ClienTrax Veterinary Practice Management Software

New Visit Flags

Check it out! You can now do Price Range AND Quantity Range Estimates with ClienTrax!

When clients want estimates on services their pets need, sometimes it’s not as easy as telling them $300 for the surgery, $18 for medications, and $14 for the food they should be on for the next two weeks. The surgery may take more or less time than estimated, and cannot be determined until you begin. A hospital stay may be 3-5 days or longer, depending on how the patient responds to treatment.

You can now give them that information in print! With ClienTrax version 6.0b2 or later, you can set up ranges for estimates in two ways.

The first is at the Inventory Card. The bottom row of the pricing block on the Inventory Card has two fields where you can enter typical ranges, for example if you typically charge $100 for a surgery, but it may frequently be as little as $75 or as much as $125, you can enter 75 and 125 in the Low and High fields. When you enter the item number in the New Visit window, then print the estimate, it will show that the surgery may be $75-$125.

The second way to use Range Estimates is right in the New Visit window, even if you have not set any range information on the Inventory Card.

Once you select an item in the New Visit window, you can click on the “E” button to the right of the price field at the top of the window. This will display fields where you can set up the price range, and even the quantity range! For example, if pet may need to be hospitalized for 3-5 days, but it is not known yet for how long, you can enter 3 in the low quantity and 5 in the high, and print the estimate showing this quantity range, and how it affects the cost.

Of course, you can also use range estimate to show items even if you are not sure yet whether they will be required. For example, if there is a test that may or may not be needed, depending on the result of another test, you can put 0 in the low quantity and 1 in the high to show the client the estimate with and without the cost of that test.

Note that when selecting Batch or Charge Bundles on estimates, you must first enter the bundles into the invoice, then set up the ranges on the individual line items to use Range Estimates with them.

To use Range Estimates, you need to go into the Setup Main Screen in ClienTrax and make sure your Receipt Type is set to Patient Pictures, then select (put a checkmark on) the Range Estimate option on the Setup Main Screen to turn the Range Estimate printing formats on.

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Upcoming Events...

During the 4th quarter of 2002, we will be exhibiting at the following veterinary conferences:

Wild West Veterinary Conference

Reno, NV

October 9th-13th

Booth #G1614

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Query By Example

Over the past few months we have had many calls regarding the QBE feature, so we thought it would be a great idea to go over the basic steps of a QBE and give a popular example.

The Query By Example utility is a powerful search engine available in most main data screens. Some examples of its use would be:

Create Mailing Labels for all of your Clients, or just the Clients in one Zip Code.

Create Mailing Labels for Patients over five years old.

Build a list of all items in inventory that have negative quantities on hand.

Find all clients who have spent over $500 in the past year.

The QBE function allows you to search any and all fields of the screen where it is available. You can make your searches as simple or complicated as you need.

Setting up a QBE search is not very complicated once you know a few tricks. The first thing you need to do is open a ClienTrax window that will allow you to find the information you are looking for. If, for example, you want to search for all canines over ten years old you would start in the Patient Card. If you wanted to print labels for a newsletter for all your clients, you would use the Client Card.

If you want to find all canines that live in zip code 47987 you will need to use the Query Window. The Query Window is a multi-file search window that allows you to search on multiple files at one time. To get to the Query Window, go to Commands/Query Window.

When you start a QBE search, the first thing that happens is the normal ClienTrax Toolbar is replaced by the QBE Toolbar. The QBE Toolbar displays the search code and allows you to setup, save, and retrieve QBE searches.

Now let’s go through an example of a QBE search. For this search, we will look for all patients over five years old with owners who spent over $500 this year. This example is to show how to do multi-file searches in the Query Window.

1.) Open the Client Card.

2.) Select the Commands Menu and select Query Window. This will open the QBE Query Window.

3.) On the Toolbar, select which file you are going to search on (Client, Patient, Transaction, Reminder). In this case that would be the Patient button since we are looking for canines.

4.) Click the QBE button on the Toolbar.

5.) Click the DOB field in the Query Window (remember always enter the field you wish to search on first before changing operators or modifiers).

6.) Click the Operator button until it shows <=.

7.) Type 010198 in the DOB field. (Patients whose DOB is less than January 1, 1998.)

8.) Press <Tab>, the QBE Display field will display (PetDOB<=dat('JAN 1 98'))&.

9.) Click the Sales TY field in the Query Window.

10.) Click the Operator button until is shows >=.Type 500.00 (Clients who spent over $500 this year.)

11.) Press <Tab>, the QBE Display field will display (PetDOB<=dat('JAN 1 98'))&Sales0>='500.00'&.

12.) Press <Enter> on your keyboard, ClienTrax will now search the database for your clients.

13.) When it is finished, ClienTrax will display the first client it found on the Client Card, the QBE ON button will be displayed, and the Status Bar will show that ClienTrax is displaying 1 of XXX records.

14.) That's it. Now you can select the Print button and print lists, labels, and mail merge files.

This time of year, clinics are often wanting to create mailing labels for Christmas cards. They often want to send cards to clients who have spent at least a certain dollar amount with them during the year. You can do this by using the search above, but skipping steps 3, 5, 6, 7, & 8.

For more information on QBE procedures or to see more search examples, refer to Chapter 22 in your ClienTrax Users Manual or call our office.

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Humor Is Healthy…

This month’s chuckle

Ten things dogs don't understand:

1. It's not OK to practice barking at 3a.m.

2. It's wrong to back Grandma into a corner and guard her.

3. He shouldn't jump on your bed when he's sopping wet.

4. The cats have every right to be in the living room.

5. Messing on the floor is not something deserving of a treat.

6. Barking at guests 10 minutes after they arrive is stupid.

7. No, we said SIT.

8. Getting up does NOT mean we are going for a walk.

9. Just because I'm eating, doesn't mean you can.

10. If you look at me with those big sappy eyes, I'm not going to give in and feed you. Ok, just this once.

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New Visit Flags

Did you know that ClienTrax is equipped with different prompts that you can set up on any items in your Inventory/Service list to automate specific functions when those items are invoiced to your clients? We know how busy you are and how easy it is to forget to do things. These flags do the work for you or remind you to enter the information into the computer.

Rabies Tag – Prompts the computer operator to ask for a rabies tag number for this item.

Alter Gender – For Spay and Neuter procedures. Changes the patient’s gender to Spayed or Neutered depending on sex of the animal.

Purge Date – Enters today’s date in the patient Purge Date Field. Used for Euthanasia or similar items.

ID1 Code – Prompt the computer operator to enter a patient ID code. This code will be entered in the ID1 field of the patient record. (Tattoo Numbers, Chip ID, etc.)

ID2 Code – Prompt the computer operator to enter a patient ID code. This code will be entered in the ID2 field of the patient record. (Tattoo Numbers, Chip ID, etc.)

Ask Weight – Prompts the computer operator to enter the weight for the currently selected patient.