The Most Important Number on your Financial Statements
In a prior post, I talked about the three elements of useful financial statements – timeliness, accuracy, and context – and how the absence of any of these elements may hinder your ability to judge the financial performance of your practice. However, even the best set of financial statements includes 20 or more account balances,…
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Three Elements of Useful Financial Statements
We spend considerable time talking to practice owners about the importance of financial analysis in their practices, but what does this mean and how do you get there? The first step involves developing a process for producing useful financial statements on a regular basis. By “useful”, we are referring to three basic elements – timeliness,…
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Hiring the Right Financial Professional: Be Vigilant
Part One: The Bookkeeper Part Two: The Controller Part Three: The CFO Regardless of the degree of financial oversight your company requires—whether you need a bookkeeper, a controller or a CFO—vigilance is vital when it comes to finding the right person for your job. I advise following prudent, proven practices when placing someone in the…
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Hiring the Right Financial Professional: The CFO
Part three of four in a SmartMoney series by Mike Baker Read Part One: The Bookkeeper and Part Two: The Controller. The larger the company, the more complicated the financial decisions and the more responsibilities required of those people minding the money. Earlier in this series, I talked about bookkeepers and controllers, professionals who are…
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Financial Performance Measures: A Checklist for Tracking your Practice Performance
Part 1: Goodwill and the Sale of a Dental Practice Part 2: The Taxation of Goodwill Part 3: Building Practice Goodwill Consistent with the thinking that activities that get scheduled get done, I recommend a checklist of practice performance goals and measures to which you refer at least monthly. This checklist ought to reflect what…
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Hiring the Right Financial Professional: The Controller
Part two of four in a SmartMoney series Read Part One: The Bookkeeper The recent recession was a grim reminder that we simply can’t be too careful when it comes to the company’s finances. But what type of financial professional does your company really need? A small operation might do well to hire an experienced…
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Building Practice Goodwill
Read Part 1 and Part 2 in this Goodwill Series. In my previous two posts, I have discussed how goodwill is the driver of value in your practice and how goodwill is taxed at more advantageous rates than regular income. And if that isn’t enough, the byproducts of building superior goodwill in your practice benefit…
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Hiring the Right Financial Professional: The Bookkeeper
Part one of four in a SmartMoney series If your company is like most, you are beginning to see welcome signs of financial recovery. But the memory of the recession has not faded, and vigilance about company finances must remain a top priority. I’ve seen too many businesses launch a search for a financial professional…
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The Taxation of Goodwill
In my previous post, Goodwill and the Sale of a Dental Practice, I covered the elements of goodwill and how to earn more of it in your dental practice. But why is goodwill important? When you sell your dental practice, you are really only selling a couple of major items – the physical assets…
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Goodwill and the Sale of a Dental Practice
When a practice owner begins evaluating the sale of his practice, the typical questions the seller has are “How much can I get?” and “How much can I keep?” Even though Uncle Sam doesn’t have a seat at the closing table, he is going to claim a sizable share of that income. That is why…
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