Bringing on a new employee can be an exciting yet stressful time for your practice and existing staff. The new team member has a lot to learn about your practice, not the least of which is how you manage things in Open Dental. Training the new employee to handle things properly from the start sets them up for success, and helps prevent costly cleanup down the line.
First things first, you need to set your new employee up in Open Dental and give them the permissions they need to do their job. See the steps to do this here.
Training and Support Resources
We have many resources to help your new employee learn the software! Check out the following options we have available.
Customized online training with an Open Dental Trainer.
Training is the best investment your practice can make, and online training is a small investment that can yield tremendous benefits. With our live online training, you can connect your employee (or group of new employees) with a Certified Open Dental Trainer for a one- or two-hour session. We customize the training to focus on the Open Dental knowledge they will need to carry out their specific responsibilities so they get the targeted learning they need. Online training with an Open Dental Support Trainer gives your staff the chance to ask questions – something they aren’t able to do when watching a video or reading the manual. Give us a call today to get your new employee training scheduled!
Want a trainer to come to you? We can do that too! Learn more about on-site training here.
Please note: Your office must be on support (or have your final conversion scheduled) to schedule a training.
Training Videos
We have hundreds of videos available on our YouTube Channel for you to access. In the software, go to the Help Menu and select Training Videos. This will take you to our Webinars page with a handy outline to help guide your training.
There are loads of playlists by topic on our channel, and you’ll love our QuickTip Videos for learning a single process in just a minute or two!
Tap into the ?
Each window in Open Dental has a ? in the upper right corner. Clicking on it will take you straight to the relevant page in our online user manual so you can learn more about that part of the software.
Use the Help Menu in the software.
Want to speak with a human directly, or do your own research using our extensive documentation? Here are a couple more options to get you where you need to go.
Help > Online Support
This will open the Contact Page on our website. Call our main number to get help from our friendly support staff (if you’d like us to get connected to your computer for support, please call). If you have a quick question about a setting or how to find something, just follow the link on this page to chat with us.
Help > Online Help – Index
Shift+F1 or selecting the option from the Help menu will take you straight to the search function on our website – enter what you’re looking for, and see matching results from our website and online manual.
If you’re not on the most recent version of Open Dental, just choose your version from the drop-down menu. Not sure what version you’re on? Find this in the Help menu under Update or About.
Track Training with Certifications
The Certifications Tool in Open Dental (go to Tools and select Certifications) helps you monitor employee training needs and progress toward proficiency.
Use the Setup button in the upper left to set up certifications that can then be tracked for each employee.
Certifications for all your employees can be managed from this one location. Filter to Show Only Incomplete, then select an employee or multiple employees to see what’s left to be completed.
You can set up custom certification categories for different job titles or roles in your office, set up the certifications in the order they need to be completed, and link your certifications to Open Dental Wiki pages. This is especially useful if you are using the wiki to document interoffice protocols or procedures that your new team members will need to know, or you have wiki pages with links to external resources (like training videos) that they will need to watch before a certification can be marked complete.
How to set up a new employee in Open Dental
- If your new employee will be clocking in/out in Open Dental or added as an assistant in appointments, add them as a new employee in Lists then click Employees.
- Set your new employee up as a User in Open Dental in Setup, then select Security, and click Security Settings.
- Assign the user to the appropriate User Group to ensure they have the permissions they need to do their job.
- If they’ll be clocking in & out, select their employee name under Employee (for timecards).
- Assign them to a clinic in the Clinics tab if needed.
- Set them up to receive alerts in the Alert Subs tab if needed.
- Check the box to Require Password Reset. When the employee logs into Open Dental for the first time, the system will prompt them to reset their password.
If your new hire is a provider (Dentist or Hygienist), follow these additional steps.
- Add them as a provider. Link them to the appropriate fee schedule. Select their specialty, and if they are a hygienist, be sure to check the Secondary Provider (Hyg) check box to avoid claim issues. (If you notice any past providers on the list, you can double-click & mark them hidden. If you get a message that their schedule will be deleted, that’s OK, it’s just going to remove their schedule. Any appointments they may have been assigned to will not be affected.)
- Add them as a user in Open Dental, and be sure to link their provider name under Provider.
- Create a new operatory for them, or assign them to an existing operatory.
- Add the new provider and any newly added operatories to appointment views.
- Set up their schedule.
- If your new provider has different office fees or different insurance reimbursement rates, enter their fees in the appropriate fee schedule(s).
You want your new employee to get up to speed quickly and have the training they need to be successful – we do too! We are here to help you and your new staff learn the ins and outs of Open Dental, so don’t hesitate to reach out when you need us.
Information in this post reflects features available in Open Dental Version 24.2. For the most up-to-date information, please visit our manual.