As an all-star dental office manager, you’re always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of your dental practice—or even boost revenue. As the end of the year approaches, is your mind spinning with all the tasks you need to accomplish to ensure a clean finish for this year and a strong start for the next? We have a year-end checklist and expert tips so you know where to focus.
There’s so much to remember as a dental office manager when it comes to year-end responsibilities, where do you begin?
Here at DCS, we are every dental office manager’s number one fan. Through our years as a trusted dental billing partner helping dental teams optimize their revenue cycle, we’ve seen just how much dental office managers take on.
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A dental office manager is the heart of a dental practice, and they’re dedicated to the success of the business—we are too, and we’re dedicated to every office manager’s success too.
That’s why we’re sharing 5 top tasks for a busy dental office manager to wrap up their year.
You’ll walk away from this article with what you need to do to round out this year and also what needs to happen to gear up for a productive start to the new year ahead.
Key takeaways on crucial end-of-year tasks for a dental office manager:
- Review the current year’s performance—this is key for planning the new year.
- Include the entire team in a discussion about the dental practice’s overall performance.
- Don’t stress yourself out! Seek help from resources like DCS when necessary.
1. Audit and update your dental practice forms
As a dental provider, your practice has to use and maintain a vast number of forms. The end of the year is a great time to review all of your forms to see if they are up to date and reflect current industry standards and your dental practice operations.
Take time to look over your practice’s:
- Financial agreement or financial arrangement form
- Practice financial policy form
- Insurance policy signature on file forms
- Assignment of insurance benefits documentation
- Insurance form (ADA 2025)
- Patient statement form
- Release of information form
- HIPAA documentation
- Bone graft record keeping (organized by year and name)
- Patient collections letter templates
These are just some of the important forms that most dental professionals use every day. If you have others, be sure to add them to your end-of-year tasks checklist.
2. Evaluate and adjust your dental fees
As inflation rises, your practice’s fees should increase as well. The end of the year is the time to look over the year’s numbers, note your fees, research the median UCR (Usual, Customary, and Reasonable) fees in your area, and decide your next steps.
With those numbers in hand, you can renegotiate your in-network contract and fee schedule with
insurance companies. Many dentists think that negotiating with insurance companies is impossible, but it’s not only possible, it’s recommended—and a wise business move.
When you enter a contract with any insurance company, there are opportunities to rework your fees during the contract term and have more say in what rate is reasonable and fair.
Read more: Negotiate a better dental PPO fee schedule: 3 steps for higher revenue
Don’t go into a negotiation with an insurance company uninformed. Make sure you’ve done research on what a reasonable increase in your fees would be.
Too many dental practices complain about low reimbursements without even trying to negotiate fee increases. Remember, it never hurts to ask! Don’t be one of those who leaves money on the table.
3. Review and refresh your standard operating procedures (SOPs) and HR processes
SOPs can be so useful in a dental practice. Having a documented process for every task, especially administrative ones, can help your dental practice run more efficiently. SOPs can also clarify roles and responsibilities among your dental team and support new hires.
But SOPs can do more harm than good if they aren’t kept up to date. You should review and update them at least once a year to reflect what’s actually true for your office operations. We work with hundreds of dental offices, and whenever we hear the phrase “That’s just the way it’s always been done,” our alarms go off and red flags start waving!
Reassessing your practice’s daily operations through its documentation is a golden opportunity to make improvements, stay innovative, and work smarter.
Particularly when technology and automation update monthly—even weekly—it’s important to keep pace with them so you can optimize productivity.
This task includes reviewing your Human Resources SOPs. Take time to review:
- Payroll processes and platforms
- Bonus policies
- 401k plans
- Employee benefit packages
You’ll be glad to start the new year with SOPs that are great resources when team members leave or take time off. Others can use these SOPs to step in and prevent tasks from slipping through the cracks.
4. Analyze end-of-year (EOY) reports
Your financial reports paint the picture of how your dental practice has performed, and it’s essential that you review, correct, and assess financial records for the entire year to determine if the practice achieved its goals for the year.
To see where the practice succeeded and where it needs to improve, run and review the following reports from your dental practice management software:
- Gross Production & Collection report monthly breakdown
- Net Production & Collection report monthly breakdown
- Insurance write-off report by carrier or plan
- Insurance aging report
Related: 5 reports that are vital for running a successful dental practice
There are many ways to interpret the data you’ll gather from these reports. Present your key takeaways to your team and involve them in celebrating this year’s successes and creating a plan to improve for an even better year to come.
5. Host a team meeting to wrap up this year and plan for the next
Speaking of meeting with your team: reach for your calendar right now and schedule a team meeting before the end of this year.
Also schedule time on your own work calendar to go over the practice’s reports, SOPs, and everything else we discussed in this article, and also prepare talking points for how you’ll discuss next year’s changes and improvements with your team.
Ask for your team members’ points of view on how the year went and what could improve—and listen to their answers. Together, set goals and strategies that will help achieve said goals.
A few other agenda items to add to this end-of-year meeting include:
- Holiday/vacation schedules
- Production and patient growth goals
- Continuing education plans
- Changes in CDT codes and workflow updates
- Team-building activities
Meetings like this get everyone on the same page and reinvigorated for the new year. They encourage positivity and a healthy work culture—especially when everyone gets to share their perspective and be heard.
Ready to end the year strong and start next year stronger?
To recap, here are 5 vital tasks for dental office managers to do before the end of the year:
- Audit and update dental practice forms
- Evaluate and renegotiate dental fees
- Review and refresh standard operating procedures (SOPs) and HR processes
- Analyze end-of-year (EOY) reports
- Host a team meeting to wrap up this year and plan for the next
Dental office managers always carry so much responsibility at the practice, and we’re not adding more. These 5 items involve things you’re already doing, we’re only focusing your energy on what sets you up for success, year after year.
After you’ve completed these, you can feel confident that you’ve addressed the responsibilities that need to be taken care of before the office closes for the winter holidays.
DCS is a friend to dental office managers and dental teams who want to deliver an excellent experience for their patients while growing a more profitable practice. Our revenue cycle management services will help improve your numbers while also offering your team more time to spend with patients.
To learn more about how our services can make your dental practice even more successful, book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our experts.
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