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September 2015

DentaLab NewsSeptember 2015
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

Special circumstances, special needs

One of the very worthwhile goals of high quality technology has been to reduce the amount of time you need to spend on routine tasks so that you can spend more time on doing those things that humans do best.  One of these is to be responsive to the special circumstances and needs your customers and their patients encounter.

In addition to implementing greater efficiencies in your workflow, your software can help with your efforts in a number of ways:

  • Searching for specific information in a number of different ways
  • Taking notes and having these readily available whenever you need them
  • Conveying the special requirements to your staff to assure they also help take care of them
  • Setting reminders to assure that actions and follow-ups are fulfilled

We have seen over the years that responsiveness to special requests has been one of the hallmarks of those labs that have achieved long-term success.  We know that this has been an important component of the success of DentaLab for QuickBooks.

Another thought for September....take small steady steps

In DQB, you can go to the About option to check your current version.  For both the standard and starter versions, the current DQB release is 1.43.   If your version is more than one or two versions behind this, be sure to call for the download codes if you are covered by a service agreement.

For those not covered by a service agreement, we are offering an opportunity to catch up during a very limited open period from November 2 through 13, 2015.  This will involve an update fee that will depend on your level of licensing and how many releases you have missed.

The technology and compliance requirements surrounding computer systems are constantly changing both for the lab and for computer hardware and software.   If you neglect your system for too long, catching up typically becomes much more difficult and expensive than if you maintained it in small steady steps.

We know some of you have been looking for these specials

These are our early autumn specials on several of the DQB supplements, effective from now through October 16, 2015:

Images for storage, indexing and retrieval of digital documents:  Standard license fee $400,  reduced to $320

Notifications for emailed reports to dental offices on cases in lab and recently shipped (with tracking information) Standard $400,  reduced to $320

Tablet Workflow App:  Standard $200 each,  reduced to $450 for 3

Above license fees are in US dollars.

 

    Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

To answer your questions...

Q:  Working with some of the new materials, we would like to be able to gather those cases in the lab with corresponding case items.  Are there any reports in DQB that can help us do this? 

AYes, right now you have in the Cases menu a Special Items report.   This report will provide a list of cases having items assigned to your chosen product group within a range of entered dates.    From this request, we have also created a Case Items Sorted set of reports that is based on a range of scheduled dates for the case items that can also be sorted in a variety of ways to group the cases.   This new report will be available in the upcoming October release.   

Q:  We have a new website and would like to include a portal for the doctors to look up their cases.  Can we tie this in with our DQB database? 

AYes, this is available in the supplement called DentalRx.  Just about every lab that has implemented DentalRx has had it customized in some way, either to correspond to the goals of the lab, to match the look and feel of their website or to meet the requests of their customers.   When a lab uses DentalRx, part of their system is web-enabled to host this service for their customers.   This accesses the DQB database to store and retrieve information.    We find that many labs do not realize that they have this capability and also that is not expensive.

The customers who can use this service are not only the dental offices, but also other labs who would be sending scripts or work orders and their associated files electronically.   If part of your offerings are to be a milling center or to provide specialty services to other labs, you may find DentalRx a worthwhile component of your system.  

We have often said that the best combination to meet unique software needs includes a core of proven packaged software together with the capability of being customized for special requirements or wishes.  This has certainly proven to be the case with the online prescription/communication supplement we call DentalRx.

   With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

What do you do with all those electronic files?

At the request of a dental lab using QuickBooks but not yet DentaLab for QuickBooks who wanted to know if it could help with their mounting need for better organization of electronic files, we called a number of labs known to be using the Images supplement.   We wanted to know how they were storing the various digital documents involving their cases and customers. Here is what we discovered:

  • We found that most were handling very well the images created by their in-house scanning of prescriptions and completed work tickets.
  • For the images and documents sent by the dental offices, some were wisely moving these to the corresponding case set or customer but others just left them in their download folder. The file names for the downloads often give no clue as to the identity of the customer, patient or case.
  • For the STL files used for CAD/CAM production, some had these stored in a vendor-specific folder that had a separate index to link the file-id with the patient name.   Some did not realize you could store STL files to correspond the DQB case record for easy retrieval in a large variety of ways.   Some had these scattered here there and everywhere on their computer system with no easy way to quickly access them.

If you are experiencing an influx of digital documents, keep these cardinal points in mind:

  • It is best to store documents as quickly as possible with appropriate naming conventions and locations.  Do not let them pile up or become scattered.
  • Keep in mind that storing is only half the picture, with quick and easy retrieval the other half.
  • DQB already has a large variety of ways to find and access case information and customer records that have been proven successful.  Transferring your digital documents for both cases and for customers to the DQB Images and Documents locations provides for very easy access whenever they may be needed.
  • If you have setup on online portal for your dental offices to transfer digital images and documents via DentalRx, this adds even more convenience and accuracy in storing these in the appropriate case set.
  • If you need to include the documents in your communications, having these readily available is a big plus. 
  • Be sure to include the images and documents in your daily backups. 

Once you establish the technology and standards for your digital documents, you can encourage your customers to make the switch from paper to digital.  This will gradually reduce the time, money, space and errors involved in storing, retrieving and re-filing paper documents.   This is an endeavor that provides very large rewards with just a little effort and virtually no risk.

Remember to share

Please share this newsletter with all of those in your lab who have responsibility for case management and for accounting and financial matters.   If they would like to receive their own copy each month, just send in their email address and we will add it to the list.

If you wish to be removed, reply to this email with the subject "unsubscribe".

     

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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