Clinic ERP Consultant, India

Company-owned, franchise and partner branches

Many Indian clinic brands combine company-owned company-operated branches with franchise-owned franchise-operated ones, and sometimes a third model where the brand runs a clinic inside a partner's premises on a revenue share. Each model needs different accounting. Revenue at an owned branch belongs to the company. At a franchise branch, the company usually earns royalty, a share of revenue or margin on supplies it sells to the franchisee, and the franchisee keeps its own books.

Problems start when the same clinic software runs everywhere but settlements are worked out by hand. Head office cannot see franchise royalty receivables clearly, consumables supplied to franchisees are not invoiced on time and disputes over the revenue base drag on for months.

I document each branch model and design how its data reaches the ERP: full transactions or daily summaries for owned branches, and a monthly settlement for franchise and partner branches, built from agreed revenue figures, with royalty invoices, supply invoices and the related GST generated consistently. Owners then see network revenue, owned-branch profitability and franchise income separately, which is what investors and lenders usually ask for first.

Consultant payouts, revenue share and TDS

Doctors in Indian clinic chains are paid in many ways. A dental chain may pay specialists such as orthodontists, endodontists and implantologists per case, while general dentists are on salary with incentives. Dermatology and hair clinics often pay a share of procedure revenue. Diagnostic networks may retain pathologists and radiologists on a fixed fee for reporting. Visiting consultants are usually paid as professionals, which brings TDS into the calculation.

When payouts run in spreadsheets, the same issues repeat: disagreement over which bills count, delays waiting for collections data, and TDS deducted inconsistently across branches. I collect each payout model, write the rule with its revenue basis, deductions for materials or lab work, timing and treatment of refunds, and decide whether it is paid through payroll or as a professional fee through payables.

The applicable TDS provisions, rates and any lower-deduction certificates sit with your chartered accountant. The ERP design makes sure deduction, deposit and reporting data are captured cleanly for each consultant and branch, so quarterly compliance does not depend on rebuilding a year of payouts.

GST for exempt treatments, aesthetic procedures and new states

Healthcare services provided by clinical establishments and authorized practitioners are broadly exempt from GST in India, but a clinic chain's invoices are rarely all exempt. Cosmetic and aesthetic procedures can be taxable depending on their nature, retail skin and oral care products are taxable, and franchise royalties and supplies to franchisees carry GST of their own. Because exempt income restricts input tax credit, purchases often need splitting or credit reversal working, which your chartered accountant will want supported by the system.

Expansion adds a registration question. A branch in a new state generally needs its own GST registration, so the ERP has to hold several GSTINs, issue invoices from the right one, handle stock transfers between states and produce returns per registration. I design the branch-to-GSTIN mapping and the service and item codes with your chartered accountant, then turn them into test cases: an exempt consultation, a taxable aesthetic procedure, a retail sale, a franchise royalty invoice and an inter-state stock transfer.

E-invoicing applicability depends on your turnover and the type of transaction, so I check it with your advisor and confirm how each shortlisted platform handles it before any decision is made.

Treatment packages, EMI financing and advance collections

Orthodontic aligners, implant treatment, hair restoration, laser courses and some fertility and eye procedures are often sold as packages. Patients pay an advance, pay in installments at the clinic, or take an EMI through a financing partner that pays the clinic up front and may charge a subvention fee for no-cost EMI schemes. Each route leaves a different trail in the bank and the books.

If the clinic software records the full package as revenue on day one, branch results swing month to month and refunds for discontinued treatment become hard to trace. I design packages as advances that are released as stages of treatment are completed, by the branch delivering them. Financing partner settlements are reconciled against the underlying package, with the subvention fee recorded as a cost to the branch that sold it.

The accounting policy for packages, and the GST treatment of advances, are confirmed by your chartered accountant. I then check that the clinic software, the payment and financing reports and the ERP follow that policy together, and that open package liabilities are reported by branch.

Consumables, reagents and moving off Tally

Dental materials, implants, aligner cases, injectables, medicines, eye care lenses and lab reagents all need control. Diagnostic chains often receive analyzers under reagent rental arrangements, where the supplier provides equipment in return for reagent purchase commitments, so reagent consumption per test and per branch becomes a key figure. I design indents from branches, central purchasing, batch and expiry tracking and consumption reports that tie stock to billed services.

Most chains start from Tally, often one company per entity or region, with branch stock in the clinic software or spreadsheets. Migration means standardizing item codes, carrying over open receivables from franchisees and corporates, and loading consultant and supplier masters with PAN and GST details. A pilot branch runs first, then the rollout follows state by state.

I evaluate Zoho, Odoo, ERPNext and Business Central against your scenarios, and the work runs remotely with recorded sessions for branch staff. See ERP for clinics, the India healthcare ERP page for hospitals, my ERP consultant page for India, the India hub and ERPNext in India.