July-August 2017

As summer ends...

Posted on our website is the release of DQB 1.51. This release focuses on:

• Enhanced information and features in reports and queries.
• New industry standards for higher levels of encryption and security for web-based features.
• More information displayed in DQB on timings from the tablet workflow app
  

The details are listed below as well as on our website www.mainstreetsystems.net in Support/Quarterly Releases.  Those who have an up-to-date service agreement can call for the current authorization codes when ready to download.  

For the USA Labor Day holiday, on Monday September 4 our offices will be closed.  

The summer specials to ease into digital dentistry

As digital dentistry grows, the dental offices are creating photographs and CAD/CAM files to be used in the design and development of each prosthetic.

The solution for those with DentaLab for QuickBooks is to add  the very affordable Images Supplement along with a scanner and/or USB camera to revolutionize their entire document storage and retrieval processes.  In addition, having DentalRx included in your website provides a very convenient way for the dental office to transmit digital documents and files for each case.

With this digital document management solution, images and documents are automatically indexed and stored  so that you can access them within seconds. You can rapidly respond to queries and provide better customer service while streamlining the lab’s operations and saving costs.

To help you ease your way into digital dentistry, we are offering a 20% discount on the DQB Images Supplement, bringing the license fee down from $400 to $320, and DentalRx for your own website, reducing the $1600 fee to $1280.   Since this newsletter had to wait until the release was ready, these special offers will be in extended until August 31, 2017.

Share your thoughts on what's next

Here are some of the suggestions that have come our way from bright minds in the labs:

• For the DQBT tablet workflow app:  Add a new feature to provide for changing a case in progress. limited to authorized personnel and specific fields.
• Adapt DentalRx for use without a website:  Because it can showcase your expertise and offerings, we think having a website is a very good idea, but for those who do not want one,  this would be an alternate way to provide a web portal for your customers.
• Provide for creating a credit memo in DQB in the same manner as creating an invoice.   This feature could also provide for printing the credit memo, including credits with invoice history.

Our user group never runs out of good ideas and keeps our programmers hopping. We invite your feedback on the above suggestions and your submittal of more good ideas.

To answer your questions....

Q: We work with a large group of dentists that specifies exactly which invoices they are paying with each check.   If there is a question on whether a payment was applied properly, how can we check this?

A:  In QuickBooks, go to Reports/Customers and Receivables, then request the Customer Balance Detail for the selected customer and date range.  From the list, select the payment in question and then double click to drill down to see which invoices were paid by it.  

Q: Our state just announced that we must charge sales tax for our dental lab services.   What do we need to do to have our software handle this?

A:  Taxation occurs in QuickBooks.   Here are the steps to setup for taxation.

• First establish a sales tax item by going to Edit/Preferences/Sales Tax.  You will need indicate that you will be collecting sales tax and give the sales tax item an appropriate name and set the rate, taxing authority and account (typically Sales Tax Payable). 
  
• Next you will need to go to each customer record for which the tax will be collected and select the sales tax item.
  
• Then go to each item record and indicate if it is taxable (TAX) or not (NON).   
• From Lists/Templates or from the invoicing screen, use the layout designer to place the sales tax line on your invoice template in QuickBooks.    I
• The standard invoice print format in DQB will detect if there is a sales tax item and print it.   If you have a custom format, try printing it.  If there is not a sales tax line, let us know so that we can add this.
  

Q: We occasionally want to record an internal note about a case, but do not want this to appear on the work ticket.  Is there a way to do this?

A: There are several features in case entry that could be useful for this.  Here are some ideas:

• You can setup one or more of the custom fields to record these notes.  Each field can store up to 50 characters.  In Options/Case Settings/Custom Fields, you can indicate that you wish entry of up to 3 of these to be more prominent on the case entry screen.
• You can record the note in one of the case communication records.  These can store longer notes than the custom fields and you can also set an indicator to have the note displayed as a case alert.
• The case plan record provides the largest number of characters.  This can be printed or saved as a PDF to send to the customer, but do not do this if it is for internal use only.
• If appropriate, the tech notes can be used to record internal notes.  These do appear in the DQBT tablet workflow app.  
  
• The short memo can hold a designated character such as an asterisk to indicate that one of the above fields has an internal note.   The short memo does appear in the standard case list and work ticket.
  

The desktop is not dying...hybrid technology is emerging as the wise choice

Those who offer only software as a service often imply that the desktop is on its way out.   Although there has been tremendous growth in mobile devices, the desktop still provides for recording and analyzing the core information for many business functions.   Intel, one of the leading providers of imbedded technology, has focused much effort on developing its desktop offerings.   Intuit focuses on promoting its online version of QuickBooks but has also made a  strong commitment to keeping its desktop versions vital.  The desktop versions experienced a 10% increase in sales last year and are generally viewed by accountants and pro-advisors as much better products then the online version.  There has developed a new trend to view the desktop versions as upgrades from the online version.  

When it comes to cloud technology, what has emerged in most businesses are hybrid systems that focus on safeguarding their core information while providing web-based interactions with customers and vendors.   Each business can determine what will work best for them.   What we have seen in our customer base has been a strong leaning toward protecting the identities of their customers and their payment methods while providing for secured transmission of digital documents and files, the submission of prescriptions, looking up case status and shipment, limiting remote access to only those with authorization and for specific purposes.   

Here's the DQB 1.51 release list

This release includes our responses to requests from the labs as well as the growing use of the DQBT tablet workflow app and the DentalRx web portal.

Timings added to the Item Completions Reports

For those using DQBT, a Time column has been added to the two Item Completions reports.  For each technician in the selected date range there will also be a total of the timings in minutes.

Technician Productivity enhanced reports

For those licensed for Technician Productivity, there are three types of reports and each has both a detailed and summary version:

1. Technician Productivity - comprehensive set of information for technician, case, item, completions, pay rates with calculation of incentive or piece rate pay.
2. Technician Quick - condensed version of the above for a shorter report
3. Technician Quality Control - this set focuses on quality control issues involved with completed work. 
   

This set of reports was enhanced for format, use of schedule factors, special pay rates.

Special Items by Customer/Customer Group

This new set of reports is patterned after the current Special Items report by Product Group but selects and focuses by an individual customer or customer group.  It provides a list of case items and quantities ordered by each doctor in the date range you specify.  

Production Analysis enhanced reports

This is a comprehensive set of reports with a variety of criteria to analyze production.  The reports will distinguish between the billable/entry quantity and the scheduled units that have been multiplied by the case item's schedule factor.  The item amounts (billable quantity x price) not yet invoiced will be in the Not Billed column.  

Cases by Status and Date and Scheduled by Work Center add total count of items

This reports under Cases by Status and Date and the Scheduled Cases by Work Center previously reported the number of cases in each status.   We have added a total for the count of items in each section of the report.

New Invoice Register Options

The Invoice Register was originally designed to provide a printed report on the details of the invoices for a specified date or date range.   We have added three new options for those who want to focus on a specific customer or provide a summary list to the customer or first take a look at the register on their screen before printing. The new options are:

Separate Page for each Customer:  Whenever All Customers is chosen, the user will also be able to request a new page for each customer.

View Details:   Rather than sending the invoice register directly to the printer, the user can click this button to view first.

Summary List:   This option provides for creating a more condensed report that is similar to the invoice register, but omits the case item line details.

DentalRx implementation of higher security measures

Due to the need for higher security measures when transmitting via the Internet, the latest HTTPS encryption methods have been implemented in DentalRx to meet the latest industry standards.   Note that this was done only for the standard version.  Those with custom versions can contact us if they wish to have their version updated.

If you wish to be removed, reply to this email with the subject "unsubscribe".