by Nathan Hayes | Jul 26, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas, Cost of Goods Sold/Inventory
When categorizing expenses, there are always some “gray areas,” like whether a patient communication platform counts as a marketing cost or a software/technology expense. (We classify it as marketing, but that’s just our choice.) Even internally, we debate how to...
by Nathan Hayes | Jun 28, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas, General and Administrative Expenses
“Where am I spending too much money?” is one of the most common questions I hear from ODs. And it makes sense: a fast way to increase profits and cash flow is to stop spending money. However, most optometrists tend to be conservative with spending, so it’s...
by Nathan Hayes | Jun 14, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas, Cost of Goods Sold/Inventory, Financial Operations, Goal Setting, Internal Audit, Practice Management
“If you think about it, benchmarks are just a way to make you feel bad about your own practice.” Gary Gerber, OD Recently, I had a conversation with a Books & Benchmarks client who was concerned that his Cost of Goods Sold had recently climbed above...
by Nathan Hayes | Mar 1, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas, Budgeting, Financial Operations, Internal Audit, Risk Management & Financial Security
It’s the beginning of the year, which means many Books & Benchmarks clients are asking to review their 2024 results. It’s a fun time because that means I get to celebrate their successes and talk about what’s next for their practices and how they can increase...
by Nathan Hayes | Feb 15, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas, Non-OD Staff Compensation
Staffing is one of the hardest and most critical aspects of building a great optometry practice. The challenges to getting it right are myriad: recruiting, firing, managing, vision-casting, training, and more go into building and maintaining a great team. I mention...
by Nathan Hayes | Feb 8, 2025 | 7 Key Expense Areas
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer—whether to save money or stay in control—bookkeeping probably isn’t something optometry school prepared you for. Now, we firmly believe most practice owners are better off focusing on patient care, growing their business, or even taking a...
