--- title: "$400 vs $750 vs $1,250: Dental Bookkeeping Prices" description: $400, $750 and $1,250 a month buy three different jobs. Here is what each dental bookkeeping price gets you, line by line. image: https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hubfs/blog-images/post_233.png --- [Skip to content](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/dental-bookkeeping-price-difference#main-content) [![](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-horizontal-transparent.png?width=1298&height=290&name=logo-horizontal-transparent.png)Homepage](https://reciprocityaccounting.com) - [Services](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/services) - [Pricing](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/pricing) - [FAQ](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/faq) - [Blog](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog) - [About](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/about) [Book a Discovery Call](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/contact) - [Services](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/services) - [Pricing](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/pricing) - [FAQ](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/faq) - [Blog](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog) - [About](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/about) [Book a Discovery Call](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/contact) ![Reciprocity Accounting card: $400 vs $750 vs $1,250, a Compare post.](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-images/post_233.png?width=1200&height=630&name=post_233.png) Compare # $400 vs. $750 vs. $1,250 a Month: What Dental Bookkeeping Prices Actually Buy ![Greg Hudnall](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/49dbd5c12b604f92786349ba17b92e2c) Greg Hudnall October 22, 2026 Compare  ·  7 min read $400, $750 and $1,250 a month are not three prices for the same job. The first keeps a clean file for your tax return. The second ties your practice software to your bank. The third does that across more providers, accounts and locations. Dental bookkeeping quotes tend to fall into three kinds of job: general bookkeeping, often around $400 a month; dental-specific work for a single-location practice; and the same work across a bigger practice. We use $750 and $1,250 for the last two because those are our prices. The natural read of three prices is cheap, fair and expensive. The better read is that each one is quoting a different job, and the useful question is not which price is right but which job your practice needs. Here is what each price usually buys, what the steps between them pay for, and how to compare quotes so the numbers mean something. Full disclosure: $750 is what we charge practices under $1.5 million in annual collections with one location, and $1,250 is what we charge practices at $1.5 million or more or with more than one location. The comparison below holds for any firm at those price points. ## What $400 Buys $400 a month is a normal price for monthly bookkeeping, and a $400 quote is usually, though not always, for general work. In Ignition's [2025 pricing benchmark](https://www.ignitionapp.com/us/2025-accounting-tax-pricing-benchmark), a survey of 219 US firms using its software, the most common monthly fee for bookkeeping and accounting was $250 to $499, reported by 29% of firms. Another 27% charged $500 to $749. At that price you usually get the core work, done properly: transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, and a file your tax preparer can work from in the spring. That is real value. If all you need is a clean file for your tax return, a $400 generalist may serve you well. What you usually do not get is anything that requires knowing how a dental practice earns money. The bookkeeper usually sees deposits. Where the deposits came from, and what never arrived, is outside the scope. ## What $750 Buys: The Dental Layer Your practice management system records three things your bank never sees: what you produced, what you wrote off or adjusted, and what you are still owed. Open Dental's manual [defines net production](https://www.opendental.com/manual/productionincome.html) as "gross production, plus adjustments, minus insurance write-offs," and notes that "income may be received after the period in which it was earned." That gap between earning and collecting is where a dental practice loses money without noticing. The step from $400 to $750 pays for working in that gap. Production, collections and deposits are tied together every month. Insurance write-offs are recorded and kept apart from bad debt. Lab and clinical supplies sit in separate lines so each can be read against its own range. Results are measured against net production, the base dental ranges use. And the books close on a fixed date instead of whenever the queue allows. The reconciliation is the part that matters most. When production, collections and deposits are tied out every month, a missing insurance payment or a deposit that never made it to the bank shows up within weeks. When they are not, it can go unnoticed for months. Our post on [production versus collections](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/production-vs-collections-dental-practice) explains what the gap between them tells you. For many single-doctor practices, this is the work that fits. The ADA Health Policy Institute's [Survey of Dental Practice](https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dental-practice-research) reports average gross billings of $1,062,180 for solo general dentist owners in 2025, and three in four billed under $1.34 million. Collections run below billings, so most solo general practices sit under $1.5 million. ## What $1,250 Adds: More of Everything to Reconcile The step from $750 to $1,250 is not a premium on the same work. It is the same work across a bigger practice. More providers means collections have to be reported by provider, not just in total. More locations means more bank accounts, more cards, more deposits and more places for a payment to land in the wrong month. Each one is another reconciliation every month. That is why price rises with size. A practice with associates or a second office has more to reconcile and more ways for numbers to drift, and larger multi-provider groups often pay more than $1,250. If you are a single-location practice being quoted $1,250, ask what the extra $500 a month covers. If you run two offices and are being quoted $750, ask what gets left out. ## The Three Side by Side | Line item | Around $400 (general) | Around $750 (dental, single location) | Around $1,250 (dental, larger practice) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Bank and card reconciliation | Yes | Yes | Yes, across more accounts | | Revenue | Deposits, as one line | Tied to production and collections in your practice software | Same, with collections by provider and location | | Insurance write-offs and adjustments | Usually not visible | Recorded, separate from bad debt | Same | | Lab and clinical supplies | Often one "supplies" line | Separate lines | Separate lines | | Provider-level reporting | No | Practice total | Collections by provider | | Benchmarks | None, or generic | Dental ranges against net production | Same | | Close date | When the statements are ready | A fixed date in writing | A fixed date in writing | None of these is exotic. Each one takes time every month, by someone who knows what the numbers should look like. That time is most of each price step. ## Close Date: A Date vs Whenever The second thing the dental tiers buy is time. A general bookkeeper typically closes the month when the statements are in. A good dental-specific firm commits to a date. That matters more than it sounds. Books that close by the 10th let you act on last month while the claims are recent and the patients still remember the visit. Books that close in six weeks are a history lesson. Here is [why the 10th is the standard](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/dental-books-monthly-close-deadline) we hold to. Whatever date a firm offers, get it in writing. ## What You Pay for Cheap Books Later The $350 a month you save by choosing $400 over $750 is real. So are the costs that show up later, and none of them appear on the invoice. **Decisions made on the wrong numbers.** If lab and supplies sit in one line, you cannot tell which one moved. If write-offs are invisible, you cannot see how much of your production your PPO contracts give away. **Money that never arrives and nobody notices.** Without a monthly tie-out between what your system says was collected and what reached the bank, a shortfall can run for months. **Catch-up work.** Books kept as deposits only usually have to be rebuilt the first time you need real numbers: for a loan, a partner or a buyer. **Value at sale.** Most buyers price a practice on its earnings, and the earnings come from your books. Clean, dental-specific books make [EBITDA](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/dental-practice-ebitda) easy to defend. Books a buyer has to reconstruct get discounted. None of this means the cheaper firm is doing bad work. It means it is doing different work, and the cost of the work it is not doing lands on you. ## Where These Prices Sit in the Market Against the broader bookkeeping market, both dental tiers are above the middle. In the Ignition survey, 60% of firms charged under $750 a month, 17% charged $750 to $999, and 13% charged $1,000 to $1,499. That is the point. Dental-specific work is priced against different work, not against the same work done more expensively. Within dental-specific bookkeeping, neither number is the top. Our breakdown of [what dental bookkeeping costs](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/how-much-does-dental-bookkeeping-cost) puts the usual range at $700 to $3,500 a month, depending mostly on size. ## How to Compare Quotes Fairly Put the quotes side by side on scope, not price. Write down the line items from the table above and ask each firm which ones are included. Then ask three more questions: what date the books close, what happens when that date is missed, and what triggers a charge beyond the monthly fee. Then do the math on the difference. Going from $400 to $750 costs $350 a month, or $4,200 a year. Ask whether one recovered insurance payment, one corrected coding error or one better decision a quarter would cover it. For many established practices, the answer is yes. For a very new practice, it may not be yet, and starting with general bookkeeping is a defensible choice. The worst comparison is the one most owners make: three prices with no scope attached. It always picks the cheapest quote, and it is only right when the cheapest quote is for the work you actually need. *P.S.* [*Reciprocity Accounting*](https://reciprocityaccounting.com) *ties your practice management system to your books every month and closes by the 10th, so the price you pay buys the numbers you actually run the practice on.* [*See how we can help your practice.*](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/contact) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why does dental bookkeeping cost more than general bookkeeping? Because it includes work general bookkeeping usually does not: tying production and collections in your practice management system to the books, recording insurance write-offs, separating lab from supplies, and measuring results against dental ranges. That work takes time every month. ### Is a $400 a month bookkeeper enough for a dental practice? It can be, if all you need is a clean file for your tax return. It is usually not enough if you want to know where production went, whether insurers paid what they owed, or how your costs compare with healthy dental ranges. ### What does $750 a month buy that $400 does not? The dental layer: a monthly tie-out of production, collections and deposits, insurance write-offs recorded separately from bad debt, lab and supplies in separate lines, results measured against net production, and a fixed close date. ### Why would a dental practice pay $1,250 instead of $750? Size. More providers, accounts and locations mean more to reconcile every month, including collections by provider. A single-location practice under about $1.5 million in collections usually fits the lower tier. ### How do I compare dental bookkeeping quotes? Compare scope before price. List the line items, ask each firm which are included, get the close date in writing, and ask what triggers extra charges. Then weigh the price difference against what the extra work would catch. **Related reading:** - [What Does a Dental Bookkeeper Actually Do?](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/bookkeeping-for-dentists) - [5 Signs Your Dental Practice Needs Better Financial Reporting](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/dental-practice-financial-reporting) - [The 5 Most Common Bookkeeping Mistakes Dental Practices Make](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/dental-practice-bookkeeping-mistakes) ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Freciprocityaccounting.com%2Fblog%2Fdental-bookkeeping-price-difference](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Freciprocityaccounting.com%2Fblog%2Fdental-bookkeeping-price-difference) ## Keep reading ### [![Reciprocity Accounting card: How to Choose a Dental Bookkeeper, a How To post.](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-images/post_208.png?width=1200&height=630&name=post_208.png) How To How to Choose a Dental Bookkeeper: 12 Questions](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/how-to-choose-dental-bookkeeper) ### [![Reciprocity Accounting card: Ohio City Tax Withholding, a How To post.](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blog-images/post_44.png?width=1200&height=630&name=post_44.png) How To Ohio Municipal Withholding for Dental Payroll](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog/ohio-dental-practice-payroll-withholding) | ![Reciprocity Accounting](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/hubfs/logo_horizontal_dark_transparent.png) Accounting built for dental practices. Books closed by the 10th. **Guaranteed**. Reciprocity Accounting LLC 6809 Main St #37, Cincinnati, OH 45244 [(833) 538-5551](tel:+18335385551)  ·  [info@reciprocityaccounting.com](mailto:info@reciprocityaccounting.com) | | Resources [Services](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/services) [Pricing](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/pricing) [FAQ](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/faq) [Dashboard](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/dashboard) [Benchmark Scorecard](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/benchmark-scorecard) | Company [About](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/about) [Blog](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/blog) [Contact](https://reciprocityaccounting.com/contact) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | © 2026 Reciprocity Accounting. 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