Creating an expense list is an important part of developing your profit and loss projections, as well as your cash flow projections. (Follow us to catch our upcoming blogs on profit and loss projections and cashflow projections.) Starting with an expense list from an agency that’s been in operation is a good place to start. PBH is providing a list of 80 common expense items you may have in your organization. These items are listed in no particular order.
- Retirement plan
- Continuing education credits (CEUs)
- Marketing for clients
- Staff recruitment
- Association membership fees
- Automobile and other travel expenses
- Bad debt
- Annual banquets or staff events
- Charitable contributions
- Cleaning services (if you have an office)
- Seasonal expenses which may apply such as slow removal, if that applies to your location
- Are you using a vendor for collections? If so, include that here.
- Remodeling or updates over time (painting, new carpets, etc)? Include that as well.
- Computer and internet expenses
- Credit card processing fees
- Allocation of employee benefits
- Vacation wage expense
- Garbage disposal
- HIPAA compliance fees
- Hiring and training
- Special trainings
- Commercial auto insurance if applicable
- General liability
- Professional liability
- Workers comp
- Meals and entertainment
- Clinical meeting snacks
- Professional outings
- Miscellaneous expense
- Moving expenses if applicable
- Office supplies
- Books
- Clinic budget if applicable
- Clinical directors
- Copier lease
- General office supplies
- Office furniture
- Office materials
- Staff supplies
- Current staff material
- Current staff technology
- New staff materials
- New staff technology
- Other employee related expenses including payroll, payroll fees, and payroll taxes
- Background checks
- FSA fee
- Staff training and development
- Travel expenses
- Wages and benefits – BTs
- Wages and benefits (i.e. employee related expenses such as healthcare, dental, life) – BCBAs
- Wages and benefits – support staff
- Wages – training and development
- Wages – bonuses
- Wages – holiday bonuses
- Wages – monthly bonuses
- Postage
- Accounting
- Legal
- ABA Business consulting (PBH)
- Billing
- Program materials
- Publications
- Rent
- Repairs and maintenance
- SBA line of credit fee
- Ongoing monthly loan/SBA payments
- Shredding
- Accounting software
- Anti-virus
- Business email
- Credit monitoring for owner
- File sharing
- HR software
- Scheduling software
- Special occasions gatherings
- Staff appreciation
- Subcontractors
- Telephone
- Utilities
- Website expense
- Taxes
While there could be any number of expenses in an ABA provider organization, the previous list should function as a guide to some of the more common expense items for providers up to about 4 million in annual revenue. Larger providers or providers with a different service model other than insurance funded ABA services, will still find valuable elements in this list.
Interested in learning more? For more blogs from our series on critical considerations for starting a successful ABA company and strategic financial planning for ABA companies, or to learn more about how PBH can help with these or other ABA business, executive coaching, or OBM needs, please email us at info@partnersaba.com, or check us out at www.partnersaba.com where you can sign up at the bottom of the page for further blogs and emails. You can also like us on Facebook and Linkedin to follow our posts.
To learn more about the author, Brandon Herscovitch, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA, click on this link.
