Finance and Compliance Guidance for GP Practices

21 November 2024
2 min read
Share:

Comprehensive guidance on managing GP practice finances, premises, banking, payroll, and pensions, with actionable tips and tools for compliance.

Finance

Wessex LMC has written a handy guide to primary care finance which can be viewed here

Accountants

A GP partnership, PCN or GP Federation will need an accountant and it is advisable to have a specialist medical accountant who is aisma registered. Sandisson Easson are a specialist medical accountant and you can view their website here .

Suggested My PM Tasks:

  1. Yearly EOY Accounts Preparation

  2. Monthly bank reconciliations on XERO/IRIS

Premises

If your partnership owns premises, you will be required to complete a CMR1 form on an annual (sometimes longer) basis. This form allows you to list the space within the premises, opening hours, room utilisation and parking spaces outside. The CMR1 form is allocated to a district valuer from the NHS and they will then inform you of a "notional rent". This figure can be challenged and you can ask the team at GP Surveyors or BW Healthcare Surveyors to carry out a rent review and liaise with NHS England directly to obtain a higher figure.

Remember that any new lending must be stress tested against your partnership finances to ensure a new term or interest rate doesnt deplete your partnership current accounts - it is always best to see accountant advise before signing a loan agreement from someone such as Sandisson Easson.

Add an annual notional rent review to your My PM dashboard

Banking

Some business bank accounts such as RBS/Natwest and Lloyds have specialist GP Partnership departments ensuring that you have a personal banking manager who can assist with day to day banking queries along with preferential lending rates

We reccommend speaking to Sandisson Easson or Ian Crompton at Primary Care Finance for latest bank account, savings or lending matters

Suggested My PM Tasks:

  1. Yearly renew overdraft requirements with bank manager

  2. Monthly import bank statements into XERO/IRIS

Payroll

Whether you run payroll in house or outsource it, adding monthly tasks to your My PM portal will ensure you never miss a step.

PAYEDOC offer a fully managed payroll package specifically adapted to general practice requirements inc full NHS Pension management.

Suggested My PM Tasks:

  1. Approve staff overtime/holidays weekly

  2. Input staff sickness weekly

  3. Submit monthly payroll spreadsheet to

    PAYEDOC

    7 days before payroll

In some instances PAYEDOC can automate the BACs payment to staff from your banking system. If not consider adding a monthly BACS transfer of staff wages task to your My PM Portal.

If you are running payroll in house, consider:

  1. Monthly P32 payment to HMRC by 20th of following month

  2. Monthly MCP/GP1 submission to NHS Pensions by 5th of following month

  3. Monthly NEST pension submission

Pension

All workplaces by law must offer a pension scheme for their employees.

In general practice we offer the NHS Pension. If a staff member is not elegible to join the NHS Pension scheme you must offer an alternative - NEST is the most common.

You can administer staff NHS Pensions on the NHS POL Portal . To find out more about NHS Pensions click here .

Remember by outsourcing payroll to a GP Payroll specialist such as PAYEDOC this will all be taken care for you.

If you are adminstering the workplace pension scheme yourself you will be responsible or auto enrolment. This means automatically opting in new staff members and explaining how to opt out the following month if they wish to do so and issuing a refund. You will also have regular staging dates set by the Pension Regulator where you will need to repeat the process for anyone not actively contributing to a pension scheme.

You are required by law to submit your declaration of compliance regularly on the Pension Regulator website.

Add a task to My PM so your dont miss any of your auto enrolment duties!