June 2022

Some important reminders....

About the weblog: 

When you encounter an error and click the button to send the message to Mainstreet, the full error message is sent via the internet to the weblog within our License Manager that is used to record customer and prospect basic information along with history and support logs.  We do not monitor the weblog as its role is to provide the technical details related to the error message.  If you wish to have us address your error, you must also contact us by phone or email. 

You do not need to send every error message to us.  There are certain errors you can learn how to handle yourself with perhaps a little upfront guidance from us.  Whenever you would like tech support and guidance on your issue, however, it is best to first send the error message to us and then call or email with your request. 

About your local security measures: 

When your local IT support and/or your administrator sets up security measures, it is important to have the details such as authorization codes and license/serial numbers stored in a secured location that is known to your management.   When you call upon us for support on permission and access errors, we can give you general guidance but it is important to know that we cannot break into these security measures.  Your lab management has the responsibility to not only establish security measures but also to communicate and train staff on the proper protocols for handling any issues with these. 

For most, security measures are established for a number of components: the internet, your operating/network system, your web-based services, your database and backup/restoration, and your software application programs. 

About maintaining compatibility: 

It may seem like magic that all the components of your computer information systems work so well together but the truth is a lot of technical details are required to make all of this happen.   It is important to be mindful of this and at regular intervals take the time to review and maintain compatibility between all the hardware and software components of your system.  

If you need guidance: 

If you need further insight and guidance on these reminders or any other topic involving your system and its use, let us know.

Looking ahead to July

This year the USA Independence Day July 4 happens to fall on a Monday.   Our offices will be closed but we will check email for those in other countries.  

For many this is a time for summer vacations and/or slowing down. If you would like to take some time during this slowdown to review your system, to make sure it is secure and up to date, and/or add any enhancements you've been thinking about,  let us know and we will schedule a session.  In addition to discussions, we can include a personal interactive webinar and/or a remote session to review whatever parts of your system you would like.  

Lab Lookup...a new web-based service underway

Design and development are underway for an additional web-based service you will be able to offer to your customers as part of your service agreement. Now in its early stage is a good time to let us know if there are any features you would like to see and any other thoughts on this service.

It will be a derivative from DentalRx designed for staff personnel in group dental practices to lookup case status and history for all of their doctors.  It could provide a speedy way for individual practices to access their cases as well.  The user will be able to limit the information by doctor, patient and by various date ranges.   For those familiar with DentalRx, this service will be comparable to the Rx History feature and will include Settings to personalize your choices.  Registration for authorized access will be expanded to provide for staff as well as the doctors.  For those with a website, you will be able to customize it to have the same look and feel.  

We are calling it Lab Lookup [lab name|.   It can be added to the lab’s website or offered as a direct link.   You will be able to offer either or both DentalRx and Lab Lookup.  DentalRx focuses on submittal of prescriptions and transmission of digital files along with a number of other services for the doctor.  Lab Lookup will focus on extending the ability to lookup case status and history to other personnel in the practice and for group practices, the ability to lookup cases for all their doctors in the same session.  

In addition to enhancing their customer service, the lab will benefit in these ways:

• Less work interruptions from requests for case status
• Savings in time and labor costs
• Ability to customize which case fields are given to the dental practices 
  

To answer your questions....

Q:  How can we check whether an invoice has been deleted? 

A:  In QuickBooks, go to Reports and then Accountant and Taxes.  In the menu, choose Voided/Deleted Transactions.  You can filter/limit the report by date range and type of transaction.  If you find the deleted transaction, you can double-click on it to drill down to see the details such as when it was deleted.   If you want to see who deleted the transaction, customize the fields to show Last Modified By.  

In general, the reports in QuickBooks provide an audit trail and can be customized and filtered to provide information on accounting transactions.  In the results, you can double-click on any transaction to see the details.  In DQB, the criteria section at the top of the reports provides a variety of ways to view the information on case management and you can print or save to a variety of formats.  The Event Log in the standard DQB version can be used to track significant actions with details on who and when.

Q: Can you tell us more about how other labs use the Lab Notes in DQB?

A:  The Basic Lists-Lab Notes lab feature in DQB is essentially a dictionary you create for your commonly used text or specifications. They are then available for you to conveniently use (or add to your lab notes) in many spots within DQB for text and descriptive entries.   Labs use them to guide the work being done, to record notes to document issues, to build case plans, to add messages to invoices and communicate in other ways with their customers.  

There are specialty uses such as when there are two languages prevalent for customers and/or technicians, labs sometimes set up the notes to provide the text side by side in both languages.   Particularly when specifications are involved, having lab notes can help to assure that codes and spelling are accurate.   

This feature is available in both the starter and standard versions of DQB.

Q: Which QuickBooks version are you currently recommending?

A:  DQB synchronizes with both the desktop and online versions of QuickBooks.   Due to significant changes in the QB contact fields, we have recently changed our recommendation for the desktop versions (Pro, Premier or Enterprise) to be 2014 or later.   If you use any of Intuit's web-based services such as payment processing or payroll, you will need to update to the 2022 subscription.  Although we receive NFR (not for resale) copies of QB for our software development, we purchased the 2022 Pro subscription from Amazon to provide for our own payment processing and corporate accounting.  The cost of this was $284/year which equates to about $24/month and includes tech support and updates.  Distribution of the latest desktop versions is being handled by a number of major services such as Amazon, Trusted Tech and Walmart.  

If you are purchasing directly from Intuit, you will need to subscribe to one of their online versions.  For this, we recommend the Advanced version if you want to have capability comparable with the desktop versions such as more than 3 case fields transferred to your QB invoices and/or if you want to perform inventory control.  If not, the lesser versions will work.    

The easiest ways....

Over the years from our support calls and discussions with labs, we have learned and confirmed some of the easiest ways labs stay in control and maintain their standards.   Here are some of them: 

Customer and Item Updates: 

The basic records for customers and items begin in QuickBooks.  Further information can be added in DQB.   It works best when this function is limited to one or two highly trustworthy personnel. 

Price Changes: 

The default prices are entered in QuickBooks.  Special prices are entered in DQB Basic Lists-Price Levels.  Again limit who can enter these. 

Standard Procedures:

Setting these up in DQB can make a world of difference in achieving speedy accurate case entry and scheduling.  It is best to work these out with lab personnel and to review from time to time, making any modifications warranted.  You can also use these to set standards for the accuracy and timing of your workflow.  For customers with special needs or requirements, you can establish standard procedures for their cases. Keep in mind when designing a case that you can begin with one or more standard procedures and then adjust/edit/tweak as needed.  

Communications:  

There are a number of features in DQB that provide the basis for maintaining excellent communication with your customers.  Some of these include Basic Lists-Lab Notes, Invoice Messages both standard set up in Options/Invoice Settings and special ones on individual invoices, Email Notifications for regularly scheduled reports on cases received and shipped,  Shipment Tracking numbers on invoices, notifications, Case Actions Required, Communications and Alerts, Case Plans, Customer Alerts.  The DentalRx web portal also provides a number of communication services.

Automatic Actions: 

Tuning into what is available and taking advantage of automatic actions can benefit the lab in many ways, saving time and money as well as upholding standards for workflow and service.  See the topic below for some examples of the most used automatics.

Researching Issues: 

Both QuickBooks and DQB provide excellent audit trails for tracking down issues, when transactions were made and who made them.  In QuickBooks it is primarily in Reports with their drilldown features.  In DQB it is reports with their flexible criteria and the event log. 

Call or email if you need more detailed guidance on any of these.

The most worthwhile advances in technology

Here are some of the advances in technology that are very worthwhile for labs as well as affordable:

Automatic backups to secure your information: 

The Advanced Backup Protocol provides for automatically scheduling your backups, selecting encryption methods for security, having a choice of local and/or web-based storage.   There is a small fee for installation, setups and security measures but the service is included in your support agreement.

Receiving, naming and tracking digital files:   

Digital files and documents involve a number of challenges for their secure transmission, naming and storing for accurate easy access and retrieval.   With DQB these challenges were first met years ago with the Images supplement.  This continued to evolve adding capability for camera work, additional digital formats, receiving digital files along with prescription via DentalRx, automatic transmissions to secure locations and alerts for labs registered with one or more of the digital dental providers, inclusion in advanced backup protocols.    It has become our most popular well-liked supplement.

Providing a web portal for your customers:   

DentalRx Direct provides for easy submittal of prescriptions that are typically more accurate and complete, transmission of digital files, lookup of case status and history, pickup requests, preferences and other communications.   To meet with HIPAA requirements, there is a small fee for installation, setup and security measures but the service is included in your support agreement.   DentalRx Custom is also available for those who want to coordinate their portal with the features of their website. See the topic above on the upcoming Lab Lookup portal.

Maintaining privacy and security:  

For yourself and your customers it is important to provide for privacy on both financial and healthcare issues.  If you wish to be web-based, working with a major provider with high levels of security gives you the ability to limit access to the confidential information through authorization codes and encryption.  If you wish to keep control in-house but provide web-based features, this too can be accomplished with comparable measures.   You can also setup a VPN (virtual private network) to assure privacy while having remote access from multiple locations.   It is important to understand that to achieve internet capabilities, you can make the choice but do not need to subscribe to an online subscription service and give up having your own database and measures for security and confidentiality.  

Automatic actions for timesaving conveniences: 

There has been a steady beat of options added to DQB and DentalRx to provide for setting up automatic actions.  Some have come from suggestions by personnel in the labs, some from our staff, and some from technological advances.    Some examples that are frequently used are:

• generating a label whenever you create an invoice
• generating feedback/quality control forms when creating invoices
• marking completions and shipments
  
• transferring case fields to the QuickBooks invoice
  
• requiring entry of specific case fields
• disabling case entry fields you do not use
• recording who entered a case
• event logging and tracking

....and many more!

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