While most practice owners immediately understand how Owl Practice can add value to their day-to-day operations, others benefit from walking through the ways a practice management solution can save them time and money.

So practically speaking, how do you save money by using a practice management solution?

 
1. Time Savings – One of the first benefits practice owners realize when starting to use a practice management system is how much time it saves them.  This comes in the form of easier ways to schedule, manage client contact details, create and sign notes, and manage client billing.  Our customers tell us they save 4-6 hours per month after starting to use Owl Practice.  This is time they can then spend on seeing more clients (and earning more revenue), or doing things outside of practice life. 
2. Reduced No Shows – An automated Appointment Reminders feature allows practice owners to proactively remind clients of their upcoming appointments.  This results in minimized No Shows and missed revenue.  It also helps avoid awkward conversations about getting paid when a client doesn’t show up.
3. Better Collections – With all a clients billing and payment information in one integrated tool, practice owners are better able to remind client’s of any outstanding balances which are owed, and insure they’re collecting on these overdue amounts.  These can be actioned proactively, rather than languish for months unattended to.
4. File Storage & Retrieval – With all professional colleges having significant record retention requirements, the costs associated with managing offline paperwork can be significant.  These costs include physical filing cabinets, offsite document storage (when you run out of space), and retrieval costs associated with obtaining archived documents. Using a practice management solution with a document upload feature will save you a lot of headaches, significantly reduce your storage expenses, and automatically back-up all your files so you never lose any client records.
5. IT Simplification –  With a web-based practice management solution, there is no software to install, upgrade or maintain.  This results in less time spent doing this work, or paying an IT professional to manage the necessary software installations.  In addition, these systems automatically back up your data for you, saving you the expense of purchasing a backup hard drive, insuring that it’s actually working as needed, and then creating a second backup for offsite storage.  All these aspects of managing your practice data are automatically taken care of with a web-based practice management solution.

Here are some concrete examples of costs savings you could achieve:

• becoming faster at your scheduling, contact management, billing, and note creation you save 3 hours per month
• collecting on one more session per month that would otherwise be bad debt
• getting clients to show up to an appointment one time per month instead of No Showing
• reducing the need for offsite storage and retrieving documents four times per year
• eliminating onsite and offsite backups and two IT visits per year

Let’s do some simple math here.  With a billable hourly rate of $120, here’s how much you could save each month*:

• more efficient administration = $180
• collected session = $120
• eliminating one No Show = $120
• file storage & retrieval = $50
• backups and IT services = $30

Total savings = $500 per month

Even if you think these numbers are high estimates (we don’t think they are) or you are convinced you’ll only see savings on some, but not all, areas, you can quickly see how a practice management solution more than pays for itself.

None of this logic so far highlights the peace of mind that comes from becoming a whole lot more organized when you start using a practice management system.  Knowing that all your practice data is in one secure, backed-up repository that’s accessible anywhere and anytime is definitely worth something too.

Practice wisely!