July/August 2024

Not the usual summer slowdown

Over the years we have found that the two months with the lowest activity have been January and July.   This July, however,  the Crowd Strike security software error on Microsoft systems caused havoc throughout the world affecting airlines, banks, and many other organizations.  Our own plans for this month were disrupted by the number of customers needing support for what seemed to be illogical and inappropriate error messages.  These were traced to the automatic updates that included the Crowd Strike error. 

To keep systems rolling, temporary fixes and workarounds needed to be applied one by one.  Working with the technical crew at Amazon Web Services, it was determined that what would work best was to move our components for DentalRx, Lab Lookup and DQBOE to a virtual AWS server. 

It is important to have your staff know the basics on how to handle these situations.  

• Know who to call to identify and address the issue.
• Know how to capture the evidence to convey to technical support the specific error message, what was happening at the time.   
• Have a definite schedule of backups,  know when the last occurred, and the steps and codes needed to recover.  
• Know how to update and access the technical details for your hardware and software.
  

Know how to handle timeout messages

Timeout messages are issued by many software systems when a request for resources has been made but cannot be fulfilled in the specified amount of time.  If a software does not have this time limit, the result can be an endless cycle of attempts that appear as a freeze to the user. 

In our user group the most frequent reason for a timeout has been on networked systems where either the number of requests is very high or the resources are inadequate.  If you just occasionally experience a timeout and can continue on after a short wait, there is typically no need for concern.  If, however, timeouts become more frequent it is best to contact both your local IT service team and tech support here at Mainstreet to request a review. 

There can be a number of other factors involved.  Some of these can involve having too many tasks running at the same time overloading memory and other resources.  This often occurs when users have many windows open at the same time or if additional programs have been added to the startup folder by updates and installation of other software.

Your powerful tools to design cases and workflow

You have within DQB several very versatile and powerful tools to design your cases and create an efficient workflow. 

Your items are the basic components.  Their records begin in QuickBooks and are enhanced for case production in DQB.   They can include billable products and services as well as non-billable such as technician work steps and design elements.  You can include both digital and analog processes as well as both in-house and outsourced steps. 

Work centers provide for defining schedule capacities, daily limits and units scheduled and completed.   In many labs they are called departments and often are also associated with physical space within the lab.  They can also represent points where work is performed outside the lab. 

Standard procedures define the work centers, items and standard days for completion for each step to assure accuracy and control.  To meet special requests and schedules, however, they can be modified for a specific case whenever needed.  

In Case Entry/Edit, you can use both items and standard procedures to design your case and its workflow.   You can also modify by adding and deleting, viewing already existing ng workloads and completions, stopping schedules and restarting, whenever fine-tuning and adjustments are needed.  

We have found that a close collaboration between those with first-hand experience in the lab and your computer team works well and is a very good practice both initially and with periodic reviews and adjustments.

To answer your questions....

Q:  We noticed some unauthorized changes in our special price levels.  Is there a way to find out who made these? 

A:  Yes, in the standard DQB you can go to Reports, then Events Log.  Here you can enter date ranges and other criteria to generate a log of the significant events.  The report will include the date and the login identification of the transactions involving the price levels.  If you determine that one specific user may be making incorrect changes, you can generate a report of all their transactions in the date range.

In Options/Settings for Users & Security and User Controls, you can setup unique logins and then limit who has access to Basic Lists/Price Levels.

Q:  What are the best options to track work in progress? 

A:  There are several ways to do this.   In Reports then Cases By Date and Status, you can request a report on the cases with Open/In Lab status.  Another report called Work In Progress is also available.   The graphic Weekly Schedule provides a review of the cases scheduled and completed in each work center. 

If you want a more detailed report of case items scheduled and completed for a specific work center, choose Cases By Scheduled Date.  The graphic calendars for the Master Schedule also provide this information along with the capability of entering updates. 

If you are using the DQBT Tablet Workflow App, this provides detailed information on work assignments and completions by work center and technician.

Tuning into communication preferences

Within DQB and its web portals DentalRx and Lab Lookup, you can specify for each customer whether they prefer telephone calls vs email or if they are OK with both.   You can also setup their authorizations to lookup their cases using Lab Lookup or submit prescriptions and a full range of communications using DentalRx.  

If personal phone calls and/or visits work best, some of the best features to use are the Customer Activity Logs and Alerts.   Other possibilities include the Case Notes, Case Plans and Preferences.

When emails work best, here are some of the features you can use:

• Options/Email Settings:  Before you can send emails to your customers, you must specify the factors involved with your specific email service such as the name and port.  These are typically provided by the service provider.  You can also contact our tech support to help with this.  
• Customer Email Address:   The main email is specified in QuickBooks and synchronized into DQB.  
• Case Entry/Email Tab:   Here you can send emails to your customer for case specific messages or other purposes. 
  
• Basic Lists/Customers:   From the Email tab or Action menu, you can send an email message to your customer for any purpose and if you wish, add an attachment.  You can also send welcome emails, setup other email templates, and establishan address book.
• Reports:   You can Save customer or case specific reports to an industry standard format such as PDF to send as an attachment to the emails.
  

NOTE: The above features are available in all versions of DQB, both starter and standard.  The program provides a history of these emails. The emails can be received on computer stations or mobile devices.  Also available for the standard (not starter) version of DQB are:

DQB Customer Center:  This feature is designed to focus on one customer at a time and includes the above communication features.

DQB Email  Notifications Supplement:  It is from the Apps/Notifications menu that you can enter further settings and schedule regular notifications for two purposes: 

• For customers, cases received and recently shipped reports along with marketing and informational messages 
• For internal staff members, a choice of management reports already developed or customized for your lab

DQB Images/Digital Files Supplement:  With this, you can

• Browse to find digital files sent via email from the dental office
• Send emails with attachments for digital files and documents

DentaLRx and Lab Lookup:   With the anytime convenience of web portals, these provide a wonderful service for your customers.  These require authorization for access and ongoing internet security measures that are covered by your DQB service agreement.  You can request separate detailed guides for these.

NOTE: All of the above are available for DQB synchronization with both the desktop and online versions of QuickBooks.

The July DQB 1.77 release is delayed

Due to having to provide support to so many due to the Crowd Strike disruptions in July, we have had to postpone most of the development work planned for the month.  Most of the those who submitted requests for this have already received their updates as part of an adjusted DQB 1.76 release.   Be on the lookout for a special newsletter when DQB 1.77 has been completed and posted on our website.

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