A dental chief financial officer runs the budgets, cash, books and lender reports for each office and the central office. The CFO also keeps a close eye on insurance claims and patient balances, and checks the numbers on every practice the group buys.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, outpatient health care providers · BLS, May 2025
You'll own the finances of a group of eight to ten dental practices. You run budgets, cash and reporting, manage lenders, and lead the financial review of every practice we buy. You also watch the revenue cycle closely, because insurance claims and patient balances decide how much production becomes cash.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Build the annual budget and monthly forecast for each practice and the central office.
Produce monthly profit and loss statements by practice and walk leaders through them.
Manage cash, debt and reporting to lenders, including any loan covenants.
Lead financial due diligence on practices the group plans to buy: payer mix, collections history and staff costs.
Oversee the revenue cycle: insurance aging, claim denials, patient balances and credit balance refunds.
Model insurance fee schedules before the group joins, renegotiates or leaves a network.
Work with outside accountants on taxes and year-end close for each practice entity.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check cash and deposits against what each practice posted in [your practice management software].
Review insurance aging and large unpaid claims with the billing team.
Approve large payments and equipment purchases.
Answer financial questions from the CEO, COO and regional operations managers.
Work through month-end close with the Bookkeeper.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Monthly close completed on schedule: [your target].
Aged insurance receivables: [your target].
Collections against net production: [your target].
EBITDA margin by practice: [your target].
Budget accuracy by practice: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance.
[8+] years of finance experience, including [3+] years leading finance for a multi-location business.
Experience with bank lending, loan covenants and investor reporting.
Understands how insurance fee schedules, write-offs and collections shape revenue in a healthcare practice.
Strong with [your accounting software] and spreadsheet models.
6. Preferred Experience
Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
CFO or controller experience at a dental or medical group.
Has led financial due diligence on acquisitions.
Experience reporting to private equity owners.
7. Physical Requirements
Work at a desk and computer for most of the day.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central office role in [city].
Business hours [Monday through Friday], with longer days during month-end close, audits and acquisitions.
Occasional travel to practices and to lender or investor meetings.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief financial officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Dental revenue arrives in pieces: part from insurers at contract fees, part from patients, and part from Medicaid with federal rules attached. Most of this job is making those pieces add up.
Production is not cash
Dentists produce work at the office fee. For in-network patients, the plan's lower fee is what counts, and the difference is written off. Insurers pay after the claim is processed, and the patient's share has to be collected at the visit or billed later. The CFO reports gross production, write-offs, net production and collections side by side, so no one mistakes a full schedule for a full bank account.
Medicaid money comes with a deadline
When a practice learns Medicaid overpaid it, federal law sets a deadline. In most cases the money must be reported and returned within 60 days after the overpayment is identified. Money kept past that point can become a False Claims Act problem. So the CFO needs a monthly routine for credit balances on Medicaid accounts, not a year-end cleanup. Source: 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7k(d): reporting and returning overpayments (Cornell LII).
Several entities, one picture
Each practice may be its own legal entity, and the central office may sit in a separate management company. The CFO keeps each entity's books, payroll and taxes apart while still giving the CEO one view of the group. Outside accountants file the tax returns and help close the year for each one.
Buying a practice starts with the seller's ledger
Due diligence on a practice means checking its payer mix, collections history, staff costs and how much of its work depends on one dentist. Look for credit balances owed back to patients or insurers, and for claims still open. The CFO's model sets what the group can pay and what it must fix after closing.
Payment plans can make the group a lender
Patients often want to spread out the cost of a crown or an implant. Federal Truth in Lending rules can make the group a creditor. That happens when it regularly gives consumer credit with a finance charge, or splits a bill into more than four payments by written agreement, not counting a down payment. Regularly means more than 25 times in the last calendar year, or in this one if last year fell short. Talk to a lawyer before offering in-house plans, or use an outside patient financing company. Source: 12 CFR § 1026.2: Truth in Lending definitions (Cornell LII).
How much dental chief financial officers make
The closest BLS group for dental chief financial officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for outpatient health care providers earned a median of $218,810 a year ($105.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 6,510 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for outpatient health care providers.
A salary and annual bonus. The bonus often rides on closing the books on time, collections and staying inside loan covenants. Investor-owned groups may add a stake that pays at a sale.
Outpatient health care providers
$218,810$218,810 median Middle half $141,500–$334,610 10th–90th $92,590–$457,510
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Outpatient health care providers
$92,590
$141,500
$218,810
$334,610
$457,510
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS counts too few chief executives at dental offices for a steady figure, so these figures cover outpatient health care providers. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has led finance for a business with many locations and separate books
Builds budget and deal models other leaders can follow
Understands insurance fee schedules, write-offs and claim aging
Has reported to lenders against loan covenants, and to investors if you have them
Can walk a practice manager through a P&L so it changes what they do
Teach these on the job
Your practice management system's production and aging reports
Fee schedules and payment habits of each insurer you bill
Your lenders' and investors' reporting calendar
Each office's history and payer mix
Your credit balance and refund policy
Most of the work runs between the general ledger, the practice management system's production, adjustment and aging reports, and spreadsheet models for budgets and deals. If offices still run different practice software, much of the close is done by hand, so tell candidates.
Last year's results and your loan covenants are the natural starting points for these blanks. Report each one office by office, since the group total can hide a struggling office.
Monthly close completed on schedule
How many business days after month-end it takes to close every entity's books and send out the P&Ls. Note which offices or accounts held it up.
Aged insurance receivables
Insurance balances by age bucket, by office and by payer, from the practice management system. Watch the oldest bucket and large single claims, not just the total.
Collections against net production
Money collected divided by production after contractual write-offs, by office, each month. Use a rolling three months, because insurers pay well after the visit.
EBITDA margin by practice
Each office's EBITDA divided by its collections, after its share of central office costs. Use one cost split month after month so offices can be compared fairly.
Budget accuracy by practice
Actual revenue and expenses against budget for each office, line by line. Ask the regional manager for the reason behind any large miss, and carry it into the next forecast.
Career path
Healthcare finance managerBuilds budgets and claim reports for a medical, dental or therapy group.
Controller at a multi-site practice groupOwns the close for many entities and the payer reports.
Chief Financial OfficerTurns production into cash and keeps lenders and owners informed.
The CFO builds a budget for each office and the central office, closes the books each month with the Bookkeeper, and manages cash and lender reports. With the billing team, the CFO watches claims, denials and patient balances. Before the group buys a practice, the CFO tests the seller's numbers and builds the model that sets the price.
How much does a dental chief financial officer make?
Chief executives who work for outpatient health care providers earned a median of $218,810 a year ($105.20 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $141,500 and $334,610 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How does a dental CFO decide whether to leave an insurance network?
Start with the plan's fee for the procedures each office does most, compared with your office fee and what other plans pay. Then estimate how many patients carry that plan, how many might leave with it, and the hygiene visits they bring. The CFO models the result office by office. The CEO makes the call with the CFO and COO, since a network can be worth keeping in one market and not another.
Can a dental office bill a Medicaid patient for the rest of the fee?
Not for covered services. Federal rules let state Medicaid programs work only with providers who accept Medicaid's payment, plus any copay or other cost sharing the state plan requires, as payment in full. So the patient balance policy and the billing software have to treat Medicaid accounts differently from PPO and cash patients. Train front desk teams on this before an acquired office starts taking Medicaid.
Does the CFO manage dental insurance billing?
Not claim by claim. Insurance and Billing Coordinators file claims, post insurance payments and chase denials for one or more offices. The Bookkeeper matches deposits and issues refunds. The CFO sets the rules they work by, reads the results across all offices, and decides what to fix: a payer that denies too often, an office with growing patient balances, or a fee schedule that no longer covers costs.
