These settings help maintain consistency between your practice management system (PMS) and Practice by Numbers (PbN). When configured correctly, they ensure a seamless booking experience for both the practice and your patients.
Setting Descriptions
Provider Time Availability
When enabled, PbN factors in each provider’s actual availability when scheduling appointments. This setting must remain active for accurate and reliable online booking.
Use Practice and Provider Schedule From PMS
This setting synchronizes practice-wide and provider-specific schedules directly from your PMS. Any schedule updates made in the PMS—such as changes in hours or provider availability—automatically reflect in PbN. This ensures that patients only see times that are truly available.
Enable Using PMS Schedule Blocks for Visit Types (Available for Open Dental and Dentrix only)
This setting allows PbN to use schedule blocks defined in your PMS for specific visit types. It enables more precise control by limiting online booking to the time blocks that your practice has already designated for particular appointment categories.
Detailed Explanation of Key Settings
Use Practice and Provider Schedule From PMS
When this setting is turned on, PbN pulls provider availability directly from the PMS, ensuring schedules remain accurate without manual updates.
How it works:
Any change made to a provider’s schedule in the PMS—such as adding, removing, or adjusting availability—syncs automatically with PbN.
Patients will only be able to book appointments during active, valid time slots.
Example:
If a provider opens an extra hour of availability in the PMS to accommodate more patients, that new slot will instantly appear as bookable in PbN's online booking calendar.
PMS Schedule Blocks for Visit Types
This setting lets the system use block types defined in the PMS to control which time slots can be booked for specific visit types.
How to Set It Up:
Enable the setting in PbN.
Go to Visit Types in PbN and assign the correct block types for each visit.
Confirm that all block types exist and are correctly configured within the PMS.
Example:
If your practice reserves certain blocks for New Patient Hygiene appointments, enabling this setting ensures that only those blocks can be booked online. This guarantees that visit types are scheduled at the appropriate times, in the correct chairs, and with the right providers.
Troubleshooting Availability Issues
If certain time slots appear unavailable or incorrect in online booking, verify the following in your PMS:
Provider schedules
Assigned block types
Block durations
Chair or operatory availability
Ensuring the PMS schedule is accurate will resolve most discrepancies.