Overhead Percentage

Overhead is every dollar you spend that isn't profit or doctor compensation. Staff salaries, rent, supplies, lab fees, software, marketing. it all counts.

How to calculate it

Total operating expenses ÷ total collections × 100. If you collected $1M and spent $590k on expenses, your overhead is 59%.

What's a good number?

For a general practice, overhead typically falls between 55% and 65% of collections. Specialty practices often run lower because their production per visit is higher.

Here's a rough breakdown of where the money usually goes:

• Staff costs: 25–30%
• Facility (rent, utilities): 5–8%
• Dental supplies: 5–7%
• Lab fees: 5–8%
• Administrative / software / marketing: 5–10%

If any one of these categories is significantly above range, that's worth investigating.

Why it matters

Overhead is the difference between a practice that makes money and one that doesn't. Two practices can produce the same amount, but the one with 55% overhead takes home far more than the one at 68%.

How to track it

This requires connecting your financial data (QuickBooks, for example) with your production data. Most owners do this manually once a quarter. Denta connects to both your PMS and your accounting software and breaks down overhead automatically.