Ask George - Why Dental Practice Management Fails When Your CPA Is Your Only Advisor
Shared Practices | Your Dental Roadmap through Practice Ownership
Dr. George Hariri | Shared Practices Network
4.9 • 559 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you stuck in the "defensive" trap of dental practice ownership? In this episode of Ask George, Dr. George Hariri breaks down a controversial reality: your CPA should not be your most trusted advisor if your goal is growth. While dental CPAs are essential for tax compliance and embezzlement prevention, their inherent bias toward historical data often creates a "growth ceiling" for ambitious owners. This episode serves as a survival guide for the transition from clinician to CEO, helping you identify when to listen to the brakes and when to hit the gas.
We dive deep into the world of dental practice management to explain why traditional accounting metrics like staff cost percentages can be misleading. George shares his personal "Dental Moneyball" story of growing a practice from $90k to $150k and how listening to a defensive advisor during a dip could have stifled his long-term success. You will learn about the "deposit ratio"—a critical tool for spotting embezzlement—and why your CPA is the gold standard for historical accuracy but a poor guide for future projections.
If you are currently navigating dental practice ownership, you need to understand the difference between offensive and defensive strategies. We discuss how to use dental growth strategies to justify temporary spikes in overhead, such as hiring a new hygienist or investing in marketing, which a standard CPA report might flagged as "red." This episode challenges you to become your own most trusted advisor, using financial management for dentists as a data point rather than a final decision.
We also explore the future of dental practice profitability in the age of AI and why using tools like ChatGPT can prepare you for more nuanced conversations with your professional team. Whether you’re an associate in transition or a seasoned owner, this roadmap ensures your business decisions are fueled by vision, not just tax efficiency. Stop letting the "brakes" drive your vehicle and start mastering the levers of dental practice management today.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to another episode of the Shared Practices podcast. And today I'm doing another solo |
| 0:08.0 | Ask George episode where I'm going to talk about CPAs in practice ownership. For those who |
| 0:13.2 | might be longtime listeners, you might kind of know maybe some of the things that I've said about |
| 0:17.9 | dental accounts over the years. And, you know, I've had a |
| 0:21.3 | very interesting experience with dental accounts. And so I kind of want to start the episode, |
| 0:24.8 | just talking about my thoughts about accounting and accountants in general throughout the years. |
| 0:31.1 | I just think that this is one of those things that my thoughts have evolved naturally as I've |
| 0:35.2 | become a CFO. Early on in my career, one thing I noticed |
| 0:39.0 | very early, which is sort of why I had it out for CPAs, is that, so for example, if you read Dental |
| 0:45.4 | Moneyball, you know, I have like this whole section about accountants necessarily being, this is my |
| 0:50.7 | strong belief, is I just don't believe they deserve that place that dentists have given them as their most trusted advisors. |
| 0:57.6 | So I think that in general, my issue with dental CPAs that I've kind of had for many years now is this idea that dentists make them their most trusted advisor. |
| 1:07.9 | So like I've talked to dentists who asked their CPA how much they can pay themselves, |
| 1:11.5 | or they ask their CPA about what to do to run their practice. And they think that because the CPA |
| 1:16.8 | is the financial person, that they're like the most trusted advisor. And so there was polling that's been |
| 1:21.5 | done on dentists. And the polling shows and reveals that of lawyers, CPAs, practice management professionals, |
| 1:32.0 | all of these different people, they view their accountant as their most trusted advisor. |
| 1:38.2 | And that for me is like, that's too far. So that's kind of been like one of the core issues I've had with |
| 1:46.5 | accountants in general. It's not necessarily them as much as it is how much dentists put in |
| 1:53.1 | their area of oversight. And I often think that accountants can stretch beyond or outside of what |
| 1:59.8 | is their area. And so like that's kind of from a very |
| 2:03.7 | early part of my career been just something that I found annoying, because from my perspective, |
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