Coach Heidi Mount gives you 17 ways to lower your payroll expenses in a dental office.

There are literally hundreds of ways to reduce payroll expenses in a dental office. Coach Heidi Mount has been a dental business coach all over the nation. Check out her list that you can immediately implement in your dental practice.
 

Here are 17 steps you could take:

1. Know your numbers. Payroll is NOT just looking at paycheck salaries. Be sure you place ALL expenses (uniforms, CE, vaccinations, meals, bonuses, gifts, outings, etc.) to employ your team under their costs. In general, offices shoot to keep payroll under 25%. Yes, staff are demanding higher wages. Yes, cost of living expenses is outrageous. So, before you know how much more profit you need to make to get your payroll under control. Truly know your numbers.
2. Evaluate your employees clocking in and out for an entire month. In general, there is only a couple who are "milking the clock". Trust me, your employees are smart, and they know how to maximize their paycheck. If you pay 15 minutes on minute 7-15 minutes, they will clock out at 5:07 to get paid until 5:15.
3. Set a time clock policy and review it with the team. They must understand that raises come from profit and clocking in extra is stealing from the entire team. They should be proof they took breaks and lunches. Your employee manual must state what you expect. If you expect written approval for overtime, then it should be in the manual. If you say they must take a full hour meal break, then it must be in your employee manual.
4. Learn WHERE payroll is out of control and fix it. If people are staying clocked in way after you close to do chart notes, then get that resolved. I coach my clients that 98% of all chart notes are to be done during the scheduled appt time. But we have efficient scheduling systems in place so for the most part, they leave within 15 minutes after their patient leaves. Fine tune your clocking in and out process, because all those minutes add up.
5. Improve your schedule to make more profit. THAT IS TRULY THE KEY. Raise your income to fix the expense issue.
6. Have team members hold each other accountable..."time to clock out guys."
7. Allow enough time during patient hours for them to get projects (ordering, stocking, sharpening instruments, maintenance, etc.) done during the day. Honestly, I don't give "admin days" after hours to catch up.
8. Make sure you set goals to schedule large productive appointments daily and don't JAM your day flipping rooms doing petty appts with a bunch of chaos.
9. Track your no shows and cancellations and get that under control to plug the leak in the practice. Look ahead at your schedule with the team, I bet they all can name the "probably not going to show" or "may cancel" patients. Therefore, I ask, "Why the heck are they in the schedule?" Offer those irresponsible patients’ same day appts. Take control of your business.
10. Look at all your open time or unscheduled treatment. What can you do to offer same day treatment to increase your profit.
11. Run your account receivable report and get those old accounts collected. So many offices aren't dealing with the past due accounts and the older it gets lowers your chance of collecting.
12. Structure a win-win bonus structure to reach your financial goals. If they want more income, have them earn it.
13. Listen to your team, they may have good ideas too. Have a team meeting and let them know, "Hey team, payroll is at 30% and we need it under 25%. It looks like we need to make $500 more a day, so what ideas do you have that we can implement?"
14. Evaluate if you need to hire a "helper" to do the petty things for a couple hours a day, so everyone else can go home. High wages emptying garbage’s and such is expensive.
15. Pick ONE item to heavily market by everyone in the office and see how that increases your treatment case acceptance on that one item.
16. Last but not least, raise your fees. Yes, you are stuck with your PPO fees. So raise the others! No biggy.
17. Drop some low paying insurance companies as a preferred provider.

Write down your plan and execute it. Stay focused and create habits. I don't care if a hygienist wants $500 a day as long as she can produce about $2000 a day. So don't freak out at numbers.

Trust me, when you lay out the expectations nicely and they understand the "why", they help. Imagine if your family member called you and said, "Oh by the way, Susie and her husband are coming over for dinner, can you help clean the house?" It is amazing how fast you all can get the house cleaned for company. It takes a focus and a team effort.

If you haven't read my book yet, there are a lot of ways to add more profit in your dental practice too. Go to Amazon and look for “Hidden Treasures; Finding the Missing Revenue In a Dental Practice.”

I hope this helps at least ONE dentist out there.

Best to your success,

Heidi Mount