Dental practice intake checklist
Dental carries more equipment capital than any other practice type, collects from two sources with different behavior, and increasingly sells membership plans that are deferred revenue rather than income. The items below are the ones a generalist intake never asks for.
This is what we ask for when a dental practice comes on. Send what you have — nothing here is a prerequisite for starting. The list exists so we can tell you early what is missing rather than three weeks in.
1. Access and credentials
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Accounting file — admin or accountant access | QuickBooks Online, Desktop, or whatever you run. We work in your file, not a copy. |
| Bank accounts — read-only access, all accounts | Operating, savings, and any account the practice touches, including ones not currently in the books. |
| Credit cards used by the practice | Business and any personal card carrying practice expenses. |
| Merchant processor / payment portal | Deposits net of fees never tie to production without this. |
| Payroll provider access | Provider compensation is the largest line we have to get right. |
| Practice management system — reporting access | Read-only is fine. This is how we reconcile clinical activity to the money. |
2. Entity, history, and prior filings
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| EIN letter (CP-575 or SS-4) | Confirms the filing entity before anything else is set up. |
| Formation documents and operating agreement | Ownership percentages drive distributions and eventual valuation. |
| S-corp election (Form 2553), if applicable | Determines how owner compensation must be structured. |
| Business tax returns — prior two years | Our starting point for normalized earnings. |
| Prior-year financial statements | Tells us what the last preparer did and where they departed from accrual. |
| Trial balance and general ledger — prior 24 months | The raw material for the cleanup. |
| Chart of accounts export | Usually the first thing we rebuild. |
3. Banking
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Bank statements — prior 12 months, all accounts | Reconciliation from a known-good starting point. |
| Credit card statements — prior 12 months | Where uncategorized and personal spend usually hides. |
| Most recent completed reconciliations | Tells us how far back the file is actually trustworthy. |
4. Debt and leases
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Loan agreements and amortization schedules | Principal is not an expense. Without the schedule your profit-to-cash bridge is guesswork. |
| Equipment financing agreements | Capital vs. operating treatment changes both the P&L and the balance sheet. |
| Real estate lease or mortgage documents | Occupancy cost is a core overhead benchmark. |
| Owner loans to or from the practice | Frequently misrecorded as income or expense. |
5. Fixed assets
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Depreciation schedule from your tax preparer | So book and tax depreciation stop diverging silently. |
| Equipment list with purchase dates and cost | Feeds the schedule and the eventual valuation. |
| Leasehold improvement detail | Often expensed when it should be capitalized. |
6. Payroll and compensation
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Current payroll register | Baseline for provider and staff cost as a share of collections. |
| Employee roster with role and pay basis | Salary, hourly, production, or contractor — each behaves differently. |
| Owner compensation history — salary and distributions | The split determines what the practice actually earns without you. |
| Benefit and retirement plan documents | Real cost per employee, and a planning lever later. |
7. Insurance
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Professional liability / malpractice | Coverage and premium timing. |
| General liability, property, workers compensation | Standard overhead lines we benchmark. |
| Business overhead or interruption coverage | Relevant to the cash forecast. |
8. Owner and related-party items
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Personal expenses currently run through the business | We are not here to judge. We do need to identify them so earnings can be normalized. |
| Related-party arrangements | Building owned by you or a family member, family on payroll, management fees between entities. |
9. Getting it to us securely
This part is not optional.
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Use the secure link we send, not email | Everything here is either financial or protected health information. Email attachments are not an appropriate channel for it. |
| Business associate agreement signed before access | We execute a BAA with every practice before we touch a system that contains patient or client records. Ask if you have not seen one. |
| Grant access rather than exporting where possible | Read-only access to your systems is safer than a file sitting in someone’s downloads folder, and it stays current. |
| Tell us who else has access | Prior bookkeepers, former staff, and old accountant logins should be reviewed and removed as part of onboarding. |
10. Dental specifics
The section a generalist intake leaves out.
| Item | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Practice management access — Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve | Production and collections have to reconcile to the accounting every month. |
| Production and collections by provider — trailing 24 months | The collections-to-production ratio by provider is our first diagnostic. |
| Adjustment and write-off detail by category | Distinguishes contractual adjustments from discounting, which are different problems. |
| Accounts receivable aging | Insurance and patient balances age at very different speeds. |
| PPO participation list with fee schedules | What each plan actually pays against your fees, plan by plan. |
| Membership plan roster, terms, and enrollment dates | We carry the unearned balance as a liability. Most files book it as income on enrollment. |
| Hygiene schedule and hygienist compensation | So hygiene can be isolated as its own profit center. |
| Associate compensation agreements | Whether comp is on production or collections changes who carries collection risk. |
| Lab invoices — trailing 12 months | Benchmarked as a share of collections. |
| Supply vendor statements | The other half of the variable cost picture. |
| Unscheduled and pending treatment report | Diagnosed revenue that appears on no financial statement. Usually the largest recoverable number. |
| Operatory count and days in use | Revenue per operatory tells you whether the buildout is earning its capital. |
Dental intake checklist
The formatted Word version, ready to use or edit. Nothing to fill in first.
Book a diagnostic coaching call.
A conversation about what you are building, what the numbers are doing, and where it stops making sense. You leave with our read on what is driving it and what to fix first.
Free consult