Dental school teaches you bonding protocols. It does not teach you budgets. When I opened my first Smile & Co. location, nobody handed me a rulebook for how much to spend either. No one sits you down and tells you what a reasonable month of ordering looks like versus a month where you have gone a little overboard because a rep talked you into a case of something you did not need yet.
I figured it out the hard way. Months of overordering. Months of underordering and scrambling. One too many boxes of a product that sat on a shelf collecting dust because I bought it on a whim.
Now, with two locations, I have a system. It is not complicated. It just took some trial and error to build.
If you are a startup owner trying to figure out how much is too much, or you are a few years in and still winging it every month, this is the exact system I use. It is a percentage, a report, and a spreadsheet. But it works, and it has kept our supply spend in check through two very different build outs.
The Number that Changed Everything
Here is the rule I run our office supply budget on: 3 to 4 percent of the previous month's collections.
That is it. That is the whole system. No fancy formula, no consultant-designed spreadsheet with fifteen tabs. Just a percentage, applied consistently, month after month.
Here is how I calculate it. At the start of each month, I pull our collections report for the previous month. I take that total and calculate 3 percent and 4 percent of it, and that gives me my range for the month.
That gives me a real dollar figure to order against instead of a gut feeling. At this point I have years of averages behind me, so I know roughly what a normal month costs, but I still run the calculation every month anyway. A number pulled fresh off last month's collections is always more accurate than one I am just remembering from a season ago.
Here is what the two numbers actually mean. Three percent is my baseline. It is what a normal, steady month of ordering should cost, and it is the number I aim for when nothing unusual is happening. Four percent is the max. It is the ceiling, not a target. If I am at 4 percent, something bigger came up that month, new equipment, an early bulk order, a restock ahead of a busy season. Four percent is not where I want to live every month. It is the line I do not cross without a real reason.
Knowing the difference between those two numbers is what keeps this whole system from turning into an excuse to spend more. Three percent tells me what I can spend without a second thought. Four percent tells me the absolute most I can justify, and only when there is a reason for it. Everything above that, I do not spend, because I already know exactly what I have to work with before I place a single order.
Not Every Vendor Deserves Your Loyalty
When I first started ordering, I did what a lot of new owners do. I bought everything through one vendor. Equipment, supplies, all of it, through the same rep and the same account, without much of a second thought. It felt easier that way when I was already overwhelmed with everything else it takes to open a practice. Easy is not the same as smart, and I learned that lesson slowly over a lot of invoices.
Now I actually compare. Certain items get checked across multiple vendors before I place an order, because prices genuinely differ more than you would expect for things that feel like commodity items.
This is where a platform like Net32 has been useful for us. Instead of opening five different vendor websites and trying to remember who charged what last time, I can compare pricing across vendors in one place. It saves time, and time is money when you are running two locations.
The bigger lesson is this: know which items are worth shopping around for and stop treating every vendor relationship like it is sacred. Some are worth the loyalty because of service, reliability, or a rep who genuinely goes to bat for you. Others are just the vendor you happened to start with. Figure out which is which.
Track It or You Will Lose It
Here is the part nobody wants to hear. A budget percentage means nothing if you are not tracking what actually goes out the door.
I keep a running spreadsheet, one tab per year, with five simple columns. Order date. Vendor. Order number. Item. Price. That is genuinely all it is. No color coding system I built by hand, no macros I have to remember how to use, nothing complicated.
Inside each year's tab, it is broken out month by month, and each month has its own calculation built in. I type in that month's collections number, and it automatically calculates the 3 and 4 percent range for me. Every order I log that month adds into a running total, and once that total is in, the sheet color codes it based on where we land against the budget.
It takes about 60 seconds to log an order, and it has saved me more than once. I have caught duplicate orders before they became a real problem. I have gone back to confirm a charge that looked off on a vendor statement. I have used it at the end of the year to actually see where our money went, instead of relying on memory or a guess.
If you are not tracking your ordering somewhere simple like this right now, please start today. Not next month. Today. You cannot manage a budget you cannot see, and a percentage rule is only as good as the tracking behind it. The two go hand in hand. One without the other falls apart fast.
Building the Habit, Not Just the System
This system sounds simple on paper, and it is. The harder part is sticking to it month after month, especially in the early years when every instinct is telling you to order more just in case.
What made this stick for me was treating it like any other recurring task in the practice. It happens the same time every month, the same way morning huddles do. I pull the report, I do the math, and I order against it.
That consistency is what separates a budget that actually protects your practice from one that exists on paper and gets ignored the second something feels urgent. There is always a rep with a deal, always a new product that promises to make your life easier. The percentage is what keeps me honest.
A Few Small Habits That Add Up
Beyond the percentage and the spreadsheet, there are a handful of smaller habits that quietly protect the budget every month without much extra effort.
I always double check where an item is going to ship before I place an order.
Between two locations, it is easy to have something land at the wrong office, and that costs more than just the item. It costs a drive across town and sometimes a rushed reorder at a worse price.
I also try to batch orders about twice a month instead of ordering the moment I think of something.
If it is not urgent, it goes on a running list and one order gets placed per vendor instead of several smaller ones. Fewer orders means fewer shipping charges and a clearer picture when the spreadsheet gets reviewed.
I ask my team to flag anything running low before it actually runs out.
Ordering ahead of a shortage almost always costs less than ordering in a panic. Panic ordering is where budgets quietly blow past 4 percent.
None of these habits are complicated. They are just small checks that, over a year, keep the whole system honest.
Handing the Keys to My Lead Assistant
Here is the part of this system I am most grateful for. Once the percentage and the tracking were solid, I stopped being the one placing every single order.
Each office has a lead assistant who owns this now. Only that person places orders for the practice, not whoever notices we are running low. One person means nothing gets duplicated and nothing slips through without being logged. She knows the budget, places the orders, and keeps the spreadsheet updated. It covers everything front office and back office, from bond to printer paper. If it gets ordered for the practice, it runs through the same budget, the same person, and the same tracking.
This has given me so much freedom. I am not the bottleneck for every reorder anymore, and I am not the one who has to remember what we are low on. My leads have that covered.
It has also kept me personally accountable in a way I did not expect. When I want to try some fancy new product I saw at a conference or scrolling through Instagram, I cannot just add it to the cart and call it a business expense. I have to check it against the budget my own lead is tracking. If the number is not there, the item cannot be there either. You cannot spend what you do not have, even when you are the owner and it would be easy to talk yourself into an exception.
That accountability has saved me from myself more than once. It is easy to justify an impulse purchase when you are the only one who sees the spreadsheet. It is a lot harder when your lead assistant is the one keeping the number.
It has done something similar for the rest of the team too. Once someone knows what an item actually costs, they treat it differently. My leads are not just placing orders anymore, they are watching for overuse, and they can call it out when something is being used more than it should be. Nobody wants to be the reason we went through double the bond we normally do in a month *inserts crying face emoji*. Knowing the cost keeps everyone a little more mindful, not just the person placing the order.
What I Would Tell a New Owner
If you are just getting started, or you are a few years in and still ordering on instinct, here is what I would tell you.
Set your percentage and know it cold. Three percent is your everyday baseline. Four percent is your max, not your target. 3 to 4 percent of last month's collections is a number that has worked for us across two very different builds, and it will give you a real place to start.
Utilize dental marketplace sites like Net32 to compare vendors on the things that are actually worth comparing and stop spending energy comparing the things that are not. Use tools that make that comparison easier instead of doing it the hard way across a dozen browser tabs.
Track every order every time, even when it feels tedious, especially then. Once the system is solid, hand it off. Let your lead own the budget, the ordering, and the tracking for every supply in the building. It gives you back time and keeps you honest too.
Running a startup dental practice is expensive enough without your supply spend quietly running away from you in the background. A little bit of structure here does not just protect your bottom line. It buys you peace of mind everywhere else in the practice, because one less thing is left to chance.
