At RSM, we have worked on hundreds of pharmacy acquisitions. Buying a pharmacy takes longer than you would think and needs attention to detail. 

Our experience will ensure that you:

• pay the right price for the pharmacy
• have the right pharmacy business structure to suit your circumstances
• get the right commercial terms into your pharmacy lease and contract
• get the right deal with your bank and can afford the loan for your pharmacy
• meet the requirements of the State pharmacy board or council, Medicare Human Services  and the Australian Community Pharmacy Authority (ACPA) if necessary

Buying a Pharmacy

Buying a pharmacy is a lengthy and involved transaction. Having the right adviser in your corner will ensure you go through the experience smoothly.

Undertaking a due diligence is critical.  Neither the Vendor nor the broker is there to act in your best interests.  The variables in actual profit you are buying vs the profit you are paying for can prove to be costly.  The experience our pharmacy team has from dealing with many pharmacies means we can recognise the areas to investigate further.

Relocating a Pharmacy

Location rules are set down by the Federal Government and administered by the ACPA.

The ACPA has very little discretion and if you wish to relocate your pharmacy or acquire a pharmacy number and move it. It is very important that you meet the exact requirements of the rules. 

We can ensure that you:

• apply under the correct rules that suit your circumstances
• collate the exact information required by the ACPA

At RSM we can:

• submit documents on your behalf on time and manage your application
• work with lawyers who are also experienced in this area if there are difficult problems to solve or an appeal is necessary

Relocating a pharmacy requires attention to detail to ensure you get it right the first time.

Having an application rejected means you are without sufficient rights to dispense medicines which will delay the opening of your pharmacy.

Data. Management. Advice.

For retail pharmacy owners, being able to gather that data and access it regularly in a manner that allows quick decision-making is no longer a luxury.

In the health industry, data abounds.  The retail pharmacy industry is no exception with data flowing from retail transactions, dispensing, professional services, stock and staff. 

At RSM, we realise that most owners can see the opportunities.  Having the data at your fingertips will only assist in taking the right decisions more quickly.  Our pharmacy team has done some work with the data analytics team at RSM to bring together the Retail Pharmacy Management platform that looks to take your management insights to the next level.

By utilising data directly from your POS, your Xero file, your payroll file if that is different, your website – in fact from most sources you can think of – our RPM platform gives you 24x7 access to what is going on in your pharmacy.  And if you have more than one pharmacy, RPM can show the data on each business and also your group performance.

What does RPM tell you?

The RPM platform will allow you to drill down as far as you wish on POS data and can also provide you trends on a number of measures as well as some standard pharmacy key performance indicators.

The RPM Advisory Service

Talk to us now at RSM and see how you can have access to your pharmacy data, combined with our regular advisory services where you can draw on our experience to take stock and plan your next move. Active data, active management, real advice.

Learn more here 

Making sure your numbers add up can save you stress and the cost of fines.

Pharmacy has many nuances that make accounting, GST and income tax not so straightforward. Having an accountant who understands your industry can minimise or eliminate your risks.

RSM has prepared business activity statements (BASs), financial statements and income tax returns for hundreds of pharmacies.  We know where the pitfalls are and can guide pharmacy owners and their bookkeepers in how to properly account for pharmacy businesses. 

Making mistakes in BASs can be costly.  And ensuring your financial statements and your BASs align requires an experienced pharmacy accountant.

Good accounting practices lead to useful information

Believe it or not, that ‘paperwork’ which pharmacy owners often ignore, can actually produce good management information if it is processed correctly the first time.  So, taking the time to ensure you manage your tax compliance risks, by properly recording your transactions, means you also produce good information for reviewing the performance of your pharmacy.

If you have borrowed money from your bank, you will most likely have to produce financial information on a regular basis.  Having good accounting practices in place means that you can provide this information to your bank in a timely manner – once your pharmacy accountant has had a quick look at your accounting file. 

Perhaps your cashflow slows down and you need to request a temporary overdraft.  Having good accounting information means that you can provide your banker with up to date results and answer that question about why this has happened, with some help of course.

Let the pharmacy team at RSM take care of it for you

We can assist by coaching your bookkeepers and reviewing your files regularly (quarterly basis as a minimum recommended) OR the team at RSM can be your bookkeeping team. We have done literally hundreds of pharmacy BASs and processed the same amount of supplier statements and invoices and reconciled PBS and other sources of pharmacy income many times. The RSM team can take care of the accounting for you, ensuring your BASs are accurate and on time, ensuring that your accounting files are up to date and accurate and that they are ready for the year end tax compliance requirements. More importantly, you now have the right data available for quarterly management services if you wish to take advantage of our pharmacy knowledge.

Want to know more?

PHARMACY ACCOUNTING, GST AND TAX

STRATEGIC OUTSOURCING FOR YOUR PHARMACY 

Pharmacy succession planning and going into partnership can take many forms.

Pharmacy ownership can be shared by:

• Pharmacists owning a share of the business personally in a partnership
• Pharmacists owning shares in a company that owns the business
• Pharmacists owning units in a unit trust

In some states a pharmacist can use another legal entity to act on their behalf in each of the transactions contemplated above.

Whether you are looking to plan your succession or simply go into business together with another pharmacist, there are business, legal and tax considerations around what structure best suits the pharmacy and the people involved.

At RSM, we have experience in all the variations of pharmacy ownership and can assist you get the business relationship and structure right for the future.

New Partnership Issues to be addressed

To get the best outcome the following issues should be addressed:

• determining the relative interests and the price
• knowing the future arrangements for buying an increased share
• formal agreement around the rules, voluntary and mandatory exit
• ensuring the cash flow works
• finalising the operating structures and having agreements that suit
• securing the funding
• organising the appropriate approvals
• liaising with the lawyers
• ensuring that all agreements are signed BEFORE you start

WHERE DO I START

Many people in business together do NOT have in place the right documents to deal with the management and succession plan of their business.

We have found that most people who own part of a pharmacy do NOT have in place sufficient documentation to deal with their ownership. Partnerships, companies and trusts are different legal entities and, for the sake of business continuity and enhancing the value of your investment, it is important that you have documented how your share is dealt with in the future.

As trusted business advisors, we are able to work with you and your legal team to put in place the arrangements that work well for all parties and give you clarity on the future of your investment in the pharmacy.

Many disputes could be avoided if there was an open discussion at the start of the business relationship about each parties’ expectations and a document agreed and signed that reflects these.

At RSM, we can appreciate the nuances of pharmacy ownership and can work with you to plan for the future.

At RSM, we go beyond tax returns and work with pharmacy owners to manage today’s results and plan for the future by analysing data and talking to you plainly about your pharmacy.

Pharmacy tax and structuring is a big topic of conversation.  We ask you to consider just how much experience the person has who you are talking to about tax.  Is it your pharmacy friend from down the road or is it a seasoned retail pharmacy accountant who knows the traps?

When it comes to pharmacy tax and structuring advice, RSM’s specialists have you covered because it is what we do. RSM ensure the risks are covered around tax compliance required by pharmacy owners. 

Not only that, we believe we can add value when it comes to transactions to ensure you use the structure that suits you and the business.

The ATO covers a lot of ground and they have access to data from a number of sources.  We believe clients should attend to their tax affairs with integrity and ensure that they do what is expected, know the fundamental areas of compliance and will seek advice on complex issues.  It is no different to the expectations you have of your customers when they have health issues.  You want them to seek out your advice because you know how to approach the problems.

Pharmacy owners should see tax as another overhead that needs to be managed. And like all major overheads, you want forewarning of how much it is going to be and when it is payable.  And you also want to know how you can manage it and where possible reduce it.

The right pharmacy structure should:

• provide maximum flexibility to suit your business strategy
• maximise your after tax cash flow so that it suits your needs

 SOMETIMES WE MAY RECOMMEND THAT YOUR PHARMACY STRUCTURE BE CHANGED TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS.

 In all cases we will seek to:

• identify the costs and benefits of changing your structure
• minimise or eliminate stamp duty in many cases
• minimise or eliminate capital gains tax
• The pharmacy industry has complex tax and structuring accounting needs. The RSM team understand pharmacies and your unique operating environment.

The pharmacy industry has complex tax and structuring accounting needs. The RSM team understand pharmacies and your unique operating environment.