Understanding Your Current Allocation Percentages (CAPs)
Dec 02, 2025
What Are CAPs and Why They Matter
In the Profit First for Dentists system, your Current Allocation Percentages (CAPs) represent the truth about where your money is going right now.
They’re your financial fingerprint — unique to your practice and shaped by past decisions.
“Your CAPs are not a judgment; they’re a diagnosis.”
“They show where your money is flowing today so you can decide where you want it to go tomorrow.”
How to Calculate Your CAPs
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Start with your total collections for the past 12 months.
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Identify how much went to:
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Profit (if any)
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Owner’s Pay
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Taxes
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Operating Expenses (includes all debt payments made)
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Divide each category by total collections to find your current percentage.
Even if you haven’t been separating funds yet, you can estimate where the money went based on your P&L and other documents.
For example:
If your practice collected $1M and your operating expenses were $700K, that’s 70%. If you took $200K in pay, that’s 20%.
Your CAPs:
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Profit: 0%
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Owner’s Pay: 20%
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Taxes: 10%
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Operating Expenses: 70%
Why This Awareness Is So Powerful
Most dentists don’t realize how skewed their allocations are until they see them clearly.
Seeing CAPs for the first time often creates the “aha moment” that fuels transformation.
“CAPs are the mirror that shows you what’s really happening.”
“You can’t fix what you won’t face.”
This awareness empowers you to start designing your future intentionally — which is where TAPs come in.
CAPs Are the Starting Line, Not the Goal
Remember, your CAPs are simply where you are now. The goal is to shift toward healthier percentages — your Target Allocation Percentages (TAPs).
That shift doesn’t happen overnight, but it begins with awareness.
As I remind dentists in my coaching sessions, “You can’t move forward without a map — and CAPs are your map.”
Final Thought
Knowing your CAPs gives you power. It replaces frustration with understanding and emotion with strategy.
If you haven’t done this step yet, block out an hour this week to calculate your percentages. You’ll walk away with a new level of clarity and control.
Learn more about calculating your CAPs in Chapter 4 of Profit First for Dentists or connect with me at ProfitFirstDentist.com.
