A few tips & tricks from your Open Dental experts

In this tips & tricks post, find out what to do if employees are clocking in but nothing’s showing up (you can’t see your current pay period), how to close out the month in Open Dental, and the process for opening next year in your schedule.

1. Employees are clocking in, but their time isn’t showing up, and I can’t see the current pay period. What’s going on?

You need to set up Pay Periods so that time clock events can display.
 Watch the time clock webinar – there is a section on setting up pay periods at min 3:30.
Read instructions on how to set up pay periods here.

2. How do I close out the month in Open Dental?

There is no set process to “close out” a period of time in Open Dental, but there are several reports you may want to run each month. Typical monthly reports include the Production & Income Report, and other reports listed in the “Monthly” section in Reports, Standard. Reports can be run at any time, and for any date range.
TECH TIP: If you want to prevent staff from editing entries in a prior period, use the Global Lock Date, one of the Security Settings in Open Dental. Read more on that feature here.

3. How do I open up my schedule for 2019?

Your schedule can be edited or “opened” at any time by editing your providers’ schedules in Setup, Schedules. You can easily copy weeks, and repeat them forward, then make any edits for exceptions (like holidays). Read more on how to do that here.
TECH TIP: Make sure to open your schedule for more than 6 months ahead to use the Make Recall button effectively.

Looking for other tips & tricks? Search by keyword at the top, or see the recap of our past tips & tricks posts below:

Tips & Tricks #7 (published 3/29/18)

• Can you undo a delete action in Open Dental?
• Editing and printing fee schedules

Tips & Tricks #6 (published 2/12/18)

• Hiding an accidentally created user
• Handling providers with different reimbursement rates in same insurance plan
• Retrieving deleted procedure notes

Tips & Tricks #5 (published 12/21/17)

• Defining comm entry views in the Account module
• Printing progress notes for a specific date range
• The X in the Treatment Plan’s Sub column and what it means

Tips & Tricks #4 (published 10/18/17)

• Changing/correcting the order of a patient’s primary and secondary insurance
• What to do when insurance pays on a different code than you charted
• Understanding the Cloud (recently updated to include cloud hosting with DentalTek)

Tips & Tricks #3 (published 8/17/17)

• Printing fee schedules
• What to do if you see a higher check amount when finalizing an insurance payment

Tips & Tricks #2 (published 8/1/17)

• Best way to handle retail items your practice sells
• Viewing a patient’s entire appointment history and family recall at a glance
• Viewing a patient’s treatment over time

Tips & Tricks #1 (published 8/1/17)

• Fixing the tooth chart when diamond shapes are showing
• Fixing the treatment plan when tooth chart prints a black box
• Introducing our new webinar for answers to 3 popular insurance-related reports:
  • Procedures Not Billed to Insurance
  • Claims Not Sent
  • Outstanding Insurance Claims