Practice CEO · practiceceo.com · Sample practice. Invented for demonstration. Not a real practice. Educational software, not tax, legal or investment advice.
Sample practice. Invented for demonstration. Not a real practice.
A practice you can study before you own one.
Schools teach the clinical side. This is the other half: how an owner reads the books, finds a pay line buried in wages, and decides what to do first. Everything is invented, so there is nothing to protect and nothing to get wrong.
A solo general practice in a suburb of a mid-size US metro: 5 operatories, Dr. Elena Vargas, 2 hygienists, 1.5 assistants and 1.5 at the front desk. Payers: 41% fee-for-service, 34% PPO A, 25% PPO B. About 26 new patients a month.
| Year | Collections | Net production | Collected | What the practice paid you | % of collections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $850,000 | $881,000 | 96.5% | $334,025 | 39.3% |
| 2024 | $930,000 | $965,000 | 96.4% | $364,535 | 39.2% |
| 2025 | $1,015,000 | $1,053,000 | 96.4% | $393,780 | 38.8% |
| 2026 (Jan to Sep) | $760,000 | $788,000 | 96.4% | $278,870 | 36.7% |
What the practice paid you is your own pay plus what was left after costs, before interest, depreciation and one-time items, and with the personal auto the practice paid added back (2023: $4,500; 2024: $4,650; 2025: $4,800; 2026 so far: $3,600). That auto cost sits inside Everything else on the scorecard, so scorecard rows subtracted from collections come to that much less than this figure, and the scorecard overhead leaves out your pay, interest and depreciation. Net production is gross production less PPO adjustments.
The three an owner would do first.
Three moves, in dollars, with the steps. Each one says what it gives back to your week. These are aims; results vary.
The top action from each officer, each with the whole plan and the three buttons. Try them: the sample keeps your answers on this device only.
Check how supplies are coded, then get quotes
Supplies are 8.7% of collections, up from 7.4% in 2023 and above the usual top of 8%. $10,400 of the $66,100 is on a "Small equipment" line inside supplies. Without it supplies read 7.33%, inside the range. Arithmetic illustration, not a forecast or a promise. Equipment is often coded to supplies, so this may be a coding question before it is a spending one.
First step. Ask your bookkeeper which small-equipment purchases belong in another account (your CPA sets the rule), then get one competing quote on your top three clinical items.
What this gives you back. One monthly order to review instead of a stack of invoices.
Dental supplies is 8.7% of collections. The usual range is 5 to 8%.
Dental supplies reads above its range, but the line may be coded into or out of another. Check the coding before acting; no dollar figure until then.
Show the arithmetic
- Collections a year: $1,013,333 (from your entries).
- Dental supplies: $88,133 a year ÷ $1,013,333 in collections = 8.7%.
- Top of the usual range: 8% x $1,013,333 = $81,067.
- No dollar figure yet: check how this line is coded first, because supplies, lab and equipment are often booked into each other.
Our assumptions. Change any to match your office.
Book the next hygiene visit before the patient leaves
First step. Make it the default at checkout: the hygienist says the date in the chair, the front desk books it before the patient reaches the desk, and nobody leaves without a date or a reason written down. Post the percentage every Friday.
What this gives you back. Fewer open hygiene chairs and no recall list for you to chase. The front desk owns the next visit.
You reappoint 68% of hygiene patients before they leave. The usual range is 80 to 90%.
At your collections of $84,444 a month, each patient who leaves without a date is worth about $240 a year in hygiene plus the restorative it finds. Closing to 85% is about $37,000 a year.
Show the arithmetic
- Hygiene visits a month: 151 (our assumption: a quarter of your $84,444 monthly collections, $21,111, divided by a $140 visit).
- Patients in the chair each year: 151 x 12 ÷ 2 visits each = 906.
- Closing from 68% to 85% means 154 more patients a year leave with a date (906 x 17 points).
- Each one is worth 50% who never come back x 2 visits x ($140 hygiene + $100 restorative found) = $240 a year.
- 154 x $240 = $36,960 a year.
Our assumptions. Change any to match your office.
Make every dollar name a patient
What this gives you back. Know which dollars bring patients, so you can stop guessing.
26 new patients last month on about $2,556 a month of marketing. That is $98 per new patient.
$2,556 a month is $30,672 a year. Writing down how each new patient found you shows which part of it earns its place.
Show the arithmetic
- $2,556 ÷ 26 new patients = $98 each.
- $2,556 x 12 = $30,672 a year.
Card fees have crept up
Card processing was 2.25% of collections in 2023 and is 3.3% this year. On this year's pace that is about $10,600 a year more than the 2023 rate.
What to notice. A fee that rises a little each year never trips an alarm. Comparing a line with the practice's own past is how it shows up.
A 9.75% loan worth a question to a lender
Practice loan: 9.75% fixed, started in 2022, about $468,100 left. That is about $45,600 a year in interest, and each full point of rate is about $4,700 a year.
What to notice. Math and questions only. What a lender would offer today, and what switching would cost, is a lender's answer.
Your pay was sitting inside wages
Wages as booked read 42.9% of collections. $108,750 of that is Dr. Vargas's own W-2. Without it staff cost is 28.6%, inside the usual range.
What to notice. An owner's own pay is not a staffing cost. Reading it as one makes a healthy team look expensive.
A strength: fee-for-service and collections
41% of the practice is fee-for-service, and collections run 96.4% of net production. Both are the habits worth protecting.
What to notice. Know what is working. The front-desk habits behind a 96% collection ratio are the thing not to disturb while fixing the rest.
Two things nobody mentioned.
A bill that jumped: Summit Business Internet
It was $189 a month from January through July and has been $389 since August. That is $2,400 more a year. Often a promotional rate ended; the vendor can say which.
A charge that appeared: Bookrite Scheduler App
$149 a month, every month since June, and nothing like it before. About $1,788 a year. Nobody on the team mentioned signing up for it.
Found by reading nine months of the practice's bank file on this device. Real files work the same way.
Finance OfficerStaff cost with and without your pay, where the cash goes, every line against its range
Your pay was found inside wages, so staff cost reads 28.6%, in range. Three money moves: supplies coding, card fees and a loan question.
Usual for a general practice: about 24 to 30%. Your own pay is not a staffing cost, so it is taken out before staff cost is compared.
Where the cash goes, each month
An average month over the 9 months read.
Why it can feel tight even when the practice makes money: collections come in, then costs, your pay, loans, the card and taxes take their share. Add what you know; every box is optional.
- Collections$84,444
- Costs of running the practice−$53,859
- Your pay−$12,083
- Loan payments−$7,675
- Retirement contributions−$1,500
- Big annual bills, a month at a time−$800
- Card paydown (balance over 12 months, before interest)−$2,192
- Left to live on$6,335
The card line is a 12-month example, not advice. How fast to pay it down, and in what order against other debt, is a question for your CPA or financial adviser.
Add cash on hand and big annual bills
Saved only on this device. Taxes, loan structure and retirement are questions for your CPA: take these numbers with you and ask. This is arithmetic from what you enter, not advice.
Shaded bar is the typical range; the dark marker is you.
Staff cost: 42.9% with your own pay, 28.6% without it. The read below uses the second number.
Typical ranges are for a general practice, as a share of collections, from published dental-industry sources and our own estimates (including for California). They vary by market, payer mix and how a line is counted; they are ranges, not targets. Last updated October 2026.
Questions to bring your CPA
- Before December 31: which year-end items on my checklist apply to me, and what has to run through payroll by about December 20?
Operations OfficerThe front-office numbers, and a Friday check for the office manager
Hygiene reappointment is the one gap. Case acceptance, collections and broken appointments are in range.
Friday 15 minutes, for the office manager
- Count next week's open hygiene and doctor time, and who on the short-notice list could fill it.
- Share this week's hygiene reappointment percentage with the team.
- Check how many of the top 20 unscheduled treatment calls got an answer.
- Name one patient comment from this week, good or bad, and what changes because of it.
Marketing OfficerSpend per new patient, reviews and where new patients came from
Marketing notes for this month, tied to your numbers.
Your own month, in about ten minutes.
Free right now, no signup.
Where the ranges come from: method and sources.