Running a successful medical or wellness practice today is about much more than just excellent patient care. If you want your business to thrive, you must also become an expert at tracking and understanding your financial and operational data.
Digging into the numbers isn’t fun for everyone, but by putting in place the right daily, weekly, and monthly process to monitor your financials, you can make sure you are on track to financial stability, while also preventing lost payments and staying compliant.
Whether you're a solo provider or managing a bustling, multi-location team, this article will leave you with actionable insights to safeguard your business and optimize operations.
Start with the Foundational: Tracking with Receipts or Superbills
Before you can get into data analytics and tracking performance, you must master the Superbill — your practice’s financial backbone. A Superbill or Receipt tracks exactly what a payment was for - it’s the difference between knowing that $210.56 was charged onto Jackie P.’s credit card, and breaking out that the $200 covered an initial consultation, 2 supplies, your local state tax - as well as a 10% discount on supplies.
Regardless of what system you’re using - including if you’re still on paper -
- Always create a Superbill: Every time a service is rendered, a Superbill must be created. No exceptions.
- Track packages on your Superbill: Attach the correct charge to track package usage properly.
- Set up taxes and inventory: Prevent tax and inventory tracking issues early on.
- Assign the Superbill correctly: The provider you bill under matters for payment routing and commission tracking.
Digging Into the Analytics: Practical Steps to Financial Clarity
Once you have strong Superbills practices, you’re ready to use analytics to manage and improve your business health. Here's how:
1. Reconciling Your Accounts (Daily)
- Check your daily deposits against your merchant bank account - that entails checking how much money you charged today, and how much money was actually collected.
- If numbers don't match, investigate what was tracked in your Superbills vs. taken by card to see if a payment was missed, a Superbill was incomplete, or the wrong date was entered.
- If everything is set up correctly, this will be a simple confirmation step that takes less than a minute — not a repair job!
2. Understanding Your Outstanding Liabilities (Weekly or Monthly)
Outstanding liabilities can quietly destabilize your practice if not managed properly.
Every month:
- Run your 30/60/90 Liabilities Report to track payments owed to you and use invoicing to collect. If you’re seeing this number growing over time, you need to re-evaluate your payment processes to make sure you get paid ahead of time, or the day of service.
- Review Recurring Payments (under Shortcuts > Admin > Recurring Payments). Keep in mind, 10–15% of credit cards fail each month, so regular follow-ups are crucial.
- Monitor Package Reporting carefully. Deferred revenue from prepaid packages must be tracked to ensure proper tax handling and cash flow management.
- If you sell gift cards, monitor the outstanding balance—these are future service liabilities, not pure revenue today, so you don’t want to spend it as income without taking into account the future expected cost.
3. Tracking Business Performance (Monthly or Quarterly)
Get strategic with your data by regularly pulling performance reports:
- Top Practitioner Metrics:
- Use Practitioner-level Charges and Payments reports.
- Dive deeper into Encounters, Appointments, and Superbills by Date of Service.
- Inventory Performance:
- Track best-sellers via Supplies Sold by Patient and Provider.
- Track best-sellers via Supplies Sold by Patient and Provider.
- Revenue Trends:
- Analyze Patient-level Charges and Payments by Date of Payment, Payment Type, and Location.
- Review COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) where applicable.
Pick 3–4 key questions that matter to your practice (for example: "Who are my top performers?" or "What inventory moves fastest?") and dig into the reports that answer them.
Summary: The Path to a Healthy Business
Success is a habit — and so is smart financial management. Carve out the time daily, weekly and monthly to build financial tracking into your day-to-day and make it a fixture for how you do business! Here’s your timeline cheat sheet:
And remember: every transaction requires a Superbill. This small habit creates the foundation for clear reporting, accurate deposits, and sustainable growth.
OptiMantra makes it easy to implement consistent financial tracking across your practice. From automated Superbills and real-time payment reconciliation to robust reporting tools that track practitioner performance, package usage, inventory, and liabilities, we give providers a clear line of sight into the health of their business. Whether you're a solo practitioner or managing multiple locations, our all-in-one platform ensures you're not just delivering excellent care—but doing so sustainably and profitably. Try it for FREE here.
