Every dental owner thinks hygiene is profitable. Most cannot prove it. The hygienist's pay, the chair time, the supply cost, and the revenue all live in different reports. Roll them up at quarter-end and you get a number you do not quite believe. There is a faster way.

The Hygiene P&L Most Groups Never Actually See

In the typical dental group, hygiene revenue is collected from three sources: insurance ACH, patient copay at the front desk, and prophy plan subscriptions. All three deposit into the same operating account that also receives crowns, ortho payments, and cosmetic procedure deposits. By the time your accountant separates them, you are 45 days out from the chair.

That delay matters because hygiene is a margin business. Small changes in scheduling density, fee schedule, or supply cost compound fast. If you cannot see the margin in real time, you optimize blind.

Two Virtual Accounts. One Number You Trust.

The fix is small:

• Virtual account: hygiene revenue (insurance ACH, copay, prophy plan splits).

• Virtual account: hygiene direct cost (supply autopay, lab payments tied to hygiene visits, hygienist payroll line).

Both sit under your root operating account. Lemma's structure makes this a configuration, not a new entity. The bank ledger now reflects hygiene's monthly contribution at any point in the day. Your CFO can answer "is hygiene paying for itself" in 30 seconds.

When This Is Worth Setting Up

Solo practice with one hygienist? Skip it. Three or more chairs and a real hygiene panel? The setup pays for itself the first month a scheduling change shows up cleanly in the dashboard instead of a 60-day-late spreadsheet.

ACH between virtual accounts is $0. Wires are flat $15. Operating cash earns 1.75% APY across the structure. FDIC coverage runs up to $10M per entity through the IntraFi sweep network.