What Is Group Practice Accounting?
Group Practice Accounting refers to the specialised financial management of dental businesses with multiple trading sites, often operated through:
- A single limited company with multiple branches
- Multiple limited companies under a shared ownership
- Hybrid setups with NHS contracts, SPVs, or shared service structures
It covers everything from consolidated reporting to intercompany transfers, associate performance tracking by site, and group-level tax optimisation.
Why Group Practice Accounting Matters for Dental Owners
As soon as you have 2 or more clinics, accounting complexity compounds:
- Cash sits in one account but is needed in another
- One site is highly profitable while another is breaking even
- Associates work across sites with mixed pay and performance
- Expenses like software or marketing serve all clinics — but sit in one company
- Dividend timing, drawings, and tax exposure become harder to manage
Without group-level visibility, owners risk:
- Unintended cross-subsidy
- Liquidity imbalance
- Tax inefficiency
- Overdrawn director’s loans
Example:
Clinic A generates £110K surplus; Clinic B is £36K short.
If you transfer cash without logic, you may create a tax exposure or distort true site performance.
Key Features of Group Practice Accounting
| Area | What It Covers |
| Intercompany Transfers | Timing, tracking, and documentation between entities |
| Site-Level Reporting | Revenue, profit, and buffer by clinic |
| Consolidated Cash Flow | Unified forecasting while keeping entity boundaries |
| Associate Split Tracking | Performance and pay per site, even if they rotate |
| Overhead Allocation | Group-level costs apportioned fairly across sites |
| Tax Efficiency | Matching dividend drawings with actual retained profit by company |
DentPulse automates most of this — even where Xero or QuickBooks fall short.
How DentPulse Solves Group Practice Accounting Challenges
| Feature | Function |
| Intercompany Transfer Engine | Tracks and justifies cash movements across entities |
| Group Dashboard | Shows cash, profit, and tax exposure across all sites in one screen |
| CFFP™ Consolidation | Aligns future inflows/outflows per site for smarter liquidity planning |
| PPP™ Across Companies | Calculates safe drawings from all clinics without tax breaches |
| Overhead Split Logic | Allocates shared costs (e.g. marketing, admin, software) based on revenue, chair hours, or team size |
DentPulse brings financial harmony to multi-site operations — without spreadsheets or blind spots.
DentPulse Tip™
One profitable site can’t carry three silent loss-makers forever.
Know your numbers. Per site. Per associate. Per pound.DentPulse group accounting gives you the control you thought was only possible in single-site practices.
Related Glossary Terms
- Intercompany Transfers – Legal and tax-safe cash movement between companies
- PTP™ – Profit-to-Pocket™ – Drawing and tax planning across group structures
- CFFP™ – Cash Flow Future Pairing – Used to protect liquidity across sites
- Overhead Allocation – Distributing central costs fairly to each entity
- Director’s Loan – Becomes complex without group-level clarity
Glossary Summary Table
| Term | Meaning |
| Group Practice Accounting | The financial management and consolidation of multiple dental entities under common ownership |
| Complexity Areas | Intercompany transfers, cash flow imbalance, tax planning |
| Common Setup | Multiple limited companies or branches sharing staff, services, and owners |
| DentPulse Advantage | Real-time group visibility, safe cash movement logic, site-level clarity |
