Unit 3: Finances

Introduction

The Dental Clinic Comparison Chart in Unit 2 illustrates typical costs for clinics of various sizes and recommended staffing patterns. At this point, what you’d like to know is what your clinic will cost. You will need to get to the bottom line by comparing that cost with your anticipated revenue from patient care and other sources. At the heart of this unit is an interactive budget-planning Excel workbook to help you do just that.

A number of decisions affect whether your clinic will be financially viable. Some of the fundamental decisions stem from your goals and objectives or earlier decisions you made about clinic size and staffing. This unit helps you crunch the numbers to achieve a balance between access to oral health care for populations with low incomes and financial sustainability by addressing:

• Financial viability (getting to the bottom line)
• Factors that affect patient-care revenue
• Startup and maintenance expenses
• Build your own budget and explore various "what if" scenarios with an interactive budget-planning workbook
• Managing your clinic's finances
• Using budgets and financial statements (also called financial reports)
• Using a long-range business plan
• Bringing in additional dollars to supplement patient-care revenue
• Grant-seeking and grantwriting tips
• Fundraising