February 2021

Hopefully the last time this winter season...

Because our offices are located in Pennsylvania where we will likely have snow and ice during the winter months, we are set up to work from home if the roads are declared not safe to travel.  If you see news of this and need our support, it is a good idea to both email and call.  If you are given the option when you encounter an error, click the button to Send to Mainstreet to have the details sent to our weblog.

As long as we have power, we will be able to tune into our office computers and yours as well.  We will be using Verizon Digital Voice to have the office phone calls directed to our smartphones.

Even easier than remote access

Many methods and devices have been developed to provide secure remote access to your information.  If you would like to provide information on a regular basis to yourself, your key staff members and/or your customers, it is worth exploring the capabilities of the DQB Notifications supplement.    The program already has a number of reports that can be generated for automatic emailing.  You can request additional custom reports as well.   Each report can be sent to one or multiple email addresses and you can specify the intervals and schedules.  Any device that can receive emails can be used, including tablets and smartphones. 

For our winter special, we are offering a 20% discount for the Notifications supplement, which brings the standard license fee down from $500 to $400 USD.   This offer will be valid through March 12, 2021.   Call or email if you would like to discuss this possibility.

For digital files and workflow

We have received calls from labs concerning the increasing burden of naming, recording and storage of the digital files they receive from their customers.  The growth and expansion of the DentalRx web portal has resulted in one of the very best ways to tackle this challenge.    When the dental office submits a prescription via DentalRx, the digital files are automatically associated with the case.  This includes the correct recording of the digital files so that they can be easily and correctly accessed.   There is no need to go through a labor-intensive process to identify, name, transfer and store these.   When you use the Case List in DQB with one or more of the criteria available to find a case, you will access not only the case history but also its digital files and documents.  

DentalRx provides many benefits to both the lab and the dental office.   When it was originally developed, its primary goal was to provide a way to create easily readable, accurate and complete prescriptions.  Each prescription was transmitted to a DQB case record, saving time, assuring accuracy and reducing remakes for the lab.    Since then many other benefits have been added.  Most recently, for those dentists registered with the digital dental providers, whenever a digital file is automatically transmitted to the specified location, the lab will receive a detailed alert as well as the prescription.  If pickups have also been requested by the dental office, the lab can receive email alerts.  

If you would like to review the full list of benefits, you can visit the DentalRx page on our website (mainstreetsystems.net) or request our white paper on this topic.  To implement this digital workflow, you will need the standard (not starter) version of DQB and the Images supplement.  We also highly recommend the Advanced Backup Protocol to provide automatic backups to your choice of local and/or web-based media with a high level of encryption for secured transmissions.  When backing up digital files, you will need to plan for an increased volume of storage space.  

The support for both DentalRx Direct and Custom is included in your service agreements.

To answer your questions...

Q: We scan the prescription and any other documents that come with the case while in Case Entry.   Should we also be scanning the work ticket when the case is completed?

A: Essentially all of the information on the work ticket when it is printed upon Case Entry is also in the case and customer records.  If a technician marks up a work ticket it is usually for one of these purposes: 

1. To let the biller know that a quantity and/or item has changed during case production.  
2. To add technical notes or issues for the case and patient history.  
3. To add more details or specifications to the item description or message on the invoice.
4. To mark when they have completed work on an item.
   

You can establish a standard for your workflow, record keeping and quality control to return to Case Entry when the case is to be edited and to add technical notes, scan the marked up work ticket, if appropriate add Action Required notes.   Then when it is billed, any edits that affect the invoice will be transferred from the case.     

If changes only affect billing, these can be first entered while doing single billing and the changes will be recorded in the case records so they match invoice history.  You can choose whether to scan the marked up work ticket. 

If your standard is to have each technician mark the item they completed for tracking and analyzing technician productivity, then you may want to scan the marked up work ticket for audit purposes.   It is also worth considering the alternate methods such as barcode scanning and the DQBT tablet workflow app with touch technology for greater speed and accuracy.

Q: When there are releases that include updates to the DentalRx web portal or the DQBT Tablet Workflow app, are these embedded with the main DQB program?

A: No, you need to contact our technical support team for these.   Most of the labs that provide the DentalRx web portal to their dental offices have requested customization so it is important to work with the correct version.  A number of the updates for these applications are based on increased security measures for internet transmissions, so it is best to have our tech support establish and assure these for you. 

Q: For synchronizing DQB with QuickBooks Online, will you be offering one-time license fees as you do for the desktop versions?

A: No, the ongoing subscription is a requirement from Intuit due to the ever-increasing security measures that must be updated on schedule in order to continue to synchronize with QB Online.   Like the desktop versions, however, you will always have possession and access to the case records in your DQB database.  This is not dependent on having a subscription to QB Online from Intuit.

What makes laboratory case invoices unique?

Many of the labs that now use DQB for case management began with using just QuickBooks for invoicing their cases.   There have been two major factors in their decision to add DQB.  One has been keeping track of request dates and the dates involved in the workflow to produce and deliver the cases.   The other has been the unique needs involved in invoicing their cases.   Here are some of them:   

Special pricing:  For many labs, there has been the need to negotiate pricing, sometimes for specific services, sometimes by percentage and then assuring that price commitments are applied to invoices. 

Group Practices:  For some group practices, invoices are directed to the group while patients, scheduling and preferences are aligned with the individual doctors.

Tracking revenue lost due to remakes:   Whether and how much to charge when remakes are requested, determining responsibility, tracking patterns by dentists, internal work centers and technicians, quality control issues.   

Special discounts:   These are typically for one-time scenarios or requests, for courtesy discounts, introductory specials, marketing campaigns.  Being able to track the outcomes is important.   

Multi-stage cases:  Determining how much to charge for each stage, having the case invoice history readily available when creating new invoices, assuring that billings are accurate and complete.

Continuation cases:  These are multiple cases for the same doctor plus patient, where it is important to know the full details of the history.  

Clearly showing case information:  The case fields most frequently added to invoices are the patient name, shade, tooth numbers, short memo.  Others include received date, request date/time, pan code.   

Assuring accuracy and completeness:  In addition to the main service, the invoice may need to accurately cover materials used, safety measures, shipping fees, rush fees. 

Adding technical details/messages:  The standard item description may need to be edited or appended with technical details or messages for the patient's history.

No cost advertisement and marketing:  To let the dental offices know more about your offerings, strengths and events, you can very easily include your messages with each invoice.  

Recalls/safety concerns:  If the need develops for recalls or safety measures on specific manufacturers, products, batches or lots, the ability to find all corresponding cases is critical.

Giving you lots of choices

One of the reasons for the success of DQB has been that it provides each lab many choices for the management of their cases, workflow, customer service, accounting and analysis.   Here are the four levels of customization and personalization.

Level 1: Built-In Features

This level of customization is achieved through choices already built into the system. These are part of the design and there is no additional charge for these.

Basic Lists: In Basic Lists, you have the opportunity to enter your unique setups for customers, items and work centers, as well as a number of case-related tables such as case stages, lab notes, standard procedures, price levels, shades, tooth charts, outsource item lists.  

Custom Fields:  You can create custom fields for the customers, items and cases tables. For each of these tables, you have up to 10 custom fields. You give each field a unique name and then can enter up 50 characters for each field.

Options / Settings:  In this menu there are many choices divided into categories for your company, synchronization, cases, invoices, purchase orders. For some of these, there are further categories such as automatic actions, highlight colors, work tickets and dashboards.

Level 2: Forms and Reports

The structure of the system has been designed to accommodate custom versions of your forms and reports. For these, we work with you to design the specifications and then use a reporting tool to develop the format.  Labs often use the monthly no-charge time designated in their support agreement to achieve this level of customization. Supplemental time and its billing are typically very nominal in cost. DentaLab for QuickBooks has hundreds of forms and reports. The most commonly customized forms are:    Work Tickets     Invoices    Packing Slips    Labels     QC/Feedback Forms 

Level 3: Larger Customizations

Beyond this, we will try to accommodate special requirements within the framework of the standard DQB system. If a lab's needs are so unique that they cannot fit into the standard format, then we create a custom version that is separate from the standard user-group version. This is a far more expensive route and typically has been chosen only by corporate groups and very large independent labs. 

Level 4: Custom Programming

This would be the solution for those who want something beyond what the above levels of customization offer. 

Our years of experience as Intuit Developers and our proprietary libraries of program code for synchronization with the QuickBooks desktop and online versions provide for creating unique applications for a variety of purposes.

QuickBooks also offers many ways to customize and personalize your business information.   Some of these choices can be found in Edit/Preferences, Lists, and Reports.  Keep in mind that Mainstreet can synchronize QuickBooks records into a custom program to meet your special requirements.    

We urge you to review your choices in both DQB and QuickBooks from time to time and if you need guidance, contact us.

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