February 2025

Plans for February

As we patiently wait for signs that this long very frigid winter will be over, it is a good time to tackle issues and make some plans.   This newsletter addresses several of the requests we hear most frequently in our support communications.  See the topics below on emailing invoices and on the transition from QuickBooks desktop to online.   In the January newsletter, we addressed the #1 issue we see in the weblog and support requests.  This issue is the significant number of alert and error messages involving insufficient memory and timeouts.  Here it is again:  

Although the Microsoft Windows operating and network systems are designed to handle a number of concurrent operations at the same time, the number is not unlimited.    This can lead to errors such as "Out of Memory" or "Insufficient Memory" or sometimes a timeout or just an endless spinning while the system looks for resources.   Some of the leading causes we have found in our user group include:  

• Users not using but leaving tasks open for an extended time   
• Background tasks needing a high level of memory   
• Tasks loaded at startup not needed throughout the day 
• Use of software that does not release memory upon exit
• Software automatically loaded with updates but not needed     
• Defective memory that needs replacement
• Upgrades needed that include additional memory      
  

If you have been experiencing memory errors and would like to have our technical support remote in, please let us know.   We can explore the possibilities by reviewing the error messages, checking your task manager and startup menu, using the control panel to check your system resources, and reviewing with your users their daily practices in use of the system.

Three very important updates that need your attention

DQB 1.77 released in January included a number of updates mandated by Intuit for security measures and certification as well as sales taxation in QuickBooks Online.  Details can be found in the release notes posted on our website in the Support/Quarterly Releases section. 

Another set of updates mandated by Intuit for its Accounting API will be included in the next release.  To assure correct synchronization and accurate accounting with QuickBooks, this release must be downloaded and installed before August 1 2025 for DentaLab for QuickBooks.  It will also need to be applied to all of the custom software that involves synchronization with QuickBooks desktop and online versions. 

If you have been using tags in QuickBooks Online, they will need to be converted to custom fields.  Intuit plans to offer a conversion tool in March.  Be sure to get this done before the tag feature is discontinued.

If you would like to offer prepaid shipping labels to your lab

We have been working with labs that want to offer prepaid shipping labs to their customers to encourage them to send their cases.   This feature can be integrated into an existing website or setup on a separate page.  So far we have successfully created this for UPS and Fedex labels and worked with labs to create their message, their choice of formats and colors and when applicable, any rules or limitations.

Typically the page has a guide for the user that includes simple straight-forward instructions to easily generate the label which will include:

• Lab ship-to address 
• Customer's return address 
• Embedded lab account information needed for the shipping charges

Payment will be due only when the prepaid shipping label is used.

To answer your questions....

Q: When updating our computer system, we want to also address the personnel who will be working with it.  Can you give us some advice? 

A: From working with a large number of labs, we can tell you what works well and what does not.   Ideally the person or persons with primary responsibility should be proficient with the basics such as navigating Windows and the Internet, setting standards for your records and your schedules, assuring your systems and its backups are secure and performing well, knowing the resources available whenever help or change is needed such as your local hardware/network services and your support team at Mainstreet. keeping lab management informed.  Having this level of competence is what works.  

What does not work is having personnel who deliberately limit their knowledge and what they are willing to do or learn in their daily work as well as those who are simply not capable.    One of the classics we remember hearing was "I am not paid enough to think!"   Another one was from the lab owner "we were doing a favor for one of our dentists and hired his daughter but she is as dumb as a plum".  

Whether training current personnel or hiring new, keep in mind that your information systems are vital to the success of your business, your relationships with your customers, your accountability on government and legal issues.     

Q: We are trying to decide whether to offer DentalRx or Lab Lookup to your customers.   Can you give us some insights to help us decide? 

A:  DentalRx is a web-based portal you can offer to your dental offices to submit prescriptions and digital files, lookup cases and other communications was the first of the DQB supplements designed to work with the internet. Cases entered into DQB via DentalRx are typically very accurate and complete, easily identified in the DQB case list, and require only a quick review before scheduling into the lab.    The successful implementation and ongoing reliability of this over the years led to many new features and choices developed at the request of both the labs and dental offices.  We now offer three choices on how to implement this:  

1. Inclusion in your existing website with customization to coordinate with its look and standards. 
   
2. Development of a new website with the standard web portal. 
3. A simple link for the standard web portal available as part of your service agreement.  
   

Lab Lookup is also a web portal and was derived from DentalRx to provide a service for your customers to lookup their current and history cases and to communicate with the lab.  It includes a special feature to handle access for multiple doctors in a group practice in the same session.

Both systems require that you authorize which customers can access them and then maintain this whenever edits or deletions are needed.   Both can be integrated into your website or offered as a simple link and, if you wish, can be customized.   Their ongoing service is included in your service agreement, but there could be supplemental billable hours for technical support and/or customization. 

It is also important to note that you can offer both services.

If you would like to email invoices

Our support logs show a significant increase in the number of labs wanting help to get started on sending invoices via email from QuickBooks.  We have developed detailed guidelines to assure that all of the components of this are covered.  Please let us know if you would like to schedule a support session to help you get started.   The major steps include: 

• Assuring that your version of QB provides this capability 
• Assuring compatibility with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) 
• Connecting your Internet service to QB 
• Technical details such as authorization, links, ports, logins, passwords 
• Setting up QB defaults for sending forms  
• Maintaining QB customer records for preference to send, email address 
• Corresponding settings in DQB for sending QB invoices
  
• Providing for both printing QB invoices and sending via email

Planning the transition from QB desktop to online

Intuit marketing for QuickBooks has taken two directions. For smaller businesses, they are promoting use of their online versions while providing for subscriptions to the Pro and Premier desktop versions.  For larger more complex businesses, they continue to promote subscriptions to QuickBooks Enterprise with a choice of in-house or online servers and QuickBooks Enterprise Suite for advanced online capabilities including artificial intelligence. If you have been using DentaLab for QuickBooks with the traditional desktop versions and want to transition to one of the online versions of QuickBooks, it is important to work with us to plan for the transition.

Some of the important points in developing your plan include: 

Determining which of the online versions of QuickBooks will meet your needs.  For most of our labs, we are recommending the Advanced version.  Also available with more limited capability are Essential and Plus. 

For transferring QB tables and transactions, there are limitations in the utilities provided by Intuit. Before making the transition, you may want to review your records to remove or make inactive some of records.   You can also choose to archive older transactions before a specified date so they do not move to the new database.  

The desktop version of your DQB database will be archived and will remain available for lookup from your desktop.  You should review your current DQB procedures to assure that you will have a complete set of information.

You will be creating new databases for both QuickBooks and DQB.  It is important to understand which records can be transferred from the old to the new.

For critical customer documents such as case invoices and statements, planning a time schedule on what will be handled by the old and by the new is important. 

It is important to review the options/settings in both systems and to understand differences to assure accuracy.   Note that the number of custom fields available in QB Online varies by the version and is different than the desktop versions.   Also note that sales taxation is far more complex in the QB Online versions and requires more settings.  

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