Dental Office Merchant Cash Advance & Business Funding
Dental offices can get a merchant cash advance based on steady deposits from insurers and patients. The key question for funders is timing: insurance payments often arrive weeks after the visit, while hygienist wages and lab bills are due now. An advance can bridge that gap or pay for equipment, but compare it with equipment financing first.
How do funders read dental offices?
Funders look at payer mix, how long claims take to pay, and whether the practice has one location or several. A practice that has just added a dentist may show higher costs before production catches up, and a short note explaining that helps. For equipment, equipment financing is often cheaper.
How does money come in for dental offices?
A dental office usually has three streams: insurance payments by EFT from dental plans, patient copays and balances by card, and payouts from patient financing companies. The EFT batches can be large and irregular. Funders read several months so one big batch doesn't overstate the average.
Which months are slowest for dental offices?
This table shows how many people private offices of dentists (NAICS 621210) businesses employed each month, as an index where the year's average is 100. It comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the most recent full year available. Staffing is a stand-in for how busy a business is. Deposits can move more or less than headcount, so read it as the shape of the year, not your numbers.
| Month | Staffing index (average = 100) | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 99 | |
| February | 100 | |
| March | 99 | lowest |
| April | 100 | |
| May | 100 | |
| June | 100 | |
| July | 100 | |
| August | 101 | |
| September | 99 | |
| October | 101 | |
| November | 101 | |
| December | 101 | highest |
The low point is March at 99.1 and the high point is December at 100.8, a swing of 1.7 points. Dental staffing is about as steady as it gets.
| Quarter | Total payroll index (average = 100) |
|---|---|
| Quarter 1 | 92 |
| Quarter 2 | 98 |
| Quarter 3 | 99 |
| Quarter 4 | 111 |
Payroll by quarter can rise at year end for reasons like bonuses and overtime, not only more work.
What do dental offices use merchant cash advances for?
- Imaging equipment or a new chair.
- A build-out for another operatory.
- Hygienist and assistant wages while insurance claims are paid.
- Lab bills for crowns and appliances.
- Marketing for a new location.
What does an advance payment look like in a slow month?
Staffing barely moves through the year here, so the slow month to plan for isn't seasonal. Say one month's insurance batches land late and deposits come in 20% under average. Say a business like yours deposits $120,000 in an average month and carries a fixed payment of $12,000 a month, 10% of that average:
| Deposits | Fixed payment | Share of deposits | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average month | $120,000 | $12,000 | 10.0% |
| A month 20% below average | $96,000 | $12,000 | 12.5% |
A fifth less in deposits turns a 10% payment into 12.5%. Keep a cushion for it, or ask how reconciliation works before you need it.
Which funding options fit dental offices?
Each page runs one option against this industry's slow months.
Same-day merchant cash advance for dental offices
Money the same business day for an urgent cost, with the fixed daily debit measured against a slow month.
Second position MCA for dental offices
What a second advance adds on top of the first, and what both payments take from deposits in a slow month.
MCA consolidation for dental offices
One payment in place of two, with the share of deposits before and after in a slow month.
Revenue-based financing for dental offices
A remittance that moves with revenue, so a slow month sends less, and the months to reach the repayment cap.
Business line of credit for dental offices
A draw sized for a slow month, repaid in thirds, with the interest on the balance worked out.
Run a business like this?
Tell us your slow months up front and we'll look for funders that size for them. Call 877-FUND-654 with any question. We call you back, usually the same business day, and we always talk with you before we shop your file.