From TechRepublic:
Generally, an IT budget can be divided across various categories, depending on the complexity and sophistication of your department and its structure. At a basic level, you could structure your budget as follows, with each subcategory “rolling up” to the parent to create a total budget:
Source: IT budgeting: A cheat sheet – TechRepublic
Dentists tend to avoid budgeting of any kind let alone budgeting for specific programs like IT.
The linked article is for businesses in general and may have a bit more detail than most dentist will need however the basic concepts still apply. Dentists should budget for IT in these three areas.
Hardware; maintenance, updates and replacement.
Software; Licenses, support and training.
Projects; Adding a new technology like CAD CAM or CBCT.
A quick start is 5% of gross.