April 2020

April - a most unusual month

Although activity slowed down significantly in many labs across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to be available to provide service wherever needed as labs and dentists did for their customers.  

We were pleased that a number of labs took this opportunity to focus on their information systems, updating both their equipment and software.  We also helped labs learn how to setup for remote work, particularly to keep the administrative tasks and cash flow humming.  

We have long known the importance of keeping complete accurate records and have guided labs toward this goal.   This past month when it became imperative to apply for government relief programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program here in the USA, being able to generate the required reports from QuickBooks in a matter of minutes enabled labs to submit their applications quickly. 

We have been hearing reports of increased personal safety measures and activity in the dental offices in the month ahead and hope this means that activity in the labs will also be on the rise.

Because labs that requested the enhancements in the April DQB 1.62 release have remained open, we are posting this release on our website on schedule.  We will also include a reminder in our May newsletter for those labs that might have missed it.

Looking ahead to May

The guidelines and forecasts issued by government and medical experts keep changing so we will all need to continue to be tuned in daily. 

Here in the USA, Memorial Day will be celebrated on Monday, May 25.   Our offices will be closed but we will be on the lookout for emails should support be needed in other countries. 

To answer your questions...

Q: What is the best avenue for handling remote work?

A: Our vote is to base your decision on how often you want to have remote access to your QuickBooks and DQB records and to whom you want to grant access. 

If remote access is needed only occasionally, there are a number of software solutions available at low or no cost.  Our current favorite is AnyDesk but we also see successful use of Teamviewer, GoToMyPC, MyQuickCloud.  

If needed daily, then setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) has proven results as a fast secure method.  You may also want to consider using the DQB Notifications Supplement to automatically generate daily email reports for lab management personnel. 

You also need to be concerned about privacy and security measures for your employees and customers and in turn the patients of the dental offices.  We can work with you to review and implement these.

Q: We are considering selling our lab and want to limit which records are transferred in the process.  Can you help us with this?

A: When requested, we would review with you which records in QuickBooks and DQB you want to transfer.  It has been typical for labs to want to transfer customer and item records, as well as case histories but not past financial information.   

We have begun documenting the alternatives and capabilities for transferring specific information to a new owner or in some instances to a new computer system.  Look for this in an upcoming newsletter or release.  

Respecting preferences

Built into the design of DQB and DentalRx are a number of features that provide for recording and honoring the preferences of your customers. 

For their cases: You can record their wishes at 3 levels:  General, by Work Center, by Item.    On the work tickets for their cases and in the tablet workflow app, the General preferences will be included for all cases, the Work Center preferences if the work center is part of the schedule, and Item Preferences if the item is part of the case design.  

For shipping their cases: You can record the preferred method either for local delivery or via a delivery service in their customer profile.   For a specific case, the standard method can be changed. 

For pickups:  With ship methods designated as local you can enter specific requests received from the dental office or designate that the customer wants to have pickups every work day.

For contacting them:  You can indicate if they prefer Email, Telephone or Both.  

For email notifications:  For their reports on cases received and recently shipped, you can record the frequency by specifying the days of the week, the time of day.

For submitting prescriptions, sending digital files, looking up case status and history and other communications:  You can setup DentalRx or DentalRx Direct and then authorize their access to this convenient highly secured service. 

Recording and honoring preferences is a very important component of the services you offer to your customers, along with training your staff and reinforcing these measures.

The April Release 1.62

The DQB Release 1.62 has been posted on our website in the Support/Quarterly Releases tab.  Here are some of the new features for you.

1) In Case Entry, you will be able add to Basic Lists/Doctor Materials while entering a case in the same way you have been able to add to Basic Lists-Tooth Shades.    

2) In Cases/Completions is a new menu option to Mark Vendor Returns for cases outsourced with a purchase order.  You can request a range of planned returned dates to see the cases in a grid, indicate whether you want to see only cases with a specific status, mark the Actual Vendor Return Date and, if you wish, set the status to Finished for specific cases. From the action menu for the Case List, you can Customize Columns to see the Actual Vendor Return Date.

3) In Reports/Purchase Orders a new summary report has been added.  Both the detailed and summary reports have added the new Actual Vendor Return date.

4) In Basic Lists/Customers, an indicator has been added to request pickups every work day.   You can set this ON if you want to have the customer added to the Pickup/Delivery report every work day.   Next to the Office Closed field will be a notice:  CUSTOMER HAS REQUESTED PICKUP EVERY WORK DAY. 

Call or email when you are ready to download this release so that we can provide the authorization codes.  If you are new to this and would like tech support, just let us know.  There is a short guide just above the link.   The process takes just a few minutes.  

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