Accounting for a Dental Practice
Our client is a dentist who had been practicing for over two decades in two separate offices. He had a number of accounting concerns. He was receiving payroll tax notices for unpaid taxes and also paying penalties for late payment. His checking accounts were not reconciled in a timely fashion. Accounting was done with Excel spreadsheets. And worst of all, he was surprised in April to discover that he owed much more federal and state tax than he had expected.
The first thing we did was set him up on financial software. For this dental practice, we determined that QuickBooks was the best option and set up the software with his accounting information. We trained the dentist how to process checks, record deposits and run reports using QuickBooks. To ensure that his accounting was done correctly, we reviewed and adjusted his books quarterly.
Next, we took over all payroll functions for the practice staff. By having his payroll processed accurately and in a timely fashion, the dentist was able to avoid future tax penalties.
Finally, we reviewed the practice’s financial performance regularly with the dentist, with particular emphasis on forecasting. This allowed us to predict his annual profits and set up estimated tax payments to avoid future unpleasant April surprises. We were also able to identify “growth” months during which the dentist focused on acquiring new patients.
We were able to help this dentist improve his practice profitability and revenue growth while increasing his understanding of the practice financials. But most importantly, we significantly reduced the time spent by the dentist on accounting…leaving him more time to focus on dentistry.
