December 2021

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!

We all hope you will be able to take a relaxing break and celebrate this special season.  For us, we will be closing the tech support office on these days: 

• Friday December 24 Christmas Eve
  
• Monday December 27 Boxing Day
  
• Friday December 31 New Year's Eve    
  

DQB 1.68 has been posted on our website and is ready for downloading.    This is a comprehensive release and includes updates needed for technical advancements in Internet security measures, installations and the Windows operating system.   Those who have an up-to-date service agreement can call or email to receive the authorization codes to download. 

Some easy setups

Here are some easy DQB setups from our recent support sessions to share with you.  

To announce price increases for 2022: 

• If printing invoices in DQB, in Options/Invoice Settings/Additional Options you can enter up to 3 lines of text to be printed at the bottom of the standard invoice.  
• If printing invoices in QuickBooks in the Layout Designer for your template you can use the Footer to add text.

To let the dental offices know your holiday schedule: 

• Same as above,  PLUS
  
• In DentalRx/Settings, you can enter your holiday schedule so that it appears next to the doctor's request date when entering a prescription.
• In DQB/Notifications, you can setup text to appear with the daily reports.

For your customers who tend to request the same thing over and over or for those with unique requirements:

• Create standard procedures with appropriate names.  This can include the customer name and if there is more than one procedure, also include the procedure name. Sample:  Smith John Zirconia
• Create a customer alert to remind your staff to select the appropriate procedure during case entry.  Sample:  For this customer, select standard procedure(s) beginning with Smith John.

Looking ahead to January

If you have not done this already, remember to enter your dates for holidays and other non-workdays for 2022 in DQB Options/Holidays.  

We may have a little bit of a white Christmas but it is in January that we become mindful of the possibility of heavy snow and ice on the roads and power outages.  We are set up to work from home and also have a standby generator for one of our offices so that we can continue to provide support via the phone and Internet.  Should you need support during severe conditions, it is always wise to leave both a phone and email message that includes your full contact information and your issue.

To answer your questions....

Q:  After using QuickBooks and DQB for several years, we have learned a lot about case management and would like a fresh start to streamline our records and our operation.  Is it possible to do this without losing our case histories? 

A:  Yes, you can create an archival set of your QB and DQB records and plan a transition to a new set.   Typically we would work with you to determine which information should be transferred to the new set, discuss the changes you would like to implement and develop a plan and a schedule to accomplish this.   Your Windows desktops would then typically have two icons, one for the archived and one for the current set. 

Q:  If we use the DQBT tablet workflow app, do we still need to print work tickets?

A:  The tablet app provides all the information that is typically printed on work ticket plus access to more such as digital/graphic images, material disclosure, case communications and plans.  It also provides for work assignments, tracking progress, marking completions, tech notes, updates to materials as well as workflow management and analysis.    For the physical case that is typically placed in a pan, however, you will need to identify the case.  The main identifiers are the doctor, patient, case number and date.  You can print a work ticket or a case label for this.

Q:  With which DQB release did you include the updates needed for Windows 11?

A:  These updates were included in DQB 1.67 which was released July 2021.   More technical advances have been included in DQB 1.68 for Windows 11 as well as for Internet security measures and for installation procedures.  These types of updates are quiet ones as you do not see them directly in program features but they are vitally necessary.  

Personalization through options, settings, preferences, basic lists

In software systems that serve a wide audience and a variety of business models such as QuickBooks and DentaLab for QuickBooks (DQB), there are typically ways to personalize and adapt the software for your specific business.   In the desktop versions of QuickBooks you can edit a variety of preferences and create selection lists for your entries.   In online versions designed for remote and mobile use, it is typically an icon resembling a gear that leads you to the settings. 

In DQB, it is Options, then Settings by category where you can indicate your choices.  Many of these have a default or startup setting for the most popular choice but you can select another.  In Options/Custom Fields you can add up to 10 custom fields each for cases, customers and items.  In Options/Invoice Settings you can indicate which case fields you want transferred as custom fields for the QB invoice.   

Then it is in DQB Basic Lists that you create your personalized selection lists for various fields related to case management.   The basic customer and item information already set up in QuickBooks is synchronized into DQB, where you can add more specific information for your case management.  For a number of these there are sample entries already available when you first install the software to help get you started.  You can choose to use these samples, overwrite them or delete them. 

In addition to these personalization features already built into the software, you can also request customizations for your unique needs.   It is wise to review from time to time all of the features in both QuickBooks and DQB that provide for personalizing your business.   Because many of the options provide for additional convenience and automatic time-saving actions based on requests by those using the software, it is also a good idea to review the documentation that comes with each new release.   You may find some very worthwhile new features for yourself.

DQB 1.68 Release

Here are the significant enhancements to DentaLab for QuickBooks (DQB) and DentalRx in the 2021 October Release 1.68 based on requests and suggestions from users of the system as well as the technical support staff. 

DQB and DentaLRx:  Fundamentals for Compatibility and Security

To maintain compatibility with the latest software from the major providers such as Microsoft for Windows 11 and the .Net Framework and Intuit for QuickBooks, we have applied the technical changes required. In addition, there are continual upgrades to internet security measures that are needed to guard against theft of information, ransomware, and other dangers.

DQB Advanced Installer 

For installation of both the licensed versions of our software and trials/demos, we now have a new utility called Advanced Installer.  This tool has been designed to handle conflicts with other SQL based software for installation of the SQL database and to provide timely messages to you from our servers whenever needed. 

DQB Master/Weekly/Daily Schedules:  Mark Technician, Completion Date and Time

The DQB Master and Weekly Schedules work with graphic calendars to review and update schedules.  The Daily Schedule works with pane technology for the same purpose. 

For all of these schedules, the user can now mark completions of case items with the technician, completion date and time.  This information will be available in the case item grids of Case Entry as well as the schedules.

NOTE: The alternate methods for marking completions such as Barcode Scanning and the DQBT Tablet Workflow App remain available.

DQB Reports/Cases By:  Add Columns

In the DQB Reports/Cases By set,, these columns were added:

Cases On Hold Report– Patient Name and Case Status (to distinguish between On Hold and Out for Try-In)

Work In Progress  Report - Patient Name

DQB Case Entry:  To Identify Required Fields

In Options/Case Settings you can indicate which case fields are required. In Case Entry, these fields are now identified by placing a red asterisk to the left of each field name.

NOTE:  The case entry fields marked as Disabled in Options/Case Settings are grayed out so that information cannot be entered.

DQB Options/Users & Security:  Add Individual Email Authorizations

You now have the option to authorize individual login users to send email messages for cases and customers.  Below the entry for user name, login and password is an optional section to fill if you want to give this authorization.

Optional:  If this user is authorized to send emails for cases and customers, complete this section.

You will be given a choice of the default email settings for the lab (entered in Options/Email Settings) or the user-authorized email at all points involving sending emails for cases or customers:

• Case Entry
• Basic Lists-Customers 
• Customer Center

NOTE:  This feature is not applicable to the DQB Notifications Supplement.

DQB Individual Case QC and Ship Action   

Currently we have a QC and Ship option in the action menu for an individual case as well as in the Case Entry screen.  To mark the case as actually shipped, the user would scan the case number barcode from the work ticket. 

For those not scanning barcodes, we have added the capability to do this from the screen.  If the case already has an actual shipped date/time, this will be shown to the user with the option to update it to the current date/time.

DQB Case Entry – New Choices for Patient Matching

The primary purpose of the Prior Patient Search has been to prevent duplicate entries for the same case.  We have found that labs are also using this feature rather than the Case List to find cases by doctor + patient. 

In Options/Case Settings, you can indicate which case statuses are to be considered for the patient matching (On Hold, Out for Try-in, Pre-booked, Open/In Lab).  You can indicate whether the Enter Date and Start Date are to be set to the current date upon reactivation.  You can also specify that the Start Date is to be one workday after Enter Date.

In Case Entry/New Case, when a patient match is selected, the user now be given these choices:

• View/Edit  -  the user determines all the next steps for selected case
• Reactivate - Case Status is set to Open/In Lab, the Rescheduled Count is incremented by one, the Case Setting for Start and Entered Date upon reactivation is implemented
  

If a match is not selected, the user will be given options to Continue with Case or Exit Case Entry. 

In summary, we now have multiple options to search for a prior patient:

1. Case List, find by entry of patient name in criteria. You can also limit the search to doctor + patient.
2. Options/Case Settings for automatic patient matching primarily to avoid duplicates in Case Entry
3. Case Entry button for Patient Search
4. Cases/Prior Search/QC Edit primarily for continuation cases

DQB Invoice Settings:  Add Alerts Tab, Corresponding Invoice Options

Currently there are a number of potential alert messages that can occur when invoicing a single case.  It is in DQB Options/Invoice Settings that you indicate your choices.

We have added an Alerts tab to include these options:  

• Do not show an alert for case items not yet scheduled.
• Do not show an alert for case items not yet completed.
• Automatically mark all case items completed when invoiced with invoice date/time.

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