June 2023

DQB 1.74 is ready to download

Those who have an up to date service agreement can call or email when ready to download to receive the current access codes.   The article below provides an overview of the highlights of this release.  It is also posted on our website in the Support/Quarterly Releases section adjacent to the download link.  

Also available in conjunction with the latest enhancements for the labs that offer the DentalRx web portal is a white paper DQB Special Features for DentalRx.   You can request a copy of this be sent to you via email.

Happening this spring 

This spring has beem an extraordinarily busy, helping many of our users transition to either the Quickbooks desktop or online subscriptions, our staff recovering from two medical emergencies, catching up on custom projects and getting the DQB release ready for you.

Microsoft is urging its users to plan to upgrade to Windows 11 if they have already taken care of this.   There will no longer be general updates to Windows 10 but critical internet security measures will continue until October 2025.  We and many of the labs in our user group have already updated and are pleased with the features and security of Windows 11.    

Through our custom projects, our programming staff has also acquired knowledge and expertise with these apps and integrations: 

• UPS Labels: to provide a service to your customers  from your website to create UPS labels for sending cases 
• Ship Station / REST API:  for integrating this service to create shipments, labels, tracking codes, shipment details 
  

Let us know if you are interested in exploring either of these possibilities. 

Looking ahead to early July, our offices will be closed on July 3 and 4 for the USA Independence Day holiday.

We can often give guidance...

Many of the support requests we receive involve issues beyond our proprietary dental lab software covered by your service agreements.  We are always happy to help you resolve these by giving guidance, pointing you in the right direction, providing research and tracking down the source of the issue and other details. 

Most often these issues involve other companies and/or services.   It is very important to understand that we do not have the engineering or program code for their products and services nor do we have the legal right to change them in any way.   When we contact personnel from other companies on your behalf, we cannot guarantee a satisfactory timely response and resolution for your issues.  

Particularly for issues with hardware, network and internet services, it is best to have a local service that can provide hands-on service, repair or replacements when needed.  We often work with local support services to resolve and/or plan for issues involving performance and security. 

For issues involving accounting or compliancy, we can often give you general guidance but it is best to work with your accountant or QuickBooks Pro-Advisor when in-depth knowledge is needed.

Be sure your staff has the contact information on hand and training on how to handle these issues.  

To answer your questions....

Q:  We want to reactivate a customer we had marked as inactive but cannot find him.  Are his records still available? 

A: Yes, his records in QuickBooks and DQB would still be available.   To find his QuickBooks customer record, go to the Customer Center, make sure the top selection is for All Customers so that inactives are included in the list.  Select the inactive customer and then in the first frame, set the indicator to Active.   The next time you synchronize to DQB, the customer and their set of records will be available. 

Note also that in DQB, many of the screens involving customers provide a button to show the inactives.

Q:  Having used QuickBooks and DQB for a number of years, we are concerned about the size of our files.  Can we archive some of the older transactions to reduce the size? 

A: We have developed and documented procedures to provide an archived copy of the QB company file and the corresponding DQB database, then reducing the size of the current production data by removal of case and scheduling records prior to a specified date.  If you wish, access to both the archived and current data can be made available on your Windows desktops.    We recommend careful planning and scheduling for these procedures. 

Q:  Is there a way to design a case using two standard procedures so that both are scheduled concurrently? 

A: There are two methods available. 

1) In Options/Case Settings you can check on the two options to align items by work center:  1) When adding more than one standard procedure to a case, combine same work center items together.  2) Also combine same work centers when adding single items.   Note that this method applies to all cases.    

2) In the Case Item grid, after adding the standard procedures and before scheduling, use the UP/DOWN arrows to change the sequence of the items to the workflow you wish to have.  You can also edit the number of days to advance the schedule for each case item. Use 0 days when you do not want to advance the schedule. When this redesign matches the workflow you would like to have, click to Schedule.  If needed, you can further edit the schedule.  Note that this method works best when needed for a specific case.

Fast track to your favorites

Each Windows User can create a fast track to their favorite options in the standard DQB menu.  Here are the steps: 

When logged in with DQB loaded, click the button near the bottom of the standard menu to Show Full Menu.  

The menu options are listed under major categories, then sub-categories.  The major categories are: 

• Favorites 
• Home 
• Cases 
• Customer Center 
• Case Reports
• Apps 
• Basic Lists
• Guidance 
• Options/Settings
  

To add an option to your Favorites set, right-click on it and click Add to Favorites.   If you change your mind, you can right-click on the option in your Favorites list and click to Remove from Favorites.

In addition, on the top of the menu for the standard DQB is a tab for Favorites that provides for two convenient options. As the default, we have included the two most requested options, one to lookup a case and another to lookup a customer.  If you wish to switch to other choices, the Show Full Menu provides two selection boxes to do this.  

If you prefer, you can use the Show Full Menu screen to navigate with left clicks to your choices rather than the standard menu.

Overview of DQB 1.74  Release

The DQB 1.74 release includes these updates for both the standard and starter versions:  

DQB Case Reports:  Cases to be Shipped 

The basic criteria for selecting cases for this report are:  

• Ship Date (Planned) is in specified date range   
• Actual Ship Date has not been entered.   NOTE: You can indicate that cases actually shipped are to be included. 
  

Checkboxes have been added to the top criteria section of the Cases to be Shipped Report for you to indicate whether to exclude cases that match the basic criteria but are marked with these conditions: 

Exclude cases marked as

• Finished
• Invoiced  
• On-Hold

DQB/QB Customer Names with Special Characters 

Originally the Customer Name field in QuickBooks had to be entered with only alphanumeric characters. That rule has been changed to allow special characters such as apostrophes and dashes.   DQB customer center searches have been adjusted to accommodate these.  

DQB/QB Online Expanded Field Lengths  With the QuickBooks online versions a new set of standard field lengths was implemented.  Some of these have been further expanded.  DQB and its connector program have been adjusted for these new lengths.  Although they can be much larger, we continue to recommend that you limit the length of the primary search fields such as customer name and item name.  

The following is for the standard DQB version:

DQB Graph for DentalRx Case Counts by Status

This new graph is similar to the top left graph in the Home Page dashboard for DQB Standard for Case Counts by Status.   It is limited to those cases with DRX in the Entry By field, which designates cases sent via the DentalRx web portal and will show counts by status such as pre-booked, open/in lab, out for try-in, on hold, finished.  Near the bottom right is a slider bar to adjust the size of the graph.

The graph will be available for the convenient Favorites menu at the top and in the Case Reports/Cases By set for DentalRx.  Its counts will be refreshed upon each new request. 

The release document includes an overview of the DQB special features for DentalRx.   These are also included in a white paper you can request to have emailed to you.  

NOTE:  The following update is not included with the general DQB 1.74 release.  Contact tech support if you would like to receive this.

Lab Lookup 

Measures have been added to the Lab Lookup web portal to increase the speed of the search by the specified date range and other criteria.   This was implemented to provide for searches with large volumes of cases and/or wide date ranges.

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