Recommendation Brief

SGA East Marketing Reporting:
Closing the Gap to the Gen4 Model

SGA West (Gen4) runs near-real-time budget/actual/variance tracking per practice. SGA East does not. This document defines the specific changes — to GL structure, reporting tools, and report format — that would put SGA East on the same footing.

AudienceCOO, CFO, IT / Finance
ScopeSGA East — 159 locations
PreparedJune 29, 2026
Companion docMay 2026 Advertising & Promotion Brief
1

Where SGA East and SGA West Diverge Today

The May 2026 analysis revealed that the reporting infrastructure itself makes the problem harder to manage. SGA West already solved most of these gaps. The table below shows what that means in practice.

SGA West / Gen4 Today
SGA East Today
Budget visibilityVelixo integration shows budget, actual, and variance per practice — updated as charges post, not at month close.
Budget visibilityPower BI Marketing page shows spend only. No per-location budget column. No variance.
TimingPGPs can see overage in-month, while they can still intervene.
TimingP&L data arrives 30–45 days after month close. By then, the charges cannot be stopped or reversed. (Heartland closes Day 12. Aspen closes Day 10.)
GL structureSpend types are separated at the sub-account level — corporate allocation does not inflate practice marketing totals.
GL structureGL 74000 (Advertising & Marketing) captures three structurally different spend types under one line: marketing-directed, corporate/ops allocation, and doctor-authorized spend. They cannot be separated in the current report.
Vendor drill-downPower BI Decomp Tree accessible to marketing team — vendor-level spend visible by practice.
Vendor drill-downDecomp Tree exists but the "Undeclared" vendor column is locked behind Row-Level Security. Marketing cannot see vendor-level data for a significant portion of Advertising & Marketing spend.
CPP benchmarkCost per new patient available in standard reporting — used to flag inefficient spend before escalation.
CPP benchmarkCost per new patient is not in the standard report. It was calculated manually for the May 2026 brief by joining two Power BI pages.
ℹ️
None of these gaps require new tools

Velixo is already deployed in the SGA West environment. Power BI is already in use. GL sub-accounts are a finance configuration change, not a software build. The recommendations below are configuration tasks and process changes — not net-new technology investments.

2

GL Structure — Split GL 74000 into Three Sub-Accounts

The most fundamental reporting problem is that GL 74000 (Advertising & Marketing) currently captures three things that have completely different owners, different budget owners, and different approval processes. Lumping them creates every month's "overspend" conversation — because no single team controls the full number.

74000-01
Central / Marketing-Directed Paid digital (Google, Meta), TV, print, agency fees, AdWords. Approved and managed by marketing (Sharley). This is the only portion marketing can be held accountable for in a budget conversation.
74000-02
Corporate / Ops-Directed Albany HQ, SGA Dental Partners OpCo, and any Ops-directed promotional costs that are not practice advertising. May 2026: $20,411. These belong in a corporate cost center — not in a marketing GL that is benchmarked per practice.
74000-03
Doctor-Authorized / Practice Discretionary Spend authorized directly by doctors or practice owners — historically outside marketing's approval chain. Chronic high accounts (Riverside, Ressler) fall here. Isolating these creates a clear escalation path: if 74000-03 is over threshold, it's a COO conversation, not a marketing conversation.
⚠️
Today, all three appear in the same budget line and the same budget variance calculation

In May 2026, the "marketing overspend" of +$36,206 vs. budget included $20,411 in corporate GL rows (74000-02 future) and doctor-authorized chronic accounts (74000-03 future). Marketing's actual discretionary overage — 74000-01 only — was much smaller. The sub-account structure makes this defensible in any budget review.

Owner & Effort

Owner: CFO + Controller. Chart of accounts change in Sage Intacct. No software purchase required.

Effort: 1–2 weeks to configure + recode historical spend for YTD comparability. A clean GL structure also makes the Velixo extension (Section 3) more valuable — variance rolls up by sub-account, not just by the blended 74000 total.

3

Velixo Extension — Close the 30–45 Day Reporting Lag

SGA West PGPs can see budget vs. actual vs. variance per practice as charges post throughout the month. SGA East PGPs see the same data 30–45 days after the month closes — after all the charges are final and nothing can be reversed. The tool to fix this is already in the organization.

How Velixo Works in SGA West

Velixo is an Excel/reporting add-in that connects directly to Sage Intacct. On the SGA West / Gen4 side, it pulls budget, actual, and prior-year data per practice and presents it in a consistent format PGPs receive mid-month — not after close. The data refreshes as AP entries post.

If SGA East operates in the same Sage Intacct environment as SGA West (or a connected environment), extending Velixo is a configuration task: map the SGA East entity, replicate the existing budget/actual template, and assign PGP access. No new licensing is required if the SGA West license already covers the entity count.

Current State (SGA East)
  • Month closes → AP runs → P&L generated → 30–45 days
  • PGP receives data; overage is already final
  • No ability to intervene; escalation is retroactive
  • Myles conversation happens weeks after the fact
Future State (with Velixo)
  • Charges post → Velixo reflects variance within days
  • PGP flags overage mid-month while spend is live
  • Escalation happens before charges are final
  • Monthly close becomes a confirmation, not a surprise
Owner & Effort

Owner: IT + Finance Controller. Configuration task using existing SGA West infrastructure.

Effort: 30–60 days depending on Sage Intacct environment alignment. Prerequisite: confirm SGA East is in the same Sage Intacct instance or a connected one. If separate, assess data bridge options with IT before committing timeline.

Dependency: GL sub-account split (Section 2) should be done first — Velixo is more actionable when the 74000 line is already separated into three sub-accounts. Without it, near-real-time data still shows one blended number with no structural insight.

4

Power BI Changes — Unlock Existing Data

Two changes to Power BI would immediately improve what marketing can see and say in a reporting conversation. Neither requires new data — both unlock data that already exists.

A — Fix the "Undeclared" Column (30-Minute IT Task)

The Power BI Decomposition Tree already separates vendor spend into "Declared" (vendors with contracts on file) and "Undeclared" (vendors without). Sharley currently cannot expand the Undeclared column — she sees the total but not the vendor breakdown within it. This means she cannot speak to a material portion of the Advertising & Marketing total when presenting to Myles.

The most likely cause is Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI — Sharley's role is restricted from the Undeclared dimension, either intentionally or by omission when the role was set up. Granting access requires an IT admin to update the RLS role assignment in the Power BI workspace. Estimated: 30 minutes.

The Decomp Tree is already the right tool for the Myles conversation

When the Dallas and Nathan situations were addressed previously, the Decomp Tree vendor drill-down was what produced cuts Myles saw and approved. It works. The only gap is that Sharley can't currently use the full version. This is the highest-leverage 30 minutes of IT time in this list.

B — Add CPP Column to Standard Marketing Report

Cost per new patient (CPP) is the most actionable metric in a marketing spend conversation. The May 2026 analysis revealed a network average of $48/patient — with a range from $1/patient (specialty referral practices) to $6,559/patient (Brentwood). That range cannot be seen in the current Power BI Marketing page because CPP requires joining spend data from the Marketing page with new patient counts from a separate page.

A calculated column in Power BI (Spend ÷ New Patients, where New Patients > 0) would make CPP visible at a glance for every practice, every month. It would also make the outlier identification in reports like this one automatic rather than a manual join exercise.

5

What the Standard Monthly Report Should Look Like

Once the infrastructure changes above are in place, a monthly marketing spend report can be produced consistently and quickly — rather than as a one-time analysis triggered by a budget question. Below is the recommended template structure.

Recommended Monthly Report Structure
  1. Account-Level Summary: Advertising & Marketing / Practice Promotion / Total — showing Actual, Budget, Variance, SPLY, and YoY Change for each. Keep the two "overage" framings (budget variance vs. YoY increase) separate and clearly labeled.
  2. Sub-Account Breakout (once GL split is live): 74000-01 (Marketing-Directed), 74000-02 (Corporate/Ops), 74000-03 (Doctor-Authorized) — each with its own budget and variance column. This separates what marketing owns from what it does not.
  3. Practice-Level Table: All active locations sorted by spend, including columns for Promo Spend, % of NPR, New Patients, and Cost Per New Patient. Flag any practice above $500 CPP or above 15% of NPR for review. Include a network average row at the bottom.
  4. Bright Spots: Top 5 practices by CPP efficiency (below $100/patient with meaningful volume). Reference point for the network — what good looks like at scale.
  5. Escalation Queue: Any practice on a 3-month trend of increasing CPP or spend above its individual budget threshold (once per-location budgets are in place). Each entry includes last month, current month, and recommended owner (Ops vs. Marketing vs. COO).
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Who receives this report and when

Monthly delivery, ideally within 5 business days of month close (matching or improving on the current P&L lag). Recipients: Sharley (Marketing), Sarah (PGP Lead), relevant PGPs for flagged practices, COO for any Escalation Queue items above a threshold (e.g., $10K+ overage or >$1,000 CPP). The Velixo integration makes a mid-month preview possible as an add-on — same template, flagged in-progress numbers.

6

Implementation Roadmap

Action Owner Timeline Priority
Fix Power BI RLS — give Sharley access to the "Undeclared" vendor column
Row-Level Security role update in existing Power BI workspace.
IT This week Critical
Add CPP calculated column to Power BI Marketing page
Spend ÷ New Patients (where New Patients > 0). Add to existing report.
IT / BI This week High
CFO: Reset Practice Promotion / Giveaway budget for remainder of 2026
Current budget ($2,260 / 159 locations) has no relationship to actuals (~$25K/month SPLY).
CFO Before next close High
Finance: Split GL 74000 into three sub-accounts
74000-01 Central / 74000-02 Ops-Directed / 74000-03 Doctor-Authorized. Recode YTD spend for comparability.
CFO + Controller 30 days High
Separate Albany HQ and SGA OpCo from practice marketing line
Recode $20,411/month in corporate GL rows to a cost center that does not distort per-practice benchmarks.
CFO + Controller 30 days High
IT + Finance: Assess Velixo extension to SGA East
Confirm Sage Intacct environment alignment. If same instance, this is a configuration task using existing SGA West infrastructure.
IT + Finance 30–60 days Medium
Establish per-location marketing budgets for 2026 remainder and 2027
Currently no per-location budget exists in Power BI. Required for variance tracking and Velixo to be meaningful.
CFO + Marketing 60–90 days Medium
Publish first monthly report using new template (Section 5)
Start with June 2026 data using the new account-level + practice-level + CPP format. Does not require GL split or Velixo to be complete.
Marketing Next month close Medium
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What changes immediately vs. what needs infrastructure

Immediate (this week, no infrastructure required): Power BI RLS fix for Sharley's Undeclared access · CPP column added to existing report · Decomp Tree pulls for Brentwood and Ressler before the Myles meeting · CFO budget reset for Practice Promotion / Giveaway line.

30–60 days (finance and IT configuration): GL 74000 sub-account split · Albany HQ / OpCo cost center reclassification · Velixo feasibility assessment · Per-location budget setup.

Ongoing (once infrastructure is in place): Monthly report using the Section 5 template · Mid-month Velixo preview for PGPs · Escalation queue for COO items.