What’s the biggest cash mistake at this level?

The biggest mistake is drawing money based on your bank balance. Your balance may include unpaid liabilities such as VAT or Corporation Tax, which is how practices end up unable to meet tax obligations.

Why Dental Practices Break At £800K Production: Scaling Without A Cash Plan

Dental practice cash flow should feel smoother once you’re producing £800K a year.
But that’s exactly where most practices quietly start to break — not because they aren’t growing, but because they’re growing without a cash plan.

Since 2019, as a dental accountant and CFO, I’ve helped over 67 UK dental practice owners navigate the hidden traps that appear once production crosses £800K — and it’s rarely due to a lack of revenue.

At this stage, most owners typically add:

A Treatment Coordinator to boost case conversions
A second associate or hygienist to meet growing demand
An agency or in-house hire for marketing
A new chair or partial refurbishment to increase capacity

These are smart growth moves — but without a cash flow plan, they quietly cause chaos.

As the saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Your costs spike before your cash catches up.
You start making reactive financial decisions.
And cash friction shows up every Friday — when your hygienist invoice lands, lab bills hit your inbox, materials bills creep through your emails, and your payroll provider sends the net payment summary around the 28th of the month.

Did you know?
According to NASDAL (2024), the average overhead ratio in UK dental practices now exceeds 68% — up from 61% five years ago. That means even small spending shifts at £800K+ production can rapidly erode cash position.

Fast Takeaway: Why Do Practices Break at £800K?

Because they scale costs before they scale cash clarity.

Here’s how to prevent it:

Track cleared cash weekly (not what’s invoiced)
Forecast out 13 weeks — not just this month
Hold 2.5× monthly costs as a buffer
Sync drawings to true surplus — not just your current bank balance

Nail these four, and growth won’t feel like gambling.

What You’ll Learn in This Guide

Why hitting £800K increases cash risk — not safety
The 5 most common breakdowns I see at this level
A simple framework to forecast and fix the gap before it hits

This isn’t theory. I’m sharing lived strategy from working directly with principal dentists around the £800K production mark — real decisions, real consequences, and real results inside UK dental practices.

Why Do Dental Practices Run Into Cash Trouble at £800K Production?

Dental practices run into cash flow trouble at the £800K production mark because costs scale first, cash clarity comes later — and financial discipline hasn’t kept up with clinical growth.

From my experience as a dental CFO since 2019, I’ve seen this play out in over 17 scaling practices: revenue rises, but the financial rhythm breaks. This is the transition zone — where invisible cash strain replaces visible top-line success.

Cost Scaling Happens First — Cash Catch-Up Happens Later

Once you cross £800K, practices often:

Hire a Treatment Coordinator to convert high-value cases
Add a second associate or hygienist to meet demand
Ramp up marketing spend to fill diaries
Invest in a new chair or refurb to increase capacity

These are smart growth moves — but they instantly spike fixed and variable costs.

Reality Check: Income often lags. NHS payments, patient finance, or plan income can delay the cash actually arriving in your account.

You’re Growing Without a Financial Rhythm

Most practices at this stage still:

Don’t track cleared cash vs. committed outflows
Forecast just one month ahead
Rely on bank balance to decide drawings
Hold less than 1 month of cash in reserve

The result? Friday payroll surprises. Missed tax payments. Supplier delays.

💬 “We’re busy and booked — but cash still feels tight.”
It’s one of the most common quotes I hear.

You’re Still Operating Like a £500K Practice

At £800K+, you need to shift from gut feel to financial governance.

Mistake to Avoid: Believing profit = safety.
You might show £200K profit, but if £140K is owed to suppliers and £40K is VAT or tax, your real position could be £20K — or worse.

Without a proper cash flow model, you’re running on assumptions.

What Are the Most Common Cash Flow Breakdowns After Hitting £800K Annual Production?

There are five major cash flow breakdowns that practices commonly face after crossing £800K in production:

Weekly payroll panic, tax arrears, drawings regret, supplier delays, and profit confusion.

At this stage, you’re not struggling with revenue — you’re struggling with rhythm.

As a dental cfo since 2019, here’s what I see most often in practices between £800K and £1M turnover — what it looks like, and why it happens:

Breaking Point	What It Looks Like	Why It Happens
Weekly Payroll Panic	You can’t make Friday payments without borrowing from savings or transferring between accounts	More staff = more payroll = more outflows hitting in shorter cycles
Tax Arrears	Corporation Tax to pay by 9 months and 1 day after the year end or PAYE settlements to amke by 22nd of the month arrive and there’s not enough in the account	There’s no forward view of liabilities — growth increases tax, but it isn’t being forecasted
Drawings Regret	You’ve taken too much too soon — and now you’re short on operating cash	Owner drawings are still based on gut feel or profit, not real-time cash flow
Supplier Delays	Lab and materials invoices start piling up unpaid	Fixed costs have outpaced cleared income — and payment discipline starts to slip
Profit Confusion	You’re told you made £200K — but your bank shows £5K	Because what you earned and what you keep are two different things — and retained cash isn’t being tracked

From the Frontline

Since 2019, as a dental accountant and CFO, I’ve seen this same pattern repeat across dozens of growing practices.

Most owners think:

“Surely this is normal — we’re just reinvesting in growth.”

But the line between reinvestment and runaway spend is thin.
And it usually becomes visible only after payments start bouncing or cash stops clearing.

So if you’re in this situation — you’re not alone.

It naturally leads to the next question I get asked most often:

“So how do I build a cash flow plan that actually works at this level?”

Let me show you in the next section.

How Can I Build a Cash Flow Plan That Works at £800K and Beyond?

You can build a cash flow plan that works at £800K annual production and beyond by following four key steps:

a) Track cleared cash weekly — not just what’s invoiced
b) Forecast inflow and outflow for the next 13 weeks
c) Hold 2.5x monthly costs in a cash buffer
d) Set clear, rule-based drawings aligned to actual surplus

💬 From my experience as a dental accountant and CFO since 2019, this is the exact framework I’ve used to help 67+ practices move from “busy and broke” to “predictable and prepared.”

1. Weekly Cash Flow Rhythm

Don’t wait until month-end. Cash pain shows up every Friday.

You need to know:

What cleared this week
What’s going out this week
Whether there’s a shortfall — before the shortfall hits

Tip: Treat cleared cash like your “spendable income.” Never base your decisions on invoices raised or diary value.

2. Build a 13-Week Cash Forecast

We call this a Cleared Funds Forward Projection — but you can do it manually.

Use:

Your PMS to track upcoming production
Your accounting software to pull historical outflows
A simple spreadsheet to plot the inflows vs outflows weekly

This gives you enough runway to adjust before you panic.

3. Hold a Realistic Cash Buffer

Most practices only hold 2–3 weeks of cash — and that’s not enough once you scale.

At £800K revenue and a monthly cost base of ~£65K, you should hold:

2.5x monthly costs = £162,500 buffer

This protects you from VAT bills, sick leave, delays in patient finance, or diary slowdowns.

4. Set Drawings Rules — And Stick to Them

You can’t grow and withdraw on gut feel.

You need a rule for:

When you take drawings (e.g. 1st and 15th)
How much you can take (based on retained surplus)
What happens when inflow slows down

Common Mistake: Drawing based on profit or last month’s balance — instead of real-time, cleared surplus — is the #1 cause of cash stress in clinics I work with.

What’s a Real Example of a Dental Practice at £870K That Ran Into Cash Trouble?

As a dental accountant and CFO, I worked with a private-led, mixed practice generating £870K in annual revenue — and yet, they couldn’t pay their Corporation Tax on time.

They weren’t mismanaging. They were growing fast.

But here’s what went wrong:

What Went Wrong:

They were paying staff weekly, but income was coming in monthly
They had just added a new associate, but didn’t forecast the full chair cost
They were taking drawings based on the bank balance — not on real-time surplus

The owner told me: “We’re busier than ever — but we still can’t pay Corporation Tax on time.”

In a recent BDA survey (2023), 62% of principal dentists cited cash flow volatility as their top financial stressor — despite many reporting year-on-year production growth.

What We Did:

We implemented two changes:

A 13-week cleared cash projection to show their real weekly position
A buffer target of £32,500 (0.5x quarterly Corporation Tax + payroll cushion)

Within 3 months, they had:

Retained £32.7K cash in the business
Shifted their pay run by 4 days to align with inflow
Stopped supplier delays and had zero missed Corporation Tax or PAYE bills since

💬 From my experience, this is one of the most common realities in scaling practices: growth masks friction — until a tax deadline or payroll day exposes it.

How a £2M established Dental Practice Can Still Run Into Cash Trouble — And How to Fix It

At £2M in annual revenue, many established practices still suffer the same friction: cash flow feels tight, owners overdraw, and Corporation Tax or supplier bills go unpaid.

From what I’ve seen inside multi-site and veteran-led practices, the problem isn’t lack of income — it’s a lack of financial infrastructure.

Weekly cash isn’t tracked
Associate-level profitability isn’t known
Chairs aren’t benchmarked for revenue-per-hour

Here’s what you need to know and prepare for as the next level from being at growth stage to established .

Even at the £2M level, established practices can still run into cash trouble — and this comprehensive guide covers how a £2M established Dental Practice Can Still Run Into Cash Trouble — And How to Fix It

Before You Scale Further—Fix the Associate Payroll Cash Gap

At £800K–£1M, the biggest hidden cash strain isn’t labs or marketing — it’s associate payroll. Associates are often paid weekly or monthly before NHS or private income clears, creating timing gaps that quietly drain liquidity.

If you’re adding a second associate or increasing chair time, this gap widens fast — and many practices hit cash friction without realising payroll is the cause.

This guide shows you how to forecast, time, and protect cash around associate pay so growth doesn’t break your working capital.

Your Next Step: Build Your 13-Week Cash Plan at £800k production

Let me be clear to you. You do not need DentPulse to handle this.You can do this manually using:

Your PMS -dentally, soe, carestack, agili, pearl, soe for production patterns
Xero or QuickBooks online accounting software for cash outflow history
A excel spreadsheet or googlesheet to project the gap

Yes, it’s time-consuming. But it gives you control.

And if you want that same clarity in 3 clicks?

DentPulse runs real-time CFFP™ and MCBTP™ with built-in cash rules for growing practices. It’s how our clients move from ‘busy and broke’ to have complete cash control so that they can ensure financial stability by protecting working capital and mobilisng excess cash flow to fuel dental clinic growh.

You can book the dentpulse demo call, by clikcing here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is £800K a common cash danger zone for dentists?

Because this is where growth decisions — more staff, chairs, or marketing — happen before a cash buffer or system is in place. The business expands, but the structure to manage cash hasn’t.

Can I be profitable but still run into cash flow trouble?

Absolutely. Many £800K+ practices report strong profits, but delayed payments, untracked tax exposure, and misaligned drawings leave the account empty when it matters most.

What’s the biggest cash mistake I see at this level?

Drawing money based on your bank balance. What’s in your account may include unpaid liabilities. That’s how practices end up unable to pay Corporation Tax.

How much cash buffer should I hold?

I recommend at least 2.5x your monthly fixed costs. If your costs are £65K/month, you’ll want about £162.5K in reserve.

Do I need software like DentPulse to manage this?

Not necessarily. You can do it manually using your PMS, Xero or QuickBooks, and a spreadsheet. But tools like DentPulse give real-time clarity in 3 clicks — which is why many growing clinics choose to automate.

Table of Contents