As the year winds down, dental offices everywhere are balancing appointment books, insurance cutoffs, and the annual rush to wrap up outstanding tasks before the holidays and the end of the year. Do you want to set yourself up for success for the new year but aren’t sure where to start? Here’s your guide to getting ready for 2026.
November and December are two of the busiest months of the year and also two of the most crucial for your practice’s success. They are this year’s last chance to be sure all your ducks are in a row—including financials, processes, and communication strategies—and that you always have patients in the chair.
Before January arrives, take time to reflect, review, and prepare so you can set up your practice to start 2026 stronger than ever. Our experts offered these smart end-of-year steps that will translate into smoother operations, healthier cash flow, and less stress for your team in the new year ahead.
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Here’s how to close out your year on a high note and hit the ground running in 2026.
Key takeaways for getting ready for the new year:
- Review your finances, workflows, and team performance before January to strategize the foundation for a stronger, more profitable 2026.
- Upgrade billing systems and use automation to eliminate revenue leaks and boost your practice’s cash flow year-round.
- Partner with DCS to help your dental practice end the year organized, optimized, and ready to grow with confidence in 2026.
1. Review your practice’s financial reports
First and foremost, let’s talk numbers. As a business owner, it’s essential that you evaluate the financial health of your dental practice. Your financial data tells the story of your year—highs and lows, challenges and successes.
Before you close your books for 2025, ask yourself:
- How does my year-to-date revenue compare to my goals for this year?
- When and why did my biggest expenses or inefficiencies occur?
- Are there dips and gaps in cash flow caused by delayed insurance payments or outstanding patient balances?
Related: 5 reports that are vital for running a successful dental practice
Those questions are about looking back on 2025, but their answers will drive realistic and well-informed goal-setting for 2026. Analyze and truly understand your practice’s patterns for write-offs and unpaid claims.
Note any repeated problems that appeared throughout the year, and start to consider which parts of your billing workflow may cause those troubling trends. Knowing where the bottlenecks and hurdles are will help you make wiser decisions about production targets, profitability, and processes for 2026.
If your team could use another set of hands with cleaning up your A/R (accounts receivable) before the end of the year, DCS Special Projects might be a perfect service for you. We specialize in clearing aging reports quickly, effectively, and remotely, so you can recover lost revenue, improve cash flow, and start 2026 with a cleaner slate—and without disrupting your everyday office routine.
2. Refresh your patient billing and collections processes
Your numbers are directly impacted by how effectively you collect from both insurance and your patients. Reflect on and review your current processes for patient collections and insurance billing, and ask yourself:
- How far in advance is my team verifying patient insurance benefits?
- Is there a clear, step-by-step workflow for sending statements, receiving payments, and posting deposits?
- What are the steps for handling exceptions to the norm?
- Does each team member know their responsibilities in the billing process?
- How often are unpaid patient balances followed up on?
- How often is my team reviewing the insurance aging report and resolving old claims?
If you don’t have answers to all those questions, or your answers reveal workarounds, unassigned tasks, or other mishaps that contribute to slow payment times, it’s time to streamline your processes
and modernize with expert assistance and automated technology.
For example, our vendor partner Quanta is great software for completely automating your patient collections process. It integrates with your PMS (practice management software) to deliver payment links and payment reminders to patients via text or email.
An automated service like QuantaPay removes the manual work of calling patients about late payments and spending resources on mailing paper bills and past due notices.
When you automate patient collections with Quanta and enlist the experts from DCS to manage your insurance billing, you’ll increase revenue while giving your team more time to spend on patient relationships.
3. Revisit team performance and operational workflows
Your team is the heartbeat of your office, and their performance is what makes or breaks your dental business. Set aside time to celebrate the year’s wins and recognize contributions by team members, and also plan for productive conversations about handling challenges.
Ask yourself (and your team!):
- Where were bottlenecks or areas that could improve with support or training?
- Were everyone’s roles clearly defined and aligned with 2025 goals?
- Is anyone overwhelmed or burned out?
- How has communication been between team members?
- Are team members able to take time off without a halt in production?
These are questions that should be posed to team members with an open mind—and a safe space—for their answers. Their points of view will be highly valuable when assessing how effectively the office is running and both where and how to make improvements.
If you need more hands on deck, remember that DCS has the billing experts and AI technology to save your team hours of work each week. We can step in just to clear your aging report, stay around to manage your everyday insurance billing, or set you up with Quanta for automated patient collections.
Resources like DCS or Quanta can take a huge load of tedious and time-consuming paperwork and phone calls off your team’s plate. If your team is understaffed or undertrained, lightening their load will improve the day-to-day operations for your dental practice and your patients, and it will also positively impact the practice culture.
Read more: 10 ways to create a healthy work culture your dental team loves [Free Guide]
4. Update software, systems, and technology
Like we’ve mentioned, technology can truly be your ally when streamlining and improving your operations and workflows. Before 2026 begins, review your current technology and ask yourself:
- Is our practice management software (PMS) up to date?
- Are we using tools that integrate smoothly for billing, scheduling, and reporting?
- Are we compliant with the latest insurance and industry standards?
- Are there manual parts of our systems that could be automated?
Bringing your technology up to current standards may mean updating your PMS, computers, clinical equipment, payment setup, or phones. Figure out what your needs are, then find the reliable options that will fill them efficiently.
DCS processes integrate with all the major practice management software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, and more). Updated technology provides a convenient modern experience for your patients that they’ve come to expect these days.
5. Set strategic goals for 2026
With your financial, operational, team, and technological foundations refreshed, renewed, or rebuilt, it’s time to plan for growth.
When setting goals, it’s important to make them realistic. You want to set yourself up for success! They also need to be measurable so you can track progress—throughout the year, you will want to check in to see what’s working and what’s not.
For example, if you bring on DCS to submit and follow up on your insurance claims, you’ll be able to track in your PMS how much revenue we have collected for you.
Ask yourself:
- What production targets do I want to reach?
- How can I improve treatment acceptance rates?
- What’s our plan to retain more patients and boost case acceptance?
From there, create an action plan with timelines, milestones, and clear accountability. Involving your team in the process encourages motivation so everyone is aligned and excited about the practice’s 2026 goals.
Related: How can AI be used to boost profits in the dental industry?
End the year strong & start the new year stronger with DCS
To recap, here are 5 tips for preparing for the new year at your dental practice:
- Review your practice’s financial reports
- Refresh your patient billing and collections processes
- Revisit team performance and operational workflows
- Update software, systems, and technology
- Set strategic goals for 2026
The final months of the year can feel like a sprint, but they’re also your biggest opportunity to press pause to set the tone for next year’s success. By tackling your finances, workflows, and team alignment now, you’re laying the foundation for a more efficient, profitable, and stress-free 2026.
Don’t wait until January to prepare—start now. Book a free 30-minute consultation today.
Let DCS help you close this year’s books with confidence and step into 2026 ready to grow.
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