What is month end and why is it important? Those questions will be answered in this month’s blog along with why you should be more afraid of not closing your months, compared to closing them.

Now all practice management software has a month end feature. Today I’m going to be using Dentrix as an example.

I recall that month end used to be quite the hassle. I would have to go in early on the first business day of every month and make sure that ALL but one computer was out of Dentrix. Otherwise the month end wouldn’t run. Now the process would only take about 30 minutes and here are just a couple of things that month end does:

1. Ages your accounts receivables. Now the reason why this is important is so that you know how old your account balances are. Month end will let you know if the balance is over 30, 60, 90 days, etc.

2. Resets your patient’s insurance deductibles and maximums. Not all plans are on a calendar year. So let’s say there is a plan that begins July 1st and ends June 30th. When you do month end on July 1st, it will reset that the patient now has a new deductible to satisfy and a brand new maximum to use. This is very important to accurately estimate patient’s co-payments. If month end isn’t performed than the information needs to be corrected manually and might get missed.

3. Moves all transactions into history which basically makes it so you can’t edit or delete a transaction that was entered into the patient’s ledger.

4. Moves all perio exams and charting into history. Once again, so data cannot be changed. And…

5. What I’ve heard is being the number one reason why dentists are hesitant to do month end is that it moves your clinical notes into history as well. You will not be able to edit or delete your notes. However the software allows you to do an addendum instead.

Okay, here’s where you’re probably asking why would month end do that? What happens if I need to change something and why an addendum over editing and deleting? Well to help answer these questions, I reached out to Dentrix Guru, Dayna Johnson.

In my interview with Dayna, she tells us why it’s better to do an addendum. She also shares the changes Dentrix made for Version G6.5 and higher where month end is no longer a hassle and it might resolve your hesitancy about your clinical notes.

Lastly and most importantly she discusses how month end protects you and your practice from fines and possible embezzlement.

I encourage you to check out this highly informative interview by clicking the link below.

Watch the full interview below:

Dayna is amazing. She is also the founder of Novonee, which is a Premier Dentrix Community where they do live, online user meetings and webinars. Her company is literally helping Dentrix users worldwide.

If you have any questions for Dayna, you can find her on Youtube or reach out to her directly at:

Novonee
Dayna@novonee.com

Well, that should do it for today and as always, I hope you found this information helpful. Please feel free to like, share or forward this to your colleagues. My goal is to always find ways to make tasks more efficient and to make your practice more successful.

Thanks so much for watching, Happy Holidays and I’ll see you next time.

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