Just Bought a Dental Practice? 5 Things to Do in Your First 30 Days

So, you just bought a dental practice. Huge congrats. Seriously, you need to hear that because it goes without saying — but practice ownership is about to transform your life, your taxes, your schedule and your net worth. The first 30 days are not about being a hero. They are about not breaking what you just paid for.

1. Secure payroll, tax accounts and entity access

Before you celebrate, make sure you can actually run the business. The most common first-week disaster is a payroll failure because the prior owner's login, EIN authorization, or bank account was never transferred.

1. 01Confirm you have online access to payroll, banking, merchant processing and accounting software.
2. 02Verify the EIN, state withholding accounts and sales-tax registrations are active and under your control.
3. 03Make sure the practice bank accounts are properly retitled or new accounts are opened and funded.
4. 04Notify your payroll provider immediately so the next run does not bounce or pay the wrong entity.

2. Meet the team one-on-one before you change anything

You did not just buy equipment and charts. You bought people — their habits, their patient relationships, and their anxiety about whether the new owner will respect them. Spend the first two weeks listening more than announcing.

• Meet every employee individually and ask what they think works and what does not.
• Do not promise raises or major policy changes until you have seen the numbers.
• Identify the unofficial leaders — the hygienist, front-desk manager, or assistant everyone trusts.
• Protect the schedule and patient experience; that is where revenue actually lives.

3. Lock down cash flow fast

The first 30 days will have unusual deposits and withdrawals: the seller's trailing collections, your new loan payment, transition expenses and maybe a dip in production as patients adjust. You cannot manage what you do not measure.

1. 01Reconcile the first week's deposits against the prior production report.
2. 02Confirm all auto-pays, subscriptions and recurring bills are necessary and under your control.
3. 03Build a 13-week cash flow projection so you see trouble before it arrives.
4. 04Set a weekly financial rhythm: deposits on Monday, bills on Wednesday, review on Friday.

4. Get your CPA involved before month-end

The tax and accounting decisions you make in the first 30 days can save or cost you tens of thousands over the next year. Do not wait until tax season.

• Review the purchase price allocation and confirm it is recorded correctly.
• Decide on owner compensation, entity structure and distribution strategy.
• Set up a bookkeeping cadence and chart of accounts that matches how you want to see profit.
• Map out Q4 estimated tax payments so there are no surprises in January.

“Most practice owners do not fail because of clinical skill. They fail because they never built a financial operating system.”

5. Resist the urge to overhaul everything

You will have a hundred ideas in the first month: new software, new marketing, new hours, new protocols. Slow down. The seller built this practice a certain way, and some of that is why it was worth buying.

1. 01Document the current systems before changing them.
2. 02Identify the one or two metrics that actually move the needle: collections per visit, case acceptance, hygiene reactivation.
3. 03Make no material changes to fees, providers, or hours until you have 60 to 90 days of data.
4. 04Communicate every change twice: once before and once after, with the why behind it.