Best Computer for Doctors

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Your a medical professional. Your slammed with an influx of new patients and strict HIPAA guidelines. There’s a stack of patients’ charts and hours of dictation left to do. Now your medical group added new goals to meet by quarter end. How will you balance all it all? How can you adapt to a computerized medical field?

The answer is simple:

Get the right computer, learn the basics, and succeed.

The problem is finding the right computer. 

There once was a time that having someone who knew computers in your family was rare, now their as common as Marvel superhero movies. You end up listening to that 14 year old nephew of yours, and you buy buy that $2100 dollar Alienware laptop or that $1900 dollar MacBook Pro. Now you have no idea how it works and your IT department can’t get the programs you need to run on it.

Now your stuck with an expensive brick that will now be demoted to watching Netfilx and YouTube videos.  

Lets avoid the expensive mistake. Keep these two rules in mind:

Rule 1: You computer should be compatible with your medical group’s network.

This is simple to find out. If your medical group uses Microsoft Office, Exchange for your email server(you can ask your IT department), and the rest of the employee’s have Windows XP, 7 or 8 running on their desktops. Then you should use Windows as your main operating system.

Macs are nice, and yes, you can buy Office and Outlooks for a Mac. Macs are expensive though —which is nothing new— but the biggest issue is having them serviced. Your medical group’s IT department will have almost an endless supply of people who know how to fix windows. Which means if your computer breaks, someone will be able to trouble shoot it. If you have a Mac? Then Billy the I-still-have-a-holier-than-thou-IT-mentality network troll will be the only guy to help you. 

Trust me, most of the medical software out there is designed to run on Windows. You could access your medical groups’s programs on a Mac using a local virtual box, dual booting, or using VMWare or Citrix. The problem is now you’ll either have to configure virtual box yourself or be at the mercy of a wireless network. 

Rule 2: Go with a Solid State Hard Drive

I can go into major detail why solid state hard drives are 100x better than traditional hard drives; however, I believe this video will say enough (its 3 minutes long, but its worth the time)

I recently decided to buy a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO for my laptop. I installed Windows 7 Professional and decided to see this speed first hand. 15 seconds later, Windows was up and ready to go. 

Also, using a SSD will make applications load faster like Photoshop, EMR/EHR programs and radiology viewers. 

One of the reasons Macs are so much faster is because their hard drives are SSD not HDD. Now, an SSD will be more expensive than a traditional one, but benefits outweigh the cost.

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I love Macs, but they are not the best tools in an enterprise/medical environment. They fill a specific niche and that niche isn’t the medical field. If you are willing to drop $1400 MacBook, you could buy a HP EliteBook Revolve 810 which has the same specs and doubles as a tablet.

There you have it. Finally some clear advice for a busy professional. 

Accounting for Real Estate Agents

As a Realtor  your paychecks completely depend on your abilities to sell a house. Unlike others types of employees who receive steady paychecks, Realtor paychecks fluctuate wildly from each sale. For this reason, managing your finances is a paramount importance. 

The major question you may ask is what financial software should you use? This should be your second question, your first question to ask is if you are a independent contractor or employee. 

If you are an employee for your brokerage, then you can use any time of personal finance software to manage your money. I would suggest YNAB for its budgeting capabilities read more here, however, if you need to track expenses for tax purposes then using Quicken Premier/Deluxe would be best. 

Independent contractors should aim use QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Online Essentials. These programs help make tax season a breeze and will reduce the number of times your accountant rolls their eyes when you come in to have your taxes done. While Quicken does handle businesses, QuickBooks will place your taxes in a format that your account would be familiar with, namely using P/L statements, Balance sheets, and other business reports that accountants use for tax filing. 

QuickBooks has a robust tax line mapping compared to Quicken, and it is solely a business accounting program unlike Quicken home and business. If cost is something you are worried about and you also need a mobile solution. QuickBooks Online Essentials will give your the tax reports, mobility, and excellent money management for less than $30 dollars per month.

If you have any questions about setting up your QuickBooks company file or deciding which program to use, leave a comment!

How To Track Equipment Rentals In Quickbooks

Some companies expand their revenue streams by renting out equipment to others. As some business owners may have found out, tracking of rentals and properly accounting for the money they generate is a tedious task. The goal is to show you two ways to track rentals using QuickBooks and QuickBooks Point of Sale.

QuickBooks Only Method

QuickBooks does not have a specific area or tool that allows you to track rentals; however, do not let this stop you.

1. Identify all the equipment you will rent out.
2. Enter the equipment as non-inventory items in QuickBooks
3. Setup the individual equipment names as Other Names
4. Use timesheets to track the rental/reservations
5. Mark the time entries as billable and then create an invoice for billable expenses.

QuickBooks Point of Sale Method

Using QuickBooks POS to track rentals is a lot easier than using QuickBooks. QuickBooks Point of Sale is able to use deposits and set up specific items and fees that can be adjusted on the fly instead of QuickBooks.

1. Identify the equipment you will rent out.
2. Create an inventory item for the equipment.
3. Set the cost to zero, the price to zero, and the quantity to the number of units you have to rent out.
4. Create a non-inventory item named Deposit on Equipment make the price zero
5. Repeat the process above but name the item Rental Fee.
6. When a customer rents the item, create a receipt with the inventory item on the first line of the sales receipt.
7. On the same receipt, Deposit on Equipment item will be the next item you add. The inventory item (the rental) will be 0 dollars, while the Deposit on Equipment will have the amount you are charging for the deposit.
8. Record the receipt, take the payment using standard payment methods.
9. Track the equipment using either a spreadsheet or another process.
10. When the item is returned, locate the receipt and reverse it. This will create a refund for the customer. If the deposit was done using a credit card, the card will be automatically refunded. This process places the rented item back into inventory.
11. Create a new receipt using the non-inventory item Rental Fee and enter the amount for the rental charge.

It may be wise to track rental equipment as a fixed asset in QuickBooks so you can depreciate it for tax purposes. Please speak with your accountant about this.

QuickBooks for Mac

Moving from QuickBooks to QuickBooks for Mac, worth the hassle?

 When you decide to switch your company file from a standard QuickBooks on Windows to the Mac version of QuickBooks, there are some things you need to know:

• Mac 2013 will not have the same features as Pro, let alone Premier and Enterprise. Please review this link before you decide to purchase Mac 2013
• If you do buy Mac 2013, make sure your QuickBooks for windows is no older than two years old.This means if you are using Pro 2010, you have to upgrade to Pro 2013 and then convert the file to Mac 2013. Talk about an added expense.
• Remember that going from Mac to Windows, it has to be the same year.
• Only data files from QuickBooks Simple Start, Pro, Premier, and Premier Accountant can be converted to Mac 2013.
• While the majority of your information will be imported, there are some things that will not
• Any data for multiple currency will be lost.
• Intuit integrated payroll and payroll list items will be lost. (QuickBooks for Mac uses PayCycle and Aatrix Top Pay for payroll services)
• Online banking transactions that were not accepted into the register.
• Online banking aliases
• Customized settings for forms, invoices, estimates, statements, and POs, they can be customized in Mac though.
• Multi User data, such as sales reps info.
• User passwords
• memorized reports
• Business planning, expert analysis and business optimization tools
• Customized price levels
• 3rd party apps are lost (word, outlook, act)
• Merchant services
• Sales orders and back order tracking
• assembly items will be converted into non inventory part items
• budgets created without associated accounts
• workers comp list
• Fixed asset item list
• Multiple ship to addresses, preferred send method, payment info for customer:jobs
• User added columns to list.

There is a lot of info that will be lost during this transition. What would be the best solution? Run a Windows virtual machine on your Mac using VMware or Parallels. This way you don’t have to buy another copy (or two) of QuickBooks. Keep your license number for Windows so you can use it on the virtual machine. This gives you the best of both worlds, you get a Mac and you’re able to keep using vital Microsoft programs such as Office.

Using YNAB for Small Business Finances

I've used YNAB for a while now, and as you can see from my blog, I like the program. My wife and I are not perfect and sometimes we hit financial setbacks that are beyond our control; however, each time we do we stick with our budget. What we see is that we always have enough to pay for bills and get food. YNAB does work, and it works well for personal finances. 

However, what about small businesses? Does YNAB work for a business owner? 

The answer is... It depends.

It depends on your business. YNAB does extremely well for cash flow budgeting and cash based businesses. If you use a cash based accounting system (you get paid when a product/service is rendered and you pay bills when you receive them) then YNAB is great for you. If you need to have an accrual system, YNAB may not be the best choice.

I have a small company that I run part-time, I sell items online and also do some consulting work. I have QuickBooks Pro (since I am a QuickBooks consultant), but I find myself using YNAB more often. Even though I use both systems, there isn't a lot of work since both programs are able to import and categorize transactions. 

I use YNAB to help me keep my cash flow steady and also keep my spending under control. It has the same effect on my company's finances like it does on my personal finances. There are some things that QuickBooks does that YNAB doesn't, like track and manage taxes. Also, YNAB doesn't track inventory. Lastly, the reporting features are lacking when it comes to business reporting, and it cannot do a balance sheet yet.

However, Jesse (the creator of YNAB) is working on improving YNAB for small business owners, so I believe these features will be available eventually. 

If you want more information follow these links:

YNAB for Small Business

Different businesses who use YNAB

Video about YNAB for small business

How To Pay Off Credit Card Debt

Debt is a horrible master. Nothing saps wealth like being in debt. Just take your monthly payments, add them together, then times it by twelve.

How much do you spend on debt?

Once you get the number go to this compound interest calculator. Set as the interest rate a reasonable rate (try 6%). Then set the years to the average length of a car loan (5 years), then take your monthly amount you spend on debt and add it to the calculator. Select the compound interval to yearly. What is the number you get? Image what you could buy or save if you paid off debt!

How do you pay off debt? Follow these simple steps:

1. Get the current balances for your debt accounts.
2. Throw the amounts and list in excel or Google spreadsheets.
3. Sort the list from smallest to greatest.
4. Add due dates, minimum monthly payments
5. Pay off the smallest amount ASAP
6. Take the minimum payment you were paying for the smallest balance and add it to the next smallest balance. Ex: Visa minimum is $50 per month, Master Card is $100. After VISA is paid off, apply th $50 to the Master Card monthly payment making it $150
7. Keep doing this until you reach your mortgage.
8. At this point I would apply half of what you were spending on consumer debt to pay off your mortgage faster!
9. Celebrate!!