[Support]

ClinicOffice v4 Professional Edition is a Windows Desktop application and needs to be able to access the database files via :-

– a directory path (e.g. “C:COv4_DataMy Database”)
– a mapped network drive (e.g. “Z:My Database”)
– a UNC path (e.g. “\serverdatabase”)

If you are able to configure an FTP server to appear as a mapped drive (or UNC path) as above, then yes it should work, however there would be some serious performance implications of running a file based database over FTP and it is highly doubtful that this would be a viable option.

A much better solution would be to setup a central server (using something like Windows Server 2003/2008) and configure Terminal Services so that your users can connect in using Remote Desktop sessions.

The ClinicOffice Server Edition can be accessed over the internet as the program simply needs to know the IP address on which the COv4 Server is running.

This will certainly perform better than accessing database files via FTP or even over a VPN, however this method still means that the data being transferred over the internet is actually your database data, which is a much bigger overhead than Remote Desktop (or Citrix) where the screen image and mouse/keyboard input is all that is being transferred over the internet.

Hope this helps.

[Support]

Hi – your template is done – please see this post.

[Support]

Hi John,

You should specify the GPs name in the import file (e.g. Dr Phillip Jones) and then ClinicOffice will search your Contacts Database to match the name to an existing Contact record. If it can’t find a matching record, it will create a new contact record for the GP.

[Support]

At present there is no way of combining the two grid sources apart from in a report. If you have purchased COv4 and have joined the ClinicOffice Support Plan then we would be happy to happy to connect in remotely to do this for you – please give our Help Desk a call during office hours.

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your question.

You can simply add an extra line to the invoice called “Discount” and put a negative value as the unit cost e.g. -£10.00. If you’re doing this regularly then it might be a good idea to create an ITEM record called “Discount”.

[Support]

Did you save the grid layout? Once you have arranged the grid as you wish it to be, click GRID OPTIONS, then click the SAVE button under the Layouts.

[Support]

Please do the following :-

[1] Go to Reports & Templates in COv4
[2] Right-click the “Letter to Patient” report
[3] Click Edit Source
[4] Click the Source Data tab

The source code for the letter template should start like this :-

select

per.id as patientper_id,

per.code,

patcat_id, patcat.name as _category (etc...)

[5] Make a new blank line after the line which says “per.code,” (i.e. place the cursor at the end of that line and press ENTER)

[6] Now copy and paste these extra two lines into the report source in the gap you have just created :-

per.title, per.firstname, per.lastname, per.address1, per.address2,

per.address3, per.towncity, per.county, per.postcode, per.country,

[7] Click OK

This modification will make the all the name and address fields available to the letter template as separate fields.

[Support]

You can run an “Outstanding Invoices” and enter a criteria on the Date/Time field time of “on or before 1 month ago”. That will display the invoices >30 days which need to be chased. I’m afraid that there isn’t currently an automated method for sending out letters however.

[Support]

Hi – yes that is certainly possible with the reporting engine. We don’t currently have a template for DL envelopes but we’ll add it to the list reports to be done and it will be posted in the forum when it is done.

[Support]

Hi Steve – thanks for the suggestion. We have something similar to your suggestion in the works which may help out in this regard.

[Support]

Hi – thanks for the suggestion. We’re pleased to report that this feature is already in development and should be available in the next 2-3 months!

[Support]

If you go into the REPORT DESIGNER and click on the different REPORT BANDs in the report, you’ll notice in the PROPERTIES window at the right hand side of the screen that there is a property called something like “PageBreakAfter” and you can adjust where and when pagebreaks occur in the report.

[Support]

We found the problem for the original poster. In fact, it is down to a misunderstanding of how addresses work on invoice records.

 

[Support]

[*** UPDATE ***]

After connecting in remotely to the customers computer, it turned out that he had a couple of printer drivers installed for printers which he no longer used and were not attached to his computer or network. Deleting these printers resolved the problem.

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your post. The ClinicOffice v4 Report Designer is very flexible and we could certainly help you to create the custom reports you need.

If you haven’t done so already, we’d recommend downloading the TRIAL version of COv4 and trying it for yourself. If you decide to purchase COv4 and join the ClinicOffice Support Plan, then we’d be more than happy to design these reports for you.

Please see our main website for more information : https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-overview

[Support]

Hi Maarten,

It’s pretty hard to say what would cause print spooling (the process of sending documents to a printer) to be slow over your network – it could be many things. I would suggest downloading the latest printer drivers on your networked PC to see if that helps.

Also – how big are the documents you’re printing? Are they 1 page or several or lots of pages? The bigger the document, the longer it will take to print. Also – do you have a network printer? i.e. is it wired into your server and ‘shared’ to the other computers, or is it a network printer plugged directly into the network switch? The latter will be faster, whereas a shared printer is also at the mercy of how busy your server is.

As you can see there are many factors to consider, but I hope this helps somewhat.

[Support]

Thanks for the clarification Kirsty. We’re pleased to report that you are on the Support Plan with us! As this is a very simple report we’ll be happy to connect in remotely to your computer and do the report without charge. Please give our support line a call (0845 3886705) when you have 10-15 minutes available.

Many thanks.

[Support]

Hi Kirsty – thanks for your post. Please can you confirm which Clinic you’re from and who would have purchased your copy of ClinicOffice? This is so that we can locate your record and determine if you have any support with us? If you do then we’ll be happy to connect in remotely and help you design this report.

If you’re not on the Support Plan and don’t wish to join, then you can still get this information by running the “Appointment List” report and selecting the patient and a future date range and then you could copy/paste this into a letter.

[Support]

Yes – we’ve noticed that occurring on some computers but oddly not all. We’re looking into it and will make sure it’s fixed in the next update. Thanks.

[Support]

HI Maarten – yes it certainly is. Simply click the INSERT MERGE FIELD button and then select the fields called , , , etc.

If those options don’t appear in the INSERT MERGE FIELD drop-down list, then we can make a simple modification to your template so that they are included. As you’re on the Support Plan, please give our support team a call and we’ll happy to do that for you without charge.

[Support]

[Problem Update]
The problem was somewhat obscurely related to Dutch currency formatting which uses a comma rather than decimal (i.e. €12,34 rather than £12.34) when combined with null field values which resulted from a conversion from CO2005. The problem has been sorted.

[Support]

Hi Maarten – that sounds very odd. Please can you call our support team and we’ll connect in remotely to see if we can trace the cause of the problem.

Many thanks.

[Support]

Hi David,

I’m afraid that I’m not sure what you mean when you ask if you can “take out the peer to peer network”? If you “take out the network”, then how will the computers connect to each other?

In order to use ClinicOffice XP over your network, it requires Windows File Sharing so that you can access the database files from one computer to another.

i.e. if you have a computer called CLINIC1 and a computer called SERVER (which hosts the database) then CLINIC1 needs to be able to access the folder on SERVER which contains the database.

Typically the path would be something like \SERVERDATABASE

Hope this helps!

[Support]

Hi Maarten,

The Working Hours in the CLINIC Settings screen will only be reflected on the ROOM VIEW in the diary. Each Staff Member also has their own Working Hours which are shown when your in the default STAFF VIEW in the diary.

My guess is that you have not setup the Staff Working Hours?

[Support]

Already being worked on! 😉

[Support]

*** Update ***

For this customer, the problem turned out to be McAfee Total Protection which was seriously interferring with ClinicOffice. Once he disabled McAfee, performance increased massively.

At present, it seems to be only McAfee which has this problem and we haven’t had reports of any other virus scanners with this issue.

Here at Pioneer Software, we use AVG Anti-Virus.

Here’s is a useful link to a “Top 10” site which compares the latest Anti-Virus software :-

For a FREE anti-virus solution, we recommend the AVG Free Edition, which actually scores better in many reviews than most commercial products. You can download it from here :-
http://free.avg.com/

Hope this helps!

[Support]

@Peter wrote:

still pretty lethargic, any other ideas?

Can you give us some more details on exactly what seems to be slow? For example, would you say it is the User Interface (UI) OR accessing the database which seems to be the problem?

Here are a couple of points to bear in mind :-

The User Interface (warning: this bit gets technical! :-k)

ClinicOffice v4 is written in the Microsoft .NET 2 Framework. The .NET Framework uses something called “Just-In-Time Compilation” (JIT). This means that rather than ClinicOffice v4 being pre-compiled to a Windows 32 bit executable file, the program actually gets compiled to your specific computer processor while it is being run (i.e. at “run-time”).

There are many advantages to this, but one down-side is that the FIRST time you start the program (after a reboot) it will take a little while to startup. Typically, COv4 may take between 5-10 seconds (depending on your PC specification) when it first starts and then about half as long on any subsequent startups.

[As a point of interest : Intuit’s Quickbooks 2008 was recently ported over to the .NET Framework and even on one of our high-spec QUAD Core PCs, it now takes over 30 seconds to startup! :shock:]

The JIT compilation also means that the FIRST time you access any form in the program, it will take longer than subsequent accesses. This delay will be more noticeable on more complex forms like the Patient Editor, however after the form has loaded the first time, it should be almost instantaneous thereafter.

The Database Engine

If performance seems to slow down more when the program is accessing your database (e.g. when performing a search, running a report or reading appointments into the diary) then it may be something to do with the database engine.

One thing which can hurt performance significantly is if your anti-virus software is actively scanning your database files. Certain versions of McAfee, Norton and AVG are particularly bad for this, but they can usually be configured to EXCLUDE your ClinicOffice database folder, which may result in a performance boost.

Because ClinicOffice v4 talks to its database engine via TCP/IP, if you’re using a 3rd party software Firewall, then it may also be interferring. The ClinicOffice installer configures the standard Windows Firewall correctly, but if you use another software firewall, then configuring it to ignore/allow all traffic on port 12010 may help.

On one of our test PCs (coincidentally a DELL Vostro), ClinicOffice v4 Professional Edition displays 11,000 patient records in under 3 seconds on the first attempt and then around 2 seconds on subsequent tries. That’s twice as fast as ClinicOffice 2005 could manage on the same database. The ClinicOffice v4 Server Edition (using PGSQL) is almost twice as fast again.

Conclusion

We’re actually very happy with the performance of COv4, bearing in mind the nature of Microsoft’s .NET Framework. We have noticed that sometimes perceived performance ‘problems’ are simply down to a user double-clicking on a patient record for the first time after logging on, and then having to wait a few seconds for the form to appear for the first time (even though it appears instantly thereafter). Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about that. As computers get faster and Microsoft continue to optimize the .NET Framework, these little niggles will evaporate.

If you’re still concerned about performance, then please feel free to contact our Support Team and we can configure a remote connection to your computer to take a look for ourselves and see if there’s anything we can do to help.

[Support]

Hi Steve – thanks for your post.

I want to be able to associate a piece of equipment with each patients appointment and then do reports and view the appointments grid based on who has what.

You can add a custom LIST field to the Appointment Editor and you could populate the LIST items with the different pieces of equipment. To generate reports on custom fields, we would probably have to design a quick custom report for you, which (for simple reports) we do without charge when you join the support plan.

can I interrogate the database with other software such as Excel and Access

Yes – there are two options here. The Server Edition uses PGSQL (http://www.postgresql.org) as the backend database so you could use an ODBC driver to connect directly to the database.

Alternatively, if you tell us what information you want, then we can create a simple grid report inside ClinicOffice which you can then export directly to Excel. You can test this option now by going to the INVOICE screen (as an example) click SHOW ALL (to display all invoices), RIGHT click anywhere on the grid and choose EXPORT.

You will see that there are lots of export options, including one direct to Excel.

Hope this helps!

[Support]

Just noticed that we hadn’t replied to this – sorry Colm. I believe that your data is all converted now, but please let us know if there are any problems at all!

[Support]

Hi Colm – thanks for the suggestion. I’m not too sure how it would be implemented though – there are many plugins for IE and especially for FireFox that do this kind of thing. I think the amount of work involved in developing it for ClinicOfifce may be prohibitive though – unless we got a lot more requests for this sort of feature.

Many thanks.

[Support]

Thanks for the suggestions – we have quite a large list of requests for this panel and we’re looking at ways to improve it.

[Support]

There isn’t really a need for this feature any more because this scenario can be catered for by the Patient Contact Centre. Please take a look at the Patient Contact Centre section in your User Guide, or feel free to contact our support team for more information.

[Support]

This will be implemented in an upcoming update. Thanks.

[Support]

Please can you check that you have actually entered an address for the insurance company? We cannot reproduce this – it works fine.

[Support]

That is correct. That is how the report was designed. If you want something different, then please contact our support team and we will show you how to change the design of the report.

[Support]

The calendar navigator on the diary control displays the full current month and also the last week of the previous month and first week of the next month.

The behaviour you describe only occurs if the calendar navigator is displaying (for example) August, but have selected some dates in the September. Because the diary is actually displaying dates in September, clicking the ‘next month’ button on the calendar navigator correctly rolls forward to October.

We would recommend resizing the calendar navigator to display 2 or 3 months at a time which will eliminate any confusion.

[Support]

Thanks for the report – this has been fixed in build 1031. In the meantime you can manually clear the reminder by opening the appointment, clicking on the reminder and selecting CLEAR.

[Support]

Please see this FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION 

[Hint : before posting a question on the forum, please try the SEARCH facility to see if the question has already been answered elsewhere – thanks!]

[Support]

Hi Ross,

When you print the diary, the diary control attempts to print the entire day to one page. This isn’t ideal, but is unfortunately a limitation of the diary control which was used in ClinicOffice 2005.

It is however possible to print the morning on one page and the afternoon on another. To do this :-

[1] On the Print Preview screen, click FILE | DESIGN
[2] Click the “Print Styles” tab
[3] Set the “Print From” and “Print To” to 08:00 and 12:00 (or whatever is appropriate for your clinic) and then print off the morning diary
[4] Print off the diay
[5] Report steps 1-4 and set the time range as 12:00 to 18:00 (or whatever is approprate for your clinic) and then print off the afternoon diary

Another thing you can try is changing the FONT sizes on the FILE | DESIGN | Styles tab and another thing you could try is changing the diary intervals i.e. if you’re currently using 5 minute intervals, try 15 minute or 30 minute intervals which take up less space.

[Support]

Hi Maarten,

Thanks for your post. We’re unable to reproduce this problem here. Is it possible for you to contact us so that we can connect to your computer remotely to see if we can work out what is causing the problem? Many thanks!

[Support]

Hi Matt – thanks for your question.

Yes ClinicOffice 2005 does use a SQL based database engine, but the exact database schema is proprietary so we don’t usually release that information. Also, the ClinicOffice 2005 database is encrypted and in order to give you direct access, we would have to divulge the global encryption key used for all CO2005 databases.

ClinicOffice v4 however is more accessible. You can have full SQL access to it via the reporting mechanism and you can query the engine and even export the resultsets direct to Excel and many other formats.

The COv4 SERVER edition goes a step further in that it uses PGSQL (http://www.postgresql.org) which has great community support and many freely available database tools. COv4 also uses a different encryption method and there would be no problem allowing you to full access to your database as it wouldn’t potentially compromise the security of any other customers.

Have you considered upgrading to COv4 at all?

[Support]

Hi Axel,

The Report Designer uses the default Windows Currency symbol as configured in your Windows Setup. To view this (or to change it) go to your CONTROL PANEL and then click REGIONAL and LANGUAGE OPTIONS. That is where Windows stores the currency settings.

(Please note : the above instructions are on Windows XP. Vista may be slightly different).

[Support]

Hi Teresa,

Thanks for your question. There are actually TWO fields available in the Patient grid. One is called ‘Code’ and the other is called ‘Patient Code’. The difference is that ‘Code’ is the raw code for the patient while ‘Patient Code’ is the combination of the ‘Clinic Prefix + code’ and because of that is stored as a TEXT value (rather than a number) which is why the sorting appears to be incorrect.

If you want to be able to sort the Patient Grid by code in numerical fashion, simply add the CODE field into the grid by clicking Grid Options (top right) then Show Column Customizer and then drag-and-drop the Code column to the grid. You can also remove the ‘Patient Code’ column by dragging-and-dropping the ‘Patient Column’ into the Customize box.

[Support]

Hi Colm – yes we’ll publish that on the website. Thanks for the prompt.

[Support]

Hi Steve,

There’s a report called Patients by Referral which lists your patients by referral source and then totals them up at the bottom.

If you want a more specific report that takes appointment dates and counts into consideration then we can probably modify that report for you quite easily by using VNC to connect to your computer over the internet and make the changes for you.

As you’re on the support plan, there’s no charge for that service as long as the changes turn out to be relatively minor and simple to do. Please take a look at that report first and then give us a call if you want us to help further.

Hope this answers your question!

[Support]

Hi Colm – thanks for your feedback. Something is playing up with the forum’s notification system and it didn’t notify me about your post, so sorry for the delayed reply.

1) you could add a flag icon to this which could be acted upon… EG Click on the flag or hover it and it shows the flag message…
2) Be able to SMS straight from this area EG hover over mobile no an click straight to the SMS facuility

We already have plans to extend the functionality of the Patient Info panel on the diary. It will include sending text messages and getting more info on flags etc. We’ll put it in as soon as the other major features are complete.

Can you make the calendar & practitioner area dockable so more of the “diary page” can be seen

Already done in the latest build! 🙂 (You’ll be getting it soon enough)

Did you change because of cost of the SMS bundles of was there some other reason?

Partly cost and partly because COv4 uses different technology to CO2005 so we wanted the best SMS service available.

Hope this answers your questions.

[Support]

Good idea – thanks for the suggestion.

[Support]

It already does. Please make sure you have setup the default charge item in the Appointment Type screen.

[Support]

That’s not a bad suggestion – we’ll have to see if we can somehow fit this in to the design of COv4 somehow.

[Support]

Please make sure that you are using the latest BETA version on all computers. Also, please be aware that in COv4 all usernames and passwords change to lower case after a conversion from CO2005.

[Author]

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