Financing for medical and dental practices
The chair, the scanner, the fit-out. Practice money is nearly always equipment money, and the equipment outlives the loan.
How the money reads
An underwriter reads six months of statements. This is what yours usually says.
- Insurer and plan payments land on a predictable cycle. Patient payments land daily.
- Revenue is steady and rarely seasonal, which reads well.
- A new associate or a second operatory shows up as a step change, not a spike.
The thing that slows these files down
If you bill through a professional corporation and an operating one, send both sets of statements. We read the whole picture or a smaller one.
What it usually pays for
- A chair, a scanner, a mill, a laser
- Buying into a practice, or buying one out
- A fit-out or a move to a bigger space
What an underwriter asks
The same four things decide every file: revenue and how long you have been making it, the cash cushion, bounced payments, and what you already pay other lenders. Here is what those look like in this trade.
- Which corporation is applying?
- Many practices run a professional corporation and an operating company. Send both sets of statements. A file with one of them reads as half a practice.
- How does the plan payment cycle look?
- Insurer and plan payments land on a predictable rhythm, which is one of the reasons practice files read well. Patient payments land daily on top of it.
- What is already owed on equipment?
- A chair or a scanner bought three years ago is usually still being paid for. Everything you already pay lenders counts toward a cap of 20% of monthly revenue, and in this trade that is often the binding number.
The whole method, in one page: giving yourself the best shot.
Asking for the right amount
Equipment has a quote, so ask for the quote. For a buy-in or a buy-out, the number comes from the agreement rather than from revenue, and it is worth saying which of the two you are doing.
Across every trade the anchor is the same: roughly a month of revenue, and never more than the statements support. Everything you already pay lenders counts toward a ceiling of 20% of monthly revenue, so what is already running matters as much as what you are asking for.
When to ask
Practice revenue is steady rather than seasonal, so there is no month that reads better. The timing that matters is the equipment's: order lead times are long, and financing agreed before the order removes a deposit from your own account.
Have these ready as well
On top of the standard file — six months of statements, your incorporation documents, your CRA business number and photo ID.
- Your professional licence and college registration
- Statements for the professional corporation and the operating company
- The equipment quote, or the purchase agreement for a buy-in
- The lease, for a fit-out or a move
What usually fits
In this order, more often than not — though the file decides, not the trade.
Equipment financing
The oven, the van, the line. Financed against the thing itself, so the payment sits against what the thing earns.
$10,000 – $1,000,000
Term loans
A fixed amount, a fixed schedule, and nothing pledged against it. The straightest answer when you know the number and the timeline.
$5,000 – $2,000,000
Asset-based lending
Your receivables, inventory or equipment doing some work while you still hold them. Usually the cheapest money on this page.
$50,000 – $2,000,000
Where these files get harder
None of these is an automatic no. They are the things that turn a one-day decision into a conversation, and all of them are better said by you than found by an underwriter.
- An associate-only practice with no corporation behind it
- A new practice under six months old, since six months of statements is the file
- Equipment finance already running on several units at once
Questions
- Do you fund an associate buying into a practice?
- Yes, and it is a common reason to apply. The purchase agreement matters more here than in most files.
- Can I finance a scanner that has not been delivered?
- Usually. Equipment financing is often arranged against a quote and an order, with the funds released on the terms the supplier sets.
- My corporation pays me and the practice pays the corporation. Which statements do you want?
- All of them. Where money moves between two entities you control, a file with one side of it visible reads as a smaller business.
- Does applying affect my personal credit?
- Applying never triggers a hard credit check. Credit history is one input among several, and the decision is made from the statements.