Open Dental is a practice management software that’s packed full of features, and as a result, we have a team packed full of experts. In this blog series, we’ll interview Open Dental Experts with various specialties. In this post, we are interviewing Jenny, an Accounting Clerk.

How long have you been with Open Dental and what do you do?

I was a CDA/EFDA for eighteen years before joining Open Dental. I have been with Open Dental for nine years. I was part of the Support Team here for about six years, and have been in the Accounting Team for the past three. It’s been really rewarding to help customers in a different way in my current position.

What has the growth been like this past year?

Open Dental has gone through tremendous growth in the past year. We have welcomed more than three thousand new practices into our Community since 9/1/2021. It’s been a very exciting time.

What are some common account questions?

Our Support Team handles the bulk of customer inquiries, but we often assist with calls about changes of ownership and balances. This can be an overwhelming and confusing time for practices, and we’re here to help ensure that the practice management software side of things goes as smoothly as possible during the transition.

How can practices save money on support?

There are some great discounts when you prepay for support. You can prepay for a year (or longer) and get a percentage off your support cost. Multi-location practices can also take advantage of volume discounts. See all the details on our Support Fees page, under ‘Discounts.’

Another way to “save money” is to fully utilize everything you get for your support cost. Beyond the day-to-day support, you can also take advantage of software updates, access to eServices to streamline and automate time-intensive processes in your practice, and the ability to get online or on-site training for your practice staff.

Do you still use Open Dental for practice billing?

We do! All of our billing is done right out of Open Dental. We use Repeating Charges to post periodic charges (for Support, eServices, or eRx fees) to customer accounts, and the Recurring Charges tool to automate credit card payments. Setting up various Billing Types and setting our Billing Defaults allows us to manage our large-volume billing process quite efficiently.

What Open Dental feature do you feel is under-utilized? 

The Open Dental Wiki is a tool that’s indispensable for us. We keep detailed documentation of processes and procedures in the wiki to share knowledge and manage things in a consistent way. We also use reminders on tasks for all kinds of things – from recurring tasks to checklists to reminders for account follow-up.