Budgeting For Your Office

Video Transcription

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to this lesson. We'll be looking at budgeting and tracking expenses for your office, which includes identifying expenses associated with providing a comfortable, clean, and safe practice. So here are the specifics that we'll cover this lesson-- first, budgeting for office needs; creating a comfortable space; keeping a clean space; practice safety; tracking expenses.

It's necessary to budget for all aspects of maintaining an office from which you practice. The average cost of owning a solo, full-time practice, including rent, utilities, and supplies, is around $20,000 to $35,000 a year. To create a good environment for the counselor and the clients, the office must be comfortable, clean, and safe. Expenses associated with maintaining a good office environment are generally $50 or more per month.

Now a counselor's values will influence how much money they spend to ensure the comfort, cleanliness, and safety of the office environment. Maintaining comfort and cleanliness will likely account for many of the ongoing expenses of the private practice. Keep in mind that it's easy to go overboard on expenses and that it's important to balance what you consider the minimum and the maximum amount necessary in order to satisfy comfort needs, cleanliness needs, and safety needs. Spending either too much or too little can create issues for you, so this entails some clear thinking and planning.

So as a starting point, consider your location and clientele as a way of determining how much to spend and which aspects of office needs will require more of the budget. Comfort expenses include necessary items to facilitate a comfortable office and waiting room for both the counselor and the client. Comfortable offices tend to include several of the following-- supplies for coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and soda, which requires a coffee pot, tea kettle, and cups, napkins, stirrers, creamer, sugar, sugar substitute, and, possibly, a refrigerator.

So here are a few items to consider-- boxes of tissue, as well; candy and snacks for children who are seen directly after school hours; waiting room magazines; music; TV; comfortable and clean chairs and couches that provide body support for both the counselor and the client. Now keep in mind that the office supplies are an ongoing expense that can cost from $20 to $100 per month.

So I once saw a counselor whose office was a complete disaster. Your space is a reflection of you. So first impressions matter. And ongoing comfort after that first impression is essential to keep therapy flowing effectively without environmental distractions. So clean offices tend to include many of the following-- clear, visible garbage cans; hand sanitizer; easily accessible cleaning supplies, such as a vacuum, duster, window cleaner, paper towel, bucket, and mop, soap, and toilet paper.

Now cleaning supplies are an ongoing expense that can cost from $10 to $50 per month. So it's important to consider how you will keep doorknobs, countertops, waiting room books and magazines, coffee pots, handles, toys, and client access computers clean and germ-free. You've got to think about all this stuff.

Chairs and couches can be difficult to clean due to clients such as children or labor-oriented workers who may attend appointments immediately following work. Taking out the garbage and light cleaning and refilling of supplies tends to be on a daily basis and something the counselor might want to prepare for doing by himself. So as you grow, hiring a cleaning service and ordering supplies in bulk may be more cost effective and efficient way for you to spend your time. This takes time to complete a thorough cleaning via a service and can cost upwards of $100 per visit.

Client and counselor safety is paramount for a successful practice. Safety concerns exist for the client and for the office and for the equipment and for the counselor. Safe offices tend to include some of the following-- ample outside lighting, clean floors, secure doors and windows, sound machines for conversation privacy, locked file cabinets, password-protected computers, a paper shredder, backup hard drives. It's important to have clearly identified signs marking the bathroom, fire escape plan, and areas designated as a smoke free. Additional signage, such as gun or weaponry policy, counselor license, and disclosure or updated policies need be clearly visible in the waiting room or in the counselor office.

Tracking office expenses is important because most or all of expenses may be tax deductible. Tax deductible expense examples can be found on the IRS.gov website. Using a system for tracking is extremely helpful. Examples of such tracking systems can include various phone apps, phone cameras for taking pictures of receipts, Excel-type worksheets, and accounting software. It can be tedious to track expenses, especially if you wait until the end of the year and have piles and piles of receipts to go through. So it's a good idea to track with your system a way that will include logging expenses very shortly after they occur.

So note that tracking expenses also helps you to be aware of how much you're spending on your office expenses, and compare that to your original budget. And it enables you to look for areas where you might be able to save money.

So here's what we covered in this lesson-- budgeting for office needs, creating a comfortable space, keeping a clean space, practice safety, tracking expenses.

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