4 pieces of veterinary office equipment to budget for next year
Take stock of what you have now as you build your budget for 2011.
It’s the end of the year, so you’re inevitably working on next year's budget for your veterinary practice. And as you eye your expenses for 2011, don’t skip over technology upgrades. According to Lacher McDonald, CPAs, the following equipment is well worth your consideration and will make your practice run more efficiently.
Multiple computer monitors. Two monitors will soon be the desired standard minimum and three can help you be very efficient. As running a paperless veterinary practice becomes more achievable, multiple monitors allow you to view several items concurrently and make entries as desired on any one of the screens you’re viewing.
New computer workstations. Costs of new workstations have been falling and with the recession, PC manufacturers have pulled out all the stops to offer rock-bottom prices— $600 to $800 per unit can score you a very nice system.
Fast scanners. These are extremely important in a paperless practice, and for under $1,000, a desktop unit will scan as fast as you can feed it documents. The era of having one gigantic scanner and copier unit is coming to an end in this age of great desktop scanners. High-end desktop scanners will run around $850.
Printers. Consider adding a laser printer to your arsenal. You don’t need one at every desk. Again, as more practices go paperless, they’ll be printing less and scanning more. So instead of buying a few cheaper printers that could slow down your staff, consider investing in a good quality, fast printer that multiple team members can share.
