Clinic ERP Consultant, Australia

Service fees, contracted practitioners and payroll tax questions

Many Australian medical centers and some dental and allied health groups engage practitioners as contractors rather than employees. A common model has the practice collect patient fees and Medicare benefits on the practitioner's behalf, keep an agreed service fee for rooms, staff and administration, and pay the balance to the practitioner. Other groups employ some clinicians, pay sessional rates to others and run a mix of both after acquisitions.

How these arrangements are recorded matters. Is the money collected treated as the practitioner's or the practice's? Is the service fee invoiced to the practitioner, and with GST? How are refunds and Medicare rejections handled in the statement? State revenue offices have looked closely at whether payments under some of these arrangements attract payroll tax, so the documentation and the accounting need to match the agreements your advisors have reviewed.

I do not decide those questions; your accountant and lawyer do. What I deliver is a design in which each arrangement is written as a rule, statements are produced from practice software data, the ledger reflects the agreed structure and every figure can be traced. That makes advisor reviews easier and practitioner queries quicker to answer.

Medicare, health funds and gap payments at the front desk

On a single day an Australian clinic can be paid in several ways. Bulk-billed consults are paid by Medicare later. Privately billed patients pay at the desk and may claim a rebate themselves. Patients with extras cover have their health fund benefit claimed on the spot through a payment terminal and pay the gap. DVA, NDIS plan managers, self-managed participants and workers' compensation insurers each pay on their own schedule.

Claiming belongs to the practice software and the terminals connected to it. The finance problem is what arrives in the bank: batched deposits from Medicare and funds, card settlements net of fees, and third-party payments that cover many patients at once. If the ledger only sees a monthly revenue journal, unmatched deposits and short payments sit unnoticed.

I design a summary from the practice software by clinic, funder type and period, plus a matching routine for each deposit stream. Clearing accounts make the timing visible, and short payments or rejections are assigned to someone for follow-up. Owners can then compare clinics on collected income and see where revenue is waiting, without any patient detail entering the ERP.

Class packs, memberships and GST-free versus taxable sales

Allied health groups increasingly sell clinical pilates and exercise class packs, rehabilitation programs and memberships, while dental groups offer membership plans for patients without extras cover. These are paid in advance and used over weeks or months, often at more than one site. Recording them as revenue on the day of sale overstates the selling clinic and leaves no record of what is still owed to patients.

I design packs and memberships as unearned revenue that is released when sessions are attended, ideally to the clinic that delivered them, with rules for expiry, transfers and refunds that your accountant has approved.

GST is the other touchpoint. Many health services are GST-free when supplied by recognized professionals, while cosmetic treatments, retail products and some classes or programs may be taxable depending on how they are delivered and by whom. A pack that mixes both needs careful coding. Each item's treatment is a decision for your tax agent; I turn that into a code list used consistently by the practice software and the ERP, with test cases for UAT so the first BAS on the new system holds no surprises.

Acquired practices, consumables and the rollout template

Allied health and dental groups in Australia frequently grow by buying established practices. Each one arrives with its own Xero or MYOB file, its own supplier accounts and its own practitioner arrangements. Without a standard path, the group ends up running several accounting styles side by side for years.

My rollout template sets that path: practice code and any entity changes, account mapping to the group structure, practitioner arrangements captured in the agreed format, funders and terminal settlements connected, supplier accounts moved to group terms, consumables catalog and par levels assigned, and a closing checklist for the first month on group systems. The pilot practice tests it, and I refine it before the next acquisition.

Consumables range from tape, dressings and exercise equipment to dental materials and, in cosmetic practices, injectables that need batch and expiry tracking. Interstate freight and supplier minimum orders make central purchasing worth designing carefully. Registration of practitioners with the national regulator and other compliance duties stay with your clinical leads; the template simply records who owns them.

Platform fit and remote delivery across Australian time zones

Most groups I speak with run Xero or MYOB, practitioner statements in spreadsheets and stock counted by hand, if at all. Sometimes better integrations around the existing accounting system are enough; larger groups usually need an ERP with purchasing, stock and multi-entity reporting. I test Odoo, Zoho, ERPNext and Business Central on your scenarios, including a service fee statement and a mixed GST pack.

Health information is sensitive under Australian privacy law, so interfaces carry clinic codes, funder types, practitioner references and amounts only. Your privacy officer reviews the flows and the hosting location of shortlisted platforms.

All sessions are remote, booked to suit whichever state your head office sits in, and recorded for practice managers who are with patients. See also ERP for clinics, the Australian healthcare ERP page for private hospitals and larger providers, my ERP consulting page for Australia, the Australia hub and data migration for moving several Xero or MYOB files into one structure.