Introduction

Once an offer is accepted, the focus shifts to proving that your practice is exactly what the buyer thinks it is. This is the due diligence phase—a deep dive into your operations, finances, and legal standing. It’s not just about checking boxes; it’s about building trust, confirming value, and reducing risk for both sides. In this section, we’ll walk through what buyers typically request, how to prepare for chart audits, and why thorough legal and compliance checks are critical to closing with confidence.

What Documents Buyers Will Request

During the due diligence phase, buyers and their agents will request many documents to prove that the dental office for sale actually meets the standards of the dental office they saw in the marketing material. This will mean that they will request reports on your patient base, payroll, production, income, and your bank statements. The goal here is to not only understand the practice and make sure that the data lines up. Be prepared to hand over reports in multiple formats, across date ranges, and grouped in different ways. Dental Practice Connect’s software can help with this as we have designed reporting packages that are ready to be handed off to requestors for the most common uses.

Chart Audits

Chart audits are a normal and necessary part of the buying and selling process. The goal of a chart audit is to understand what a practice is actually doing when seeing patients and managing their accounts. You can engage an outside company to perform audits on your behalf or do them yourself. By sampling 0.5%-1.5% of the charts randomly, a buyer will have a good perspective on the operations of the business.
A good chart audit should look at the clinical and administrative processes of charts. From the clinical perspective you should look for procedures completed, chart notes and the consistency of the note quality across procedures, consent form sign offs, medical histories, etc. On the administrative side, you should look for things like the account balance, production vs collection vs writeoffs & adjustments, the timing between procedures completed to insurance sent to payment received. Its a lot of work but if you do this a buyer will have a clear picture of what is taking place within the office

Legal and Compliance Checks

Assuming that terms of the contract were negotiated beforehand, the due diligence phase of the process is all about making sure that the asset the buyer is purchasing is as described. From a legal perspective, you will want to find out if there are any outstanding claims or lawsuits taking place and whether there are any changes on the horizon regarding the lease, the ability to operate, or anything else. From a financial standpoint, you will want to see if the revenues and expenses in the profit and loss statement are actually related to the business. A good Quality of Earnings report from your CPA or an outside firm will be able to help greatly with this step.

Conclusion

Due diligence isn’t the most glamorous part of the sale—but it’s one of the most important. The more transparent and organized you are, the faster you build buyer confidence and move toward closing. By anticipating document requests, completing your own chart audits, and proactively addressing legal or compliance concerns, you minimize surprises and keep momentum. A clean due diligence process reflects a well-run practice—and sets the tone for a smooth, successful transition.

Next Steps: Closing Day