Cost. Return on Investment. Operational. Capital Expenditure. Staffing. Its all around us every day; so much that we sometimes overlook the most obvious questions: How much is your Practice Management suite making for you?

Practice Management is Cashflow Positive

Lets define Practice Management as a series of procedures used by you to manage your practice. As discussed in "The Need For Change," this may be a manual process or a full blown suite. It doesn't matter - it has a cost and a return associated. And if it costs more than it returns, there is room for positive change. Here are some of the questions you need to answer:

What is the cost of your Practice Management process? There is no such thing as a "cost free" solution, even if you're using a manual process in a single person office. If you're using pen and paper, then you've got to account for office supplies, storage space and time spent manually entering data and searching through physical files. If you use software of any type, you need to account for licensing costs and computer maintenance. If you're running an in-house Practice Management system, you'll need to include servers, a support staff and any extra programs required to run your Practice Management software (MYOB in many cases).

Where is your time most spent? What activity do you (and your staff members) do most often? Do you find yourself spending time searching through the compactus on a regular basis, looking for a title deed or affidavit? Perhaps the majority of your time is spent rewriting the boring part of documents - address fields and reformatting.

What is the most profitable portion of your your time? Maybe you make the most profit when you search through your compactus or rewrite boring parts of the documents...if so, then nothing is broken in your practice. However if you make the best profit from face to face consultations with clients but only do it once a fortnight, then a closer examination is required.

What is the cost of your computer infrastructure? Do you have expensive servers which are costing big consultancy dollars and ongoing licensing costs? Perhaps there are better practice methods available.

Are you and your staff trained to use your current tools most effectively? If you use a Practice Management suite, are you comfortable with the level of service and training you receive? And is the suite easy to use?

These questions (and many more) need to be answered on a regular basis and are the cornerstone of a basic Practice Health Check which should be carried out at least once per year. As your practice grows, responses will change. At LegalEdge, our consultants have years of business experience in Practice Management and can help determine if your practice can run more efficiently.