Choosing the Right Bookkeeping System for Your Dental Practice

It makes it surprisingly difficult to distinguish which activities belong in which category later. Because dental education doesn’t prioritize financial management, it’s easy for new practice owners to make unforced errors. Fortunately, many of them are easily avoidable when you know about them in advance.

We chose Dropbox because it’s HIPAA safe and easy for clients and their CPA’s to access so you will see me referring to Dropbox. For example, one important rule in our bookkeeping process, (but so rarely followed by almost every practice that comes to us) is each and every transaction in QuickBooks needs a vendor name. It’s super easy to miss because of the way QuickBooks imports the transactions from the bank without the names in the vendor column but has it in the memo. Let me know if you’d like me to explain the importance of this and how to do it in more detail, but this is a good example of what you have to remember to do before you start doing anything.

Must-Know Bookkeeping Tips for Dental Practices

You can use this guide to research bookkeeping firms, evaluate their services, and choose the right bookkeeper for your practice. Yes, hiring an accountant for your dental practice can be beneficial. An accountant can provide advice on tax planning, financial management, and other areas related to your dental bookkeeping practice’s finances. Tyson Downs is the founder of Titan Web Agency, a company specializing in marketing for dental professionals. With an impressive track record of working with over 100 dental practices, Tyson has a deep understanding of the unique marketing needs within the dental industry.

The first thing you’ll need to consider is the bookkeeping firm’s experience and expertise in the dental industry. Their job is one that’s ongoing throughout the year and provides your accountant with the information they need to analyze your finances, provide tax planning tips, and so on. Reviewing your finances is an important part of ensuring your bookkeeping process is working well. Not reviewing your financial situation regularly can leave you with unanswered questions about your business.

Medical Assistant/MA – Physician Practice – HARTVILLE

Providing care to your dental patients is a full-time job, and every additional hour you can dedicate to your core competency increases the efficiency and profitability of your business. Alternatively, dentists can switch to a fee-for-service approach, which involves setting your prices for services and collecting payment in full from patients upfront. You or the patient can still submit a claim to their insurer for reimbursement if there is one. Dentists accept the lower prices insurance companies set for their services in exchange for the consistency of capitation payments and increased patient volume due to insurance referrals.

Work through the steps below and add your own individual needs along the way. I’d like to share our Bookkeeping for Dentists monthly checklist with you and walk you through the items on it so you can also achieve the same quality bookkeeping. If you’re not the one doing your bookkeeping, then this would be great to share with your current bookkeeper or accountant to follow along. Contact a dental bookkeeping specialist today to help you organize your books. Our combined expertise in the dental industry gives us an edge of dental understanding.

UNDERSTANDING HOW YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY

You need good accounting management for your practice to be able to separate and match payments, whether most of your patients pay in cash or through insurance. Each field needs a different way of managing money that can be tailored to it. For lack of this, you won’t be able to get what you’re owed or scale well. It involves keeping track of your financial transactions, preparing financial statements, and managing your budget. Effective bookkeeping can help you make informed business decisions and ensure your practice is financially stable. The dental bookkeeping firm you hire will be responsible for tracking your cash flows and expenses and possibly managing your payroll too.

• Typically, choosing the fee-for-service approach implies a shift to a quality-over-quantity strategy.
• Dentists are rarely excited by the prospect of financial concerns interfering with their craft, but you can’t afford to ignore that aspect of your responsibilities.
• However, we here at Dental Bookkeeping will compile and organize this information each month to keep it as stress-free as possible, allowing you to make better decisions for your practice.
• Don’t hesitate to seek professional help if you need it, and remember that financial management is a continuous process that requires ongoing attention and effort.

A dental accountant is someone whose job is to analyze and interpret the data created by the bookkeeper. They can look at your financial statements and other reports, make recommendations about spending or investing your money, and help you with strategic planning to meet your goals. Running a dental practice has a lot in common with running any business. Another step that is often missed by inexperienced dental bookkeepers would be to reconcile payroll. I can’t even tell you the countless payroll mistakes we find practice owners making after we reconcile payroll each month. Manual paychecks written that don’t match payroll reports, taxes withheld that weren’t paid over, voided payrolls that weren’t voided correctly.