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October 2011

DentaLab NewsOctober 2011
from Mainstreet Systems & Software

FAQ  DentaLab News

 

October Happenings

The October release 1.28 for DentaLab for QuickBooks has been added to our website.   Those who have an up-to-date service agreement can call for the current authorization codes when ready to download this release.  Look below for the list of enhancements.

Knowing how important these have become in a tough economy, we have begun development of more enhancements that will focus on increased support and ease for your marketing and business development efforts.  These will be introduced in DQB 1.29 targetted for release in January 2012.  As always, we encourage you to send in any ideas or suggestions that you have.

Autumn Specials Still Available

We are offering two combo specials, effective until October 31, 2011.  

  1. For the single user DQB license plus the image scanning supplement, we are offering a 20% discount, which reduces the license fee from $1000 to $800 (USD).
  2. For the combined barcode supplements for case tracking, shipping, and quality control plus technician productivity, we are offering a 25% discount, which reduces the license fee for these two modules from the standard $1600 to $1200 (USD).
 

  Easy, versatile software for the modern dental laboratory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  We like to pre-schedule cases whenever possible--can we do this with DQB?

A:  Yes, you can definitely enter a case before arrival of the prescription and case materials and pre-schedule it.   Then when you receive the prescription, you can review and edit the case record if needed.   Here are some recommendations to help assure that all goes smoothly:

1. Add an alert for the doctor, noting the patient name and expected date of arrival. 

2. If you have made an absolute commitment on the schedule for the case, note this in the case record, perhaps in either the short or long case memo fields.

3. If you frequently pre-schedule cases, you may want to set up a case type to correspond to this or establish a standard in one of the other case fields to indicate pre-scheduling.  Some examples we have seen in labs are inserting MUST into the short memo field or the requested time field or appending the patient name with ADVANCE or PRE-SCHEDULE.  If you use one of the fields available for finding cases, you can then enter your indicating text to find all prescheduled cases in the Case List.

4. Remember to advance the Start Date to the expected date of arrival when automatically scheduling. If needed, fine-tune scheduling of the case items.

5. If you can handle cases that are more difficult, more intricate and/or require more exact scheduling, be sure to let your customers and prospective customers know you have this expertise and excellent software to support it.

Q:  Can we print shipping labels for customers in DQB?

A:  DentaLab does print case labels with shipping addresses in a variety of industry-standard label formats.   These were requested by labs primarily for use with delivery bags/boxes.  In order to print labels used to track shipments via phone or internet, it is best to use QuickBooks.  The QuickBooks shipping modules integrate with the United Parcel Service, United States Postal Service, and FedEx.  These services each require a unique setup and configuration, but the time spent will be well worth it with features like scannable shipping labels and shipment tracking.

Q: How should we setup when several dentists belong to a group practice or hospital or university?

A:  You begin in QuickBooks by first setting up the group as the bill-to customer, then when focused on this customer, add a job for each dentist in the group.  Then in DQB, specify in Options/QB Synchronization that you want to synchronize both customers and jobs.   The bill-to customer plus all the dentists setup as jobs will be synchronized into DQB as individual customers so that each can have their own preferences and shipping addresses.   When invoicing the cases for each of these, the invoices will be directed to the group's bill-to customer record.  When handled this way, you can generate reports both by the individuals and the group.   If you wish, you can also setup a Customer Group in DQB to correspond to each group practice so that you can generate sales reports that includes case remake analysis. 

Q:  Over the years you have added so many beneficial features to DQB--are there any labs that use all of these?

A:  We know that some labs license all of the modules available for DQB, but we don't always get to know the extent to which they use these.  There are very few requirements for using DQB and every lab can pick and choose whichever ones work well for them.  We do know, however, from the calls we receive that there are sometimes  "aha" moments when the lab realizes they have one of the neat features that they had not previously discovered.

Some of these include the lab notes that can save entry time and assure accurate specification and spelling, the ability to pre-assign technicians to specific case items, the ability to have graphics and documents sent by the doctor become part of the case record, the ability to quickly rolldown the rest of the case schedule after changing one of the dates, the easy ways to handle and track multi-stage cases, how to track how much and what kind of work is coming in from new customers....and many more.  


   With the same look and feel of QuickBooks.

Here's the DQB 1.28 Release List

It has been a very busy quarter programming, testing, and implementing a number of new enhancements.  Some of the ideas came from users, some from our own tech support team as they addressed various issues in their daily work.  

Fine-Tune Daily Work Center Limits and Scheduling

In Basic Lists for Work Centers, the user will still continue to set a default limit for scheduled units for each work center.  As scheduling begins for a new month, this limit is placed in each date within the month.  This limit can now be changed in either Basic Lists-Work Centers or in the Master Schedule for:

  • any specific date
  • for the remainder of any week
  • for the remainder of a month   

Case Labels

There are four locations within DQB where a case label can be requested. This enhancement provides consistency for:

  • selecting label
  • saving selection of label
  • selecting printer

Replacement for IBIZ Connector

The IBIZ connector between DQB and QuickBooks has been replaced by routines developed in-house to provide:

  • much greater synchronization speed
  • improved invoicing process
  • more fields of information. 

Quality Control and Remake Analysis

In the Reports Center, there is a new menu option labeled Quality Control Analysis.  Here you can first select a date range for completed case items and then generate a report on those with a QC issue in any of the following sequences:

  • customer, item, QC issue
  • item, QC issue
  • QC issue, item
  • technician, item, QC issue
  • work center, item, QC issue

For each category, totals are provided for counts, units, and remake (lost revenue) dollars. In addition, for the existing remake and case history reports, more information has been added to provide the complete set for customer, item, QC issue, technician, work center.

Add Lab Note Capability to Pickup Requests

You can now use the convenient lab note capability when entering  Pickup Requests.

Ability to Mark Unscheduled Case as Finished

For those who only use the critical dates and not the detailed scheduling of case items, the system will now allow the case to be marked as finished.

   

Customization is available for all products.

Contact us at 1-800-257-4535 or www.mainstreet-systems.com.

"It is very easy to use....I love it!"

Becca Campbell
Root Dental Laboratory
Kansas, USA


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