We understand all facets of dental accounting.
We’re different from most accounting and practice management consulting firms—the experience we bring to the table is drawn from diverse backgrounds that include health care consulting, taxation planning, dental accounting and consulting, and information technology.
Our support goes far beyond simple tax preparation. Our professionals offer "flat fee billing". This offers our clients to opportunity to contact us whenever they have a question, without the worry that the meter is running. We encourage open communications at all times.
We are well respected in the dental community.
Since 1986, dental practitioners have counted on the RMS Accounting Dental Services Team for comprehensive guidance and support in the management of their practice as a business. We take the same thorough approach you do with patient care. We help you shift your focus from working in your practice to working on your practice.
We represent dental practice buyers.
Many firms out there are happy to cater to the needs of sellers, but there are few that have the understanding needed to ensure that the buyer's best interests are met
How often have you considered these questions?
• How can I make my practice more profitable?
• How can I make more money without working more hours?
• How much is my practice worth?
• When, where and how do I sell it?
• How does my practice compare to others in this area?
• Are my key profit indicators in line with the norm?
• Am I ready for an associate? How can I afford one?
• Should I expand?
These questions are common. We provide the answers, as well as the implementation plans to help you meet your goals.
Dental Practice Management
• Practice financial and operational assessments
• Key profit indicator analysis and comparison
• Budgets/projections/forecasts and analysis
• Growth and development strategies
• Development and review of partner/shareholder/employment agreements
• Assistance in buying or selling a practice
• Development of associate buy in/buy-out strategies
• Practice valuations
• Fraud awareness consulting
• Forensic accounting services
• Practice start-up assistance and guidance
• Entity selection and implementation guidance
• Chart of accounts set-up
Dental Tax Planning & Accounting Services
• Income tax projections and preparation
• Income tax planning and tax minimization strategies
• Retirement and wealth accumulation planning
• Estate planning
• Bookkeeping services
• Payroll services
Articles of Interest
"Fraud Awareness in the Dental Office"
By Steven J. Weil, PhD, EA
Another dental office manager accused of theft; would you know if your office manager or someone else in your office had their hands in the cookie jar? It took 5 years and a loss of $80,000 before a Florence, Alabama dentist noticed. According to the police report the office manager, who worked for the office for 17 years, is accused of stealing $80,000 from cash payments made by patients, pocketing the money. WSBTV News
This is not the first time we have heard of an office manager or other dental office employee that was an unknown partner to the dentist whose office they worked for.
This is not an isolated case, in Wisconsin a woman is accused of embezzling more than $40,000 from a dentist she worked for over 28 years. Because the records only go back a decade the full extent of the theft will never be known. This theft did not include non-cash payments alone, but also included checks the employee forged and cashed on the practices account. Sheboygan-press. In New Jersey, another dental office manager is sentenced for stealing $37,000 in insurance checks. Allbusiness.
These are just three of the many cases that have been reported to police. A search of the internet finds many other cases in which dentists also placed their faith in employees and neglected to have a proper check and balance system in place to detect and prevent this kind of action. WSBTV News / CBS 6 Albany
What the reports fail to include is all of the cases of theft that are never charged or prosecuted, because the dentist is afraid of looking bad and wants to avoid the publicity, due to lack of proof or fear of litigation. One study shows that over 59% of dental offices have experienced some form of embezzlement.
In almost every case these dentists share one thing in common: someone else was in charge of the financial operations for their office and this person had little or no oversight by the dentist or an outside accountant that knows the dental business. This problem has gotten worse in recent years as more dental offices have replaced their outside accountants with QuickBooks, and other software, that in many instances the office manager or bookkeeper knows more about then the dentist. In today’s complex business environment it’s more important than ever to have a handle on your business and your money. Communications with your accountant and a regular review of your financial information by an outside accountant can help to protect your financial well being.
"Majority of dentists see insurers as enemy"
This article first appeared in the June 2007 issue of Insurance & Financial Advisor
A majority of dentists see dental insurance companies as foes rather than friends, according to a poll by The Wealthy Dentist, a marketing firm for the dental industry.
The survey showed 89% percent of dentists feeling that insurance companies are in the business of looking out for themselves, not patients or doctors. A mere 11% saw dental insurance companies as allies, expanding dentists' practices and serving as an important marketing source for new patients.
10 Proven, Powerful & Simple Steps to Attract More Fee-For-Service Patients
by William M. Dorfman, DDS, and William Horrocks
In this series, Dr. William Dorfman has outlined a variety of marketing approaches that can be used to attract more fee-for-service patients. In this article, he and William (Howie) Horrocks integrate those approaches with specific tips to form a plan of action, providing steps that can be implemented to make a practice`s marketing strategy more effective.
Start With Internal Marketing
1. Talk to your mailing list & it will talk back. Your first, most cost-efficient action is to start with your own patients. Marketing to those who are familiar with you is easier and more profitable than marketing to strangers.
Internet marketing is about "upselling," that is, selling more dentistry to those who are already buying dentistry from you. The idea is to take those who are happy with your product and to sell them more of it or to sell it to them more often. They (and you) will benefit tremendously.
Bottom line: You must develop regular communications with your patient base. This could be a practice newsletter or even a personal letter that you send quarterly or, preferably, monthly. If your patient list is not yet computerized, make this a priority project. Most word-processing software allows you to write a single form letter to your patients and then to personalize it by "mail merging" your patients' names and addresses on the letter.
Destroy those common marketing myths
Marketing your practice should come first and forget about reduced-rate coupon advertising!
by Rodger 'Rod' Kurthy, DMD & Howie Horrocks
As a practicing dentist, I have learned the perils of marketing my practice through years of trial and error. Nothing seemed to give me a good return on the time and money I invested until I met Howie Horrocks, a marketing professional who specializes in helping dentists to achieve their growth potential.
With Howie's excellent advice and my experience as a dentist, I have finally found marketing techniques that really work in my practice. In fact, the incredible results have motivated me so much, I have just completed a new book dedicated to dental marketing.
Here are some of the common myths and problems my friend Howie and I have found in discussing marketing techniques with other dentists.
One of the most common problems dentists have in implementing marketing programs is they think about it AFTER everything else-building, equipment and staff have already been put in place. Suddenly, they are faced with the question... Where are the new patients going to come from?
Dentists spend time in school to become very proficient in dental procedures. They spend a considerable amount of time checking out contractors and determining what equipment to purchase. When they start to think of attracting patients often the first question they ask is. "What kind of offer do you suggest for my postcards? What coupons should l have? What freebies can I offer?"
Quite frankly, this type of thanking is exactly backwards. Rather than asking, "what can I give away?" you should be asking, "how can I make my practice THE place to solve real people's dental problems?" Trust me, you don't want bargain hunters. You should be looking for patients who want solutions to their problems. If you can solve their everyday problems, they will gladly pay your fee.
For the rest of the article, click here. How to Write a Really Boring Yellow Pages Ad that Nobody Will Notice and Will Get No Results Whatsoever
By William Howard Horrocks
To begin, show a picture of yourself that looks more or less like any other dentist. Make the photo the biggest thing on the page so it will communicate that you are the most important thing, and that the patients concerns are secondary.
Then, print the name of your practice, ensuring that the name sounds more or less like every other dental practice. Better yet, name your practice with your own name, guaranteeing that it will mean next to nothing to your public. As a finishing touch, if you're a DMD, put this sleep-inducing abbreviation after your name. (Surveys reveal that only small % of adults know that a DMD is a dentist.)
For the rest of the article, click here.
Contact Us
For more information about the services we offer to the dental community, please contact the Dental Services team at (800) 382-1040.
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