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January 2012

DentaLab NewsJanuary 2012
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

To Boost Your Sales and Service This Year

There are a number of hopeful signs that our economy is recovering.  We have been hearing from a number of labs that they are busier than they have been in a long time.  We know that some have taken a proactive approach, introducing new services, communicating more with their customers.   To help those who very much want to develop their business, the January release is directed to supporting these efforts with new features and an expanded Customer Center.  The highlights are listed in the DentaLab section below and in more detail in the Support/Quarterly Releases section of our website.

Whether you actively or occasionally work on business development and marketing, we hope you will tune into these new features and give us your feedback....let us know what you like best, whether you have even more ideas for ways software can help you now or in the upcoming months.

For a Well-Kept System

The small measures to assure that your system is well-kept and in tip-top shape are well worth the effort to prevent problems and to maintain a high level of efficiency.  To help with this, we offer annual reviews to everyone who has licensed DentaLab for QuickBooks, whether or not they have an up-to-date service agreement.  Typically, the process includes an interactive session via logmein to review:

  • critical DQB processes such as case scheduling, standard procedures, materials disclosure
  • your security measures
  • backup/restoration practices
  • recent additions/enhancements to DQB
  • whatever concerns or issues you may have

The annual reviews typically take about two hours and include a writeup on our findings and recommendations.   If you have a service agreement and have not used your monthly no-charge hour(s) for other purposes, this can be applied to the annual review.  Call if you would like to schedule yours

Our Winter Reminders

Thus far, our Pennsylvania winter has been relatively mild with only one odd snowfall on Halloween.   But we know there are about ten weeks to go when there is a possibility that snow and/or ice can prevent us from getting to our offices.   If this occurs, we still check voicemail and email and can provide support to you via remote connections from our home computers.   Be sure to leave your full name, lab name and telephone number so that we can reach you.

 

    Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  There are so many news stories about hackers, viruses and other undesirable aspects of the internet.  Is it getting better or worse?

A:  It has been sad that a resource so wonderful as the internet is also subject to a great deal of malware.   There is a subculture that works to create havoc on personal computers and to create destruction for no other purpose than to make other lives miserable.   In other cases, the motive is to find information or activities that will produce revenue.   At this time, the internet is largely unregulated, but there is much effort underway to make it more secure.   The most prevalent thinking among many organizations is to not have their core business entrusted to the internet, but to make small parts of it available with strong security provisions for worthwhile endeavors.

Some examples of these worthwhile endeavors can be found in the internet transactions available through QuickBooks and DentaLab for QuickBooks:

  • QuickBooks invoices, statements and reports can be emailed to customers.
  • Credit/debit card and other online payment solutions can post directly into your QuickBooks customer accounts.
  • DentaLab for QuickBooks email notifications provide reports to the dental offices on cases received and shipped.
  • With DentalRx, online prescriptions, preferences, pickup requests and other memos from the dental office communicate directly with your database.  This can be linked directly from your website.
  • Graphics sent electronically by dental offices can easily become part of each case’s record for quick lookups, communications.
  • Remote access via services such as Logmein and Remote Desktop from an authorized computer can use your lab system for entry, viewing, analysis, support. 

It is anticipated that the emergence of lightweight hardware such as tablets and ultrabooks will increase the demand for mobile access via wireless connection to the internet and with this will be increased interest in security.

Q:  Can DentaLab for QuickBooks run on a Mac?

A:  This question has been coming our way more frequently and the answer is yes.  In recent years, all MacIntosh computers from Apple have the capability of running both Apple OSX and Microsoft Windows operating systems.   We recommend the addition of the low-cost Parallel's Desktop software that now includes a mobile app to also run these on devices such as tablets and smartphones.   We were particularly pleased with the performance of the ultra-light MacAir, which can load Windows and its applications instantly and perform with great speed and great graphics.

      With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

January 2012 Release 1.29

"This is an industry built around people because at its core it’s about creating something unique for every case and that requires collaboration, trust and communication."

These words from Noah Levine, Senior Editor of Dental Lab Products Report, also convey the continual goals of the DentaLab systems to provide intuitive affordable support to labs of all sizes and business models for this collaboration, trust and communication.   Here are the highlights of the latest set. 

New Case Communications Entry and Report

In Case Entry and Customer Center, the user will be able to record the date and notes of each communication concerning a case, along with the identity of the persons involved.  The communication can be in any of a number of venues such as telephone calls, in-person visits, emails, correspondence. A printed report of communications for a case may be generated to keep in-house or send to the doctor.

New Sales Categories Entry and Reports

The Sales Categories in Basic Lists will provide another way to categorize each item involved in a case so that these can be reported for counts and dollars in invoices, adjustments and remakes. Unlike Product Group assignments, each item may be assigned to only one Sales Category. 

The Sales Analysis by Sales Category reports for a specified date range or for year-to-date (YTD) may be requested from Reports-Sales Analysis or from Customer Center-Reports. This can be performed from Basic Lists-Sales Categories or from Basic Lists-Items. Items not assigned to a specific Sales Category will be included in the reports as Unassigned.

Customer Lists – New Search Categories

New search criteria have been added to help find a specific customer:

  • telephone number  
  • contact name  
  • city  
  • state
  • postal/zip code
  • rep/salesperson
  • email address

These search criteria will be available in Basic Lists-Customer, Case Entry, and the Customer Center – Find Customer.  If custom columns are specified for the Customer Center-Find Customer list,  this will be applied only to this list.

Expanded Customer Center

The Customer Center has been expanded to include two ways to focus on customer profiles and activities for marketing, business development and customer service:  1) by specific customer and 2) by date/date range. In addition, the Customer Center also includes setting up schedules for the Notifications supplement and a link to the Spreading the News supplement for email newsletters and promotions.

Find Customer  

To find and focus on a specific customer, the user can use the alphabetic index, traditional and new search criteria, or by click column headings to sequence the list in various ways. Once selected/confirmed, the basic customer information (account, name, address, telephone, email, fax, contact, rep, price levels,  etc.) would be shown with tabs or links to various information specific to the customer:

  • Activity Logs
  • Alerts
  • Cases
  • Case Communications
  • Notifications
  • Preferences by Work Center
  • Preferences by Item
  • Reports
  • Schedule Pickup

Expanded Customer Center Reports

 Case Reports for selected customer and specified date range:

  • All Cases Received   
  • Open/In Lab Cases
  • On-Hold Cases
  • Out-for-Tryin Cases
  • Invoiced Cases
  • Shipped Cases
  • Cases Due in Requested Date Range
  • Cases Due in Scheduled Completion
  • Cases for Specific Patient
  • Case History

Customer Analysis Reports for selected customer:

  • Customer Sales Analysis by Item for date range or YTD
  • Customer Sales Analysis by Sales Category for date range or YTD
  • Customer Remake Report for date range
  • Customer Profile

Find Date

You can also focus on a specific date or date range to generate grids of customer activities, alerts, cases and/or case communications.

A variety of dates/ date ranges can be selected with further browsing capability.You can click each tab to display a grid of the search results.  Initially, the records will be sequenced from latest to oldest, but you may click the column headings to re-sort by any column.  You may also edit the records.

Notifications

For those who have licensed the Email Notifications supplement, here you can setup schedules for email notifications as well as view, edit, delete, suspend, reactivate, send now, generate a log of sent notifications or a report of customer assignments.

Spreading the News

For those who have licensed the Spreading the News supplement, this provides a link to this system for synchronizing QuickBooks email addresses, adding other email addresses, setting up groups, assigning prospects and customers to groups, setting up and sending email newsletters and promotions, keeping logs of these activities.

This release is also laying the groundwork for Windows 8, which is slated to be released by Microsoft later in 2012.   Those with up-to-date service agreements should call just before they are ready to download the release.

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Customization is available for all products.

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

"Thank you AGAIN!!!!! YOU are the BEST!"

Carol
Hennessy Dental Laboratory Inc.
Florida


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