A practice manager’s job has one honest description: nothing slips. The way to make nothing slip is to put every check on a cadence and tie each one to a number, so the question each day is not “what should I look at” but “what did this number do”. Here are the three lists, with the number behind each item.
Daily
| Item | Number | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Morning huddle sheet | Unconfirmed visits, balances due, planned treatment not booked | The schedule and the accounts for today’s patients |
| Open units tomorrow | Hours unfilled | The schedule |
| Fill from the lists | Calls made from recall and unscheduled lists | Recall list, unscheduled treatment list |
| EOBs posted | EOBs left on the desk at close | The insurance pile |
| Claims sent | Claims created today and not sent | The claims window |
| Day sheet reconciled | Day sheet versus drawer and card batch | Day sheet, deposit |
| Changes after posting | Deleted or edited payments and adjustments | Audit trail |
A good day ends with zero unposted EOBs, zero unsent claims, a day sheet that matches the deposit to the cent, and a written note for any change made after posting. The closing routine with a worked example is in the dental end of day report checklist.
Weekly
| Item | Number | Good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Net production | Completed fees minus adjustments and write-offs | At or above the weekly target you set from overhead |
| Collections | Patient plus insurance payments | Close to net production over a rolling 90 days |
| Forecast | Scheduled production, next two weeks | At or above two weeks of target |
| Unscheduled treatment | Total planned with no appointment, and the change from last week | Flat or falling |
| Overdue recall | Patients overdue with nothing booked | Falling after a call week |
| Over 90 receivables | Balance aged past 90 days | Falling, or explained |
| Audit trail read | Ledger changes read against day sheets | Every one explained |
| Team | Hours worked against hours scheduled, by provider | Scheduled hours filled |
Write the eight numbers on one page with last week’s figures beside them, every Friday. The weekly report set walks through the page with an example.
Monthly
| Item | Number | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Production by provider | Net production and production per hour per provider | Production and Income (Open Dental), Practice Analysis (Dentrix), Provider Productivity (Eaglesoft) |
| Collection rate | Collections divided by net production, for the month and rolling 90 days | Calculated |
| Aging | Four buckets, patient and insurance split | Aging report |
| Statements | Count and total sent, after EOBs and write-offs are posted | Statement run |
| Write-offs and adjustments | Total by type and by user | Adjustment report |
| New patients | Count and source | New patient report |
| Overhead | Expenses divided by collections | Accounting software |
| Benefits remaining (fourth quarter) | Patients with planned treatment and annual maximum left | Treatment Finder or the equivalent |
A worked example: the monthly page
A two-doctor practice closes September.
| Number | September | August |
|---|---|---|
| Net production | $138,000 | $131,500 |
| Collections | $129,600 | $134,200 |
| Collection rate, month | 93.9% | 102.1% |
| Collection rate, rolling 90 days | 96.4% | 96.8% |
| Over 90 receivables | $13,800 | $11,300 |
| Overhead | 63% | 65% |
| New patients | 34 | 29 |
Production per hour: Dr. A at $71,000 net over 118 scheduled hours is $602. Dr. B at $44,000 over 72 hours is $611. Hygiene at $23,000 over 126 hours is $183.
The reading. Production is up and overhead is down, which is the month working. The monthly collection rate dipped because August caught up on a claims backlog, and the rolling rate at 96.4% says billing is fine. Over 90 is up $2,500 and that is the one item that gets an action: the billing coordinator pulls the accounts that crossed 90 days this month and calls each one.
How do I keep the lists from growing?
Each list should fit on one page. When an item has not changed a decision in three months, remove it. When the owner asks the same question twice, add the number that answers it. Keep the PDFs of every report the numbers came from, named by date, so “what did it say last month” always has an answer.
What Calibic adds
Dashboards, Reports and Scorecards are LIVE for Open Dental and Dentrix, with Eaglesoft coverage partial. Calibic reads the ledger, schedule, treatment plan and audit tables read-only and keeps the daily, weekly and monthly numbers on screen with the prior period beside each. Production per hour is calculated against scheduled hours from the schedule. Protect reads the changes after posting so the audit trail item is a two-minute read, with evidence kept. Scorecards put the same numbers against the targets you set, by provider and by team.
Calibic does not post, adjust or write anything to the practice software, and it does not read your accounting system, so overhead stays a number you bring.
See how targets and actuals sit together on the Scorecards product page. The office manager page shows the whole routine in one place.