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October 2016

DentaLab NewsOctober 2016
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

The October release is ready for download

The October DQB 1.48 release for DentaLab for QuickBooks is now available for download from the Support section of our website:  www.mainstreetsystems.net

As you can see below, this release came largely from suggestions from the labs for more options, more conveniences.  If you have an up-to-date service agreement, please call just before you are ready to download to get the current authorization codes and to have your questions answered.  If you are new to this and would like tech support, just let us know. The download is very fast and very easy.   The guide and a list of enhancements is posted on our website in Support/Quarterly Releases and below in this newsletter.

On behalf of everyone in the DentaLab user group, we thank all of you who contributed your very worthwhile ideas for this.

Emailing within DentaLab for QuickBooks

We have had more and more interest in the email capabilities within DQB.   These have focused on convenient communications dealing with the lab's customers and cases and are not meant to be a comprehensive email service.  Some of the more recent suggestions for this have been to provide a library of templates and to provide for automatic generation of emails upon certain events.

With this quarterly release, we have begun this by adding the option to generate welcome emails for new customers.  If you are not already familiar with the email capabilities of DQB, take the time to review the topic on this below.  Let us know how you are using emails for your cases and customers and any suggestions you have for enhancing these even further.

When you ask us to recommend

Whenever one of our customers asks for a recommendation on a computer-related component such as label printers, barcode readers or image scanners, we are happy to lend our expertise and experience. Sometimes we can tell you if other users have experienced good results, sometimes we can do the research for you,  sometimes we have used the equipment ourselves, sometimes we know the critical specifications needed.   

That said, it is also important to know what we cannot do.  We cannot guarantee in any way the performance of products and services offered by other companies. We do not have the legal right and we do not have the engineering specifications for this.   Once we let you know what might be good choices for you, it is up to you to make the final decision and then to work with the vendor/manufacturer when it comes to guarantees, performance or repair service.

When an issue arises, we can also help to sort out whether it is software, hardware or operation that needs to be addressed.   But then it is up to you to continue on to the next appropriate step.

 

 

    Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

To answer your questions...

Q:  Some of our dental offices want to use tablets to submit their cases via DentalRx.  Can they do this?

A:  Yes, but it recommended that they install one of the modern web browsers such as Chrome, Edge or Firefox.  Just as software has had to be updated for mobility so have the web browsers.   This is also true if you want to have your technicians use the DQBT Tablet Workflow App or if you want to use MyQuickCloud for mobile access to DentaLab for QuickBooks. 

Q:  It doesn't happen often but occasionally we will get a message that a case is locked or a user prevented from continuing.  Why does this happen?

A:  One of the first things a new programmer learns to do is to have the code lock out others while updating a record and then unlock it as soon as possible.   This is to preserve the integrity of the data so that only one user can be updating at a time.   If something happens to interrupt this in the interim between the lock and unlock, the record or operation remains locked.

To handle this situation for cases, we have placed a button in Options/Case Settings to unlock all cases.   If you are working on a system with multiple users, you will need to check with the others before using this button.  If the message you receive involves another type of locking, you can check with the others to see if someone has not closed out their transaction.  An example of this sometimes occurs in QuickBooks when the user is asked to respond to a question in a dialog box but does not do this promptly.

      With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

DQB 1.48 Release

Case Menu-Faster Access for New or Existing Case

In the main menu, next to Cases are two new options for speedier access:

  • Entry box – for fast access to a specific case, enter case #, press Enter key     
  • + (bold plus sign) - just click to start adding a new case 

New Case Settings Option to Launch into Case List

In Options/Case Settings, then the Additional Options tab, is a new option you can check to indicate that upon launch of DQB, you wish to go directly to the Case List.

The default for this indicator is OFF.

Case Entry - Additional Save Button

Previously the Save button in case entry both saved the case record and closed the screen.   We have changed the name of this button to Save and Close and added a new button called Save to only save the case record and allow the user to continue.

New Email Settings Option for Welcome Email

In Options/Email Settings is a new Welcome Email tab with an option to indicate that you wish to automatically send a welcome email for each new customer.  This will occur upon the first synchronization into DQB for the customer.

The default for this indicator is OFF.

In this screen, you can enter the subject line and text for the email with the option to insert the customer’s name and date.

In addition, from the Customer Center in the Email tab, you can send the welcome email to the selected customer.  

New Case Settings Option to Provide a Prior Patient Search

In Options/Case Settings, you can check an indicator on the first screen to let the system know that you wish to provide a prior patient search for each customer during case entry.  Checking this will a new button in the main case entry screen just above the patient name to Search Prior Patients.  The list of patient names for selection will be limited to those used for the selected customer in their prior cases.

The default for this indicator is OFF.

New Custom Fields Options

In Options/Custom Fields are two new options:

1)  You can indicate up to 3 of your custom case fields to be shown in the Lab Information section of the main case entry screen. If you have more than 3 of these fields, the rest will be available in a smaller window via the Custom Fields button.

2)  To the right of each custom field will be a button to clear the prior search contents of the custom field.

Emails for cases and customers

Beginning with the release of DQB 1.41 in January 2015, email capabilities have been added for case and customer communications.  Most recently, an option for welcome emails for new customers was added in the current October DQB 1.48 release.  These options have been placed in these convenient locations:

1.  Case Entry:  from the Email tab for both the standard and starter versions

2.  Customer Center:  in the left frame menu for the standard version

3.  Case Listfrom the Actions menu or right-click on selected case

4.  Basic Lists-Customersfrom the email tab for a selected customer

In Options/Email Settings, you will need to setup your email credentials and security settings, as well as a default layout for your emails. You can also set indicators to let the system know you wish to:

  • attach digital documents sent with emails to the case records
  • search case-related records such as case plans for email addresses and add them to your list
  • send welcome emails to your new customers

The email address entered In QuickBooks for each customer or job is synchronized into DentaLab for QuickBooks (DQB) and will be readily available for case and customer emails.  It will also be displayed in a number of locations throughout the system adjacent to other basic customer information. You will also be able to add additional email addresses to your DQB address book and when composing your email, use it to access your addresss.

These email capabilities provides a number of time-saving features:

  • templates to use common fields in the subject line or body of the email
  • easy selection of primary customer and case fields to insert into the email
  • ability to easily attach documents, case images to emails, compress if needed
  • the user can preview emails, test settings and layouts, request onscreen guides
  • an option to search case-related records such as case plans, case communications, action required messages for email addresses.

You can also request that your email layouts be customized by Mainstreet.

If you wish to be removed, reply to this email with the subject "unsubscribe".

     

Customization is available for all products.

Contact us at 1-800-257-4535 or www.mainstreet-systems.com.

"I first met Elaine in 2002 when she was supporting my employer's DOS based version of Dentallab (DLAB). From the start, she proved to be not only cordial, but an extremely knowledgeable source of information. We constantly asked her for customization and functionality that were well beyond what her software was originally intended for. She did it quickly and accurately. Best of all, she did it because her company is focused on customer satisfaction."

Shane Purnell
Phoenix Business Systems
MO


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