Open Dental Forum

Using 12.1.13

Just got QuickBooks Connected to Open Dental. I am trying to figure out how this integration could be useful in our office. Let me explain some of the limitations I am seeing at first glance. We use QuickBooks locally -- Not Online version. QuickBooks Data Base is installed on server. 3 user licenses : 2 dentists (partners) and office manager has 3rd license. We deposit all our funds to a single income account (Income: Professional Fees). We record at least 4 deposits daily into QuickBooks. The first deposit is the bank deposit (Patient payments by checks or cash and insurance payments). We then record seperate deposits for credit cards (VISA, MC & Discover), a seperate deposit for AMEX credit cards and finally a deposit for any Care Credit Deposits. Why 4 seperate deposits ??--- If we didn't -- reconcilation of the bank statement would be a nightmare. As far as the bank statement, these transaction clear the bank seperately on different days so they have to be entered individually to simplify reconcilation. I think it would be very simple to create 4 different deposits in Open Dental by highlighting what you want to show up when creating each deposit. Our payment types in Open Dental reflect these different payment types so we can easily highlight the ones we want to show on each deposit.

Here is where I think the integration between Open Dental and QuickBooks needs some massaging. Our work flow is such that the front desk staff (not the office manager) does the daily deposits each evening. The Office Manager has often left for the day before the deposits are created. The front desk computers do not have QuickBooks installed on them nor do I want to install QuickBooks there for obvious reasons (access to payroll data,etc). Office manager comes in next morning and records all deposits into QuickBooks. I see the need for the ability to reopen a Deposit in Open Dental (on the workstation that has QuickBooks installed --Office Manager's computer) and then "Send It" to QuickBooks along with a note that shows up in QuickBooks Memo area of the deposit as to what this deposit is for (AMEX, Care Credit, etc) Otherwise, all deposits from Open Dental will have no identifying info so you will show 4 deposits on a certain date in QuickBooks with no way of distinguishing what is what.

OK. We'll add those two changes.

.. umm I think you can still install QB in the front desk computer. You said you have 3 concurrent user, which means you can have installed in 4 machines but only 3 can access the data at the same time. You probably also have the Pro Version if you have Payroll. If you don't feel like installating in the front desk just use RDP to login to the MGR PC. You can then configure Setting, Usernames, Passwords, and Permissions in QB. Don't give access to the front desk full access, in that manner she'll still be able to do her activities and no have access to payroll. I am sure that your accountant can guide you through the security settings inside QB. Good Luck

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Updated to Version 12.3.4.0 (Beta) today and was excited to try the improved functionality of QuickBooks with the ability to send Memos (Version 12.3) to distinguish what the deposit is for (MC/VISA, AMEX, Care Credit, etc) and the ability to send old deposits. I spent an hour+ with Tonya (Open Dental Support) and Jason (Programmer) and no real luck getting any "real world" functionality to this feature. Jason did manage to get one deposit to add to QuickBooks with QuickBooks closed but it was slow as molasses since QuickBooks was opening in the background for this transaction to occur. No deposits could be added while QuickBooks was open without the following error occurring : Title: QuickBooks Deposit Create Failed: A QuickBooks company data file is already open and it is different from the one requested or there are mulitple company files open. A deposit has not been created in QuickBooks, continue anyway? Jason seemed to think it was a licensing issue with QuickBooks but if Open Dental entering a deposit into QuickBooks creates a licensing issue -- the feature is not going to be useful.

Furthermore, I could not get send any old deposits to QuickBooks either. This was supposed to be a feature of 12.3. Tonya passed along that Jason said I wouldn't be able to use that feature unless I was using the Accounting features in Open Dental. Well, that begs the question -- Why would I want to be integrating with QuickBooks (Accounting Software) if I was trying to utilize the Accounting features in Open Dental?

I know bugs are expected in beta versions but I think there still are some kinks that need worked out in the QuickBooks functionality.

> Tonya passed along that Jason said I wouldn't be able to use that feature unless I was using the Accounting features in Open Dental.
Well that's just flat out wrong. Clearly a communication problem. Jason will keep working on it.

We added the Send QB button only showing for deposits that were previously made while using the Open Dental accounting system as a bug. It will be released with v12.3.5.

As for the error you keep getting regarding the company file being already open, that's due to not using the exact same path to open up your company file as what is being used within Open Dental. For example, within Open Dental, if you have \\QuickPath\companyfiles\myfile.qbw set as the company file path, you must use that exact path when opening the company file outside of Open Dental. Opening the file using the path X:\myfile.qbw will cause QuickBooks to think the file is currently in use by another entity of sorts. My best suggestion is to copy whatever path is being used within Open Dental and paste it into a file explorer then click on the qbw file from there in order to open it. I have no idea why QuickBooks is treating what is essentially the same file differently due to the path, but I hope that fixes the issue for you.

Jason,

I see that version 12.3.5 was released today. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll give it another try to send an old deposit and see how that works. I'll also play around the file paths to see if I can avoid the other error.

Thanks,

Jeff

Using Version 12.3.6

Making good progress. It seems all is working as expected now. As Jason suggested, I played around with the QuickBooks File Path in the Open Dental Setup screen under Accounting and that seemed to have solved the issues that I was having. Since the 12.3.5 release, I can now send old deposits to QuickBooks.

Might I suggest one more enhancement? The Memo information line is not getting saved on the deposits. My front desk employees are making seperate deposits in Open Dental for different payment types such as Care Credit Deposit, MC/VISA/Discover Deposit, AMEX Deposit, etc. They are noting the type of deposit in the Memo field and then they are saving the deposit. QuickBooks is not installed on their computer so they are unable to send the deposit to QuickBooks. My office manager comes in the next morning, Opens QuickBooks on her computer, opens each deposit in Open Dental from the previous day and sends them to QuickBooks. Unfortunately, the Memo Field is not being saved with the information that was put in the night before. When you reopen the Deposit, the Memo field is always blank so the Office Manager has to type Memo in again before sending it to QuickBooks. Saving the Memo information so that it would be present when re-opening the deposit in Open Dental would be helpful.

Thanks,

Jeff

How do I play with this? Update to the latest SVN and quickbooks?

The latest stable version of Open Dental as well as Quickbooks 2012 is recommended.

I haven't been keeping tabs on this as I should have been, given that this is a feature that I've been very excited about. However, since I haven't - does the QB integration include online QB, or just if QB is installed on a workstation?

QB must be installed on the workstation. It does not work with the online version.