Your contract pays twelve equal instalments against one annual target. Your ledger should track what you have earned, not what has landed. Monthly bookkeeping and accounts from a Chartered Management Accountant, from £95 + VAT.
Book a 30-minute review →An NHS contract in England pays its annual value in twelve equal instalments against a target number of Units of Dental Activity for the year to 31 March. Payment and delivery are decoupled, so the bank statement is silent on performance. NHS Dental Services reconciles contracted against delivered activity after the year end, finishing by September.
The bands matter more than the trend. Below 96% of target the commissioner claws back, up to the full value of the activity target, with a breach notice possible. Between 96% and 100% the shortfall is tolerated and carried into next year's requirement rather than recovered in cash. Over-delivery to 102% carries forward; above 102% is neither paid for nor carried. UDA value is contract value divided by contracted UDAs, so on 6,000 UDAs at £30, finishing on 5,580 — 93% — is a shortfall worth £12,600, taken from the next year's instalments. Two points higher and you repay nothing.
Which makes it an accounting problem before a cash problem. Revenue belongs in the period it is earned, so once under-delivery is probable and measurable from the activity reports, the expected recovery belongs in the year it arose. Post each instalment straight to income and the books show a profit the reconciliation removes a year later. Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and nearby counties in person; remote elsewhere.
Each instalment split earned against deferred, using the UDA position in Compass. Below a 96% run rate, the expected recovery is carried as a liability from that month.
Exemption rests on medical care: protecting, maintaining or restoring health, by a registered professional. Whitening and veneers purely for appearance, and facial aesthetics, are standard rated. Prostheses are exempt; reception toothpaste is not.
Taxable income alone counts towards the £90,000 rolling threshold — how a mostly exempt practice ends up registered. Input tax then splits three ways: taxable, exempt, residual. Coded at entry.
HMRC withdrew its associate dentist guidance with effect from 6 April 2023. No automatic self-employed treatment survives it. Being wrong costs PAYE and NIC on fees already paid gross.
Most associate agreements share lab fees. Post the laboratory invoice gross to practice costs and also net the associate's share off their self-billed fee, and both lines overstate. Private margin then means nothing.
Hire purchase with an option or obligation to acquire puts the asset on the balance sheet and opens capital allowances once in use. A true operating lease gives rentals and none.
Essentials £95 + VAT a month: bookkeeping and VAT. Essentials + Books £195 + VAT, adding year-end accounts and the CT600. Managed £395 + VAT, with management accounts and commentary. Finance Director £1,250 + VAT. Catch-up on an overdue year, £450 + VAT. Fixed, by Direct Debit, agreed in writing. Full price list.
I'm Peter Edwards, a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA CGMA) and CIMA Member in Practice, twenty-five years in finance: Head of Finance at a pharmaceutical wholesaler growing from £3m to £10m, at a £13m publishing and media group with an ecommerce arm, and at a £15m software business, plus a spell as Responsible Financial Officer and Deputy Town Clerk at a town council.
Two of those turned on income arriving at one rhythm and being earned at another. A dental practice is that problem in a different coat, and costing something properly is the core of the management accounting discipline — a different trade from year-end compliance.
You deal with me. No junior doing the work, no partner signing it, no statutory audit and no specialist tax advice.
Seven questions, answered from memory. No logins, no exports, and an honest verdict before we ask you for anything.
Free. Bring your UDA position and one associate agreement — most of what needs fixing shows up in those two documents.
Scope and monthly fee in writing before anything starts, from the first complete month. Stop on a month's notice.
If you can answer that and say what it does to this year's income figure, your books are in better shape than most. If not, start with seven questions you can answer from memory.
Run the free Quick Books Check → Or book a 30-minute review