What are no-shows really costing your clinic?
"Our no-show rate is 9%" never changed anything in a practice meeting. "No-shows cost us £8,100 last month" does. Here's how to put yours in pounds.
Every independent clinic tracks no-shows in some form. Cliniko calls them "did not arrive", Dentally and TM3 have their own flags, and most practice managers can quote a rough percentage. But a percentage hides the thing that matters: the money that walked out of the diary.
No-show cost calculator
Change the numbers to match your clinic. The defaults are an example. Nothing you type is stored or sent.
An estimate from your inputs: some no-show slots get refilled, and some fees vary by service. The real figure comes from your diary export.
Why the percentage isn't enough
Two clinics with the same 9% rate can be losing very different amounts. A no-show on a £45 follow-up costs less than one on a £180 new-patient assessment, and a no-show on Monday morning, when the waiting list is full, costs more than one on a quiet Friday afternoon. Priced properly, no-shows become a list of specific fixes rather than a number to sigh at.
The questions worth asking next
- Which services? New-patient slots usually cost the most when they're missed.
- Which days and times? Patterns are common, and they point to specific fixes.
- Did those patients get a reminder? Most clinic software records whether an SMS or email reminder went out. Compare the no-show rate with and without one.
- Did they pay a deposit? This one needs your card payments (Stripe, Square, Dojo) joined to the diary. No single system can tell you.
- Where did the patient come from? Some referral sources and ad campaigns bring patients who don't turn up. That needs your marketing data joined to the diary too.
How to get your real number
Export last month's appointments from your clinic software with the status (attended, did not arrive, cancelled) and the service or price. Count the no-shows, multiply each by its fee, and add them up. That's your first real figure. The next three questions above need more than one system, which is where it gets slow in a spreadsheet.
Our free data check does the first part for you in a few seconds. You drop the export into your browser, it reads it on your computer (nothing is uploaded), and it shows your biggest gaps in pounds.
See your real no-show cost, free
Drop last month's diary export into the free check. It runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and it shows your top three gaps in pounds.