One clinic, three businesses, one chart of accounts
The revenue split is where optometry bookkeeping is won or lost. We separate clinical fees (OHIP-insured and private exams, imaging charges), prescription dispensing (frames, lenses, contact lenses) and taxable retail (solutions, drops, non-prescription sunglasses), each with its own cost of goods. A blended statement says the practice made money. A split one says the exam lanes ran flat while the dispensary carried the quarter, which is the sentence you actually need.
The same split does the compliance work. Exams are HST-exempt, prescription eyewear is zero-rated with input tax credits available, and retail carries 13% at the till, so the HST return needs clean category totals every period. That only happens when the ledger was built for it on day one. Our End-to-End Accounting engagement runs the whole stack: bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting and tax filing under one roof.
| Revenue stream | What the books must capture |
|---|---|
| OHIP-insured exams | Billings by claim, reconciled to the OHIP remittance advice, with reduced or rejected claims flagged while they are fresh |
| Private exam and imaging fees | Exempt clinical revenue at your own fee schedule, never mixed into dispensing income |
| Prescription eyewear and contact lenses | Zero-rated sales matched to frame and lab costs, so margin per job is real |
| Retail: solutions, drops, non-prescription sunglasses | 13% HST collected at the point of sale and remitted with the return |
The daily close is where the split either survives or dies. The practice-management day-end summary has to tie to the deposit batch: cash and debit at the desk, the card settlement, the HST collected on retail lines. We set that tie-out up once, as a five-minute routine for the front desk, and then the month-end takes hours instead of a weekend. When a day does not balance, it gets fixed that week, while someone still remembers the refund or the re-do that caused it.
Frame and lens inventory that ties out
The frame board is inventory, and unwatched inventory misbehaves. Styles age, reps swap stock, vendor discounts blur the true cost of a frame, and a few unnoticed walk-outs a month never reach the books. We put structure around all of it: purchases flow through Dext with terms and discounts captured, counts happen on a calendar instead of a hunch, and year-end is a procedure rather than an estimate.
- Frames are tracked by unit and by age, so slow styles surface before the next buying appointment instead of after it.
- Lenses and lab charges are matched to the jobs they belong to, because a single lump-sum lab line makes per-job margin unknowable.
- Contact lenses get their own category, split between stocked boxes and drop-ship orders, since their margin profile looks nothing like frames.
OHIP, insurers and the receivables in between
Money arrives from four directions: OHIP for insured exams (patients 19 and under, 65 and over, and adults with eligible medical conditions), patients paying at the desk, insurers paying through direct billing such as Telus Health eClaims, and patients settling whatever their plan left behind. Each needs its own reconciliation rhythm. We tie OHIP deposits back to submitted claims monthly, age the direct-billing receivables so plan money never quietly goes stale, and keep patient balances visible instead of buried in a catch-all account.
Payroll, associates and the monthly close
A typical practice mixes employed opticians and optometric assistants on T4 payroll with associate optometrists paid per exam or on a percentage split, usually as independent contractors. CRA cares about that line, so we document the working relationship deliberately instead of assuming it. Payroll runs, source-deduction remittances and year-end slips all live inside the same engagement as the books, handled by the same people who see the revenue they relate to.
Each month closes with a short package an owner can read between patients: dispensary margin by category, exam volume against last year, payroll as a share of revenue, and the cash position after HST and tax set-asides. QuickBooks Online holds the ledger, Dext the paperwork, Plooto the payables.
Year-end without the archaeology
Because the same firm keeps the ledger and files the returns, year-end becomes assembly instead of excavation. The corporate return draws on stream-level numbers that existed all year, the HST filings already match the sales mix, and the equipment schedule is current because additions were classed when they were bought. For Mississauga and GTA practices we are close enough to do the messy parts in person: the first inventory count, the software cleanup, the conversation about what the dispensary should earn next year.
Source: Ontario — What OHIP covers.
