[Support]

Hi Simon,

When you signed up for the Backup Service, you should have been emailed full details about how to access your data. The URL to use is :-
http://pioneersoftware.backupaccount.com

Please follow the above link, then simply enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD (which were emailed to you previously) to log on to your backup account. From there you can access (and restore) your backup files.

If you need any further assistance, please contact our Helpdesk and we’ll be happy to assist.

[Support]

Hi Kevin,

To enter the TextAnywhere account information, simply click VIEW | CLINICOFFICE SETTINGS | GLOBAL SETTINGS and then click the “SETUP A TEXTANYWHERE ACCOUNT” button.

I’ve removed your account details from the previous post as this is a public forum.

Thanks.

[Support]

Thanks for your post. Our ClinicOffice development schedule is currently as follows :-
July : Email Module
August : Online Diary Booking
September : A whole raft of Clinical Note Enhancements

Locking down the session notes will be implemented in an update sometime in September. The UPDATES PAGE on our website details all of the changes introduced into each new release :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-updates

[Support]

>> If I exit the database from all the computers running the
>> database will the files then become “unlocked” so that I can
>> simply copy the C:PGSQL onto a USB flash drive?

Unfortunately not. The database server runs as a system service, so unless you stop the system service on your Server machine (which is not recommended) then some files will probably always be locked. A much better solution is to use ClinicOffice’s own backup routine (TOOLS | BACKUP DATABASE) to save your backup file to your USB memory stick. Is there some reason why you don’t want to use the backup routine from inside ClinicOffice?

[Support]

There are no others that we know of – sorry! 😕

[Support]

Most likely it was indicating a CANCELLED appointment status (red circle with white cross in it).

[Support]

>> i was wondering if COv4 can link emails and SMSs
>> to the patient’s file like scanning in documents etc.

The Email Module will do this for emails, but not for SMS messages.

[Support]

Hi – I’m not sure I understand what you mean.

ClinicOffice has never had the functionality to send emails with attachments (although that will change with the upcoming release of the Email module).

To send and email with an attachment, you should use your default email client. To do this, click the little EMAIL button on any email address in COv4 (this is the button with the small envelope on the far right of the email edit box) and then select to use your DEFAULT EMAIL CLIENT.

This will then allow you to send a normal email from your regaular email program.

[Support]

Thanks for your feedback – sounds like it might be an issue related to that specific computer rather than an issue with ClinicOffice.

[Support]

it shows the splash screen, then the main screen (for a split second), then minimizes itself leaving only the yellow balloon tip (about password for the sample DB)

The only thing I can think is that you’ve perhaps modified the shortcut to run the program as minimized? If not, then there must be some other program intefering with ClinicOffice and forcing it to run minimized. We’ve never had any other reports of this – sorry.

As regards the driver/video/hardware questions, I think it might be better to post this on a different forum, for example :-

or
http://forums.bit-tech.net

I’ve created one Staff member who’s the practitioner, clicking the ‘Is practitioner’ checkbox, and can see this record in the Staff view. I’ve specified some part time working hours at the new Clinic created (within sample DB) but I can’t see this staff member in the diary for that clinic at all, only the four sample records from the other clinic. Is there something I’m missing here?

Please make sure you have followed the steps in this FAQ :-
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=248

If you have worked through that, then please upload your database (as mentioned before) and we’ll take a look.

[Support]

is it best to have the Patient record set to the parent’s name, and add custom fields for the child’s name and other info? This seems quite easy and would mean the invoice has the right name on the top, and I assume I can include child’s name in the invoice. I’m using ‘Known As’ set to the child’s name for easy searching.

Yes you could do it that way. Another way would be as follows :-

[1] Enter the parent as a record in to the CONTACT database.
[2] Click SAVE (not SAVE & CLOSE) and then click DUPLICATE
[3] Change the name to the childs name, then click SAVE, then CONVERT TO PATIENT
[4] Lastly, set the “Invoice Recipient” in the child’s patient record to be their parent.

The initial setup is slightly longer, but would keep a more ‘exact’ record.

this therapist is the sole practitioner in her clinic, and also does some home and school visits. Is there any value in defining an additional clinic for “Home/School Visits”? She does need to charge for travel costs by the mile, but that can be handled separately.

It would probably be better to enter “Home Visit” as an “Appointment Type” in the database and give it a significantly different colour so that it stands out. You could also assign it a longer default duration (e.g. 1 hour) to allow for travel time.

is there an ODBC driver available for COv4 starter edition? I can see that the database schema is quite simple, and would only want this for simpler data export.

Unfortunately not, but if you have a knowledge of SQL then you can easily create your own grid based reports which can be easily exported to Excel and many other formats.

I did some customisations within the sample database in the trial edition of the product back in Sep/Oct 2009 – I now find that opening a copy of that customized DB fails while it’s being automatically upgraded – error about a table being renamed that already exists (can provide screenshot)

Please backup the database (TOOLS | BACKUP DATABASE) and upload the backup to our FTP server :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/forums/topic/faq-301-how-do-i-upload-my-database-to-your-ftp-server
We’ll then take a look and see what the problem is.

Overall it’s a very nice product – I particularly like the ability to add custom fields in such a simple way!

Thanks! Many of our customers appreciate this facility and have commented that it’s one of the features in ClinicOffice which makes it stand head-and-shoulders above the competition.

Please let us know if we can be of any more assistance.

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your post.

The PostgreSQL Client/Server database engine creates a database “CLUSTER”, which from a Windows Explorer point of view just looks like a collection of random files and folders.

The default PostgreSQL install location which we use for ClinicOffice is “C:PGSQL” (although it may be on a different drive letter if the customer requests it).

If you’re using a backup strategy outside of ClinicOffice, we suggest that you backup the entire C:PGSQL folder and all sub-directories. Also, please note that your backup software will need to perform a “volume shadow copy” (if it supports it) because some of the files will most likely be ‘locked’ by the database engine.

Alternatively, you can always click TOOLS | BACKUP DATABASE from within ClinicOffice v4 itself, which will create a convenient single backup file from which your database can be fully restored at a later date.

I hope this helps to answer your question.

[Support]

Hi – simply change the CLINIC field in the Patient Editor. This will update the patient code prefix.

[Support]

Thanks for your suggestion – we’ll add it to our wishlist.

[Support]

Hi – I’m not too sure what you mean about a “new upgrade”. We will soon be releasing the Email Module which gives you a full email client (including the ability to send attachments). You might be referring to the change in behaviour of the EMAIL addresses.

Rather than double-clicking on an email address to send an email, simply click the little SEND EMAIL icon (the right most button) which is immediately to the right hand side of the email address. You will then be asked how you want to send the email (from ClinicOffice or from your default Email client e.g. Outlook).

If you don’t see this option, then please download the latest update and install it again (even if you have already done this) and then try again. You can get the latest update from here :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-updates

Hope this helps!

[Support]

Hi Jo,

The database doesn’t always need to be updated – it depends whether the new update changes the database structure. If you take a look at this web page :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-updates

…and take a look under the 1057 build, you’ll see that it uses Database Version 1.055 – in other words the database structure has remained unchanged since 1055 and there is no need to update it.

Hope this helps to clarify.

[Support]

Hi Jose,

I notice that you’re on the ClinicOffice Support Plan with us. Please can email over a sample letter (perhaps in Word or something similar) to show us what you’re trying to achieve and we will create a DESIGNED REPORT for you to show you how it can be done.

Our email address details are on this page : pioneersoftware.co.uk/contact

Many thanks.

[Support]

Thanks for the suggestion about “Vipre”. Unfortunately there seems to be no free downloadable trial version so we’re unable to test it with COv4 to pass comment.

[Support]

Please find attached a revised report. This now excludes deleted staff members and it includes the “Job Title” and “Staff Category” columns.

Regarding your third point, we’ve added to the wishlist the ability to print the Access Rights screen.

[Support]

>> Is there any reason why the COv4 database couldnt be run off of a flash drive?

Technically it is indeed possible, but as Backman points out, it will affect performance quite significantly. Furthermore, if you’re sharing your database over a network then you *may* encounter niggles trying to share a folder on a ‘removable disk’ across your network, requiring you to have to re-configure the sharing each time you unplug / plugin the device.

In summary: yes you can do it, but it’s not recommended. Hope this helps!

[Support]

There are already some reports which may help you. Please take a look at :-
– Invoiced Items & Services by Staff (Detailed)
– Invoiced Items & Services by Staff (Summary)
– Payment to Staff Allocation
– Payments for Items & Services by Staff (Detailed)
– Payments for Items & Services by Staff (Summary)

If you feel that these reports don’t help you then please contact our support team with a detailed mockup of exactly what it is that you need and we’ll be happy to assist by designing the report for you. Please note that there is a charge for custom report designing, but customers on the ClinicOffice Support Plan get a 50% discount.

[Support]

Unfortunately not – there are 7 different flag colours which are (currently) hard-coded in the system.

[Support]

>> it should be an easy fix in redirecting the person to the right setup screen
Thanks for reporting that to us – it’s been fixed for the next release (1057).

>> when i do an email logged in as a physio etc, will it send from my email address
>> as a staff member or go out under the general clinic email in ?
Emails come from the general email address from the Email Setup screen. However, we have *nearly* finished our new Email Module which builds an entire email client (much like MS Outlook) into ClinicOffice.

This module makes ClinicOffice much better at handling incoming/outgoing emails to/from patients and also facilitates such things as being able to easily send out newsletters and to mailing lists. We hope to release the Email module by the end of June 2010.

[Support]

Hi Tony,

Please find attached a new report called “Staff Access Groups”. You can follow the instructions found here to import it to your database :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/forums/topic/how-do-i-import-a-report-file-into-my-database

Hope this helps!

[Support]

Please keep an eye on our main website : pioneersoftware.co.uk
…and there will be more information coming soon!

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your post. We aim to release a Web Module in July/August this year, but it will only be for ClinicOffice v4 (not ClinicOffice XP).

[Support]

It sounds like you’ve accidentally changed the CAPTION FORMATS on the Diary Options screen. Please do the following :-

[1] Go to your Diary
[2] Click the Diary Options button (top right of the Diary)
[3] Click the Appointment Captions tab
[4] The default “Caption format for staff view” is {patient} [{type}] in {room}
and the default “Caption format for room view” is {patient} [{type}] with {staff}
[5] Click OK

One other thing to try is to make sure the AUTO DESCRIPTION field is ticked on your appointments. If you’re unticking this option on each appointment, then ClinicOffice will not generate a description for it.

Please let us know if this solves your problems.

[Support]

Hi Helen – thanks for your post. I’m sorry but I don’t understand your problem – the diary printing seems to be working fine for us. Please can you provide step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce the problem, including what you’re expecting the program to do, and what it actually is doing for you. Thanks.

[Support]

Hi Stephen – I can see we have a copy of your database and I can see from the log of your web chat that you’re not going live for a few weeks. Please follow the instructions from the previous post and that should resolve the problem :-

please can you download and re-install the latest converter from here :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/files/cov4/co2005_to_v4_setup.exe

…and please can you also download and re-install the latest ClinicOffice v4 from here :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-trial
(note: although this is a link to the TRIAL page, the trial/full versions are identical and ClinicOffice will pickup your license when you re-install it).

After re-installing and then running the converter again you should find the problem is resolved.

[Support]

I notice that you’re on our Support Plan, so if you can please email us a list of the Patient Categories that you wish to use, plus a detailed explanation of how you to allocate patients to categories, then we’ll write a SQL script for you which will do this. Many thanks.

[Support]

Please find two very simple reports attached which will do as you request.

For information on importing reports into your database, please see this article :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/forums/topic/how-do-i-import-a-report-file-into-my-database

[Support]

Thanks for your post. It sounds like you may have used a slightly out of date version of the CO2005 -> COv4 converter program, or alternatively a sightly out of date version of COv4. Either way, this problem is most likely caused by a version mismatch between the converter and the main application.

If you’re just trying out the converted database at the moment (i.e. you haven’t gone live with it), then please can you download and re-install the latest converter from here :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/files/cov4/co … _setup.exe

…and please can you also download and re-install the latest ClinicOffice v4 from here :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-trial
(note: although this is a link to the TRIAL page, the trial/full versions are identical and ClinicOffice will pickup your license when you re-install it).

If you’ve gone live with this database, then one of our technicians will need to connect in remotely to fix the problem – please give our support team a call and we’ll be happy to help :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/contact

Hope this helps!

[Support]

The question of SAGE integration comes up from time-to-time and it is something that we have looked into.

The short answer is that it’s simply not financially viable for us to do it. It would cost us £1000s a year to be a “SAGE development partner”(!) and then the amount of work we would have to undertake to integrate ClinicOffice would be phenomenal. Furthermore, everytime SAGE update or change their software, we would have to do likewise thus further increasing our workload.

For these reasons, it’s unlikely that ClinicOffice will ever integrate directly with SAGE.

However, if you wish us to develop some sort of data export routine for you (i.e. to export Patient or Financial details in a specific format which could then be imported to SAGE) then we are happy to do that. There will obviously have to be a charge for our development time. Also, different versions of SAGE have different import formats so you’d need to check what version of SAGE you’re using and then provide us with a detailed specification of the file formats that you require.

Hope this helps!

[Support]

The only time we have previously seen “OverFlow” exceptions is when a customer has had a corrupt installation of the .NET Framework. This would also explain the other problems you’re experiencing given that we have 100s of other users happily able to use 1056 (including Outlook Synchronization) without any problem.

The best thing to do at this stage is to re-install the .NET Framework on your computer. 

Many thanks!

[Support]

Thanks for your post. According to the error report the problem seems to be something to do with a recurring appointment in your database but I’m afraid that without seeing it ourselves, it’s not possible to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem and we’ve had no other reports of any problems with 1056.

Please can you upload a backup of your database to our server and we’ll take a look ourselves to see if we can reproduce the problem. Here are some instructions on how to upload it :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/forums/topic/faq-301-how-do-i-upload-my-database-to-your-ftp-server

[Support]

Hi Niall, thanks for your post and sorry that you’re experiencing difficulties with the update.

Probably the simplest thing to do is to download the update manually from here :-
pioneersoftware.co.uk/co-updates

The downloaded file will be called update_1056.exe. Simply run that file on each computer and that will fully update your ClinicOffice installation.

Most likely the cause of the problem was that the initial file download failed part way through and you have a partial update file on your computer which ClinicOffice is trying to install each time you try to update.

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

[Support]

This seems to occasionally happen randomly on certain computers. To fix it, please do the following :-

[1] Run ClinicOffice v4 (you don’t actually need to logon)
[2] Click VIEW | CLINICOFFICE SETTINGS
[3] Click the blue “Reset Dock Panels” link
[4] Close down ClinicOffice and then restart it

That should solve the problem 🙂

[Support]

Thanks for the suggestion – it’s been added to our list.

[Support]

Hi Grahame,

We made quite a change to the Staff Working Hours so that different rooms can be allocated for the different shifts (previously you could only assign one room to a whole day).

>> In diary, certain staff working hours are not recognised
We can’t reproduce this problem I’m afraid. Please can you send us a backup of your database and tell us how to reproduce the problem with your data?

To send us a backup of your data, please follow these instructions :-
https://pioneersoftware.co.uk/forums/topic/faq-301-how-do-i-upload-my-database-to-your-ftp-server

If you can also please email us (support@pioneersoftware.co.uk) with instructions on how to reproduce the problem then we’ll take a look as soon as possible.

Many thanks!

[Support]

I have two high end computers, yet it can take 20 seconds to pull up a client chart out of a database of only hundreds of individual records – with only one ‘node’, a gigabit switch, between the computers.

If it’s taking 20 seconds then something is definitely not right. We have a test database here which is over 2GB in size and it takes about 3 seconds to pull up a clinical record which has 50 nodes.

What virus scanner are you using? Have you tried excluding the database folder from all scans?

Would moving the main computer to MS Server SBE 2008 streamline the networking environment or is this overkill?

Probably overkill.

for the server edition would you recommend a standalone server or can i double it as my reception desk computer?

There’s usually no problem doubling it up as your reception PC – we’d recommend a QUAD core processor for this (it will multitask user applications + the database engine processes better) and it should have plenty of memory too – 4Gb would be good.

[Support]

Hi Jason – thanks for your post.

When running ClinicOffice (or any database application) over a network, the ‘bottleneck’ is almost always going to be the network transfer speed. For further information, this article on Toms Hardware examines the ‘real world’ results of Gigabit networking :-
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabit-ethernet-bandwidth,2321-7.html

As far as ClinicOffice is concerned, your hardware already sounds more than adequate. By far the best performance gain would be achieved by upgrading to the SERVER Edition.

I hope this helps!

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your post.

The Startup and Professional Editions use a file-based database engine (ElevateDB) so you’re correct that it shouldn’t really matter what storage medium you use for the database files. Please bear in mind however that Pioneer Software can only support a WIndows environment as we’re a Windows development company. Although it should work fine storing the files on a MAC, if you do end up experiencing data loss (which is incredibly rare) or performance problems then we’d be unable to help.

It’s also worth remembering though that if a computer has direct access to those files (i.e. off its own hard disk) then it performs MUCH faster than running over a network. Typically most smaller clinics, with say a reception computer and a couple of computers in the clinic rooms, will put their database on the reception PC as that is the one being used the most (booking appointments, entering payments etc.) This way the reception computer doesn’t have the bottle-neck of access the databse over a network and performs much faster.

The Server Edition is a different matter. It is a Client/Server database engine (PostgreSQL) which means that it’s not a just a matter of passive file storage – it has to run as a program. I’ve just noticed that PostgreSQL is actually available for MAC OS X, however we have no experience of installing, configuring or running PostgreSQL on anything other than Windows, so once again we wouldn’t be able to support a MAC OS X PostgreSQL configuration.

Hope this helps!

[Support]

Good question. It’s actually on our list of things to do, but as you say it will only be possible if there are absolutely no links to the record being permanently deleted, otherwise the referential integrity of the database will be compromised.

[Support]

In that case, perhaps try CASTing the individual parts of the case statement i.e. :-

(case when (per.middlename is not null and per.middlename <>  '')

then cast('1' || per.middlename || '2' as varchar(100))

else cast('33333' as varchar(100)) end)

as tussenvoegsel,

[Support]

>> So the number of characters after the ELSE-statement,
>> determine the number of characters that are printed for the
>> THEN-statement

No, it’s not the ELSE statement which is determining the width. Rather, PGSQL is fixing the length of the calculated column based on the result retrieved for the first record in the dataset. Unfortunately we can’t reproduce this here as we’re running a newer version of PGSQL which doesn’t seem to have the same issue.

Please try casting the expression to a TEXT field as follows :-

(cast(case when (per.middlename is not null and per.middlename <>  '') then '1'||per.middlename||'2' else '33333'||'' end) as text) as tussenvoegsel,

[Support]

Please post the full SQL statement that you’re using.

[Support]

Please try this instead :-

(case when (patientper.middlename is not null and patientper.middlename <> '') then '12' || patientper.middlename || '2' else '3' end) as tussenvoegsel

Please let us know how you get on.

[Support]

I’m sorry – I don’t know the answer to that question – it works fine here. Please give us some steps to reproduce the problem.

[Support]

You forgot to change ‘per.middlename‘ to ‘patientper.middlename‘ in the CASE statement.

[Support]

Hi – thanks for your post.

I can see that there’s an item in our “wish-list” for “show running totals on patient’s accounts screen”.

So far, we’ve only had one customer request this feature, which is yourselves. Perhaps if there are any other users who would like to see this feature too, they can reply to this post to let us know! 🙂

>> why doesn’t their Finances page show the balance of their
>> account properly, as your Bank statement would?

I notice that we have previously sent you an email which answered this question as follows :-

For technical reasons, this is an incredibly difficult thing to implement due to the ability to sort the grids by different column headers – it would therefore require the grid to perform runtime calculations and update the ‘balance’ column in the fly. Unfortunately, this isn’t a small change and would require significant work.

>> when you have to go back through several months or a
>> client wants a print out of their account, it’s a true nightmare.

Presumably, you’re trying to discern which invoices are unpaid, or which payments are unapplied? Why not simply turn on the STATUSES? To do this, click on Grid Options (top right of the grid) and under Data Source select “With Statuses [Slower]”. This adds an additional column (on the right of the screen) which shows the status of each transaction.

Secondly, have you tried the “Customer Statement” report? This report does show a list of running balances.

Given the above, I think it’s a little extreme to suggest that “it’s a nightmare” just because there’s no running balance on one particular screen.

Hope this helps.

[Author]

Posts