Build or buy · Common comparison

Six paths. One patient-centered mandate. No hidden winner.

Compare employment, startup, acquisition, modernization, staged succession, and affiliation with the same tax, time, debt, reserve, guarantee, owner-management time, ending-value, household, clinical-control, documentation, and exit rules.

Open the workbench Download the owner-mandate worksheet Read the six-path guide

Comparison contractClinical pay ≠ ownership returnHousehold reserve ≠ practice cashOpen safety checks cannot be averaged away

Before you enter numbers

Know the question, gather the records, and choose how deep to go.

You are deciding which ownership path deserves deeper work and which tradeoffs your patients, household, time, and clinical values can actually support.

First useful review: 20–30 minutes for two or three paths
What you receive: A plain-language ten-year tradeoff view with separate cash, owner time, ending value, and open safety checks

Gather these first

A realistic clinical-compensation range and the owner hours each path requires
Household reserve, practice cash, debt, guarantee, and benefit assumptions
Any offer, employment, buy-in, affiliation, or exit terms already available
The documents and qualified reviewers needed to support each important claim

Guided review

Start here if you are learning the decision or do not have every record yet.

Choose only the paths you are seriously considering
Edit clinical pay, ownership cash, time, cash committed, reserve, and guarantee
Read the comparison and list the records that could change it

Detailed review

Use this after the first result, or with advisers and stronger records.

Rebuild taxes, debt, management labor, benefits, and ending value
Test clinical control, household fit, documentation, and exit path by path
Use the advanced project file and raw data only after the result makes sense

Your output order

Read and print the plain-language result on this page.
Download the Excel decision workbook when one is available.
Save a DenQAI project file if you want to reopen your inputs.
Use raw CSV only for advanced data work.

Ten-year common comparison

Put every credible path under the same mandate.

Change the fictional example to your own permitted, aggregate assumptions. DenQAI keeps unresolved safety checks visible; it does not rank the paths or tell you which one to choose.

Formulav1.0.010 nominal years + present value

Step 1 · Patient-centered mandate

Define what the practice must protect before comparing money.

Appointment and diagnosis philosophyProcedures or revenue not relied onPatient-access goalRequired clinical decision rightsGlobal walk-away or redesign condition

Common financial, household, and time assumptions

Clinical compensation tax%Ownership cash tax%Terminal gain tax%Present-value discount rate%Unpaid management hour value$Management labor inflation%Minimum annual owner cash$Minimum household reserve$Maximum personal guarantee$Enter 0 for no ceiling.Maximum annual owner hourshrsClinical + management. Enter 0 for no gate.Maximum management hourshrsEnter 0 for no gate.

Step 2 · Path assumptions

Edit one path. Compare all six.

“Supported” means you have identified the document, calculation, or agreement behind the answer and the appropriate adviser has reviewed its limits. It does not mean DenQAI verified it.

Editing

Buy a practice

Include in comparison

Annual owner economics and time

Year 1 clinical compensation$Year 1 ownership/nonclinical cash before debt and personal tax$Year 1 benefits$Annual clinical hourshrsAnnual unpaid management hourshrsAnnual cash and benefit growth%

Capital, debt, reserve, and guarantee

Owner cash committed$Include equity and owner-funded working capital; keep household reserve separate.Household reserve protected$Personal guarantee exposure$Path-specific debt principal$Nominal annual loan rate%Loan termyrs

Year 10 terminal value

Gross terminal asset/equity value$Estimated tax basis$Realizable share%Use a severe haircut—or zero—for contingent, illiquid, or platform equity.Exit and transaction costs$

Modeled net terminal proceeds after remaining debt$981,200Includes the common terminal-gain tax rate; professional basis, recapture, and entity modeling still required.

Clinical, household, control, evidence, and exit safety checks

The clinical model is one I can defend and reproduce.SupportedThe household accepts the schedule, geography, downside, and role burden.SupportedThe agreement protects the decision rights named in the mandate.SupportedDirect records are sufficient for the material assumptions.OpenRestrictions, failure, unwind, termination, and exit are understood.Open

Documents or reports that support this path—and who should review themWhen you would pause, change course, or reject this path

Decision Summary · Step 3

Read the tradeoffs. Do not turn the largest number into the decision.

The present-value estimate combines ten years of cash and benefits, subtracts the value of unpaid management work and cash invested, and includes the estimated value remaining at year 10. A strong number cannot resolve an unanswered ethics, household, evidence, control, reserve, guarantee, or exit question.

PathYear 1 cash10-year cashUnpaid management workValue at year 10Present-value estimateSafety checks

Remain employed$157,500$1,724,581$24,637$0$1,537,1202 unresolved

Build a startup$8,036$560,171$512,447$622,053$247,3974 unresolved

Buy a practice$142,208$1,730,453$374,480$981,200$1,500,0292 unresolved

Buy and modernize$112,161$1,521,503$463,173$776,994$1,098,4085 unresolved

Use staged succession$135,462$1,610,173$256,223$796,400$1,520,3953 unresolved

Affiliate or join a group$207,100$2,267,687$88,693$105,000$2,018,8903 unresolved

Remain employed$157,500 lowest annual cash

Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions

Build a startup$8,036 lowest annual cash

Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions
First-three-year cash floor
Management hours

Buy a practice$142,208 lowest annual cash

Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions

Buy and modernize$112,161 lowest annual cash

Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions
Personal guarantee
First-three-year cash floor
Management hours

Use staged succession$135,462 lowest annual cash

Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions
First-three-year cash floor

Affiliate or join a group$207,100 lowest annual cash

Decision rights
Supporting documents
Exit and restrictions

Save or share your review

Start with the printable review.

Print or save a PDF for a readable discussion with your advisers. Save the DenQAI project file only if you want to reopen and edit the same inputs here later. Nothing is uploaded to DenQAI.

Open DenQAI project file

Advanced data export

CSV is a row-and-column data file for analysts. It is not the recommended reading format and may be difficult to understand without the on-page explanations.

Fictional example loaded. Replace every value and verify the documents behind each important assumption.

Cash is not value.

Benefits and owner labor affect economic value but do not pay the mortgage. The result keeps spendable cash separate.

Debt is not one number.

Monthly amortization separates principal, interest, and the balance still owed after ten years.

Tax is an estimate.

Effective rates create a comparable scenario, not a return, opinion, or entity-specific transaction model.

Terminal value is fragile.

Use realizability haircuts. Contingent, private, restricted, or platform equity may be worth zero.

Use with qualified review

A ten-year model does not make ten years predictable.

Use the workbench to make assumptions comparable and expose the next record request. A dental CPA should rebuild taxes, debt, entity cash, compensation, and ending value. Independent counsel should review control, restrictions, guarantees, employment, buy-in, affiliation, and exit. The owner and household still decide which burdens and clinical constraints are acceptable.

How the calculation works Worksheets and workbooks Model the first 48 months Save a local project Look up a term Privacy boundary Advanced comparison inputs (CSV)