Merchant Funding Payback Estimator for Dental Practices
See how a funding offer would draw from your dental practice's patient card payments, meaning the copays, deductibles, and treatment balances patients pay at the front desk, not insurance reimbursements. You also see how long payback could take through slow months like January.
Your estimate
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
A payments specialist can walk through your funding options and what an actual application would look at. This estimate is not an offer of credit or an approval decision.
What counts as card sales for a dental practice
A card-based holdback can only draw from payments that settle through your merchant account. For most dental practices that is the patient-pay portion: copays, deductibles, uninsured treatment, cosmetic work, and balances left after insurance pays. Insurance reimbursements that arrive by EFT or check usually never touch your card processor. Leave them out of 'Average monthly card sales.' If you include them, the estimate will overstate what you can comfortably repay.
Do include HSA and FSA card payments if they run through your terminal or virtual terminal, because they settle like any other card transaction. Payouts from third-party patient financing companies usually arrive as deposits, not card sales. Check your own statements before counting them.
Most dental card volume is card-present at checkout. A meaningful share can be card-not-present: card-on-file charges for balances after an insurance claim settles, payments taken over the phone, text-to-pay or online statement payments, and recurring charges for in-house membership plans or orthodontic payment plans. Your monthly total should cover all of these channels. Pull the past 6 to 12 months from your processing statements rather than guessing.
Seasonal swings dental practices should model
Ticket sizes in a dental office range from small hygiene copays to large implant, crown, or orthodontic balances. A handful of big cases can make one month look much stronger than the next. Many practices also see patient-pay volume shift around the insurance calendar. Deductibles reset in January, and some patients rush to use remaining benefits late in the year. Summer vacations and holiday weeks can thin the schedule. Use an average that includes your slower months, not just your best quarter.
With a fixed-percentage holdback, repayment shrinks when card sales dip, and payback stretches out. With a fixed daily ACH debit, the same dollar amount leaves your bank account on every scheduled debit day, whether the chairs were full or half empty. That difference matters more for a dental office than for a business with steady daily traffic. Ask any funder which structure they use.
Many dental practices are open four days a week. The tool accepts any number of open days. Fewer open days means a higher daily sales figure and a larger holdback per day, but the monthly repayment and the payback period in months come out about the same. Enter the days you actually see patients so the per-day figures match what you will feel at the front desk.
Worked example: a hypothetical dental practice
These numbers are hypothetical, chosen to show the math. They are not a quote or an offer. A general dental practice has been open 30 months. It runs about $60,000 a month in patient card payments, is open 5 days a week, and wants $50,000 for an intraoral scanner and an operatory upgrade. The assumed terms are a 10% holdback and a 1.25 factor rate.
The estimator works it out like this: - Open days: about 21.67 per month. - Daily card sales: about $2,769. - Estimated funding range: $60,000 to $90,000, so the full $50,000 is used. - Daily holdback: about $277, which is $10 out of every $100 in card sales. - Total payback: $62,500, so the cost of capital is $12,500. - Payback time: 226 open days, about 10.4 months or 45 weeks. - Monthly repayment at current sales: $6,000. At 4 open days a week, the daily holdback rises to about $346, but payback still lands near 10.4 months.
The gated breakdown adds two comparisons. If card sales ran 20% below average, the daily holdback would fall to about $222 and payback would stretch to about 13.1 months. The $12,500 cost would not change. A 12% term loan over 11 months would run about $4,823 a month with roughly $3,050 in total interest. That is about $9,450 less in cost, though a loan has a fixed payment and its own qualification requirements.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
What a good result looks like for a dental practice
A workable result is one where the monthly repayment fits after payroll for hygienists and assistants, lab bills, supplies, and rent, using your slower months rather than your average month. A good result also has a payback period that clearly ends before the equipment or buildout stops producing revenue. For long-lived equipment like imaging or chairs, compare the cost against equipment financing or a term loan before deciding.
Look at your processing costs too. Fees that commonly erode a dental practice's card margin include: - PCI non-compliance fees - Monthly statement or minimum fees - Batch fees - Early termination clauses - Higher-cost downgrades when staff key in card numbers for phone payments Patient refunds also reduce net card sales, for example when insurance pays more than the estimate and you return a credit balance.
On the funding side, ask whether origination or underwriting fees come out of the amount you receive, whether there is an early payoff discount, and whether you must move processing. If you want a second set of eyes on an offer or on your processing statement, talk to a payments specialist at TouchSuite.
Frequently asked questions
Should I include insurance reimbursements in my monthly card sales?
No. Insurance payments usually arrive by EFT or check, so a card-based holdback cannot draw from them. Enter only the patient payments that run through your card processor. Some funders review total bank deposits, but this estimator is built around card sales only.
Do HSA and FSA card payments count?
Yes, if they settle through your merchant account. They are processed like other debit or credit card payments, so they are part of the sales a holdback would draw from.
How would a slow January after deductibles reset affect repayment?
With a percentage holdback, you repay less on slow days and payback takes longer. The total dollar cost stays the same. With a fixed daily ACH debit, the same amount leaves your account regardless of patient volume. The gated slow-sales scenario shows how payback stretches if card sales run 20% below your average.
I bought my practice a few months ago. Will the tool still estimate a range?
If you enter fewer than 6 months in business, the range shows as not estimated, because many funders look for a minimum operating history. The holdback, cost, and payback math still runs on the amount you request. How a funder treats an acquired practice's prior history varies, so ask directly.
Can I use funding for equipment like a CBCT unit or intraoral scanner instead of an equipment loan?
You can, but compare the two first. Merchant funding is repaid from card sales, often over months. Equipment financing is typically repaid over a longer, fixed term. The gated term loan comparison puts the monthly payment, total cost, and approximate APR side by side so you can see the difference.