Tracking Expenses- Quality over Quantity

When you track expenses for your business, are you looking at the whole picture or just what you assume to be important? This question is crucial to the long term success of any dental company. Your practice is constantly evolving, and the way your order and reorder supplies or equipment is one of the most important factors in ensuring that you aren’t spending too much over a quarter or year.

If you’re stuck on how to effectively manage your supplier orders, here are some practical applications that you can utilize right away:

• Make sure that your dental and medical supplies are not only up to date, but relevant to modern procedures. Are you a primarily cosmetic dentist? Contemporary surgical equipment, anesthesia, and sterilization product investments should be at the top of your list.
• Have a lot of general oral cleaning procedures? Extra disposable or permanent sterile equipment is a must for walk-ins and those who frequent your practice for cleanings. You should never be stuck waiting for a shipment of needed product, so purchase in advance and use exactly what you need before running low and ordering more.
• Keep a list handy of the average number of each disposable piece of equipment you use. You may even want to hire someone to manage this in order to get the full benefit of inventory management. What you pay them will pay off when you realize that you’re actually wasting disposables. It may be better for you to make a one-time payment for something that costs less to just sterilize in-house.

Inventory isn’t the most fun or engaging aspect of your business, but regardless of whether you’re doing it yourself or have an employee keep track, you’ll rest easy knowing that your practice is streamlined and efficient. Every order is a balance of what you need and what you want/think you need. Learning to make the most efficient order from your supplier is the key to peace of mind and of course, profit.