A dentist who was about to open their first dental office approached Only for Dentists for advice. Their original plan was to do all of their monthly accounting and then hire a CPA for the annual returns. They were getting close to their opening date and their anxiety was growing, wondering if it was really worth it to save a little money. They were quoted by a firm for $300 monthly retainer to do everything for them, but weren’t sure if that was reasonable or not.
This is a very exciting time in a dentist’s career. Bassim Michael, dental CPA and founder of Only for Dentists, had the following suggestions for this new dentist. He recommended that if the dentist has the time, is willing to learn how to use QuickBooks and makes sure it is set up correctly, then it is completely fine to try it himself. Investing the time in set up and training from the beginning can help save a lot of time and heartache down the road. Once the file is set up, a CPA should review the file on a quarterly basis to make sure that the books are maintained correctly and to get proper advice and planning. From our experience, if the QuickBooks file is not set up correctly, clean ups could be more costly than if the practice had outsourced that function.
Dealing with a dental CPA can add special value, since their financial and tax knowledge is tailored to a practice’s specific needs.
Please contact us if you need help with your start-up practice’s financials.