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DENTAL PRACTICE OPERATING BUDGET

Many dentists do not develop or rigorously follow a budget or a business plan. They’d rather get a P & L or Year to Date Income Statement and use that as their budget. But a P & L or an Income Statement is a report on 'past performance.' It is too late to take any action, make corrections or make adjustments. As important, you can’t make plans or generate targets and goals that are consistent with reality without a budget.

A budget is a proactive process that confronts reality, it requires you to take responsibility and make targets that allow you to uphold your financial integrity. Without financial integrity you won’t make money.

We have completed this process with hundreds of dentists. The first time you complete this budget, it will take time. But stick with it, calibrate and refine it each month, and within six months you’ll have a real budget process that will absolutely work. And, you’ll have a budget process that will continue to work for the life of your practice.

If you find yourself resisting, putting it on the “back-burner” . . . Don’t! It won’t be as bad as you think and once you begin, you’ll have it done in a reasonable period of time.