Liquiditätsplanung

Liquiditätsplanung is the forward list of money coming in and money going out over the next weeks and months. It starts from the actual bank balance, adds the receipts expected on their payment dates, subtracts the payments due on theirs, and carries the closing figure into the following period. The question it answers is whether the account will cover what is due, which is not the same question as whether the pharmacy is profitable.

A profitable pharmacy can still be short of cash, because the result and the payments are recorded at different times. The Betriebsergebnis records a claim when it arises, whereas the bank account changes only when the money is actually paid. Wholesaler invoices fall due on their agreed terms, reimbursed prescription turnover is paid after the settlement run, and the Kassenabschlag is deducted before the transfer rather than billed afterwards.

A pharmacy year has recurring cash shortages that a plan shows in advance:

• February is usually weak after the December and January peak, while its fixed costs are unchanged.
• Quarterly income tax prepayments and the trade tax dates fall on their own calendar regardless of the month's takings.
• Stock is built ahead of a season or an expected price change, which moves cash out well before it comes back.
• Holiday pay and year end bonuses are paid in the same months every year.

None of these is a surprise, which is precisely why they belong in a plan rather than in a phone call to the bank.

A service paid at the appointment reaches the account sooner than reimbursed turnover, because the money is in the till on the day the work is done. Dispensing revenue including the Packungsfixum is paid weeks later through the settlement route, while the equipment and the first consumables are paid for before a single appointment is booked, so the outflow appears in the plan before any inflow does.

The Betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung will not show any of this, because it reports the result rather than the balance. Which prepayment dates and amounts apply, and how they can be adjusted during the year, depends on the pharmacy's own assessment and belongs with the Steuerberater before the next quarter.