March 2017

Ready for some early spring specials?

Here in Pennsylvania we've been having what is called bi-polar weather.   Despite what our groundhog said on February 2, we have had a lot of days with early spring weather, flowers beginning to bloom, no need for coats.  But as we write this newsletter, we are bracing for still another round of snow reminding us that winter is not quite over.

To help move the next season along, we are ready to offer you these early spring specials:

The Images Supplement to DQB provides for creating, storing and accessing a variety of digital documents related to each case.   The standard license fee is $400 USD but during this special, we are offering a 20% discount bringing the fee down to $320.

The Notifications Supplement to DQB provides for setting up email notifications on cases received and recently shipped, along with action required and marketing messages. Multiple schedules can be setup and assigned to specific customers.  The standard license fee is $400 USD but during this special, we are offering a 20% discount bringing the fee down to $320.

Both of these supplements can provide huge time and cost savings and typically pay for themselves in a very short amount of time. The special prices will be in effect through April 10, 2017.

Looking ahead to April

Just in case we don't get our monthly newsletter out in time,  our offices will be closed on Good Friday April 14 to begin the Easter holiday.

The most requested enhancements

In our recent survey on potential enhancements for DQB, the one greeted with the most enthusiasm was to create estimates within DQB rather than having to do this in QuickBooks.  Doing this in DQB has several advantages because the price levels assigned to individual customers can be used to develop the estimated costs and if the estimate is recorded as an advance bill, this will serve to assure that the estimated fees are used when billing the actual case.

This new feature will be available from the Preview Invoice menu option in the Case List and Case Entry screens.  A message can be added, items and pricing can be edited and the user can choose to store it as an advance bill to be used in single or batch invoicing.  You can also choose to print or save the estimate to a digital format such as PDF to send to the customer.

This is scheduled to be part of the April 2017 release numbered 1.50.

Also highly requested have been special handling of the dates associated with cases and invoices.   These will be available as choices in Options/Case Settings and Invoice Settings. 

To answer your questions...

Q:  We would like to let our customers know that their cases were developed here in their own country.  What are the best ways to do this?

A:  There are a number of ways your software can help you to accomplish this.   In DQB, you can add a standard message to be printed on your invoices.  If you wish, you can also add a graphic to the invoice.   If you use packing slips, these also can include your message.   In notifications, a marketing message can be added to let your customers know.  You can add one or more lab notes with your message to be conveniently used in a number of places within the system.  

From your web portal in DentalRx, there is still another opportunity to include your messages for viewing as prescriptions and other communications are being sent to the lab. 

Q:  We have neglected to keep our software up to date and want to take care of this now.   Do we have to run the update for every release that we missed? 

A:  No, each release includes the cumulative updates from prior releases.  Updating for the releases is quick and easy, but if this is your first time or if you haven't done one in a while, you can always schedule a short session with our tech support.   If you want to see a list the enhancements and new features, these are published in the Support/.Quarterly Releases section of our website:  www.mainstreetsystems.net

On access to your information...are you concerned about the who, when and where?

Although there are continual efforts to improve the security of the internet, there is still a lot of unethical activity to gain access to your information.   This is not something you can ignore or assume that it won't happen to you.   There are steps you can take to increase your security and help to assure that your business will continue on and that you and your customers will not be hurt.

Make sure your data backups are being performed on schedule and that they are working.  You should have at least one copy of your backup offsite.   We recommend to cover more possible events that you consider having both local and remote backups and that they be performed at least once each workday.    

Know the details of your programs--where installation media are, your versions, license codes, how to restore--and train your staff as well.   If you have a service agreement, we can help with this.

Explore the security features and help guides in both QuickBooks and DentaLab for QuickBooks and then limit specific personnel as to which features and data they can access by assigning user roles with logins and passwords.   Limit who can assign logins and passwords and keep access to the information in a secured location.

Determine who should have remote access from other computers, tablets or other mobile devices and then use MyQuickCloud to limit access to those trustworthy and authorized.for specific purposes.  

Monitor activity from time to time to see which information in your system is being viewed and/or updated and who is doing this.  In DentaLab for QuickBooks, you can review the event logs on a regular basis or if you want to check out the possibility of a data breach. 

Let us know if we can be of help with any of the these security measures.

On government compliance...are you in tune with the requirements?

In addition to the general government rules regarding employees, taxes and safety, there are rules that are particularly pertinent for dental labs.  In the USA these are required by the FDA and are known as Quality System/Good Manufacturing Practices or QS/GMP.    A number of these involve the software support you have readily available in the DentaLab systems such as:

• Establishing and documenting your standard procedures, making them known to your employees and monitoring their completion.
• Tracking who performs the work steps in each case, documenting any problems or issues encountered and then the resolution of these. 
• Performing quality control on each case with tracking and analysis of the item, the issue/cause, the technician, the work center, the doctor.
• Using materials disclosure for each case to track the material, manufacturer, batch/lot codes and dates with the ability to quickly pinpoint cases should a recall occur.
  

On Facebook and in the LMT magazine for February there have been more detailed discussions on this topic.    You can also call us to discuss how your software can be a big help in your efforts to stay in compliance.  

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