Free tool
Which line of your overhead is actually the problem?
“Overhead is too high” is not an action. Split it by category, put each against a healthy range, and the conversation changes from anxiety to a decision about one line.
Where the money actually goes
Starts with example numbers · nothing is sent anywhereWhat you banked last month, not what you produced. A typical month, not your best one.
healthy 25–28% · excluding doctors
healthy 5–6%
healthy 8–10% · varies with case mix
healthy 5–7%
healthy 3–5%
healthy 5–8%
The number that matters
Your biggest gap is lab at 10.8%, against a healthy 8–10%. Bringing just that line back into range is worth $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year, straight to profit.
What is left after these six lines still has to pay the dentists, which is why it is not labeled profit. The bands are the ranges taught in the course for a general practice: targets, not measurements from my offices. A specialty or a heavy-lab practice will sit differently, and one line being high is only a problem if it is not buying you something.
How to read it
One total hides the answer. Six categories reveal it.
Overhead as a single percentage is the most quoted and least useful number in dentistry. Two practices at 62% can be in completely different trouble: one carrying a bloated team, the other paying for a lease it outgrew four years ago. The fix for each is nothing like the fix for the other.
The ranges here are what I teach as healthy for a general practice. They are targets, not measurements from my own offices, and a specialty or a heavy-lab practice will sit differently by design. Treat a line outside the band as a question rather than a verdict: is this buying me something? Marketing at 8% is fine if it is filling the schedule and a disaster if it is not.
The number worth acting on is the last one the tool gives you: what one line coming back into range is worth per year. That figure is usually large enough to fund the change that fixes it.
Questions
Before you act on it.
My total looks fine. Can I still have a problem?
Yes, and it is common. A practice at 60% overall can be badly overspent on staff and badly underspent on marketing at the same time, and the two cancel out in the total. The total tells you whether to worry; the categories tell you what to do.
Where does doctor pay go?
Nowhere in this tool. These bands are overhead excluding all doctor compensation, so the same ranges work whether you produce everything yourself or run three associates. Adding doctor pay makes the percentages incomparable between practices.
Is being under a band good?
Not automatically. Marketing at 1% is not thrift, it is usually a practice that has stopped growing and has not noticed. Supplies well under range can mean deferred purchasing that shows up later as broken equipment.
How often should I run this?
Monthly, on collections rather than production, and against the same category definitions each time. A single month tells you little; the trend across six tells you almost everything.
Overhead control is one module of six in the course.
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