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February 2017

DentaLab NewsFebruary 2017
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

DQB 1.49 release has been posted

Release 1.49 for DentaLab for QuickBooks was posted in late January.   This release primarily addressed a number of requests to add new options and conveniences for the labs.   The full list is posted in the Support tab of our website:  www.mainstreetsystems.net

Call when you have a few minutes to download.  If you are new to this and would like guidance, just give us a call. 

We have been pleased to see....

A number of you read our newsletter and heeded our advice to take advantage of the post-holiday slowdown to  update their computer systems in a variety of ways, some with their equipment, some with QuickBooks, some with DQB and its supplements, some with all of these.   Just as it is important to maintain your home and vehicles, it is always best to keep your information systems in good working order.     

January was very nice

Our January was very nice both in terms of the weather and in lots of business.  As we write this newsletter, however, the northeast section of the USA is about to have its first heavy snowfall.  We need to remind you once more that if ice and snow prevent us from travelling to the office, we are setup to work from our homes.   We will alternate checking on email and voicemail for your messages.  Be sure to be as complete as possible including your name, your lab name and the contact information on how to best reach you. If a speedy response is needed, it's OK to send both a phone message and an email. 

 

    Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

To answer your questions...

Q:  Do inventory items used in DQB cases reduce the item counts in QuickBooks?

A: Yes, if you specify the item type as Inventory and the item as billable in DQB.   Then when QuickBooks receives the case invoice, it will reduce the count.   It is in QuickBooks that you record inventory purchases, reorder levels, receipts, units of measure, etc.   To be accurate,  you should use the same unit of measure for your case item quantity as you do for the stock levels in QuickBooks.   In a typical lab, a number of inventory items willl be billable but there will be others that are not case-specific that would be considered general.

Q:  Is there a ceiling on volumes of customers and cases in QuickBooks and DentaLab for QuickBooks?

A:  If using the Enterprise version of QuickBooks which is SQL based, there is no ceiling.  DQB is also SQL-based and has no ceiling.   The Pro and Premier versions of QuickBooks do have ceilings on the number of transactions such as invoices and payments and the number of records in the basic tables such as customers and vendors.  You can click F2 while in QuickBooks to see your current volumes and then contact us if you think you may be approaching these.

Q:  Do large labs use QuickBooks and DentaLab for QuickBooks?

A:  Yes, there are many large labs that have chosen this combination.   We do not require that the labs give us volume statistics but to the best of our knowledge, the largest in terms of technicians has over 300,  in terms of customers over 4800, in terms of concurrent stations in use in the lab the count is 26.   When analyzing our revenue, we can use the service agreement levels as a basis and our latest statistics are 30.9% large labs, 50.2% medium labs and 18.9% small labs.  

      With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

Would more of you like these potential enhancements?

Whenever we receive requests or suggestions for enhancements to DQB and its supplements, we first determine if there have been multiple requests that would warrant adding it to our to-do list for an upcoming release.   When there is only one submittal, we also evaluate whether it could be of value to other labs.  You can help with this by letting us know whether (or not) each of these ideas would be of value to your lab:

  1. An option to delete case records once they reach a specified age.
  2. An option to delete case images/digital documents once they reach a specified age.
  3. An option to schedule backward from the doctor's request date rather than forward from the case start date.  .
  4. An option to connect to major shipper's online systems not only for tracking cases but for submittals to generate tracking numbers and shipping labels.
  5. From the Preview Invoice screen, add an option to confirm the invoice contents and save it as an Advance Invoice, then use this in both single and batch invoicing as the invoice to be created in QuickBooks.   Doing this could also include an option to print the Advance Invoice as an Estimate to be provided to the customer. 

We will look forward to your feedback on these ideas as well as any new suggestions. 

Thinking about dates

In recent months there has been an upswing in requests for special handling of dates within DQB.   We have been able to honor most of these requests by creating indicators in Options/Case Settings and Invoice Settings.  Here is the list of those currently available:

In Case Settings:

  • You can initialize the doctor's request date to a specified number of working days after the entered date.
  • You can elect to remove case item scheduled dates when a case is marked Out for Try-in.
  • You can indicate that the system time is to be recorded and then displayed with the system date.
    Typically the end and ship dates are set to the last case item schedule date, but you can indicate that you do not want these set automatically.
  • You can specify that upon reactivation of a case (after being on hold or out for try-in) the enter and start dates will be reset to the current system date.
  • In the next release, there will be an indicator to set the start date one working day after the entered date.

In Invoice Settings:

  • You can indicate that the system time is to be recorded and then displayed with the system date.
  • For batch invoicing, you can indicate that all case items are to be marked completed by setting the completion date.
  • You can automatically set the invoice date to the planned ship date.
  • You can indicate that DQB should set the QuickBooks invoice due date to a date different than the terms specified in QuickBooks.

To Review the Basic Rules for Dates:

  • Unless otherwise specified, the system date and time on the computer station is used to set the date/time.
  • For a new case, the enter and start date are initialized to the system date.  The end and ship date are set upon scheduling to the schedule date for the last case item.  All of these can be overwritten.
  • Dates are best chosen from the calendar as this provides built-in editing and verification.
  • The holiday table provides for specifying which dates are not to be scheduled.  You can also specify whether or not to schedule on Saturday and Sunday.
  • The ship date plus the number of days to ship for each customer are used to determine if the case delivery will meet the doctor's request date.
  • To distinguish, the ship date is the planned date and the shipped date is the actual date of shipment. 

Let us know soon if there are any other special ways you want to have your dates set and if feasible, we will add these to the 1.50 release.

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Customization is available for all products.

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

"We greatly appreciate all your support you have been giving us all these years?It has helped our business greatly and we highly recommend DQB to our peers."

Ray Alde
Executive Officer, California


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