Home care agency management can be a bit of a juggling act. Not so long ago, software systems for supporting the demanding tasks of marketing, accounting, and overall home care agency management, seemed non-existent. Thankfully, today, software options exist the can make the responsibility of running an agency much more manageable.

Here, we will showcase three of them – one for marketing – one for organizing financial aspects of the business – one that encompasses both practical aspects of scheduling and staffing – plus payroll and record keeping.

Marketing Software to Build Business

Various marketing strategies are important for home care agencies.

• SEO focused content marketing can drive traffic to your website.
• Social media channels are great for spreading the word about your services.
• Referrals from current customers and their families are a means of convincing those in need of services that yours are legitimate.
• Traditional newspaper ads are still a good option.
• As is utilization of Google AdWords.

But here we will feature email advertising. Email is one of the oldest forms of internet communications. But that doesn’t mean it’s outdated. Longevity is a reason you shouldn’t overlook its benefits – as this Forbes post notes.  Email campaigns are low cost, and can be geared for any age group. Some strategies for effective email compositions and campaigns include:

• Keeping messages short and succinct.
• Tracking engagement.
• Enabling feedback and reviewing it.
• Using custom templates.
• Signing up for a customer relationship system to simplify campaign implementation.

Signing up for a customer relationship management team can be useful in implementing the rest of the list.

MailChimp and other email marketing software options allow you to easily create email campaigns and track performance. Analytics, like those featured by MailChimp, track engagement so you can tweak your email campaign, make it increasingly more effective.

Reviewers award MailChimp a five-star rating in regard to value for the money. Ease of creation even with no coding experience brings email campaigns within the reach of every business, regardless of staff IT skills status.

Newsletters can also be created via MailChimp. Deliverability of emails is reported excellent by users, compared to some services whose emails can end up in spam folders rather than inboxes.

Email campaigns remain an effective way to engage with current and potential clients. MailChimp makes keeping communication channels active easy, amid the chaos of managing a top quality home care agency.

QuickBooks to Manage Finances

Hiring a full-time, dedicated accountant isn’t a possibility for many small home care agencies. But keeping track of every dollar spent is necessary for the successful operation of any business. The simple to learn and use software system of QuickBooks provides a solution for home care agency managers who must maintain their own accurate record of the company’s income and financial expenditures. QuickBooks even offers timesheets for caregivers and home health professionals.

What are home care timesheets?

“Home care timesheets are the best way for home health care providers to track and communicate the time they spend on the clock for different projects. Customizable home care timesheets take the guesswork out of time tracking and payroll for many home health agencies.”

– Sourced from the QuickBooks site.

The timesheet program (which is virtual) makes it simple to access accurate payroll figures. Home care workers appreciate QuickBooks timesheets as the system keeps track of their location via GPS, for complete work hour records and also supports security of the employees.

Note: FirstVisit Software Inc.’s system- detailed next – integrates with many features of QuickBooks. This integration makes time verification, invoicing, billing, easy and automatic. The system supports nearly all financial aspects of home care management.

FirstVisit Software To Manage Almost Everything

What is FirstVisit software?

You were probably basically familiar with Mailchimp and QuickBooks before this post. But if you are in the home care business, and you haven’t heard about the features of FirstVisit, now is the time to familiarize yourself with this integrated software service that supports home care agency management.

As a home care agency owner or manager, you may have dreamed of a master system capable of managing multiple administrative tasks. Such software has been around for some time, for some business sectors. But until recently, it wasn’t a viable option for home care agencies, in spite of the record growth of the industry.

FirstVisit software is a comprehensive, secure, cloud-based software system built by a team that understands the needs of the home care industry. The system makes it easy and efficient for home care management to keep up with:

• Scheduling.
• Billing and payroll.
• Caregiver service hours.
• Care documentation.
• Record keeping.

The functions are viewed and controlled from a centralized dashboard. FirstVisit’s goal is to streamline the day-to-day service of your home care agency so you can focus on growing your business.

FirstVisit services are secure and compliant

• Data is fully encrypted both in transit and at rest.
• Data is anonymized.
• Rolling nightly backups are performed.
• Business Associate Agreements have been signed with software vendors whose services we utilize.
• The company adheres to all HIPPA recommendations.

Automation builds bottom lines

Automated employee tracking is an accurate and fair way to ensure employees are paid for actual time on the job. It saves home care agencies money in several ways. Less paperwork and staff work hours are required to record payroll information. Automated scheduling and tracking prevent unintentional, expensive overtime.

Automatic invoicing and other accounting tasks also reduce the need for excess work hours for office staff members, free time for business promotion. – Like creating those Mailchimp email campaigns.

Automated monitoring and integration of systems ensures compliance – reduces risk and errors

Integrated tasks reduce the chance of overlooking vital elements of day to day operations, record keeping and reporting requirements.

The FirstVisit system keeps track of clock-in or clock-out infractions and sends alerts when staff licenses are nearing expiration. Tracking of employees by GPS, monitoring of times at job sites is a security feature for employees in addition to a way to accurately monitor work hours.

If you own or manage a home care agency, and you aren’t already taking advantage of the latest available software options for building your business, managing daily tasks, monitoring staff, keeping up with long term records and compliance considerations, you may want to explore such options further.

Remaining competitive in an industry that’s growing requires innovation.  If a one-stop software for keeping track of most everything involved in home care agency management sounds promising, check out a demo of FirstVisit’s customizable, secure, user-friendly system.