Questions & Feature Requests

So, our reception team have started using the Short Notice filler feature and are loving it! - their only feedback is to include some additional information and specifically time slot and day preferences. Would it be possible to add some some tick boxes for a patients preferred day or time? I wouldn’t expect this to firstly work in conjunction with the suitability part, but if it could be displayed in the already existing ‘notes’ column for reception quickly glance at before selecting who to send a short notice SMS, it could potentially save a few pence here and there and improve the uptake. For example: Many thanks for your consideration,Fran

When taking a deposit or payment from a patient using the credit card terminal, all the detailed information has to be resubmitted again if the card payment is declined.This can be a very time consuimg task on a busy reception desk when the patient tries multiple times after they think they have fixed the issue (usually by moving money between bank accounts or forgetting the pin or have to use a different card).Why isn’t there a feature in Dentally to try a payment transaction again without losing all the nuances of the details entered like how much the payment is, which practitioner it’s for, description of the payment etc.  Today I had to do this 5 times for one patient because it kept declining.  It was very inefficient and no reason why Dentally cannot make that process easier by selecing a button “Try payment again” rather than cancalling the whole transaction.We use Dojo with the ability to send send transaction data directly to the terminal wirelessly.

SOE Exact always adapted the code automatically when charting to avoid mistakes - this will suck up a lot of time 

Can a param filter please be added to the Rota Practitioner Diary that filters out rows in which a practitioner is no available? It makes sense that in endpoint we the only are looking at dates in which our practitioners are available, and we can make the assumption the practitoner is not available a certain as there is no data for it.

Where does everyon source Dentally training for New Team Members? Does the Academy still exist?

It would be really helpful to be able to message multiple people simultaneously and create a chat with multiple people when instant messaging 

Could you add a feature that turned the banner at the top of the page to the same colour as they’re payment plan? Would make it much clearer if the patient was NHS, Pvt or Denplan at a glance. 

Hi, For the instances where patients have two appointments on one day (i.e. Exam and Hygiene), would it be possible for there to be one SMS sent, and if they reply ‘Yes’ for confirming, that it applies to both appointments?Patients are commenting often that they receive too many reminders, and most of the time this stems from when they have two appointments on the same day. They also will not reply ‘Yes’ to both messages so our receptionist are having to see that they’ve confirmed one and manually changing the other. Many thanks in advance for your consideration. Fran

Hello, charting a watch and then restoring in the future why does the watch sit ontop of my new restoration i am not watching anymore.why does the watch not go behind my restoration??i dont believe in deleting the watch because that alters the records and then there is no history that i was watching this on the chartplease make the watch go behind my restoration

I can see there is no option to assign tasks to more than one person but if you have 2 receptionists it is twice the time to assign the task to both separately so I would hope to see this become a feature in future upgradesThe same with being able to send an instant message to multiple recipients. If you need to send a panic message for instanceAlso is there any way to increase the size of the message box

I wanted to share an issue I recently ran into when rebuilding Word document templates in Dentally, in case it helps others and saves some time.We’ve very recently migrated from EXACT to Dentally, and as part of that process we’re trying to re-establish our trusted systems and templates (including referral templates) that are essential for day-to-day clinical and administrative workflows.The problemDentally data tags will not work in Word documents that are protected (for example, restricted editing or form protection).This is particularly relevant for documents such as referral templates, as hospital referral templates are often protected by default.This limitation isn’t currently called out in the Dentally help guide on Word templates. I also contacted Dentally support, but unfortunately they were not able to identify the cause or provide a practical solution, which meant the issue remained unresolved.The solutionOnce the document protection is removed, data tags work as expected.If

Is there a way to change the setting so a press of the ‘enter’ key inserts a <br> (single line) rather than a <p> (double line)?

We often get patients who turn up to the practice for an appointment without having completed the NHS forms or medical history forms online and we’re stuck becuase they are not confident with using an ipad (or too lazy to type an entire list of medicines).As a work around we scanned the prescription list to PDF and then attach it to the patient’s correspondance.  Does anyone have a better suggestion of how this information can be recorded, ideally in the patient’s medical  history?  Is there a way we can manually edit on the desktop computer the list after they have done the medical history (but not at the same time as their appointment as they will run late).  

Exported reports in Dentally (“takings” for example) should automatically include key audit information within the report itself.This should include: Data parameters and filters selected Date and time the report was generated User who generated the report Including this metadata is essential for audit trails, internal reviews, and data accuracy, especially when reports are shared internally or externally. Without this information, reports can be difficult to interpret, verify, or rely on at a later date.This would be a small but critical improvement to reporting transparency and governance.

Another feature that would be incredibly helpful is the ability to send an online booking link directly from a patient’s treatment plan.For example, a dentist may create a treatment plan with three appointments, where the first appointment is 1 hour 45 minutes and costs £314, but the patient leaves without booking at reception. It would be really useful to be able to send the patient a bespoke booking link for that specific appointment as part of the follow-up process, rather than relying on back-and-forth messages or asking reception to manually recreate it. Ideally, the patient would also be required to make an advance payment of £314 at the point of booking.This functionality existed in EXACT (albeit without the payment element), and it worked well. Having something similar in Dentally would make treatment plan follow-ups much smoother, reduce admin time, and improve conversion from planned to booked treatment.

UDA tracking in Dentally must be significantly improved. The current reporting functionality is far from sufficient for managing NHS performance at practice level.At a minimum, practices need clear, accessible reporting that shows, per practitioner: UDA target UDAs completed UDAs confirmed Remaining UDAs Percentage of target achieved This level of visibility existed in EXACT and was essential for day-to-day operational and financial management. Since moving from EXACT, the UDA reporting available in Dentally feels like a major downgrade, creating unnecessary manual work and increasing the risk of missed targets.Robust UDA tracking is not a "nice to have" - it is critical for NHS contract management. Improving this should be treated as a high-priority feature for practices transitioning from EXACT.

It would be extremely useful to have the ability to transfer a balance or payment between patient accounts. This would be particularly helpful in situations where a payment has been accidentally recorded against the wrong patient account, allowing the balance to be corrected quickly and accurately.

Most support tickets with any web site provider / SAAS (software as a service), automatically close tickets if they are not responded to, after about 10 days or so with automated emails to back it up.  There always seems to be a rush at Dentally to close a ticket if its not responded to within a day.  I get that you probably have lots of open tickets where practices are either not engaged with the support staff or replying but probably because they are running a practice or dealing with patients but its very frustrating when tickets are closed far too quickly. The matter is made worse by the fact that when a ticket is closed, there is no way to reopen the existing ticket and continuing the conversation by adding more updates or attaching screenshots which we might not have been able to do before. Surely it would be better for everyone if an existing ticket could be reopened on the chat rather than starting a new one and all the hassle associated with cross referencing different tickets

You may still be working on this. When trying to send text reminders from the patients appointment list, if they have say 3 appointments, it comes up with the 1st date, for the 2nd and 3rd appointment.  I did raise this a few weeks ago.Best regards Fiona

I wanted to create an API integration using OAUTH for getting the tokens. I have managed to create an OAuth app using settings > developer. Having trouble with OAUTH endpoints since I don’t know the  correct format for calling them. Please help.Also I wanted to know if the OAUTH flow can be tested in localhost using http. 

please can we have a feature so that when checking in a pt that has multiple appointment on the same day it will notify the user that checks them in.For example if a pt has an exam and hygienist appt one after another, if the system could then prompt the user notifying them of a double-booking. This would really help in making sure appointments aren’t missed and reduces the chances of practitioners running behind because of catching up.

Good afternoon everyone.Could I make a request that the automated correspondence that uses the first name field for patients be changed so that it uses the preferred name instead?We have several patients (as I’m sure most practices do!) who either use their middle name routinely and some who use a completely different name, although they may not have officially changed it. Some of these patients then get offended when they suddenly receive a text in their “dead name”, especially as I’ve edited all our templates to uses the preferred name option.Thank you

HI Dentally, 3 of our clinics have multi floors, and not all rooms are wheelchair accessable. Wondering if their is any plan currently to have a WHEELCHAIR option available on dentally, that would (ideally) include a blue wheelchair icon on the apt book, beside name to highlight.  Currently our team are adding in ‘wheelchair’ / ‘downstairs only’ into the Nickname, so it comes up on apt book.  Our dentists alternate between rooms, so this helps us stop issues, where a pt needs to be seen in a certain room, etc. . A simple icon like the lab icon which is now on the apt book, would be a massive help. 

It would be great to be able to easily view the history of a cancelled appt that isn’t on the scheduler. At the moment, you can only see the history of an appt from the scheduler section. 

Booking service-specific automatic appointment confirmations – urgently needed.