A multi-location dental organization operating across Southern California, with a strong reputation for quality patient care and steady clinical volume across three service lines: general dentistry, pediatric, and orthodontics. As the practice planned for continued growth, leadership recognized an opportunity to modernize the financial infrastructure beneath that clinical success.
The Strategic Vision
The practice viewed a controller transition as the right moment to fully optimize its newly implemented ERP platform and establish enterprise-grade processes. Rather than simply backfill the role, leadership elected to build a financial operation that could scale with their expansion plans.
Those priorities included positioning the practice as a sophisticated financial partner to its lenders, gaining profitability visibility across locations and service lines, and building a back-office with consistent processes and month-end close discipline. Leadership chose to partner with PBO Advisory Group to build the financial foundation their vision required.
The PBO Approach
PBO Advisory deployed Consulting CFO Kristy Facchini, working alongside John Sherman and a team of staff accountants. The team stabilized operations, developed and monitored cash receipt processing, and reconciled months of outstanding bank balances to establish an accurate baseline. Outstanding periods were closed to produce the financial statements lenders required, and the team met covenant reporting deadlines while rebuilding lender confidence through transparent communication.
Rather than simply completing the ERP implementation, PBO reconfigured Sage Intacct to provide profitability reporting by location and service line across general dentistry, pediatric, and orthodontics, with the flexibility to consolidate performance or analyze any individual segment. The team implemented Zero Balance Accounts so each location could handle deposits and payments locally while funds were swept automatically to corporate for centralized cash management.
Controller Jennifer Rebis joined the team to provide ongoing financial strategy and timely reporting. The team designed and documented month-end close procedures, standardized reconciliation workflows across all locations, and established reporting cadences that deliver timely information to leadership, building an operation structured to scale.
The Results
Within months, the practice’s financial operations transformed into an organized, compliant, and strategically aligned operation, and the foundation continues to support growth.
- Banking covenant compliance restored and maintained systematically
- Month-end close completed within 10 days, from non-existent
- Profitability visibility across general dentistry, pediatric, and orthodontics
- Ongoing employee fraud uncovered and prevented through stronger controls
- A scalable foundation requiring fewer staff to maintain
Beyond the financial performance, the improved transparency delivered a benefit leadership did not anticipate: the detailed reporting and controls made an ongoing employee fraud issue at one location immediately visible. Healthcare practices are particularly vulnerable to this, often because of cash-basis histories and physician-ownership models. The organization addressed the issue swiftly and put safeguards in place, and that single outcome likely paid for the entire engagement multiple times over.
Client Perspective
“PBO rebuilt our entire financial operation to give us the visibility we need to grow strategically. Now we understand which locations and services are driving profitability, and we can make decisions with confidence. The fraud they uncovered saved us significantly, and the systems they put in place mean that kind of issue can never happen again.”
— Practice Owner
Ready to Build Strategic Financial Infrastructure for Your Practice?
Learn how PBO Advisory Group helps healthcare practices build sustainable financial infrastructures that support strategic growth. Contact us today to learn how we can help your practice build the operational foundation your vision requires.
