Dental Practice Finance Blog | DSO CFO
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From the Blog

What we're reading in dental P&Ls

Real numbers from real practices. Overhead benchmarks, tax timing, and cash strategy, each translated into what it means for your take-home.

Start Here · Case Study

Same $2M collections, a $320,000 difference in take-home

Two general practices, similar markets, similar teams, nearly identical collections. One owner kept $700,000 last year. The other kept $380,000. The gap lives in five ordinary overhead lines nobody was reading, and each one has a healthy range you can check against your own P&L this week.

Read the full breakdown
$320K
Gap in owner take-home between the two practices
5 lines
Supplies, hygiene payroll, front office, rent, collections rate
15 min
The monthly reading habit that explains the difference

Overhead & Margin

Overhead · Supplies

7.4% on supplies sounds close to 6%. In dollars it isn't.

A 1.4 point gap is $28,000 a year on a $2M practice and $140,000 across five. Four reasons a practice runs high, and only three of them are problems.

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Overhead · Hygiene

13% of collections on hygiene wages: is that too high?

Two practices can post the identical wage percentage and have opposite problems. The six numbers that tell you which one you are.

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Overhead · Margin

62% overhead is average. 55% changes the economics.

Seven percentage points is $140,000 a year at $2M in collections. Why the goal is productive overhead, not the lowest overhead.

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Tax & Cash Strategy · September

Tax Strategy · Equipment

Section 179 can change the timing. It shouldn't decide the purchase.

A deduction improves a good equipment investment but can't rescue a bad one. The order to run the decision in, and the December detail that catches owners.

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Tax Strategy · Cash Flow

Quarterly estimates: kill the April surprise.

A profitable practice can still write a painful April check. Why that is a cash planning problem, and how four checkpoints a year fix it.

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Tax Strategy · Retirement

Your retirement plan could be doing more than you think.

When a cash balance plan makes sense for a high earning dentist, what it really commits the practice to, and why cash flow comes first.

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Your Numbers

Want a second set of eyes on your P&L?

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