Practice Management

We went live with our online booking some 6 weeks ago.On average we’re getting only 3-4 online bookings a week despite having the portal link in all our recall emails and reminder emails and mainly from existing NHS patients.  More importantly, we’re seeing a large number of these patients making multiple bookings and failing to turn up for any of the appointments.  Why does the portal allow users to book more than one of the same appointment without warning them to either cancel or rescedule an appointment? There is no feature to switch off online booking for persisten offenders, only an option to prevent further appointments in general (in the patient’s details tab) which is not the same thing as I might be happy for them to call and my staff book them inWhat is the solution here because I can see this becoming an issue as not only are we seeing wasted appointment slots but multiple text msgs which just add up?

Hi team,Having the functionality to schedule an SMS or email to go out at a certain time (particularly SMS) would really help in practice management.We find for example, during business hours, as many people are busy or working they do not reply to our calls or messages sometimes.One of my staff members actually tested the theory and found the “golden hour” for confirming appointments etc is after work hours from 6.30 onwards - hence I’d like to propose the ability to schedule SMS’s especially to go out later - so that staff do not have to stay back to do so, but we can catch patients at the optimal time.Even for things like social media, the 7-8pm and beyond window is one of if not the most active period of the day - reflecting people’s behaviours and ability to take in information at this time of the day. I believe sending out correspondence at this time when people have the time/ability to engage with it would be really effective.

Hi team,I’m excited to see the now “Short notice” function on the diary. However, I’d like to see one additional function/filter added to the waitlist/short notice function.Many, if not all patients, have days/times they are available - eg Tuesday afternoon (PM), Friday morning (AM).Could we have this added to the waitlist/short notice function, ie a patient can tell us what days they are normally available. This could be for example, tick boxes eg ticking the boxes for the days of the week a patient is normally available.If this data is captured, it makes it a LOT easier for the reception to know who they can call to fill a slot, rather than calling a whole list of patients. the “AM/PM “ would be a further enhancement, but at a minimum we really do need an idea of what days of the week patients are available. Currently, we would have to open each and every ‘wait list’ item to see the notes in it, and see which days patients have said they are available.The ability to filter the waitli

Hi there, We’re looking to retrieve custom field data through reports. As far as I can see this, isn’t currently possible. We would ideally effectively use the custom fields as tags for marketing purposes and patient management. Two use-case examples would be:(Marketing) We add a custom field (checkbox) for any patients that are interested in Invisalign. From this we can then generate a report for marketing/re-targeting.  (Workflow) We add a status field for referral tracking. We can then generate a report that tracks any outstanding referrals to follow-up on.If this is already achievable, apologies and could you please advise. If not, it would be great to see this functionality in the future. Thanks,Tom

Hi team, We have the Dashboard where we can see a forecast of our practitioner utilisation (commonly referred to as CTU or chair time utilisation), which is really helpful for practice management.However, to my knowledge, there is nothing to review historical CTU which is a major gap for practice management. Or if I am missing where it is already there, please point it out to me on Dentally as it would be really helpful.One of the key metrics for any business is productivity of resources, and CTU is a key element of practice productivity. I have heard that your add-on software lets you access this, however I think its a huge gap that Dentally does not let you report on historical CTU as a very basic metric for practice performance. Also not to mention, I am aware from some peers that several competitor software platforms do offer this in the standard offering. It should be a standard metric given in the software - The data is already available through the calendar (available hours), an

Hi Dentally, I’m reaching out to ask whether you offer any support or guidance for tracking bookings related to Google Ads campaigns. It is essential for our marketing to have accurate data on the effectiveness of our ads and patient booking numbers through our Dentally booking system. Without this data, it’s challenging to optimise our campaigns effectively and ensure a strong return on investment. Google Ads tracking is normally set up through Google Tag Manager and GA4, however, it doesn’t look like you currently have those available as integrations. Is this something you are going to be offering soon? In the meantime, is there an alternative method for setting up Google Ads conversion tracking that you could provide a step-by-step guide for, or help us implement? Lastly, I can see that we have a Tag Manager added to our Dentally booking system. Please could you let me know how that’s possible, given that Tag Manager is not currently available as an integration? Thank you,TwentyOneD

Within the space of 5 minutes I’ve had 3 patients call to query their estimate for treatment. They have all seen both the dentist and the hygienist today and are returing for further treatment, and have all queried why the treatment plan they have been emailed doesn’t include the hygienist appointment. The only reason I can think of is because it’s on as a different clinician, even though it is on the same treatment plan. Understandably the patients are confused! Is there a way to make sure that all appointments on one trteatment plan actually appear on the estimate even if it’s different clinicians?Thanks

I was looking at the Dentally NHS report and I was wondering why does the Dentally UDA report differ from the compass year end report in regards to UDA and UOA count. Would there be any reason for a discrepancy there?

Ability to send a group message rather than copying and pasting to individuals . We are a 9 surgery practice and find opening every dentist message box and copying and pasting far too time consuming. 

Hi Dentally team,More than a year ago we flagged with our Dentally contacts (Product Lead and Consultant) that Dentally does not have Cross Domain Tracking with Google.What this means (simplistically), is that when patients see a Google ad and click through to book via Dentally, the link is lost and we have no way of knowing how many leads convert to a booking. The Dentally team are aware of this and the associated issues, such as almost all competitors (at least, in Australia that I am aware) already do offer this, and also, it means investment in advertising has a poorer effectiveness/return on investment as Google cannot track and optimise the advertisements to get the best results. In short-  wasted expensive advertising dollars.In July, I was told by our Practice Success consultant that there was good news that CDT had been prioritised in the next quarter. However, he left  Dentally soon after, and despite following up at least 3 times via email, I have not heard anything at all b

Hi, As it is pretty much general policy that the use of remote access and cloud services in healthcare require a multi-factor authentication to be set for access.Is it possible to make this a requirement for new users to set up, or is it possible to at least allow us as a company to have it so new users must set up MFA in order to create their login?Many Thanks

Hi, i am looking for advice on zoning the practice Diary, we are mixed practice and feel the practice is extremely busy , the team seem burnt out. I am looking for ideas to help the practice feel more smoother . 

Hi, When we initially moved over to dentally we had put a feature request in for a month view of the diary, that could be filtered by clinician. We had this feature on our old management software, this allowed a straight forward easy view of how busy the diaries were for each clinician. It also allowed reception to see white space very quickly in order to book appointments, and to see any closed days.I understand dentally has the utilisation analytics, which we also had previously. I understand we cant use this to book but it at least gives us some idea of how busy diaries are. My request for this would be then simply add the ability to go forward month by month in the utilisation feature, rather than just allowing us to see the next 24 days.

Hi all, just wondering if you have a practice plan and how you pay your associates in regard to this? We are having to create a penny payment and then charge an invoice through as a penny - very confusing. Thank you :)

HI We have been using dentally since January, and having difficulty integrating the NHS referrals onto Dentally, we are having to flit in-between SOE and dentally . Is anyone else having issues or can advice us on how to refer through dentally?

We have moved over from Pearl to Dentally and have noticed that patients who have previously opted out of marketing aren’t getting recalls? As recalls aren’t marketing I’m wondering how we rectify this? 

  We’ve reached the final week of our six-part series - and we’re closing with something powerful: Dentally Vision AI!Designed to enhance clinical confidence and clarity, Dentally Vision AI uses intelligent overlays on your clinical images to help identify patterns and highlight areas of interest - like caries and bone loss - before you’ve begun your review. 👉 Read the full blog here  📚 Missed a week? Start back at Week One and catch up on the full series in your own time. That’s a wrap on Summer School/Winter Workshop 2025! Which tool/area have you found most useful in your work? Vote in the poll below 👇

HiCould I please request improvements to the following: Lab related featursLab work received - nice feature but the green lab bottle does not appear on the calendar in some circumstances.  I’ve played around with it and whilst it appears for patients who are booked in and have no long preferred name, I’m finding that where the name is long or we have additional comments in the preferred name and we want to set a short appointment time of 5-10 min, the green bottle will not display.  The only way I can make it display is by increasing the appointment duration to 20 min which we dont need that long.  I am able to book some 15 min appointments but only where the patient name is short.  Perhaps text wrapping or something is preventing the lab icon from appearing A logical extension to the lab work received is to have the ability to write somewhere which lab we have sent the work to (if we use and have several different labs).  Yes I know we can write it in the yellow sticky or in the chart

For this week’s Summer School/Winter Workshop, we’re exploring the improved patient account screen, and the features that make payments a breeze!From deposit management and family payments to automatic allocations, your Dentally tools can remove the tedious admin and improve the patient experience - without compromising on accuracy. Check out our blog! 👉Optimise your accounting workflows to ensure your reception experience is as streamlined as possible for both you and your patients.What do you think of the improved account screen? What are your favourite tools? What would you like to see next? Drop a comment below! 👇

Cancellations have been significantly higher over recent months for us - anecdotally we are hearing the same from colleagues in Aus, I'm sure this can be validated by Dentally also.Cancellations and unutilised time are a challenge for practices to manage. At our practice, we try to be as proactive as possible to prevent issues arising.We are looking into what we can do to improve Cancellation rates - one initiative is to inform patients of our Cancellation policy (that we may take a cancellation fee out of their deposit, if they cancel with short notice - to deter them from cancelling). The ‘deterrant’ effect is important, psychologically, and used by many business across industries.  The difficulty is, as our online bookings are with Dentally, there is nowhere we can display this policy at the stage of booking. Eg "do you consent to our cancellation policy" or something similar.Could we please have this added as an improvement on the Portal for booking, as it could have the potential

For this week’s Summer School/Winter Workshop, we’re talking about the regional tools that work for you, freeing up your time so you can focus on what matters.For UK/AU users 🇬🇧🇦🇺, it’s all about integrations - the features that support your practice behind the scenes, from faster payments to better reporting. Let us know in the comments which integrations have made your life easier! 👇Read the full integrations blog here 👉 For CA users 🇨🇦, we’re reminding you of the powerful claim management tool, which takes out as much of the manual admin as possible, while ensuring you have everything you need. Check out our blog to see if you’re getting the most out of this handy features, and share your tips below! 👇Check out our CA insurance blog here 👉

Hi, does anyone know if it’s possible to search for a referral that has been sent and is stored on the patients “Referrals” tab. We have received a rejection email for a patient but I can’t locate it on Dentally and would like to be able to search by LAN number. Thanks

It would be really handy if there was a way of running a report to find any appointments that are booked when the calendar is set to unavailable due to override. For example; we have a clinician who has booked annual leave- so the day is set to unavailable and turns grey. The only way you can find this is by manually searching but if you could run a report it would be much easier.

Dentally had a feature of outbound calls, that was very convenient to make calls when other phones are busy but it seems to be discontinued. Is there any plans to bring it back anytime soon?  

I have a question about NHS claims on the API.There are several claim state but do you have a definition of these states by any chance? “The status of the claim new, queued, submitted, completed, error, invalid, received, queried, withdrawn” -  this is from the API docs do you have any definition by any chance? In addition when I query the API for approval_date I always get null values is this normal?Any advice is appreciated!