The Collections Board in Dental Intelligence helps your practice track and improve collections performance. It brings key financial metrics—like AR Aging, Claims Aging, Payment Timeliness, and Collection Percent—into one clear dashboard. With easy-to-read charts, definitions, and drill-down data, your team can quickly spot late payments, see where revenue is coming from, and address credit balances. By turning numbers into actionable insights, the Collections Board makes it easier to keep cash flow strong and accounts up to date.
Navigating the Collections Board
Access the Collections Board from the Dashboards dropdown in the left side menu.
Access Source Data
From the Collections Board, click on the icons located on each metric graph to get better insight to each metric and displayed data:
Click into the bar icon to view trend details by year, month, or week (depending on the date range you have selected)
Click on the magnifying glass icon to view the details of the source data included in that metric
Click on the information icon for detailed definitions and written explanation about each metric
Review Trends
Review trends in the Collections Board by clicking on the green or red arrow on each metric. A green arrow indicates that the metric is trending positively, while red indicates that the metric is trending negatively.
Depending on the metric, you can view the past 90 days or year over year data by clicking between tabs.
Review data for multiple locations on the Collections Board
View data across multiple locations in the Collections Board using the new Locations and Views dropdowns! Directors, managers and executives can get a quick visualization of your organization’s collections efforts across selected locations.
Source data is unavailable when multiple locations have been selected on the Collections Board. Single location data is not impacted.
Note: You must have full dashboard access at all locations in order to view multi-location data on the Collections Board.
Collections Board Metrics
The Collections Board includes the following metrics:
AR Aging
AR Aging
If payments are taking too long to collect, it could signal a problem. The AR Aging metric helps you quickly identify late payers, allowing you to make swift and informed decisions.
Note: AR Aging source data will not show historical data as it is only reflecting patients that currently have an A/R balance to identify how long it has existed. This helps to better identify which patients need to be contacted and where to focus time on outbound calls or patient outreach.
The AR Aging tile includes these data points:
Accounts Receivable: Easily view the total amount of money your patients owe you, all in one place.
Past Due: Dental Intelligence alerts you to balances that have been outstanding for more than 30 days, ensuring timely follow-ups.
Patients Past Due: Identify the number of patients who have not paid their balances within the 30-day window, with quick access to their detailed information.
Est. Patient & Est. Insurance: With a clear display of the patient’s ledger balance minus any outstanding insurance claims, managing the numbers has never been simpler.
AR Aging Report & Credit Balance Report: Export vital reports to Excel by clicking on the graph icon and magnifying glass icon on the AR Aging tile.
Important Note for Dentrix Users: Dental Intelligence Analytics pulls data directly from this metric on the Account Ledger inside of Dentrix.
If data is not populating in this area, please reach out to Dentrix Support for assistance. Once Dentrix is able to correct this, the AR Aging data will pull through after the next nightly sync with Analytics.
Claims Aging
Claims Aging
Claims Aging refers to the monitoring of outstanding insurance claims, which represent money your dental practice expects from insurance companies. It’s important to note that this doesn’t always directly relate to patient balances or AR Aging.
Note: Claims Aging source data will NOT show historical data as it is only reflecting patients that currently have an open claim to identify how long it has existed. This helps to better identify which patients need to be contacted and where to focus time on outbound calls or outreach to insurance providers.
The Claims Aging tile includes these data points:
Avg. Age: Average time it takes from submitting a claim to closing a claim.
Claims: These are like IOUs from insurance companies. Sometimes, they might promise to pay but end up not doing so because of issues like maxed-out coverage.
Past Due: This is the dollar amount on claims, where the claim more than 30 days.
Past Due Claims: The count of claim more than 30 days.
Be mindful that this data will include all open claims. Even if the insurance claim has been received and payment has been entered into the ledger, the claim might still be counted if your office hasn’t officially closed it out.
Where is the amount of Estimated Insurance money owed pulled from in Analytics?
Analytics uses the Estimated Insurance amount as it has been entered on a submitted Claim. To review the estimated portion expected from insurance, click on the patient's Claim to open it and locate the Estimated Insurance Portion line item.
Annual Patient Value
Annual Patient Value
The Annual Patient Value represents the average monetary value that your active patients contribute to your practice each year. It’s more than just a financial measure; it’s a key indicator of your dental practice’s overall efficiency and care quality.
Calculating the Annual Patient Value involves:
Sum the Collections: Total the collections from the last rolling 12 months.
Calculate the Average Value: Divide the 12-month collection total by the number of active patients at the end of the prior month.
Formula: 12 months of collections / Active Patients at end of prior month = Annual Patient Value
Collections
Collections
Collections are the amounts of money that your practice actually receives from its services, distinct from Gross Production (total amounts charged) and Net Production (total amounts agreed upon).
Categories of Collections:
Collections: Money recorded in the patient’s ledger.
Collections Insurance: Total of insurance payments received.
Collection Patient: Total of patient payments recorded on the ledger.
Collections in a dental practice represent the actual earnings from provided services, distinct from the initially charged or agreed-upon amounts. It’s similar to planning a budget for a household. You might estimate earning a certain amount, but unexpected expenses or changes can mean you end up with less. Understanding collections is like tracking money in and out, helping you make smart decisions for your dental practice’s financial health.
To export Collections metric data from the Collections Board:
From the Collections Board, locate the Collections metric and then click on the magnifying glass icon
Click on the Export button in the right corner
A .csv file will download to your computer automatically. Once downloaded to your computer, click to open it (requires Excel or Numbers)
Locate the Referral Source column in the exported data. If referral source data is available, it will be shown in this column for each patient that was included in the report
90-Day Collection %
90-Day Collection %
The 90-Day Collection Percent metric is like tracking how well you retrieve items lent to friends. It calculates how much money your dental practice has collected compared to what was owed over 90 days. This percentage shows how efficiently your practice is at getting paid for services.
Formula: 90-Day Revenue Collected / 90-Day Gross or Net Production = 90-Day Collection Percent
What to watch out for
Large Difference Between Gross % and Net %: If the Gross Percentage is low and the Net Percentage is high, this indicates that you have a substantial number of write-offs and/or adjustments.
Production Settings: The Net % is calculated with the Net Production setting that you have selected within Dental Intelligence.
Understanding Gross and Net %
Low Gross & Net %: Trouble collecting AR from patients/insurance.
Low Gross %, High Net %: Many write-offs/adjustments; not necessarily bad but worth investigating.
Similar Gross & Net %: Few write-offs/adjustments; typically positive.
Targeting High Net %: Over 100% indicates pre-collecting, a sign of effective financial management.
AR Days
AR Days
AR (Accounts Receivable) Days is like lending money to a friend and waiting to be repaid. It shows the average number of days your dental practice waits to receive payment from patients and insurance. A low number means quick payment; a high one may signal delays.
Formula: Avg. AR / Avg. Net Daily Production = AR Days
What to watch out for
Data Delays: AR Days won’t appear until Dental Intelligence syncs with your system for 30 days. It builds from the day you start using Dental Intel, rather than looking at old data.
Production Settings: This metric is calculated with the Net Production setting that you have selected within Dental Intelligence.
Note: Data will not appear in this metric until Dental Intelligence has been actively syncing for 30 days. This metric is not based on historical data pulled from your practice management software, this is based on cumulative data.
AR Ratio
AR Ratio
AR (Accounts Receivable) Ratio is like a report card for how well your dental practice is handling payments from patients. It tells you if you’re collecting money on time or if there are problems. Let’s break it down:You find the AR Ratio by taking the average amount of money patients owe you (Average Accounts Receivable) and dividing it by the money you expect to collect (Net Production) during the same time.
Formula: Average Money Owed By Patients / Money You Expect to Collect = AR Ratio
What to watch out for
Hidden Problems: Since it’s an average, some details might be hidden. Think of it like grading a group of students; one failing grade can be offset by all the others doing well.
Data Delays: It will take 30 days of actively syncing with your system to show this metric. Unlike some other numbers, it doesn’t look at the past data stored in your Practice Management Software. Instead, it builds up over time using ongoing, cumulative data. Think of it as starting a fresh count from the day you begin using Dental Intelligence, rather than using old scores.
Note: Data will not appear in this metric until Dental Intelligence has been actively syncing for 30 days. This metric is not based on historical data pulled from your practice management software, this is based on cumulative data.
Collections Board FAQs
How does Dental Intelligence calculate AR Aging totals?
Dental Intelligence calculates AR Aging as the total dollar amount your practice could collect from patients if all balances were paid today. Unlike your practice management software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, OpenDental), Dental Intelligence applies different parameters—for example, it deducts outstanding insurance claims to show the true patient responsibility. Because of these differences, your AR totals in Dental Intelligence will not match the totals in your PMS, but each patient’s balance will always match on a patient-by-patient basis.
Why is the AR Aging balance different in my practice management software?
Each practice management system (PMS) calculates AR differently:
Dentrix: AR Aging does not advance automatically—it only updates when you close the month or week, which can make balances look lower or outdated compared to Dental Intelligence.
Eaglesoft: Totals include unapplied credits, so AR may appear smaller than in Dental Intelligence.
Open Dental: Uses a “rolling balance” method, which applies patient credits directly to AR, again showing a lower number than Dental Intelligence.
Dental Intelligence calculates AR before subtracting credits and always advances balances daily. Because of these differences—and the timing of data syncs—your AR totals in DI won’t match your PMS, though patient-level balances will always line up.
How are insurance claims pulled from Dentrix factored into AR balances in Dental Intelligence?
In Dental Intelligence, outstanding insurance claims are deducted from the total balance in order to calculate the estimated patient AR balance. The estimated patient balance shown in the AR Report reflects dollars that you can collect directly from patients today, not dollars that will be paid out by insurance carriers down the road.
For example: In Dental Intelligence, Sally has a total AR balance of $1,641. $1,433 of that balance is due from her insurance. Sally's estimated patient balance is $208.
In the Dentrix AR Report, outstanding insurance claims are not deducted from the total patient balance. The Dentrix AR Report shows the cumulative patient balance (outstanding insurance and non-insurance).