End of day/month/year feature

[hazmat]

I switched from Eaglesoft a month ago, and have been very happy overall. Perhaps the only thing I liked that Eaglesoft did that I am unable to do with OD is I could close out a day/month or year. After closing the day, you could no longer alter the production or collections for that day. If on the next day an error for the previous day was discovered, you could still correct the problem, but it changed the numbers on the new day, leaving the closed out day unaltered. This was really nice from an accounting and embezzlement monitoring standpoint. At the end of the month, I would always reconcile collections with my bank statement, look at all the adjustments, and be done with it. I felt like once I went through my process at the end of every month, I would no longer have to worry about that month again since the numbers would never change.

In OD, it seems like there is a difference in philosophy with how ongoing changes are made. If you have to make an adjustment to collections several weeks later for some reason, it will change the original date. This makes it difficult to reconcile things, since there can always be a change in future. I realize that as more time passes, fewer changes will need to be made. I also realize that I can set the number of days that changes can be made as a security feature. This still doesn't change the fact that occasionally legitimate changes will have to be made, and that just screws my old reconciliation process up.

So how does everybody else keep track of their money? Are you ok with the fact that your month end production/collections/adjustments/writeoffs etc. may change for the few months following? Does anybody feel like they have a good way to monitor their numbers with OD that is working for them? I'm sure I would't feel as strange about fluctuating numbers after the end of a day or month if I hadn't been used to my prior software. I'm just trying to align my need for stable numbers and a solid reconciliation process with the open dental philosophy. I appreciate the advise.

Joe

[jordansparks]

Perhaps you are not aware of the lock by date feature at the bottom of the security window? It does cleanly lock out by a specific date.

[hazmat]

I'm aware of the lock date feature, and have been using it, but there have been times when my staff has needed to make legitimate changes or corrections to the prior month. I'm just used to these corrections showing up on the day they are entered (new month) rather than the day they reference (old month). I'm getting used to the Open Dental style, but it would seem to be better accounting if you could actually close out the day, month and year so that no further entries could be made for prior dates (ala Eaglesoft).

[JimZ]

We make NO corrections in prior months. We will make adjustments in the current month to correct the error, but this is a rare situation. Could you give an example of why the need to go back to a previous month to correct an error? Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding the need to go back instead of just using one of the adjustments (which we set up) to correct an error.
Jim

[hazmat]

The big example in my case is when an insurance claim is denied for some reason, and we have to resubmit a claim based on the date of service. I guess this shouldn't affect the past months production assuming the correct amount was billed in the original instance. Our first month using the program my front desk was not used to the system and consequently did not bill out several codes at the time of service, and I didn't catch it until the next month. I don't think we are going to make a habit of this. Now that I look at the adjustment types more closely it looks like my Collections, Adjustments and Writeoffs should never change and Production will only change if we make a boneheaded mistake and forget to bill something, or bill something that we didn't do. Am I right?

[JimZ]

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I believe forgetting to bill for a procedure could cause some headaches with the monthly production. But I think that is the only reason to go back and make a correction in a previous month. Resubmitting for a denied claim will resubmit at the original date of service. I also think you are right in that the adj/corrections will not affect production. Hopefully, you won't be having this happen too often as the office becomes comfortable with the software.
Jim

[hazmat]

Thanks for the reply. I'm feeling better about things now. I'll just lock the month after I reconcile things, and in the rare instance that we need to enter/delete procedures in the past, I'll go back and do that.

[jordansparks]

One of our broad goals is to enhance financials to the point where no user ever makes a change to history. Even if they think they changed history, it would really just be an adjustment with today's date. This is similar to what you were asking for, and it's also similar to how we handle procedure notes. Needless to say, making it elegant is challenging. But it will happen.