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Client Details
The 'Client Details' screen allows the user in the first instance to create a new record, delete and existing record, search for an existing client. Once a client is selected, details can be printed off, medical history can be accessed quickly and finally updates and changes can be saved or reverted back. Each client is assigned a 5 digit number which can be defined within the PPS options menu.
There are optional fields to use for the client registered dates, references (REF), standard practitioner and status (for reporting purposes - Active, Inactive, Archived and Deceased). Optionally, if the PPS system uses locations, then a default location can be assigned to each client within PPS.
Client Name and Address
The client name, sex, DOB, address, phone number and e-mail fields are available to enter, or update from this screen. The address is divided into 3 initial address lines followed by Town, County Postcode and Country. The PPS user does not have to enter all (or any) of these address lines if they do not wish to. The Town, County, Postcode and Country entries are kept separate to the rest of the address to enable the user to search on these entries and use them as report breakdown options if required.
Tip: When entering a new client address, you can enter the post code into the first line of the address – this will search on your current client database for similar postcodes and populate as much of the address for you as possible (this feature applies to UK postcodes only). This search is only carried out on your existing client records and not on a national postcode database – so the more clients you have entered, the better the return of address details. Inserting Client Images
Clicking on the blank area that says 'Click to Select Picture' which will open a windows search box - simply find and select the image and this will assign the picture to the client screen.
Prime Contact Details
You can select alternative prime contact details for a client if required. This includes either using a selected “salutation” for the client (this is how you address the client in a letter: Dear Mr Jones, or Dear Tom) or selecting an alternative address to send letters and invoices to. This can be useful when dealing with clients that are minors (or elderly/infirm), and you write to their parent/guardian/carer. When you click on the “other” prime contact option on the main client details screen, then an alternative address screen is displayed to allow you to enter the correct name/address for correspondence.
Client Status
There are several “Status” settings you can select for each client. These can be selected from the Main Client Details screen – near the top of the screen. The status settings are: Active, Inactive, Deceased, and Archive. You can use these status settings as part of the criteria selection for your reports, for example to include “Active” clients only. In addition, when preparing mail-merges (mail shots) to clients, you can select to exclude clients marked as deceased from the list of clients to send a letter/e-mail to.
Tip: Clients marked as Deceased also appear in a lighter shade on the client search screen when listing the client records that match your search.
Profile
The Client “Profile” details is a section on the Main Client Details screen which includes the client’s source of introduction, occupation, and a further variety of entries that you can customise to your own requirements. To set up the remaining client profile fields select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Options. Then select the “Custom Client Fields” tab. The Profile information can be most useful for reporting purposes, as any of the profile entries are available for use as Breakdown or Criteria options on your reports. You can select (per client) to include any of the profile entries in the Client Log summary display. You can also specify whilst setting up the Custom Client Fields (Tools > Options > General System Options) which entries are “ticked” by default when adding a new client record. 
Client Contacts
You can associate a variety of third-party contacts with each client. These contacts are stored in a separate list and are grouped into contact types such as Doctors, Insurance Companies, etc. The purpose of associating third-party contacts is that they can be used to send letters/e-mails to on behalf of the client, and also used for billing purposes. If you are sending a letter, the letter can include name/address merge fields for a third party contact type such as Doctors name/address. This means that when you send the letter, the doctor associated with the selected client will be the recipient of the letter. If the client does not have a doctor associated with them, then you can select one as you are sending the letter, and select to “always associate this doctor with this client” for future letters, etc.
Each client can have an unlimited number of different types of third party contacts associated with them. When using a Third-Party contact for billing purposes, the third-party is selected at the point of creating the “Charge” record.
Notes
The Main Client Details screen includes a “Notes” section at the bottom of the screen (you may need to scroll down the screen to see this, or click on the Notes tab at the top of the screen to shortcut down to the bottom of the screen). These are general notes that can be used for any purpose.
'Default Notes Entry' will appear on the clients details screen and clients log. 'Critical Information' will make a pop up box appear with the details written, whenever the client is selected for any reason in the future. 'Accounts Note' will create a note that appears on accounts type screens only for that client. The general notes section is for general use. Ticking the box entitled 'Notes' will cause this to appear on the client log also. 
Preferences - Contacting Clients
The settings here decide how your clients are contacted for anything from an automatic booking confirmation via email to a mail shot via SMS text. Ticking the boxes enable that client to receive information from you in the relevant way. Ticking exclude from mail shots will disable the bottom row selection.
The settings here can also be 'Locked' so that if you decide to auto update all of the clients on the system with a new set of contact methods, this particular client is not updated. Mass updating can be done via the options menu.
Appointment Preferences
The default appointment type can be selected so that the next time a client books in an appointment, the system will automatically select this appointment type.
Waiting Room Preferences
If your practice runs with a Jayex Display board, you can assign in the options here whether to display an alternative name on the board, and any extra notes alongside the client's name. Configuring the Jayex board is done via the PPS options menu.
Printing the Client Details Page
You can print a single page record of your client details. This includes all the details that you have entered on the main client details screen, plus includes entries you have made to the medical history screen. This print can be used to periodically give to the client whilst they are waiting for their appointment in order for them to confirm or change their details on your records. To print client details, use the Main Client Details screen, select the required client and use the Print Button on the Toolbar. You can then Preview, Print or Export the details to a file such as Excel. Accounts
The PPS Accounts system includes facilities for you to bill your clients, or third parties, record payments received, and manage all invoices that are overdue for payment. In addition, PPS also offers an additional module called PPS Expense that can be used to record details of practice expenditure. The Accounts system in PPS is not designed to be a full accounts system with ledgers, balance sheets, etc. but it can be used to supply revenue and expenditure information directly to another accounts system by way of exporting the information through reports.
PPS Accounts billing is structured into three areas: Charges, Invoices and Payments. Firstly Charges must be created, then an invoice produced, then a payment recorded. A Charge, or charges simply become “line items” on an invoice, and a payment recorded is “allocated” to the invoice. PPS is flexible enough to accommodate all requirements for practice billing including third-party billing, split billing (between client and third party), recording several payments against one invoice, or recording one payment against several invoices. There are various points throughout PPS that enable charges to be quickly created and “paid off” in one step. This single step still produces the correct Charge, Invoice and Payment records. Address
See: Client - Address Appointment
An Appointment is an entry in the Appointments Diary for a client. When you set up your diary, you are setting up the free appointment slots. You then book Appointments into these free slots. Each Appointment can be marked with a status, represented by a colour, to show that the client has arrived for their appointment (green), is currently being seen by the practitioner (orange) or the appointment is completed (purple). You can also mark an appointment as DNA (did not attend) and select a reason why the client has not attended – these are marked in red. When booking an appointment on the diary, this is normally done by highlight a free slot then selecting to add the new appointment. When doing this, the appointment details such as date, time, duration, diary user, treatment room, etc. are already known and you do not have to enter them. Breakdown
This is a term used on all PPS Reports. When you run a report, you can select to breakdown the results into groups or categories. Most PPS reports allow you to breakdown to two levels. The breakdown category will have it’s own heading and sub-totals on the report. For example, if you select to breakdown your report by Practitioner, then each practitioner will have their own heading on the report, with the report results shown for that practitioner underneath the heading. At the end of the report results for that Practitioner, there will be a sub-total line showing totals for that Practitioner. Typically an accounts/revenue report could be broken down by Month then Practitioner. This means that each Month will have its own section on the report (and its own sub-total line) and then within each month, the report will show one section per practitioner. Using a breakdown on most reports is optional. Change
See: Cash Desk; Modify Charge
A charge is the first step for PPS billing. You have to create a charge before you can raise an invoice – a charge is a “line item” on an invoice. Charges can be either for various types of treatment, or for stock/sundry items you may sell. PPS has a “list of standard charges” that you set up yourself giving you quick access to your charges via a code, or description. There are several ways in PPS that you can create a charge, you can also skip very quickly from creating a charge to recording a payment and PPS creates the invoice for you as you go.
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You can create a charge in the following ways (which way you regularly use will depend upon the way that you prefer to use PPS): 1) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Create a Charge; 2) from the PPS Taskbar click on Create a Charge (if you have the diary open then highlighting an appointment first will create the charge related to that appointment); 3) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Charges List, and click the New button; 4) from the diary, highlight an appointment, right-click on the appointment and select the Client Charge option from the pop-up menu; 5) when completing a consultation record, the “consultation complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 6) when completing an appointment the “appointment complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 7) Cash Desk can be used to create charges. The first four options above will show the Client Charge screen. This allows you to select / enter all the appropriate charge details and save the charge, or go on to create an invoice for the charge. An invoice can contain more than one charge so you do not always want to create the invoice each time.
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Whenever creating a charge, you have the option to select who will be invoiced for the charge, this includes the Client, and any one of the Third-Part Contacts associated with the client. This is how to bill an insurance company directly, for example. If the client does not have a third party contact associated with them, then you can select one while creating the charge, and select to always associate this third-part with the client. This will update the third-party contact details for you on the Main Client Details screen. Client
Client records are the hub of your PPS database. PPS refers to these records as “Clients” rather than “Patients” because PPS is used across a variety of business and clinical disciplines, some of whom use the term “client” and others use “patient”. A client record can have either minimal details entered, such as first name and surname, or can be a comprehensive range of details including full address/contact details, alternative addresses, DOB, sex, “known as”, full profile details including “source of introduction”, occupation (plus a range of entries you can set up yourself). In addition you can associate a variety of third-parties to clients such as doctors, insurance companies, etc. The more comprehensive the details you store for each client, the greater the opportunities to use these details in your reports and mail-merge operation. For example, by recording the “source of introduction” for each client (such as yellow pages, local advert, recommendation, etc.) you can run almost any report in PPS to show a breakdown by “source of introduction”, for example “practice revenue” by “source of introduction” will show where you earn the most money from – thus where you should concentrate most on your advertising! Code
See: Charge – Code; Diagnosis Code; Outcome Code Country
Country is one of the Address fields on the main client details screen, and on the third-party contact details screen. If you normally deal with clients all in the same country, you do not need to enter these details. You can select Country as a breakdown, or criteria for most PPS reports, for example a breakdown of your practice revenue by Country. County
County is one of the Address fields on the main client details screen, and on the third-party contact details screen. You can decide if you wish to enter this information when entering a client, or contact address. You can select County as a breakdown, or criteria for most PPS reports, for example a breakdown of your practice revenue by County. Create
See: Add; Charge – Create Criteria
See: Report Wizard - Criteria Database
The PPS Database can be stored in a separate location on your computer/network from the main PPS application files. This would apply to a PPS installation on a network where the PPS Application files are installed onto each computer, and the database is located centrally on the network. There is the option to change the database location as part of the initial installation of PPS, and there is also a separate “database only” installation available if the database is to be installed onto a computer such as a server where PPS will not be used on that computer – servers often reside in a “back office” and are not used as a desktop computer. Delete
Delete is the term used to remove any record or file in PPS. Most “data entry” type screens will include a Delete button on the toolbar. You can use this button to delete the currently displayed record. There are various restrictions placed on deleting records in certain parts of the system. For example you cannot delete a client record if accounts records exist for that client. The System Administrator can also decide which PPS Users are allowed to delete which type of records. This is set up as part of the User Profile for each user – see: Access Control for more details. Details
This is a generic term used to describe the information stored in any particular part of PPS. For example Main Client Details is the information you enter to this screen. In addition, there are several “notes” type fields that allow you to enter further “free text” details against a record – these are also sometimes referred to as Details. Doctors
See: Contacts (Third-Party) – Contact Types; Client –Third-Party Contacts EMail
E-Mails in PPS are part of the PPS Activities system. You can send E-Mails directly from within PPS. This is dependant upon your computer being configured to use Microsoft® Outlook or Outlook Express to send e-mails. To send an e-mail, either select from the PPS Menu: Activities – Send an E-Mail, or click on Send an E-Mail on the PPS Task Bar. You can also select the <New> button from the Activities List. The Send an E-Mail screen allows you to select either a client (the client you are currently working with is automatically selected) or a third party. You can type in the subject and body of the e-mail message, and you can attach a document to the e-mail. Like all PPS Activity records, the e-mail can be scheduled to send later if required by setting the due date/time.
See also: Client – E-Mail Address Find
See: Search General Notes
General Notes are recorded as part of your consultation record. The Consultation screen allows up to six notes entries to be made – the headings for the first five of these can be chosen to suit your own style of note taking, and the final notes field is referred to as “General Notes”. See: Consultation – Notes for more details. History
See: Medical History Images
See: Charts; Document Library. Include
This is a term used in the PPS Reports Wizard – on step 3 of the selections for your report. On most reports you can select to “include” a selection of details on the printed report. You can un-tick any items that you do not want to include. The “Include” options only apply when the report is printed or previewed – if you are exporting the report to a file or mail merge, then the “include” options do not apply. Letters
Letters are an activity type in PPS. You can select at any time to send a letter to either a client or a third-party. You can send a letter either by selecting from the PPS Menu: Activities – Send a Letter, or by selecting “Send a Letter” from the PPS Task Bar. In addition you can also select to send a letter as part of your clinical notes recording. When you send a letter, you have the choice of either selecting a standard letter from your list of standard PPS letters (see: Standard Letters), or by simply typing your letter using the PPS letter editor before printing and sending. Letters can either be sent now or scheduled to be sent in the future. If you are using Microsoft® Word to print your letters, then your list of standard letters (which can include very simple templates that simply have the client’s address/salutation details at the top) will include letters that you have set up in Word. If you are sending a letter as part of a Mail Merge output from a PPS Report, then this will be a PPS letter. To do a mail merge using a Word letter, you will have to produce a “File” output from the PPS mail merge output screen, and do the mail merge separately and completely in Word. Line
See: Charts - Annotations List
List is the term used to describe information that either appears on the screen or on a report in rows and columns. The term List is also used in PPS as a list of items such as menu, or list of entries such as a look up table. See also: List style diary. Location
A Location in PPS is a physical clinic location. Older versions of PPS referred to treatment rooms as locations. Now Treatment Rooms are an additional field of information. You can set up locations to use in your PPS Appointments Diary. You can set up your diary for diary users/practitioners to be scheduled to work either in specific treatment rooms and/or locations on various days during the week. You do not have to use “Location” if you only work from one location. To set up locations, select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look Up Tables, and select Location from the Appointments Diary Tables section. Here you can set up your various locations, and nominate a colour to each location to make each location clearly identifiable in the diary. Log
See: Client Log. Notes
See: Client - Default Notes Entry Occupation
This is one of the PPS Look Up Tables. It is entered on the Main Client Details screen. It is a list of your client’s occupations. You do not have to enter the occupation if you do not want to. The occupation can be used to breakdown various reports by, and the occupation can often be useful information to know if the client’s occupation can affect the treatment you provide. You can access the Occupation Look up table to add your own entries – select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look up Tables. Open
Some screens in PPS have an “Open” button on the toolbar, this is very similar to the Modify button as it will “open” the selected record for “modification”. Options
PPS has a screen on the PPS Tools menu called Options. This screen can be used to set up a wide variety of system settings that affect the way that PPS works. You can make your changes to these areas and press the OK or Apply button to save your changes. The Options screen has four tabs along the top: General, Custom Client Fields, Set Up Client Contacts, and Clinical Notes. See the entries under each of these sections for more details, for example Options – General. Order
This term applies to the Order in which information is listed on the screen. Information in PPS is often listed in a “Grid” with rows and columns; you can often click on the column headings to change the order in which the information is displayed. There is also a Client Browse screen that includes an “order” selection to allow the client details to be displayed in a variety of orders such as Surname, etc. PPS
PPS is the acronym for “Private Practice Software”. Practitioner
A practitioner in PPS is a system user. To add a practitioner to PPS, you need to add a new system user, and indicate that they are a practitioner as part of their user details. When a user is a practitioner, they appear on the list of practitioners to select to allocate to most PPS records. PPS allocates a practitioner to most types of records so that you can see which practitioner is responsible for that record, also you can break down most report in PPS by practitioner. Preview
See: Reports – Report Output Prime Contact
See: Client – Prime Contact Details PrintYou can print various types of information in PPS including client details, clinical notes, Invoices, letters, and a wide variety of reports. All printing in PPS is done using your standard Windows printer driver for your selected printer. Many screens in PPS have a <Print> button that is used to print details for that part of the system. See also: Reports – Report Output. Printing
See: Print Profile
The Main Client Details screen in PPS includes a “Profile” section. This is where you store specific information about each client including their “source of introduction” and “occupation”. You can set up your own profile details. This allows you to specify your own field headings which suit the type of details you need to store suitable to your business area. To set up the client profile fields select from the PPS Menu: Tools – Options, and select the Custom Client Fields tab. see: Options – Custom Client Fields for more details. Reports
PPS includes many different reports that you can run that present information accumulated from various parts of the system. There are two main reports options: Summaries and Statistics, and PPS Reports and Mail Merge. In addition to these two main options, there is a variety of other print-outs that you can produce from PPS that are not included in the category of reports. These include: Printing the Diary, Client Details, Medical History and Clinical Notes. You can access the PPS reports options from the PPS Menu: Reports. For more details about the Statistics & Summaries type reports, see: Statistics & Summaries. When you select the PPS Reports & Mail Merge option, a reports selection screen appears – this screen is divided into the various categories of reports that you can run. Most reports (certainly client-based reports) can also be used for mail merge purposes. Select a report from any of the categories and use either the Run option (see: Reports – Run) or the Open option (see: reports – Open). When you select Open, you will be guided through the Report Wizard (see: Report Wizard) to allow you to make your specific selections for the report before choosing a report output option (see: Reports – Report Output). See also: various entries in this reference guide under Reports for further details. For details of individual reports, see: the entry under the report name, for example Charges Report or Aged Debtors Report. Room
See: Treatment Room Salutation
In PPS, this is how you refer to someone in a letter. This applies to Clients and Third-Party contacts. You can enter the salutation on the Main Client Details screen for each of your clients – some clients you may prefer to use their title and surname and others that you know better you may use their first name. The same applies to Third-Party contacts where an individual’s name is used (instead of just a Company name). You can use “Salutation” as a “merge field” when setting up or sending letters. There is a Salutation field available for Clients, and one for each Third-Party contact types (insurance companies, clubs, etc.) When a letter is printed using the Salutation merge field, the field is replaced with the Salutation entry, if no entry is made into the Salutation field, then the Client Title and Surname is used to replace the merge field. Search
You can search for various records in PPS: Clients, Appointments, Third-Party contacts etc. Some screens include a <Search> button on the toolbar. The main PPS Client Search screen includes options to search on a variety of fields: for example Surname. This screen can be accessed from the Search Button on any of the client screens (main details, log, browse) or by clicking “Search” on the PPS Task Bar. The Search screen allows you to enter all or part of a value into a selected field, then when you press Enter a list of results that match what you have typed in is displayed. The most common information to search on is Surname. In the Surname field on the search screen, it is possible to enter all or part of the surname followed by a space, then all or part of the client’s First Name. This way you can narrow down your search results – useful with popular surnames. For example, you can search for Joe Smith simply by entering SMI J in the Surname field and pressing enter. All clients whose surname starts with SMI and whose First Name starts with J will be listed.
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You can search for existing Client Appointments or Free Appointment Slots using the <Search> button on the Appointments Diary – see: Appointments Diary – Search for more details. Select
A term used when you choose something on the screen. Some PPS screens have a <Select> button, this normally means that you pick an option, or entry in a list, then click the <Select> button. This will “select” your chosen entry and proceed to the next screen, or return to the previous screen with your chosen entry selected. Send a Letter
See: Letter Set Up
See: Medical History – Setting Up; PPS – Setting Up; Custom Form – Maintenance; Users – Setting Up; Letterhead – Set Up Source of Introduction
This is one of the PPS Look up Tables. It is entered on the Main Client Details screen. It is a list of the various ways that a client was introduced to your Practice. You do not have to enter this information if you do not want to. The source of introduction can be used to breakdown various reports by, and provides a useful measure of where your business comes from. You can set up your list of different sources of introduction by selecting from the PPS Menu: Tools – Look up Tables, and selecting “source of introduction” from the Client Tables section. PPS also uses a “Referral Source” entry as part of recording your clinical notes. This may be the same as source of introduction for a client’s first visit, but may not be the same on subsequent visits. It is best to retain Source of Introduction on the main client details screen as where your client “first” heard about your practice. Status
See: Client Status Time
See: Activities – Time; Appointments – Time Toolbar
Many screens in PPS have a toolbar. This is a selection of “buttons” that can be clicked to perform tasks specific to that screen, or used to launch other screens. Sometimes a toolbar button requires that you select something on the screen first before pressing the button – for example selecting an item from a list before pressing the <Delete> button to delete the selected item. Toolbar Buttons will normally have “tips” that show when the mouse is placed over the button, the tip can give a further indication of what the button does.
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