where they are treated as contractors for other tax purposes.

Service entities. Where a service entity or trust is used, the ATO expects the fees charged to reflect real, commercially reasonable arrangements, supported by documentation.

Complex payment flows. Patient fees, Medicare and other rebates, merchant fees, practitioner distributions and locum payments all pass through the books and need clear reconciliation.

Assets. Medical equipment, fit-outs and vehicles raise depreciation, instant asset write-off and fringe benefits questions.

• Bookkeeping and monthly reconciliations, including patient fee income and rebates
• Payroll, super and STP for clinical and administrative staff
• BAS, with attention to GST-free and taxable supplies
• Practitioner payments and reporting
• Tax returns and financial statements for each entity
• Management reports, such as income by practitioner and by service
• Advice on structure, service arrangements and planned purchases

1. Do you work with medical or health practices, and with which types of arrangements?
2. How do you code and check GST-free and taxable supplies?
3. How do you assess contractor, employee and service entity arrangements, including payroll tax and super?
4. How is patient and staff data protected?
5. Who will be my contact, and how often will we meet?

Ask for a review of how GST is coded, how practitioner arrangements are documented and whether payroll tax and super have been assessed. It often surfaces issues before they turn into a bigger problem.

RBizz works with medical and professional practices and provides outsourced accounting, payroll, compliance and CFO support. Book a free discovery call to talk through your practice's set-up.

Agree the scope in writing. What is included, what is not, who does what and by when.

Set up authorisations. Your new provider needs to be appointed as your tax agent and given access to the relevant ATO services. This is usually done through your business's ATO access, and it is also how deadlines and lodgment history become visible to them.

Request the handover. Your provider can ask your previous accountant for prior returns, working papers and key records, so you do not have to chase them yourself.

Collect the essentials. Prior tax returns, BAS history, payroll records, loan and finance statements, bank access, and your current accounting file.

Before changing anything, your provider reviews what is there:

• Are the bank accounts reconciled, and where are the gaps?
• Are lodgments up to date, including BAS, STP and any other reporting?
• Are there ATO debts, overdue super or other issues?
• Is the GST coding correct?
• What needs cleaning up, and how long will it take?

You should come out of this week with a clear list of what is in good shape, what needs fixing and what it will cost to fix.

• Bank feeds and rules set up properly
• Receipt capture and an approval path for bills
• Payroll linked to the accounting system
• A compliance calendar covering BAS, super, payroll tax, tax returns and any other due dates
• Access and security reviewed, with multi-factor authentication on

• Provide access and documents promptly
• Answer queries, particularly about unclear transactions
• Tell your provider about anything unusual, such as disputes, loans between you and the business, or planned purchases

• No written scope
• No health check before work begins
• No named contact
• Nobody asks about deadlines coming up
• Your data stays in the provider's system, with no access for you

Clean-up work on messy records is often separate from ongoing fees. Ask for a clear quote on both.

RBizz provides outsourced accounting, bookkeeping, payroll and CFO support. Book a free discovery call and we will walk you through what a switch would involve for your business.

There is no single formula. Common approaches include:

• Earnings-based. The business's sustainable profit is multiplied by a figure that reflects risk and growth prospects.
• Cash flow-based. Future cash flows are forecast and discounted to a present value.
• Asset-based. The value of the net assets, often used for asset-heavy or struggling businesses.

In practice, valuers compare methods and test the result against how similar businesses sell. The answer depends heavily on what profit is counted, which is why the next step matters.

1. Get the books clean and reconciled well before you go to market.
2. Document add-backs and one-off items with evidence.
3. Reduce dependence on yourself by documenting processes and building the team.
4. Spread revenue across more clients where you can.
5. Fix tax and compliance gaps in advance, since buyers will find them.
6. Think about structure and timing early, as they affect your tax outcome.

Some businesses restructure before a sale or investment round. This can have tax and stamp duty consequences, so it should be planned, not rushed, and timed separately from the sale itself.

RBizz provides business valuation, due diligence support and restructuring advice for buyers, sellers and owners planning an exit. Book a free discovery call to talk through your situation.

You will also generally need evidence that you incurred the expenses the rate is meant to cover, for example bills for energy, internet or phone.

For the actual cost method, you need the bills themselves and a reasonable, documented basis for the work-related portion.

• Estimated hours with no supporting record. This is the most common reason claims are reduced.
• Claiming a rate and also claiming items it already covers. That is double counting.
• Claiming for time that is simply the commute-free version of an office day, without a regular, genuine work arrangement behind it.
• No record kept during the year, then reconstructed from memory at tax time.

It answers: Did we make money this month, and where did it come from?

What to look for:

• Margin, not just revenue. Is the percentage of each sales dollar you keep holding steady?
• Costs that moved. Any category that jumped compared to the previous month or the same month last year.
• Anything unexpected sitting in a catch-all category.

It answers: Do we have enough money, and where is it going?

What to look for:

• The actual bank balance against what you will owe in the next few weeks: wages, GST, super, suppliers.
• The gap between profit and cash. If profit is healthy but cash is falling, something is tying money up.
• Money set aside for tax obligations, so it is not treated as spendable.

It answers: Who owes us money, and for how long?

What to look for:

• Invoices older than your payment terms.
• One client making up a large share of what is outstanding.
• A growing 60 and 90 day column, which is usually the earliest warning of a cash problem.

• Division 7A can apply to loans from a private company to a shareholder or an associate. Without a compliant loan agreement and the required repayments, the amount can be treated as an unfranked dividend, taxed in your hands.
• Informal withdrawals are exactly what this rule is aimed at. The intention to "sort it out later" does not change the treatment.

• Poor quality scans. Faded thermal paper is the classic problem. Receipts printed on it can become unreadable within months, so capture them early.
• Receipts saved to a personal phone or inbox, with no connection to the transaction in your accounting software.
• No link to the payment. A receipt on its own does not show that you paid. Matching it to the bank transaction closes the loop.
• Records tied to a single service. If the app or subscription ends, so can access to your records.

1. Capture receipts at the time of purchase using an app that attaches them to the transaction.
2. Check the image is readable before you discard the paper.
3. Back up your records somewhere you control, not only inside one provider.
4. Keep the records for the required retention period.

RBizz sets up simple receipt capture and bookkeeping systems that make the shoebox obsolete. Get in touch if your records still live in a drawer.

Overseas contractors and employees generally expect clarity on what they'll actually receive after any required withholding — and Australian businesses need certainty that they've met their compliance obligations correctly. Reviewing these arrangements properly, rather than defaulting to standard domestic treatment, protects both.

RBizz reviews international contractor and employee payment arrangements to confirm correct withholding treatment — schedule a free consultation before your next overseas payment.