The 11 Reports Every Buyer Should Request Before Signing Anything

A broker summary tells you what a practice produced. It doesn’t tell you why, whether it’s repeatable, or what’s underneath it.

That distinction matters, because the summary is a marketing document. It is assembled to present the practice well, and it is usually accurate as far as it goes. The problem is what it structurally cannot show you. A single production figure cannot tell you whether the revenue came from one retiring provider, whether the patient base is growing or shrinking, or whether the payer mix that generated those collections will still exist under your ownership.

The practice management system can tell you all of that. You just have to ask for the right reports.

Why the Reports Matter More Than the Summary

A buyer I’ll call Dr. G was evaluating a practice that looked strong on paper. The broker’s materials showed healthy production and a long operating history.

The underlying reports showed something the summary did not: roughly $218,000 in annual revenue reductions, an active patient base of just over 800 that was shrinking rather than growing, and an insurance participation shift that would affect reimbursement going forward.

None of that was hidden. None of it was in the marketing materials either. It was simply sitting in reports nobody had asked for.

That detail became negotiating leverage. It also meant Dr. G understood what the first two years of ownership would actually require.

The 11 Reports

Request these from the seller, generated directly out of the practice management software, covering at least the last 24 months where possible.

1. Production by Procedure Code. Shows the clinical mix and whether production is concentrated in a small number of procedure types, including ones you may not perform.
2. Production by Provider. Separates doctor production from hygiene production, and shows how much of the practice depends on the departing owner.
3. Collections Report. Production is what was performed. Collections are what was actually received. The gap between them is a system, not an accident.
4. Adjustment Report. Write-off patterns reveal financial policy gaps and where negotiated fees are quietly eroding revenue.
5. Accounts Receivable Aging Report. Shows collection effectiveness and the strength of the practice’s financial policy.
6. Accounts Receivable Credit Balance Report. Hidden liabilities owed back to patients or insurers. Buyers almost never ask for this one, and it can carry real money.
7. Active Patient Report. The true size of the engaged patient base, and the report that most often contradicts the headline production figure.
8. New Patient Report. Monthly new patient flow over 18 months, so you can see trend rather than an annual average.
9. Hygiene Reappointment Rate. The clearest measure of recall system strength and patient retention.
10. Unscheduled Treatment Report. Diagnosed but unaccepted treatment. This is both a measure of case acceptance and a genuine opportunity under new ownership.
11. Insurance Participation Report. Plan mix, concentration, and reimbursement levels, so you can see what share of revenue depends on any single payer.

The Three Questions These Reports Answer

Taken together, these reports answer what a summary cannot:

• Is this revenue real? Production, collections, adjustments, and AR tell you whether the reported number is what the practice actually banked.
• Is it repeatable? Provider mix, active patients, new patient flow, and hygiene reappointment tell you whether the engine that produced it is still running.
• Is it yours to inherit? Insurance participation and procedure mix tell you whether the revenue survives a change of ownership and a change of clinical hands.

A practice that answers all three well is worth what it is asking. A practice that fails one of them is not necessarily a bad buy, but it is a different buy than the one being advertised, and the price should reflect that.

If a Seller Will Not Produce Them

Every one of these reports is standard output from any modern practice management system. Producing them takes an office manager a short amount of time.

Reluctance is information. A seller with nothing to hide generally cooperates, because these reports usually support the asking price. Resistance to a reasonable, specific document request tells you something before you have spent a dollar on due diligence.

These 11 reports are the practice management piece of a wider process. For the full document by document review, see our complete dental practice due diligence checklist. To have the reports read by someone who does this for a living, work with JoAnne.