May 2024

Spring has finally arrived in Pennsylvania

Winter always seems to go on and on, but we are finally having the sunshine, lush foliage and all the other joys of spring here in Pennsylvania.  

DQB 1.76 was successfully released in April and available in the Support/Quarterly Releases section of our website for those with an up-to-date service agreement. Call or email just before downloading for the current authorization codes.   Note also that to stay compliant with the newest security measures within Microsoft Windows, those offering the DentalRx or Lab Lookup web portals will need a separate update installed by our technical support team.  This security set is not part of the DentaLab quarterly release and is not downloadable.

Our next holiday with our offices closed will be for the USA Memorial Day on Monday, May 27.

For the dental offices to easily check on the status of their cases

To provide ways for your customers to conveniently check on the status of their cases, here are several choices:

Lab Lookup 

This is an additional web-based benefit included in your service agreements that you can offer to your customers so they can easily check on the status of their current cases as well as reviewing history cases.  Included for each case are a tracking link for online shipment services and a detailed prescription form.  The dental office will also be able to send messages to the lab.  Lab Lookup can be used with both DQB Starter and Standard and with both desktop and online versions.  The authorization and case searches have been designed for use by group dental practices so that their staff can easily check for all the doctors in the group in the same session.  It can, of course, also be used for individual practices.

DentalRx

This is a more comprehensive web portal designed primarily for the submittal of prescriptions and the transfer of digital files.  It also provides search criteria for looking up both current and history cases.

Email Notifications 

This is a DQB supplement that provides for setting up schedules for automatically emailing notifications of cases received and recently shipped.  You can also include marketing messages and shipment tracking. This can also include emailing designated and custom reports for both customers and lab personnel.

Two at a time

Dual Monitors

When you are working at your computer to manage your cases and must also respond to customer calls, one of the best things to do is set up dual monitors.  You can have one dedicated to your task at hand such as entering cases, creating invoices, or tracking workflow and then another dedicated to the case list or the customer center.    There is no need to interrupt your work and then navigate to another option to respond to your customer.  

Most modern desktop computers can support a second monitor.   On the back if you see another port next to the current port used for your monitor, you will be able to connect another one. Laptops typically include a video output port such as HDMI, USB-C or Display Port.  From the Display section of the Windows Control Panel, you can review and select the options you have available.  

Then when working on one of the monitors, simply move your mouse to the edge toward the other monitor.

DQBT Tablet Workflow App

Another good choice if your second task is to track workflow is to add a tablet and the DQBT Tablet Workflow App.  This was designed to provide work assignments to the technicians and have them indicate the start, pause, restart and completion of work steps but is also very useful for the manager to track the progress of cases and respond to inquiries.

Call or email us if you need guidance on these possibilities.   

To answer your questions....

Q:  We have two customers that require unique invoice templates.  Can DQB provide a way to automatically use these? 

A:  Yes, if you will be printing the invoice from DQB rather than QuickBooks.   We can work with you to create the custom invoice template.  Then in Basic Lists/Customers or in the Customer Center/Additional Information, you can select the customer and then specify the special template to use for them.   The program will then automatically print their invoices in the special template.

Q: We spend a lot of time changing invoices because what was entered during case entry does not match the completed case.  What can we do to reduce this?

A:  There are a number of ways to handle this.   Here are some of the things other labs do to assure accurate billing:  

• Train their personnel to mark the work ticket with changes.  
• Customize their work ticket to have a section for changes.  
• Make use of the Advance Bill/Estimate option available for each case to enter any additions or changes.  
• Add an alert for the case and indicate that it is to be shown when creating an invoice.   
  
• If offering ongoing special pricing be sure to enter the information in Basic Lists/Price Levels and assign the price level to the customer.
  
• Offer the DentalRx web portal so that most of the entry for the case is performed by the dental office. If you wish, you can set requirements to assure complete submittals.
  
• If using the DQBT Tablet Workflow app, train authorized personnel to note changes.
• Make it a standard to enter case edits and/or advance bills prior to invoicing.  This is particularly important for those who use batch invoicing.
  

To help you succeed...

To lighten your workload, save time and money

Take the time to review the Options/Settings section of DQB.  This provides ways for you to setup automatic actions such as printing a selected label or quality control form for each invoice, transferring case fields to the QuickBooks invoice, selecting standards for dates and alerts, adding messages to invoices….and many more.

The Automatic Backup Protocol can be a great time-saver for secure backups automatically performed with your choices for schedules, locations, media and levels of encryption. 

Review the latest features for standard procedures for case entry, advanced billing and estimates, price levels for automatically applying special pricing, reviewing invoice history for multi-stage cases, web-based features and remote access. These can be found on our website under Support/Quarterly Releases and in our newsletters

For ongoing training and education for you and your staff, tune in to the many services we provide with our monthly newsletters, website, white papers, and personal interactive webinars.

To provide top-notch customer service

Consider providing the DentalRx web portal for your dental offices to easily submit prescriptions and digital files, lookup case status and histories, submit preferences and other requests.  If you are registered with one of the digital dental providers such as 3Shape or ITero, the digital files can be named and transferred to your DQB case record, then automatically backed up. The ongoing service for the DentalRx supplement to DQB is included in your service agreements.

For those customers who prefer receiving case status reports via email, the Notifications supplement to DQB can provide these for cases received and recently shipped along with shipment tracking information and links, marketing messages and other communications.

To ease your way into digital dentistry

DQB Images/Digital Files has been the most popular supplement to DQB.  It provides for in-house scanning and camera work as well as receiving digital files and documents from the dental offices.  You can then access these in the same large variety of ways you can search for cases. You can easily receive digital files via DentalRx and can choose to implement this in one of three ways:

1. With DentalRx Custom, include the information and link in your own custom website

2. Create a new modern website that includes DentalRx and editable pages.

3. With DentalRx Direct, provide a direct link for your customers’ desktops.

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