Most clinic owners know whether last month felt busy. Fewer know whether it was profitable, which dentist’s chair was half empty, or how many patients quietly stopped coming. Busy and healthy aren’t the same thing.
You don’t need a finance team to run a clinic by numbers. You need about ten of them, checked once a month, in the same way each time. Here are the ones that matter, what each one tells you, and what to do when it moves.
Money
1. Billed vs collected
What it is: the value of invoices issued in the period, beside the cash that actually came in.
Why it matters: the gap is what patients still owe. A growing gap means the clinic is working for free on credit. Look at it alongside payment reminders and instalment plans.
2. Profit
What it is: collected minus expenses, staff pay, lab costs and stock used.
Why it matters: this is the number that pays the owner. Counting only expenses paid in cash this month makes profit swing wildly: a month where you stocked up looks terrible, the next looks great. Counting stock used and lab costs per case gives you the real picture.
BeClarified’s money report shows revenue (cash in, beside what was billed) and profit calculated exactly this way, for any period.
3. Insurance receivables
What it is: what each insurance company owes, and for how long.
Why it matters: insurance can be a large share of revenue and a long wait. A company that pays late, or short, costs more than its patients bring in. See dental insurance claims.
Chairs and appointments
4. Chair utilisation
What it is: booked hours as a share of the hours your rooms were open.
Why it matters: the chair is the clinic’s main asset. Utilisation below about 70% usually means capacity to grow without hiring. Consistently near 100% means you’re turning patients away, and it’s time to extend hours or add a chair.
BeClarified calculates this from your work week, minus closed days.
5. Attendance and no-shows
What it is: how appointments that started in the period ended: attended, cancelled or missed.
Why it matters: each no-show is a lost hour. Watch the trend after changing your reminder routine, and look at who misses repeatedly. BeClarified lists patients who missed two or more appointments in the period. See 7 ways to reduce no-shows.
6. Booking requests
What it is: requests from the patient app in the period, and how far they got: confirmed, completed, rejected, cancelled or still waiting.
Why it matters: a pile of waiting requests means patients are waiting for an answer. Lots of rejections mean patients want times you don’t offer. See online dental booking.
Patients
7. New vs returning patients
What it is: patients whose first visit ever was in the period, and patients who’d been before.
Why it matters: new patients show your marketing is working. Returning patients show your care is. A clinic with plenty of new patients and few returning ones is filling a leaky bucket.
8. Lost patients
What it is: patients with no visit for a set number of months and nothing booked.
Why it matters: these are the cheapest patients to win back. They already know you. BeClarified lists them, and you can pick patients to create a call-back task for each one.
9. Patient sources
What it is: where new patient files in the period came from: referral, social media, walking past, insurance network.
Why it matters: it tells you where to spend your marketing time. If referrals bring most new patients, a loyalty program that rewards referrals is a better investment than more ads.
10. Feedback scores
What it is: how patients rate their visits, and the low scores that need follow-up.
Why it matters: it’s an early warning. Scores usually drop before patients leave. BeClarified sends a short survey after visits, puts low scores on a follow-up list, and invites happy patients to review you on Google.
Dentists
11. Production per dentist
What it is: what was billed on each dentist’s invoices, what was collected, their visits and the pay they earned.
Why it matters: it shows who’s busy and who’s profitable, which are not always the same. It’s also the basis for fair commissions. See how to calculate a dentist’s commission.
12. Treatment plan acceptance
What it is: the share of proposed treatment plans that patients accept.
Why it matters: low acceptance often points to how plans are explained or priced, not to the patients. Compare dentists, and pair a strong presenter with a newer dentist.
BeClarified’s per-dentist scorecard brings together production against target, visits, no-shows, feedback and plan acceptance, and dentists can see their own figures without seeing anyone else’s.
A 30-minute monthly review
- Billed vs collected, and profit. Is the gap growing?
- Chair utilisation by room. Where is there space?
- No-shows and repeat no-shows. Who needs a call?
- New, returning and lost patients. Pick lost patients to call back.
- Feedback. Read every low score.
- Per-dentist scorecards. One conversation per dentist, based on numbers.
Write down one action for each. Next month, check whether it moved. See reports for how it looks in BeClarified.
Frequently asked questions
How often should we look at these numbers? Monthly for the full review. Daily, the home page is enough: today’s appointments, collections and balances.
Should the whole team see the KPIs? Share what each person can act on. Reception can own no-shows and booking requests, dentists their own scorecard. Profit usually stays with the owner.
What’s a good no-show rate? It varies by area and patient mix. What matters most is your own trend: compare each month with the last.
Do I need to export to Excel? No. BeClarified’s reports are built in and update live for any period you pick.