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 run short because the result and the cash follow different clocks. The Betriebsergebnis records a claim when it arises, while the bank account moves only when payment lands. Wholesaler invoices fall due on their agreed terms, reimbursed prescription turnover arrives after the settlement run, and the Kassenabschlag is deducted before the transfer rather than billed afterwards.

A pharmacy year has recurring squeezes that a plan can see coming. February is usually weak after the December and January peak, while the fixed costs of February are unchanged. Quarterly income tax prepayment dates 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 land 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 behaves differently from reimbursed turnover in this respect. The money is in the till on the day the work is done, whereas dispensing revenue including the Packungsfixum arrives weeks later through the settlement route. The equipment and the first consumables, on the other hand, are paid 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.