What numbers should a practice owner review every Monday?
Review seven numbers: last week's production, collections, new patients, the share of recare patients with a next visit booked, the broken-appointment rate, open schedule time for the coming week, and cash against what is due. Together they show whether the schedule was full, whether the work got paid for, whether people are coming back, and whether the bank account can carry the next two weeks.
Last updated 2026-11-06. General information for practice owners, not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice. Examples use dental terms; the same seven numbers work for any practice that books appointments (change "patient" to "client" where that fits).
The scorecard at a glance
| Number | How it is computed |
|---|---|
| Production | Value of the work done last week, at your standard fees, before write-offs. |
| Collections | Money actually received last week, plus collections as a share of adjusted production. |
| New patients | People seen for the first time last week. |
| Next visits booked | Recare patients with a future appointment, as a share of recare patients. |
| Broken appointments | No-shows plus same-day cancellations, as a share of appointments scheduled. |
| Open schedule time | Open hours in the next 7 days, as a share of hours you could book. |
| Cash against what is due | Bank balance minus payroll, rent and loan payments due in the next 14 days. |
This page gives definitions and arithmetic, not targets. Compare each number against your own history first, because practices differ.
How to compute each number
1. Production
Add up the fees, at your standard fee schedule, for all work completed Monday through Sunday of last week. Do not subtract insurance write-offs yet; that comes in the collections ratio. Compare it with the same week last month and with your average of the last four weeks, not with one great week.
2. Collections and the collection ratio
Collections are the payments that landed in the last week: patient payments, insurance payments and any other receipts. The ratio is collections divided by adjusted production, where adjusted production is production after write-offs and contractual adjustments. For example, if adjusted production was $40,000 and collections were $38,800, the ratio is 97%. A single week can swing because insurance pays late, so many owners also watch the ratio over a rolling twelve months.
3. New patients
Count the people seen for the first time ever last week. Write down your rule once (for example, a patient who returns after several years counts as new or does not) and keep it the same. Add one column: how each one found you. If that column is often blank, fix that first, because nothing about marketing can be judged without it.
4. Next visits booked
Take your active recare patients (the ones due for cleanings or regular checkups) and count how many have a future appointment. Divide by the number of recare patients. A related and stricter measure is reappointment at checkout: of the recare patients seen last week, how many left with their next visit booked. The two are not the same number, so pick one and keep it.
5. Broken appointments
Add the no-shows and the same-day cancellations from last week and divide by the appointments that were scheduled. Count a patient who cancels with days of notice and rebooks separately, since that gap can usually be filled. A rising rate usually means unproductive gaps in the schedule.
6. Open schedule time
Look at the next 7 days. Divide the open hours that could still be booked by the total bookable hours. This is a forward-looking number, so it is the one a Monday huddle can still change: call the unscheduled-treatment list, fill the open hygiene chairs, move a long procedure into a gap. No outside benchmark is quoted here because schedules differ too much; compare against your own last eight weeks.
7. Cash against what is due
Take today's bank balance and subtract the payroll, rent, loan payments and large supplier bills due in the next 14 days. If the result is thin, the week's first job is collections follow-up, not marketing. There is no outside benchmark; the useful comparison is the result against what you need to keep in reserve, which is a decision for you and your accountant.
Monthly companions
Some numbers are too noisy to read weekly. Check these once a month: overhead as a share of total income, profit after expenses, and case acceptance, the share of recommended treatment that patients agree to. Offices count acceptance in different ways, so use the same method every month.
How to keep it to one page
- Put the seven numbers in one row per week so you can see the trend, not just last week.
- Pull the last three months of data to start, then add a row every Monday.
- Mark any number that moved in the wrong direction two weeks in a row. Pick one to act on, not all seven.
- Keep the set small, and reassess which numbers you track at least quarterly.
Where Practice CEO fits
Practice CEO is software. It reads reports you upload and calculates several of these figures in your browser; the code reads your files on your device and does not upload them. If you ask for the optional members' AI note, summary figures (not your files) are sent to an outside AI provider. It can be wrong. It is not a CPA, and it does not give tax, accounting, or lending advice. Check every figure against the source report. You can see a sample month built from invented numbers, or read your own. See method and sources for how the site's other ranges are built.
Sources
- The formulas and examples on this page are plain arithmetic and our own worked illustrations; the $40,000 and $38,800 figures are invented for the example.
Practice CEO is software, not a CPA, lawyer or licensed adviser. For tax, payroll or lending questions, ask your own CPA or attorney.