What does one crown keep?

Put in your own numbers. First work out what an hour in the chair costs you, then follow one crown fee through the lab, the chair and the doctor to what's left for the owner.

The companion to Season 1, Episode 1 of the podcast: The crown clock. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

1 What an hour in the chair costs

Use one office's numbers. Overhead means everything you spend in a month (rent, team pay, supplies, software, equipment, phones) except the lab and the doctor's pay, which the crown counts separately.

Monthly overhead, not counting lab or doctor pay$Doctor chair hours booked in that monthhoursHours with a patient in the doctor's chair, not the hours you're open.

2 One crownYour office fee for the crown$Optional. The number on the treatment plan.What you actually collect$The PPO's allowed fee, or your office fee if the patient pays cash.Lab bill$

Prep appointmentminSeat appointmentmin

Doctor pay%Paid as a % of

If the owner does the crown, use what you'd pay an associate. Leave it blank to see the crown before the doctor is paid.

Your crown

Fill in your numbers to see where the fee goes.

How the math works

Cost per chair hour

Monthly overhead (no lab, no doctor pay) ÷ doctor chair hours booked that month.

The same overhead spread over fewer booked hours makes every hour cost more. An empty hour on the schedule doesn't save anything: you already paid for it.

What the owner keeps

What you collect − lab bill − (chair minutes ÷ 60 × cost per chair hour) − doctor pay.

A remake or a crown that doesn't seat adds another appointment to the chair time, and that time is never billed.

Education, not legal, tax or financial advice.

Get the episode, and the next calculator

One part of the practice every Monday, with real numbers. Episode 1 walks through this crown out loud.

Office fee
PPO write-off
Collected
Lab
Chair time
Doctor
Owner keeps