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December 2017

DentaLab NewsDecember 2017
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

First, our holiday schedule

Having Christmas and New Year's Day on Monday this year had us wondering which were the best days to give our employees some much deserved time off and yet serve our customer needs.   Typically with the eves, our holiday schedule covers four days.  This year, we will close the office on the following days but will check for voicemails and emails:

  • Friday, December 22 Early Christmas Eve
  • Monday, December 25 Christmas
  • Tuesday, December 26 Boxing Day
  • Monday, January 1 New Year's Day

We ask that you not schedule any installations or system reconfigurations during this holiday period.   We know how busy most of your days are and hope that you too will be able to take a relaxing enjoyable break this holiday season.

The emerging popularity of MyQuickCloud

We are very pleased to see that more and more labs are implementing MyQuickCloud.    This is an inexpensive web-based service that provides for remote and mobile access on a number of different devices without having to turn over your data to a software-as-a-service company.  In addition to all the benefits described by the company that provides this service, you can continue to retain greater control of your core business information, its access, its growth and enhancements than you would turning it over to another company.  Some of the features we like best are:

  1. It does not require a dedicated station.  You can share with others in the lab.
  2. You can create individual desktops for your users to limit access to specific menu options.
  3. It is a very easy and affordable way to add remote and mobile access in a controlled way.

From the right frame of the Home page of our website (www.mainstreetsystems.net), you can access more information on MyQuickCloud and see how very easy it is to use.  You can also link to MyQuickCloud to request a free trial.  

Five years have gone by

We were surprised when we took a look back at our service agreement schedule of fees that it has been five years since we increased the fees.    For some but not all levels, you will see a small increase in your January 2018 bill.   For many reasons we firmly require that in order to have access to the services of our tech support staff, a service agreement must be in place.   Among these:

  • the agreements define the rights and responsibilities of each party
  • they serve to provide a sound financial basis for having programmers on staff
  • there is always a need to keep up with ever-changing technology and compliance regulations
  • the importance of having users participate in the development of the system
  • not wanting to encourage our users to neglect their systems
  • there is a need for continual education and guidance as technologies and personnel change
  • to have adequate personnel trained and available for whatever special need arises 

As many of you know, we have competitors who provide dental lab software but no longer have programmers on staff, who discourage innovation and interaction, who will not address customization requests.  As a professional software development company, we are determined not to follow in their path.   We provide a core of already developed and proven software but will also address any special needs as well as the ever-changing innovations for the labs and for computer systems. 

 

  Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

To answer your questions....

Q: Another software company told us we will outgrow QuickBooks.  Are there maximums we should consider?

A: The one maximum that has not yet been increased by Intuit is at the high end of QuickBooks in the Enterprise version.  At this level, the maximum is 30 concurrent users.   The high end of QuickBooks is SQL based which means you can handle very large volumes of basic lists as well as transactions.   We have encountered only one dental lab that needed more than 30 users and this was because they were also a supply house.

At the low end of QuickBooks in the Pro version, you are limited to 14,500 names (customers, employees, vendors and other names), 14500 items and 10000 chart of accounts entries.   If you press F2 when in QuickBooks, you can view your current statistics.   We have not encountered any labs that come close to exceeding these maximums.  

In most labs, there are more users working with DQB than with QuickBooks.   DQB is currently set to a maximum of 200 users but this could be increased.  The highest user count in actual practice is currently 27.   DQB is also SQL-based and can handle very large volumes of data with very good performance and speed. 

Q: If we have our technicians use tablets and DQBT to track their work, do we still need to print work tickets?

A: DQBT does provide the case details as well as auxiliary information such as preferences, case enclosures, schedules, tech notes much the same as the work ticket.  What you will need, however, is a way to identify each case.  The identifiers are typically the case number, the doctor, patient and pan.   If not using a work ticket, you can choose one of the case labels to provide this identification.

   With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

If you are wanting to make some improvements in the new year...

Here for your consideration are some of the proven ways to save time, energy and dollars for your business:

  1. Add the Images supplement to store, index and quickly access digital files and documents.
  2. Plan to have a website of your own, ideally with a DRX web portal for your customers to submit and lookup their cases and other information.
  3. If you would like to have remote or mobile access on a continual basis, take a look at MyQuickCloud. 
  4. Don't forget about upping your game when it comes to customer service.  Look to the DQB Customer Center as a great resource for providing accurate information and keeping track of your activities.
  5. As the basis for planning the year ahead, between QuickBooks and DQB you have a very large variety of analytical queries and reports to monitor your performance, your customers and staff, as well as trends.

Let us know if you need help with these or any other possibilities.  We wish you all much success and want to be a resource in any way we can.

 

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Customization is available for all products.

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

"Dental lab software does not come any better than that from Mainstreet. Elaine and the team are there for you any time in any weather."

Christopher Kelly
Orthoplant Dental Lab
New South Wales, Australia


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