Departments Inpractice
Select one of our departments below for more information:
INPRACTICE is the Benson Wood. specialist department for the medical profession.
We want you to reap maximum rewards from building a successful practice. To help you achieve this, our services don’t just deal with compliance matters but are tailored to plan and manage the growth of your business and personal wealth.
Proven professionals
Benson Wood was established in 1971 and is now one of the leading accountancy firms in the North East.
In particular we are proud of the reputation and long term relationships we have built with our doctor clients and contacts over the years.
Working alongside practices to meet their accounting and business needs has provided us with a wealth of experience. In turn, we have concentrated on adding value for our clients by helping them reach their financial goals through effective management and planning. We have developed a dedicated service team with a detailed working knowledge of both PMS and GMS and a thorough understanding of the business needs of practising doctors.
Our doctors’ services include:
Specialist advisers to deal with all your compliance and ad-hoc requirements
A highly developed detailed benchmarking programme, which provides you with invaluable performance indicators and statistics
Highly experienced tax professionals to deal with practice and personal taxation requirements
The very latest tax and accounting software for compliance requirements and planning
The reassurance of trained staff who are kept up to date with any changes that may affect your practice.
The NHS and particularly Primary Care is very much in a period of transition and change and it is therefore more important than ever to have the involvement of specialist accountants.
Implementing best practice
The introduction of PMS and GMS 2 has brought a greater need for practices to focus on quality and management issues. This is in keeping with the Department of Health’s aim to promote new ideas and total quality in practices, which in turn leads to improvements in patient services and profitability. The key issues they highlighted are shown here:
Improving Profitability
We have helped a large number of firms improve their profitability. This has been achieved by building strong relationships at all levels of the practice and working to understand not just practice systems and processes but also values, motivations and ambitions. We can then draw on our substantial industry knowledge and experience to suggest realistic improvements that are in keeping with your goals. In particular, we can assist in succession planning, practice development and the critical issue of cash flow planning and management, which all ensure the continued success of your practice. Benson Wood provides a high quality, cost-effective tax planning service developed through handling the affairs of professional partnerships, continual staff training, use of in-house tax experts and the latest technology. We can meet the needs of your practice and its individual partners.
Effective Tax Planning
Our aims are to minimise tax exposure, develop an effective and flexible tax planning strategy and ease the burden of administration requirements. Optimum use of reliefs and forward payment planning will enable the practice to effectively manage each partner’s drawings requirements and, therefore, its own cash flow. We also consider retirement planning to enable succession in the practice.
Total Quality Procedures
- Management structure
- Services and forward planning
- Financial management
- Managing people
- Office administration
Achieving best practice standards can be time-consuming and therefore expensive.
Having established our own practice through the development of quality initiatives we can help you avoid the pitfalls and streamline the process that leads to improvement.
Constructive Advice
Our role as adviser is to help practices manage change, advise on a broad range of management issues and promote the cultural change often required to achieve best practice.
Benchmarking
Through our benchmarking service we can give you an insight into the profession in which you operate. Our reports show key performance indicators, allowing you to compare your practice with others of a similar profile. As well as highlighting areas where improvement can be made, this identifies aspects of your practice that perform above expectation.
IT Development
From our understanding of a practice’s requirements for accounting software, we can offer advice and guidance on development of suitable systems.
Financial Planning
Our financial services company gives clients access to independent financial planning advice. A financial plan can support business and personal goals. We can advise on:
- Income protection and critical illness cover
- Long-term care
- Retirement planning
- Investment advice
- Mortgages
Taxation
Benson Wood provides a high quality, cost effective taxation service developed through handling the affairs of professional partnerships, continual staff training, use of in-house taxation experts and the latest technology. We can meet the needs of your practice and its individual partners.
Effective Tax Planning
Our aims are to minimise tax exposure, develop an effective and flexible tax planning strategy and ease the burden of administration requirements. Optimum use of reliefs and forward payment planning will enable the practice to effectively manage each partner’s drawings requirements and, therefore, its own cash flow. We also consider retirement planning to enable succession in the practice.
Working Together
The practice’s tax affairs will be co-ordinated by your relationship partner with a tax specialist handling each partner’s personal tax requirements. We never advise on one aspect of the practice in isolation. Before giving any advice, we will consider the tax, commercial and practical implications for the business and make a recommendation that balances the needs of each area.
IHT Planning
We shall develop an overall tax planning strategy that will meet your specific needs for the short, medium and long term. Your plan will require regular reviews to cater for your own changing circumstances, such as the birth of children or grandchildren.
Value added tax advice
When introduced in 1973, Value Added Tax was hailed as a simple tax but in reality it is far from that. As a tax on transactions its rules are particularly complex. Very often its effects are not considered until it is too late, or not discovered until an assessment for tax has been issued. The ease with which errors can be made makes systems appear all the more unforgiving.
Our own VAT specialists are available to provide advice on matters affecting your practice’s transactions. They have helped many of our clients reduce VAT assessments and liabilities, particularly for partial exemption and land and property transactions. Recent changes in legislation mean that VAT planning is now even more important - the price of getting it wrong may be severe. Careful planning with the assistance of our VAT specialists in conjunction with our other professionals considering all the transaction implications will ensure the optimum results.
If you want more than compliance from your accountant, contact us now for your free initial consultation.
Peter Wood FCA
Tel – 01642 607 047
E-mail – peter@bensonwood.co.uk
