Syncing with your practice software

Rebrief can bring your schedule, patients and charts in from your practice software. Some screens call it the PMS, short for practice management software. It all runs through the Windows app, on the computer where your practice software is open.

What a sync brings in

A sync reads your practice software. It brings in the schedule and the patients on it. Depending on your software, it can also bring in their notes and charts.

Syncing only reads. It never writes into your practice software.

Patient charts

Each chart read is kept short. What it reads depends on your software:

• Open Dental: After each calendar sync you start, Rebrief reads the chart of every patient it brought in, up to 15 at a time: the latest tooth chart, the last three perio charts, and chart notes from the last two years.
• Tracker: When you press Resync patient on an appointment, Rebrief reads the latest tooth chart, and notes and documents from the last two years. It doesn't read perio charts yet.
• MaxiDent: When you press Resync patient on an appointment, Rebrief reads notes and documents from the last two years. It doesn't read tooth charts or perio charts yet.

Resync patient is on the card that opens when you point at a visit in the calendar on Home. It shows in the Windows app only.

Before Rebrief reads charts on its own, a card in the corner says how many it will read and about how long that takes. It reads one chart at a time and tries each patient once a day. It skips a chart it read in the last 24 hours, unless the appointment is new.

• Select Stop on the card to end it.
• Esc stops it too. Then nothing runs on its own for 15 minutes, unless you start a sync yourself.
• It never starts while Rebrief is transcribing an appointment, and it stops if one starts.

The sync mark in the rail

In the Windows app, a round sync mark sits in the rail on the left. It's just under the + button, New appointment. Its small dot shows where things stand.

• Green: your practice software is connected.
• Green, blinking: a sync is running, or Rebrief is reading charts.
• Amber: today's schedule hasn't come in today, or the last sync brought nothing in.
• Red, blinking: something stopped the sync. It also blinks red when no practice software is open, or when more than one is.

Point at the mark to read the details of the last sync.

Starting a sync

1. In Rebrief, go to Home and select Calendar in the side panel.
2. Select the circular arrows at the right end of the calendar's header. Pointing at them says Sync today's schedule from your practice software.

When the day is empty, a Resync calendar button sits on the calendar instead. A card in the corner may also offer Import from and your software's name.

You can step to a day ahead and sync that day too. Days that have passed are never read again.

A sync may work your practice software on screen. Keep it open and visible, and leave the mouse and keyboard alone until it's done.

Syncing every day

Nothing syncs on a schedule until you turn it on. There are two ways.

• Prep my day is a routine on Home. Before clinic, it brings the day's schedule in and preps each patient. It has its own article.
• Daily sync brings the schedule in at a time you pick. In the Windows app, open Settings, then Practice software under Clinic. Under Daily sync, turn on Run the daily sync automatically and pick a time.

If the computer is off at that time, the daily sync runs as soon as it's back on.

Under it, Keep PMS schedule up-to-date in the background re-reads the day's schedule when nobody is using the computer. It's off until you switch it on.

Sending work back

Syncing never writes into your practice software. Sending a note or the chart is a separate step, after the appointment ends. You start it from Export on the appointment's tab row, in the Windows app. Its own article explains it.

When something's wrong

• No practice software found. The sync mark's dot blinks red. Open your practice software on this computer and leave it on screen. Rebrief looks again on its own.
• More than one is open. Rebrief won't guess. On Home's calendar, a card lists each one with its own Import from button, so you can pick one there. In the Windows app you can also choose under Settings › Practice software › Active software.
• Software Rebrief doesn't support yet. Rebrief names the program and says it doesn't support it yet. That's different from finding nothing. Charting and notes keep working on their own.