January 2022

Worth repeating as you start the new year...

By being trustworthy, knowledgeable and reliable, you can continually reinforce your service and long term relationship with your customers.   If you have not already done so, it is wise to consider implementing services such as:

• adapting to new digital technologies to reduce costs and speed delivery times
• providing online communications and information via a web portal
• greater use of local delivery services to assure on-time deliveries
• training your personnel to listen and to be gracious, knowledgeable and accommodating to your customers 
• becoming aware and training your personnel on the features you have in DQB, DentalRx and QuickBooks to access information and respond to requests
• letting your customers know that you value them and their input to create a mutually beneficial working relationship  
  

Both Intuit and Mainstreet have gained solid reputations for listening to customers and then responding with software features and guidance to provide many benefits to help them succeed. 

For DQB and DentalRx: 

• Take a few minutes to send us any updates you have on your system for your support records here on hardware, Internet, Windows, QuickBooks, your personnel and contact information.  
• It is wise to do an annual review on the above plus other surrounding components such as your backup system, remote access, plans to implement new features.
  
• If you plan to make changes for any of these and would like to have our guidance and technical support. be sure to call or email in advance to schedule a dedicated date and time.
  

For those who prefer QB Online, Intuit has listened and responded

For the desktop versions of QuickBooks (this includes Pro, Premier and Enterprise), since its inception DQB has provided for transfer of case fields as QB custom fields to the QB invoice. It is in DQB Options/Invoice Settings that you specify which case fields you wish to have transferred.  At the QB Pro level, the maximum number of custom fields has been 7 so we also set the maximum in DQB to 7.  The choices have been:

1. Patient Name 
2. Shade 
3. Teeth
4. Pan Code
   
5. Request Date with Time
6. Enter/Received Date  Start Date  End Date
7. Short Memo
   

Essentially DQB transfers its case fields as custom fields to the QB customer for use in invoices and/or purchase orders. 

One of the significant drawbacks to synchronizing with the QB Online versions has been their limitation to 3 custom fields. This maximum remains in the QB Online Essentials and Plus versions, but Intuit has responded to our request for adding more in the QB Online Advanced version.  You can have up to 12 active custom fields for each type of form (such as invoice, purchase order), and each type of profile (such as customer.vendor).  Once you have created the custom fields, they will be available for you to include them in the template for your invoice and/or purchase order form.

Customer Alerts vs Preferences vs Profile

One of the issues we encounter in our support program has been where to store the unique information for each customer.  Here is some guidance: 

1. If there is a specific field already available in Basic Lists-Customers enter the information in it.  Some examples would be when their office is closed, their contact preferences, and their standard days to ship.   If it is basic demographic profile information such as name, address, telephone, email, contact person, enter this first in QuickBooks and it will be synchronized for use in both QB and DQB. 
2. If it involves standing instructions to guide the production of their cases, store this in Preferences.   With these, you have a choice of general preferences, preferences by work center and preferences by item.  These will be available during case entry and design, on the work tickets and in the tablet workflow app.  
3. Alerts can be shown during case entry and/or invoicing and/or pickup requests to capture the attention of the entry person.  Typically they should be short and to the point.  You can set the expiration date for each alert.  Keep in mind that in the Case Communication tab of Case Entry, you can also enter an alert specific to the case.
   

To answer your questions....

Q:  What would be involved if we decide to switch from QB Pro to QB Online?  Is it possible to do this without losing our DQB case histories? 

A:  The switch from synchronizing with one of the desktop versions to QB Online requires that you start a new DQB database.  To retain your case histories, it is best to create an archival set of both your QB and DQB records and plan a transition to a new set.   Typically we would work with you to determine the timing, 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 online set.  

We recommend that you consider subscribing to the QB Online Advanced version, particularly if you wish to transfer more than 3 case fields to the QB invoice and/or if you want to track inventory.

Q:  We use the alerts a lot.   Currently they are shown when you first go into the Case Entry screen.  Would it be possible to show the alerts in all the tabs? 

A:  Yes, this was a very worthwhile suggestion and development of the program code is underway for the next release.  We will continue to show the alert(s) on the first screen but once you click OK, the alert(s) will be moved to the top frame so that it can be viewed while in any of the other tabs.

Q:  Are the DQB features and capabilitiies the same whether we synchronize with QB Online or one of the QB desktop versions? 

A:  The features and capabilities are the same except for those imposed by Intuit such as the limitation of 3 custom fields in the less expensive subscriptions such as QB Online Essentials and Plus.  If your budget allows, we recommend choosing QB Online Advanced as most of the enhancements to gradually bring it up to par with the desktop versions are in this version.     We are also required by Intuit to keep up their security measures for Internet transmissions so we also require a subscription if synchronizing with QB Online.  

Tips to help you succeed in the new year

To provide top-notch customer service

Consider providing the DentalRx web portal for your dental offices to easily submit prescriptions and digital files, lookup case status and histories, submit preferences and other requests.  If you are registered with one of the digital dental providers such as 3Shape or ITero, the digital files can be named and transferred to your DQB case record, then automatically backed up. The ongoing service for the DentalRx supplement to DQB is included in your service agreements.

For those customers who prefer receiving case status reports via email, the Notifications supplement to DQB can provide these for cases received and recently shipped along with shipment tracking information and links, marketing messages and other communications.

To ease your way into digital dentistry

DQB Images/Digital Files has been the most popular supplement to DQB.  It provides for in-house scanning and camera work as well as receiving digital files and documents from the dental offices.  You can then access these in the same large variety of ways you can search for cases. You can easily receive digital files via DentalRx and can choose to implement this in one of three ways:

1. With DentalRx Custom, include the information and link in your own custom website

2. Create a new modern website that includes DentalRx and editable pages.

3. With DentalRx Direct, provide a direct link for your customers’ desktops

To lighten your workload, save time and money

Take the time to review the Options/Settings section of DQB.  This provides ways for you to setup automatic actions such as printing a selected label or quality control form for each invoice, transferring case fields to the QuickBooks invoice, selecting standards for dates and alerts, adding messages to invoices….and many more.

The Automatic Backup Protocol can be a great time-saver for secure backups automatically performed with your choices for schedules, locations, media and levels of encryption. 

Review the latest features for standard procedures for case entry, advanced billing and estimates, price levels for automatically applying special pricing, reviewing invoice history for multi-stage cases, web-based features and remote access. These can be found on our website under Support/Quarterly Releases and in our newsletters

For ongoing training and education for you and your staff, tune in to the many services we provide with our monthly newsletters, website, white papers, and personal interactive webinars.

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