I’m wondering if it is possible to generate a colour specific to when patients go from one provider to the next, with a 10 chair day it is very hard to see the crossover, if it was a different colour/description it would be easy for everyone from reception to provider to DA to pick this up
Hi
At the moment, Dentally doesn’t offer a specific feature to automatically colour-code appointments where patients switch from one provider to another. But there are a few workarounds that I thought might help you make these transitions easier to spot:
Audit Trail: this logs all updates, including provider changes. Look for blue (Updated) entries in the Audit Trail to track when a patient has been moved to a different practitioner. Clicking on these entries shows a side-by-side view of the change, including who the provider was before and after.
🪑 Waiting Room: this groups patients by provider and uses colour coding based on arrival time (green, orange, red). While not specific to provider switches, this can help highlight when a patient appears under a different practitioner than expected.
Custom Fields: If this is something your practice tracks regularly, you could create a custom patient field for ‘Crossover’ or similar. Adding a quick note when a patient moves between providers can help flag this manually for the team.
I’ve logged this feedback internally and passed it along to our Product team for future consideration . It’s a great suggestion that could really improve visibility across the appointment book, and I appreciate you sharing it in the Community!
Thanks Saymon
I think I have worded what I was asking poorly, sorry for this.
I’m a hyg and for eg. I have a pt in my book at 10am and then at 10.40 they are going to the dentist for tx. I was hoping we could colour code this in the same colour in each book so it is obvious to the providers but also reception. An example of this is I had white space in my book so they moved the pt forward but were not able to easily see they were going to the dentist after seeing me. currently we use an emoji but they are difficult to see and also disappear when you put item codes in etc
Hi
Thanks for clarifying! I think you can get almost the same effect in a few steps:
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Create a dedicated appointment reason
Go to Settings → Diary → Appointment Reasons → New, call it something like “Crossover (Hyg → Dentist)” and give it a bold, unused colour (bright purple works well).
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Switch the diary to colour by appointment reason
Click the little paint-brush icon on the calendar toolbar and tick Appointment Reason. From now on Dentally will show every slot in the colour you chose, not the practitioner’s default shade.
If you need to edit appointments that are already in the calendar:
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Open the existing 10:00 hygiene slot for example and change the Reason drop-down to Crossover (Hyg → Dentist) and hit Save.
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Do exactly the same for the matching 10:40 dentist slot.
Dentally repaints both appointments the moment you save so no re-booking, and your notes and item codes stay untouched. To update a whole list you can use Bulk Editing → Change appointment reason to flip multiple slots in one go.
Also a few quick tips:
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Link the pair automatically: add both visits to the patient’s Clipboard and drop them into the diary back-to-back; Dentally links them with the little chain icon so nobody drags one without the other.
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Cut the visual noise while you’re hunting for gaps: use the eye-icon on the calendar to hide columns you don’t need and leave just yours and the dentist’s on screen.
That should give everyone, from reception to DA, a clear visual cue, even for appointments booked months ago. I’ve also added your request for an automatic crossover-colour feature to our product board so the Product team can look at it! Give it a try and let me know how you get on or if there’s anything else we can tweak!
Thankyou so much, that is amazing
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