Dental is a high-capital, insurance-capped, membership-driven business, and the accounting has to reflect all three.
A dental practice carries more equipment debt than almost any other practice type, collects from two sources with different behavior, runs hygiene as a distinct profit center, and increasingly sells in-house membership plans that are deferred revenue rather than income. Each of those breaks a generic chart of accounts in a different place, and the errors compound in the same direction: the practice looks healthier than it is.
Looking for how we work with dental practices rather than the underlying mechanics? Dental practices →
The guides
Production is what you diagnosed. Collections is what arrived
The collections-to-production ratio, unscheduled treatment, annual maximums, and where dental revenue actually leaks.
Cash FlowHeavy equipment, real debt, and a collection lag
Why loan principal never appears on your P&L, and the profit-to-cash bridge that ends the confusion.
ProfitabilityOverhead percentage is the dominant lever
Isolating hygiene margin, reading overhead by component, and why scheduling density beats cost-cutting.
Deferred RevenueMembership fees are earned across the year
How in-house plans should be recognized, and what a buyer does with the unearned balance.
Finance RolesWho you actually need, and when
Bookkeeper, controller, or CFO, with the dental-specific questions each can and cannot answer.
Growth & Sale ReadinessSingle practice or platform
5.0x SDE against 12x to 13x adjusted EBITDA, and what buyers normalize in between.
The dental toolkit
The checklists we actually use, what we ask for at intake, and what we check every month. Published in full, downloadable as Word files.
General information for practice owners, not accounting, tax, legal, valuation or investment advice for your situation. MedPraxis CFO is not a CPA firm, a registered investment adviser, or a business broker. Talk to your own CPA, attorney or adviser before acting on anything here.