CFO Insights: Sticking the Landing on 2026

Year-end planning for dental practice owners: what we're doing, what you can do, and why your Q4 CFO meeting matters most.

In gymnastics, a routine can be nearly flawless for ninety seconds, but the judges remember the landing. Your financial year works the same way. You've spent eleven months producing, managing your team, and growing your practice. What you do in the last ten weeks of the year has an outsized effect on how much of that success you actually keep.

Once the calendar turns to January 1, most of the levers for this tax year lock in place. Retirement plan design, payroll decisions, equipment purchases, charitable gifts, and the timing of income and expenses all have a December 31 deadline. Q4 is the last window to shape the outcome rather than simply report it.

What we're already working on behind the scenes

Every fall, our CFO Advisors work through a structured year-end review for every client, with support from our accounting, tax, payroll and investment teams. It isn't a quick look. It's a checklist of more than twenty planning items across four areas.

Payroll. We set your W-2 at the level that supports your retirement contributions while balancing payroll tax cost and your QBI deduction. Where it fits, we look at putting a spouse or children on payroll for real work they do. That can unlock additional retirement contributions, shift income into lower brackets, and give your kids earned income to fund a Roth IRA. If your withholding is running short, we can run a catch-up payroll so you aren't hit with underpayment penalties.

Retirement plans. For clients with a 401(k), profit-sharing or cash balance plan, we model minimum, optimal and maximum funding scenarios with the plan administrator. For many doctors, this is the single largest deduction available, and it depends on decisions made before December 31.

Tax strategy. We confirm pass-through entity (PTE) tax payments are made by year-end so they count this year. We review depreciation on new equipment, Roth conversion opportunities, required minimum distributions, HSA funding, tax-loss harvesting in taxable accounts, and charitable giving with appreciated stock instead of cash.

Accounting. We review your P&L for missed deductions and misclassified expenses, confirm new loans are on the books, and make sure tax payments are categorized correctly. We also make sure items like travel and home office deductions are documented the way the IRS expects.

The goal is simple: no strategy that fits your situation goes unexamined.

What you can do before December 31

We carry most of the work, but a few of the most effective moves are in your hands. Most practices report on the cash basis, so these timing strategies work for you. Talk with your CFO Advisor before making them, because a move that helps one client can hurt another.

1. Defer deposits into January. Insurance checks and patient payments that arrive in the last week of December can often be deposited in early January. That moves the income into next year's return.
2. Accelerate expenses into December. Prepay January supplies, lab fees, CE registrations, or marketing contracts, and pay outstanding vendor invoices before year-end. Expenses paid by December 31 are deductible this year. Buy what you'll use. A dollar spent to save 40 cents in tax is still 60 cents gone.
3. Time equipment purchases. If you're planning to buy a new scanner, chair, or CBCT, buying and placing it in service before December 31 may let you deduct much or all of the cost this year, even if you financed it. We'll help you weigh whether to take that deduction now or spread it out.
4. Get us your numbers. The sooner we have current books, payroll and investment details, the more options we can still act on. Complete your year-end questionnaire as soon as it arrives.

The one rule for every move: do it on purpose, with a plan, and with your CFO Advisor's input.

Know exactly where you stand

The most valuable year-end question is simple: where will my income land? Your tax bracket tells you what your next dollar of income or deduction is worth. Phase-outs are where the real money hides.

Several of the deductions and credits that matter most to practice owners shrink or disappear once income passes a certain level:

• The QBI deduction. Dentistry is a "specified service" business, so the 20% qualified business income deduction phases out as taxable income climbs. If you're inside the phase-out range, even a modest additional retirement contribution can restore thousands of dollars of deduction.
• The child tax credit. It phases out above set income levels, so a family near the line can lose some or all of it.
• State and local tax (SALT) deductions. The cap was raised under the 2025 tax law, but the higher cap shrinks for higher earners. Where you land matters, and so does whether your entity pays state tax at the entity level.
• Itemized deductions and Roth IRA eligibility. Both are affected by income, and both reward planning ahead.

If you're just above one of these lines, a well-timed deferral, an additional 401(k) or cash balance contribution, or accelerated depreciation can pull you back under. That can turn one deduction into two. If you're well above or well below a line, the right strategy may be completely different, such as a Roth conversion in a lower-income year.

These thresholds change every year and depend on your filing status. Your CFO Advisor will tell you exactly where you fall.

Why your Q4 CFO meeting matters most

A checklist finds opportunities. A conversation decides which ones are right for you.

Your CFO Advisor sees the whole picture: your practice P&L, your payroll, your retirement plan, your investment accounts and your personal tax return. Year-end planning works best when all of those pieces move together. A bigger cash balance contribution changes your QBI deduction. A Roth conversion changes your bracket. An equipment purchase changes your cash flow next spring. Looking at any one of these alone leaves money on the table.

The Q4 meeting is where we bring it together. We'll project where your income will land, run the scenarios, and agree on a short list of specific actions with deadlines. Some of those actions are ours, like payroll adjustments, plan funding and PTE payments. Others are yours, like deposit timing, purchases and gifts. By December 31, nothing should be left to chance.

Some deadlines arrive well before the end of the year. Retirement plan funding scenarios go to plan administrators in early December, and supplemental payroll has to run before the holidays. The earlier we meet, the more options stay open.

If you haven't scheduled your year-end meeting with your CFO Advisor, please do it this week. Let's stick the landing on 2026 together.

Not a PracticeCFO client yet? Request a consultation to see how a CFO relationship brings your practice and personal finances into one plan.

This article is for general educational purposes and is not tax, legal or investment advice for your specific situation. Please consult your PracticeCFO advisor before acting on any strategy.