4 Steps to Eliminate your Overdue Account Problems

Dentists deserve to spend their energy where it matters most — caring for patients and guiding their teams. Yet financial frustration has a way of creeping in, especially when overdue accounts start piling up. Without a clear framework to manage them, it’s surprisingly easy for balances to slip through the cracks and quietly drain your cash flow. Those uncollected balances act like a hidden tax on your hard work, so it’s more important than ever to restore peace of mind, predictability, and practice growth with these four strategies!

1. Have a Strong Financial Policy

You need a clear financial policy, because otherwise every patient interaction will be inconsistent and feel like a negotiation. Over time, that inconsistency will erode trust, confuse your team, and put your hard-earned money at risk. I recommend you create two separate financial policies:

• An internal facing financial policy. This is so your team has complete clarity around your expectations for patients: What’s due at the time of service? How are insurance claims handled? How are payment plans approved? How do we communicate?
• A patient facing financial policy. We all know most patients don’t comb through every line of their new-patient paperwork. That’s why it’s so important to take a moment to verbally walk them through your financial policy. A simple conversation up front sets clear expectations and avoids misunderstandings down the road.

Remember what Kirk says: “If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist,” so make sure you’re documenting these policies and relaying them to patients effectively! Check out a sample financial arrangement form here!

2. Know Your Numbers

The truth is simple: you can’t fix what you’re not tracking. When you know your starting point, it becomes so much easier to spot progress, celebrate wins, and zero in on problems before they grow. These are some of the metrics I recommend monitoring to strengthen your accounts process:

• Collections. You want to shoot for 100% of your Net Production, because having even a few percentage points less means a lot of money is left on the table.
• AR Ratio. Ideally, you want to shoot for a 1:1 ratio, meaning that if your monthly production averages $100,000, your AR balance should not exceed it.
• AR Intervals. I recommend reviewing your balances in different buckets based on time: 0-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, and 90+ days. Remember, the longer balances sit, the less likely they are going to be collected. At 30 days you’re 90% likely to collect, but at 90 days, it drops to 50%.

3. Create a Plan

If you have overdue accounts, you need a plan to collect on them, and a big part of that is being able to define a system to know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish and why it’s important. I advise involving your team here, because when you can show them the impact that AR has, they’ll understand why they need to get on board. Then you can assign ownership and start holding each other accountable. Learn more here about managing an AR and Collections system!

4. Work the Plan

It doesn’t matter how great your system is — if it’s not implemented, it’s sure to fail. You need to be consistent about following up on your overdue accounts, and I recommend scheduling weekly AR reviews to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. The earlier you can address issues, the less likely they will escalate into hard-to-collect territory. 

Remember, collecting money shouldn’t be uncomfortable — it’s about protecting the practice and supporting the salaries, technology upgrades, and continued patient care that your practice needs. You can get started right away by simply running an AR report! Any balances over 31 days are overdue, so highlight them and have your team contact those patients with a scripted, friendly reminder. It’s that simple, and the results will speak for themselves!

Find out more about how to master AR in this podcast!

To learn more about ACT and how we can help you build a Better Practice and a Better Life, reach out to Gina at gina@actdental.com!

Tune in next time and learn why teams feel overwhelmed!