08 Feb Smile at the end of the year with these bookkeeping best practices for dental offices

As we move into the second month of the year, it might seem crazy to talk about year-end, but making sure you develop some excellent bookkeeping best practices now will ensure that it’s smooth sailing once December rolls around. Some of the things you can start doing RIGHT NOW in your practice includes:

Recording sales and reconciling daily

How much money are you making from day to day? Do you know? You’d be surprised how many people don’t. Accounts receivables is a critical aspect of a well run practice and business. Staying on top of invoicing and client payments can be the difference between a thriving practice and a sinking one.

Tracking your expenses

Why is this a good idea? Because if you are spending more than you are making, you will never see a profit and could end up in debt or worse. Plus, if you don’t track where your money is going, how can you ever expect to make sound future financial decisions? Employees are also an expense for your practice, but keeping an eye on the payroll is whole other blog discussion.

Setting up sales targets

How much money do you want to make in your practice? How many patients will you need to see? Is this achievable? Every quarter it’s a good idea to check and see whether you have met your sales targets for those months. If you did, great. Look at what’s working. If not, what can you do to change that?

Paying your bills on time

Simple right, pay your bills. Not simple, however, when you don’t have the money to pay them, or you get busy, and payments don’t get processed. The downside of not paying your bills on time is interest charges. They are essentially taking money out of your pocket for no good reason, other than you didn’t pay on time. All these add up! Don’t forget this bookkeeping best practice.

Having a solid budget in place

Along with expenses, you know you need to pay, you also need to budget for additional costs that could occur. New equipment that may need to buy. Fixing things that break down. Increasing utility costs and other potential unknowns in your practice. How much should you save for a rainy day? Cash to set aside depends on many factors. Since Rochon and Associates takes a pro-active approach, we would love to sit down with you and discuss this.

Referring to your budget

It’s great having a budget, but if you never look at it then it’s not the tool it could be. Referring to your budget every month will help you stay on track with your financial goals. It will make it easier to see where your money is going, and you will be able to adjust accordingly should things not be working out as planned.

Keeping all your bookkeeping information in one place

You can refer to our other post on, the best bookkeeping software for the dental industry to see our recommended software but even if you aren’t using sophisticated software, its good to keep your files organized and in one place so you can easily find and refer to them.

The end of the year comes quicker than you think. If you start now and put some best practices in place, we guarantee YOUR smile will outshine your best patient.