Dental practice chart of accounts
A dental practice is paid at the front desk by patients and their health funds, sometimes through a patient finance provider, and has crowns and dentures made by outside laboratories. This chart adds those parts of a practice's books, along with the materials, sterilising supplies and waste collection that treatment involves, to the general chart.
- By Book Keeping Pros
- Sources checked 15 Oct 2026
What this industry adds
- When a patient's health fund claim is made at the front desk, the fund's share of the fee reaches the practice later, in a settlement paid into the bank. Health fund benefits to be settled tracks that share until the settlement arrives.
- Larger treatment is often paid for over time or ahead of time. Patient finance payouts due holds treatment a finance provider is paying for and hasn't yet paid out, and Treatment paid in advance holds what patients have paid for treatment still to be done.
- Dental laboratory fees gives work sent to outside labs an account of its own. Composite, impression material and anaesthetic used in the chair go to Dental materials used in treatment, while toothbrushes and other products sold over the counter are stock, kept in the general Inventory account.
- Instrument sterilising supplies holds the pouches, indicator strips and detergents used to reprocess instruments, and Sharps and amalgam waste collection holds the cost of having used sharps and amalgam waste taken away.
- This chart has no Child Dental Benefits Schedule account. When a CDBS service is bulk billed, the benefit is assigned to the dental practitioner who provided it, so the chart leaves it out and your accountant can say how the practice should record it.
Download the chart
The general accounts and this industry's accounts in one CSV file, in code order, which opens in any spreadsheet program.
Download the CSV fileThe accounts this chart adds
| Code | Account name | Type | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1500 | Health fund benefits to be settled | Asset | The health fund's share of patients' fees, claimed at the front desk, that the fund has not yet paid into the practice's bank account |
| 1-1510 | Patient finance payouts due | Asset | Fees for patients' treatment that a patient finance provider is paying and still owes the practice |
| 2-1300 | Treatment paid in advance | Liability | Payments patients have made ahead for treatment the practice has not yet carried out, such as a course of orthodontic treatment paid upfront |
| 5-1100 | Dental laboratory fees | Expense | Invoices from dental laboratories for crowns, bridges, dentures, splints and other work made for the practice's patients |
| 5-1200 | Dental materials used in treatment | Expense | Composite, cements, impression materials, local anaesthetic and other materials used up on patients in the chair rather than sold |
| 6-2100 | Instrument sterilising supplies | Expense | Sterilisation pouches, indicator strips, instrument detergents and other supplies used to clean and sterilise instruments between patients |
| 6-2110 | Sharps and amalgam waste collection | Expense | Charges for taking away used sharps, amalgam waste and other clinical waste from the surgery |
Illustrative example only: these rows show the method and are not sourced data.
What goes in each column
- Code: A number that sorts the account into its group: 1 for assets, 2 for liabilities, 3 for equity, 4 for income, and 5 and 6 for expenses.
- Account name: The name that appears in your books and reports.
- Type: Asset, Liability, Equity, Income or Expense, which decides whether the account appears on the balance sheet or the profit and loss statement.
- What goes in it: The transactions to record against the account.
How to use it
- At the end of each day, compare the claiming terminal's report with Health fund benefits to be settled, then clear each fund's amounts when its settlement shows up in the bank feed.
- When a patient finance provider pays out, clear the treatment it covers from Patient finance payouts due and record the fees the provider kept back in the general Bank fees account.
- Keep a list of patients who have paid ahead and the appointments still to come, and check it against Treatment paid in advance each month.
- Check each laboratory invoice against the cases sent to that lab before it is paid.
- These accounts cover the practice's own money. Ask your accountant how treatment paid in advance should be treated as it is carried out, and what other accounts the practice's structure calls for.
The chart is a CSV file, which opens in a spreadsheet program. It is not set up for importing directly into any particular accounting software, so check the format your software expects before you load the accounts into it.
Related pages
Related terms
Sources
- Key financial terms
business.gov.au, Australian Government. Current at 15 October 2026, released 9 July 2024. Checked 15 October 2026.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2020, licensed under CC BY 3.0 AU. Licence: CC BY 3.0 AU.
- Claim Child Dental Benefits Schedule fees
Services Australia. Current at 12 December 2025, released 12 December 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Services Australia, © Commonwealth of Australia Licence: CC BY 4.0.
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