A dental group is not one office paid twice: it is a management company, a set of clinician-owned PCs, and providers who float between them. Each entity keeps its own EIN and its own filings; WageTime rolls the whole group up in one place.
By 2024 more than 11,500 dental practices ran under DSO management, and the group that operates them lives with payroll problems a single office never sees (Grand View Research). The friendly-PC structure, the floating provider, the Monday-after-close acquisition, and the corporate-versus-office approval question all land on one payroll administrator.
Most states bar the corporate practice of dentistry, so a group is built as a management company plus a set of dentist-owned PCs, each a separate employing entity with its own EIN and its own filings. Run that in a small-business payroll tool and you get one company file per entity, one login per file, and a wage base you reconcile across all of them by hand.
A hygienist covers four locations in a week and an associate splits time between two PCs. Paid by two related entities, that provider can be charged the Social Security wage base twice, and the ops director still can’t see what any single office actually costs in labor, because the pay is spread across company files.
You close on a three-office practice, and on Monday its entire team needs to be on payroll: a new EIN, often a new state’s tax accounts, and thirty people onboarded at once. Do it by hand and the first run is a week of data entry, with a credential list that arrives as a shoebox.
Dental hygienist turnover runs about 18% a year and assistant turnover about 28%, higher again inside DSOs, at an estimated $8,000 to $20,000 per departure (Becker’s Dental Review). Across a group that is a constant flow of hires, rehires, and terminations, each one carrying a license or a CPR card that can lapse at any of your sites.
A group has a payroll hierarchy a single office doesn’t: a corporate admin who runs the group, regional managers who approve their region, office managers who submit hours. Give everyone the same access and finance has no segregation of duties, no clean audit trail, and no way to distribute the right report to the right manager.
WageTime runs the group as what it is: a management company and a set of clinician-owned PCs, each under its own EIN with its own filings, from one login. The management company payrolls the non-clinical team; each PC payrolls its dentists, hygienists, and assistants.
| Entity | Headcount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bright Smiles Management CoManagement company · EIN 01 | 24 | Filed |
| North Region Dental PCClinical PC · EIN 02 | 41 | Filed |
| Lakeview Dental PCClinical PC · EIN 03 | 18 | Filed |
| Summit Ortho PCClinical PC · EIN 04 | 12 | Filed |
| + 7 more clinical PCsClinical PCs | 96 | Filed |
Replaces the company file per entity, and the vendor login you add with every deal.
The float provider settles on one W-2, with true labor cost by location at the same time. WageTime runs a common-paymaster arrangement for related entities that qualify, one FICA wage base instead of two; whether your group qualifies stays a question for your CPA.
| Location worked | Hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Lakeview DentalEIN 03 | 22.0 | $1,034.00 |
| North Region DentalEIN 02 | 18.0 | $846.00 |
| Summit OrthoEIN 04 | 12.0 | $564.00 |
| Downtown DentalEIN 05 | 20.0 | $940.00 |
Replaces the double Social Security wage base, and the labor cost no single office could see.
Acquisition onboarding runs in bulk, not one record at a time. Close on a practice and WageTime puts the whole team on payroll under the new EIN, with self-onboarding and e-signatures, while every clinician’s credentials land on the group’s shared record.
| Stage | Count | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Self-onboarding sente-signature packets | 31 | Complete |
| I-9 / E-VerifyList A/B/C captured | 31 | 29 cleared |
| Credentials loadedlicenses, DEA, CPR, radiology | 24 | 3 renew < 60d |
| State tax accountsTX withholding + SUI | 1 | Eff. Jul 1 |
Replaces the week of acquisition data entry, and the credential shoebox that came with the deal.
Role-based access in WageTime scopes corporate, regional, and office roles to exactly their part: the corporate admin runs the group, regional managers approve their region, office managers submit hours without touching pay rates. Finance keeps the audit trail.
| Role | Can do | Approves |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate payroll adminScope: all entities | Run, edit, report | Final |
| Regional manager, NorthScope: 4 offices | View, approve | Region runs |
| Office manager, LakeviewScope: 1 office | Submit hours | Nothing |
| Finance viewerScope: all entities | Reports only | Nothing |
Replaces the shared password, and the approval nobody could trace at audit.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoYes. WageTime runs the management company and each clinician-owned PC as its own entity, under its own EIN with its own filings, all from one login. Reporting rolls up across the group, by region, or drills into a single entity, and adding another EIN is another company in the same login. Tell us your entity map on the demo and we’ll confirm the setup.
When a provider is paid by two or more related entities that qualify, a common-paymaster arrangement runs one W-2 and one FICA wage base instead of charging Social Security twice. Whether your group qualifies is a question for your CPA, and common paymaster is distinct from a common pay agent. Hours are still coded to the location worked, so cost per office stays accurate.
Bulk onboarding puts the acquired team on payroll under the new EIN with self-onboarding and e-signatures, effective-dated tax setup stands up the new state and local accounts, and credentials load onto each record. Rehires return with records retained. Bring the close date and the roster to the demo and we’ll map the first run.
Every clinician’s dental or hygiene license, DEA registration, radiology cert, and CPR or BLS card sits on the employee record with its own renewal date and recurring 30, 60, and 90-day alerts. The group sees everything renewing this quarter across every location in one view, so a lapse at one site doesn’t become a board problem for the group.
Yes. Role-based access scopes each person to their part: a corporate admin runs the group, a regional manager approves only their region, and an office manager submits hours without touching pay. Configurable approvals route each run to the right person, and full audit logging with effective dating records every change, so segregation of duties holds across the group.
The platform behind WageTime is SOC 2 Type II audited and ISO 27001/27018 certified, with safeguards built for handling HIPAA-covered data, and business and employee data is protected end to end with bank-level encryption. Groups routinely raise business associate agreements on the demo, so bring the question. WageTime describes its security posture and does not represent a specific compliance outcome.
$50 a month per company plus $10 per person actually paid that month, with unlimited payroll runs and every federal, state, and local tax filed automatically. A group is billed per entity and per person paid, so an office with a light month pays for who was paid, not a flat block. Off-cycle runs and corrections cost nothing extra, and there are no long-term contracts.
Your management company, two or three of your PCs, and one provider who floats between them. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo group: you’ll watch a multi-EIN run post from one login, a float provider settle on one W-2, and an acquisition wave onboard under a new EIN.
Book a 20-minute demo