Buying a dental practice
- Asking price as % of collections
- 75
- Price per active patient
- $416.67
- Collections per active patient a year
- $555.56
The only constants in these sheets are the two payment tables: the monthly payment per $1,000 borrowed over 10 years and over 5 years, at half-point rates between 3% and 15%, computed from the standard amortisation formula. Every other number is worked from the figures you enter: the price, the shares, the rates, the earnings, the documents and the days, with the arithmetic printed beside each answer. The 10 year term is the longest an SBA 7(a) note runs for a purchase without real estate; the defaults are one buyer's worked example, not a price guide and not a lender's offer.
Buying a dental practice is the purchase where the buyer most often knows the clinical side cold and the deal side not at all. The price is quoted as a share of collections, the lender wants the last three years of tax returns and production reports, the seller's software counts active patients one way and the buyer's accountant another, and the documents arrive in the order the seller finds them rather than the order the lender needs them. This guide is the buyer's side of that purchase: what the asking price implies, what the checklist has to hold, and how the free checklist sheet on this site keeps the paper moving against the closing date. Every figure here is the worked example's own arithmetic from the figures you enter.
Open the Buying a dental practice checklist Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Read the asking price against collections and patients
A $750,000 asking price on $1,000,000 of annual collections is 75% of collections, $416.67 per active patient across 1,800 patients who each produced $555.56 last year. Those three ratios are the first conversation with your lender and your accountant, and the sheet returns them from the seller's own report.
Turn the seller's promises into a numbered list with dates
Twenty-four documents requested, sixteen received, is eight outstanding and 67% complete. With 60 days from the letter of intent to closing and 20 already gone, the sheet shows 40 days left and roughly one document a week to chase, which is the figure to put in the next email to the seller.
Allocate the price before closing, not after
The price is split across equipment, supplies, the patient records and goodwill, and both sides report the split on IRS Form 8594 under the residual method. Agreeing it in the purchase agreement, with the accountant's view of net income before your pay and debt ($380,000 on the example), avoids the two sides filing different numbers.
What buyers ask before they trust the Buying a dental practice
What does 75% of collections mean for a buyer? Only that this seller is asking for three-quarters of a year's collections. The sheet returns the ratio so you can compare targets on the same footing; whether it is a fair price is for your valuation and your accountant, and this site does not give that opinion.
Which documents belong on the checklist? The last three years of tax returns and profit and loss statements, production and collections reports by provider, the active patient count and how it was defined, the lease and its assignment terms, staff contracts and pay, the equipment list with ages, the fee schedule, insurance participation and any claims history. The register in Pro keeps each with a requested and received date.
How is Keysvo priced for a practice purchase? The checklist sheet and the acquisition cost calculator are free with no account. Keysvo Pro is $14 a month for you and whoever is helping you buy, and it keeps the targets, offers, documents and lender dates as one register.
Will Keysvo carry your purchase? Ask about the Buying a dental practice
Tell us what you are buying, how far along the purchase is and what you are keeping the deal in today, and we will say plainly whether Keysvo carries it.