Budgeting: Planning and Control
Category: Marketing and Management
Instructor(s): Aleksey Snegirev
Course structure: Lessons: 2 lessons | Duration: 29 min
Course overview
A profitable clinic can run out of money for payroll — and this is not uncommon. This course explains why this happens and how to build a planning system that allows you to see cash gaps 2–4 weeks before a critical situation. Participants will learn to build a budget that is realistically executed and to control its implementation every month.
Learning objectives:
— Understand why a profitable clinic may not have money for operating expenses
— Understand what a cash gap is and how it arises in the dental business
— Learn to read and create the clinic's payment calendar
— Master basic budgeting principles: planning revenues and expenses for a month and a year
— Understand how to set a financial goal for the year and decompose it by months
— Learn the format of "plan/actual" analysis and how to assess deviations
— Learn how to respond when the plan is not being met: decision-making algorithm
— Receive a ready-made dental clinic budget template for immediate use.
The course combines cash flow management theory with practical financial planning tools. Participants will analyze real cases of cash gaps in dental clinics, master the algorithm for creating a payment calendar, and the principles of "plan/actual" analysis.
After the training, participants will gain a clear understanding of how to build a financial planning system that allows problems to be anticipated in advance, rather than recording their consequences post factum.
What you will learn
- Explain why a profitable dental clinic can experience cash shortages and identify hidden causes.
- Construct and maintain a payment calendar to forecast cash gaps two to four weeks ahead.
- Prepare a monthly and annual budget using the golden balance formula and plan/actual analysis.
- Apply the Balance Traffic Light and five-step algorithms to prevent or resolve cash gaps proactively.
Course lessons
Lesson 1. Anatomy of Cash Flow Ruptures: Control Traps and the Payment Calendar
We will begin with a detailed analysis of the nature of a cash gap. You will understand why paper profit is not equal to cash in the register, and will study 4 hidden causes that lead to a cash shortage. We will openly discuss dangerous mistakes. For example, attempts to cover the gap with prepayments for expensive treatment or with the owner's personal funds. The main result of the lesson: you will master the golden formula of balance and learn to maintain a payment calendar that will allow you to see the clinic's financial condition at least two weeks ahead and prevent any crises before they occur.
— The main paradox of cash flow: why a financially profitable clinic suddenly has no money in the accounts
— Cash gap: economic definition and the mechanics of its occurrence
— 4 real reasons why a clinic falls into a cash gap
— False lifelines: 4 popular managerial mistakes that only make the situation worse
— The golden formula of financial balance: opening balance + expected receipts – planned payouts = real closing balance
— The triad of crisis prevention: payment calendar, formation of a reserve fund, and correct negotiations with suppliers
— The payment calendar as the director's main tool: definition, depth of planning, data accuracy, update rules and key objective
— Workshop: analysis of a visual example of a payment calendar for the first two weeks of the month.
Lesson 2. Financial Safety System: Cash-Flow Signals, 5 Steps to Optimize, and the Annual Budget
Lesson 2 – this is your guide to long-term financial security. We will analyze how to properly plan receipts and allocate expenses so that the clinic consistently generates 20% net profit. You will receive a unique tool, the "Balance Traffic Light", which will clearly distinguish safe, alert, and emergency states of the operating account, and will provide instructions on how to respond to the signals. We will also move to the level of strategic management: you will answer 3 main questions before preparing the annual budget, learn to set up plan/actual analysis, and receive a clear 5-step action algorithm in case the clinic's real indicators begin to deviate from the planned ones.
— Rules for recording income: what and at what moment may legitimately be recorded under the "Receipts" item
— Industry benchmark "How much money": strict proportions of fixed and variable expenses to maintain net profit at 20%
— Managerial "Balance Traffic Light": 3 critical account zones and a step-by-step action algorithm for the manager for each of them
— Emergency financial aid: step-by-step 5-step algorithm for urgently reducing a cash gap
— Annual strategic budget: why the clinic needs it and what its main benefit is for the owner
— Foundation of planning: 3 key questions that must be answered before preparing the annual budget
— Technology for building an annual clinic budget that is practically achievable
— Tool "Plan / Actual": monthly control of deviations
— What to do if the plan collapses: anti-crisis 5-step algorithm of managerial actions.
