Building Rock-Solid Dentrix Workflows: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Systems That Actually Work

Earlier this year, I had the chance to be a guest on The Jameson Files, and that conversation took me right back to the heart of what I see happening inside dental practices every day. Sitting down with Carrie reminded me how often practices are running on only a fraction of what Dentrix can really do.

As a Dentrix trainer turned consultant, I see the same pattern over and over: smart, hard-working teams using maybe 15–20% of what Dentrix can really do. Meanwhile, they’re drowning in sticky notes, spreadsheets, three-ring binders, and “this is how I’ve always done it.”

Listen to the full episode on YouTube: 

No wonder people go home exhausted and still feel behind.

In this article, I want to walk you through how I think about Dentrix workflows in three layers – daily, weekly, and monthly, and why getting intentional here can reduce chaos, improve collections, and keep your schedule full.

If you want to see this mapped out visually, I break it down step-by-step in my article on best practices for your daily Dentrix reports and workflow.

The Real Problem: Dilution of Knowledge in Dentrix

Right now, many practices are dealing with three realities at the same time:

1. New team members from outside dentistry – retail, medical, other industries – being thrown to the front desk with little to no Dentrix onboarding.

2. Existing team members being promoted – a great receptionist suddenly becomes a treatment coordinator and has no idea what that role should actually look like inside Dentrix.

3. Doctors wanting more visibility – they’re in the back treating patients but still asking, “What should my team be doing every day, every week, every month?”

Then add this: the outgoing office manager only ever used 15–20% of Dentrix, and she’s the one “training” the new person. That new person will only retain maybe 30% of what she’s shown. So now we’re at a tiny fraction of Dentrix being used correctly, and every handoff dilutes the knowledge even more.

That’s why you see:

• Handwritten lists of “patients who want to come in sooner”

• Post-its for unscheduled treatment

• Double entry  in Dentrix and on paper

• A constant feeling of “I worked eight hours and got nothing done”

This is exactly what I call digital purgatory, half in Dentrix, half on paper, fully overwhelmed.

Workflows fix that.

Daily Dentrix Workflow: Protect Your Money and Your Sanity

Every single day, I want teams doing four things in Dentrix:

1. Balance the day (Day Sheet)
   Run the Day Sheet and make sure:

   • Every procedure is posted

   • It’s assigned to the correct provider

   • Payments and adjustments are accurate

    

2. Send eClaims within 24 hours
   No “I’ll batch them at the end of the week.” If the note and attachments aren’t done, the money isn’t coming. Doctors who sit on clinical notes for days are literally delaying their own paycheck.

3. (Optional, but powerful) Run allocations
   Use the allocation tools in Dentrix so production and collections are assigned to the right provider. If you ever want clean reporting or fair compensation models, this matters.

4. Generate billing statements daily
   Yes, daily. Every patient still stays on a 30-day cycle, but you stop turning “statement day” into a monthly nightmare. Five statements today, ten tomorrow, zero panic.

When teams commit to this daily workflow, the chaos drops fast.

Weekly Dentrix Workflow: Keep the Schedule Full and AR Under Control

Weekly is where I focus on operations and cash flow.

Hygiene / Continuing Care

Your hygiene department is the lifeblood of the practice. In Dentrix, that means:

• Dedicated off-the-floor time (30–45 minutes, a couple of times per week) for the hygiene or recare coordinator to:

  • Work the Unscheduled List

  • Work the Continuing Care lists

  • Call or text overdue patients

Automated systems are helpful, but patients ignore texts and emails all the time. Someone still has to own the lists inside Dentrix. I talk more about this in Continuing Care is the Lifeblood of Your Dental Practice.

Treatment and Financial Follow-Up

On the financial side, weekly Dentrix tasks should include:

• Following up on unscheduled treatment from the Treatment Manager

• Working overdue patient balances

• Tracking overdue insurance claims and resubmitting or calling when needed

• Deciding who, if anyone, needs to move toward collections

This is not work you squeeze in between check-ins and ringing phones. This is scheduled, focused time, and the team covers each other so it actually happens.

Monthly Dentrix Workflow: Inspect What You Expect

Monthly, Dentrix becomes your dashboard.

This is when I want doctors and leaders looking at:

• Patient retention / continuing care performance

• Accounts receivable trends  are balances going up or down?

• Production, collections, and case acceptance

Numbers tell you whether your systems are working or just limping along. If you care about this side of the business (and you should), my course Understanding Your Dentrix KPIs and other resources are inside the Novonee Membership.

Month-end isn’t just a button you click. It’s where you decide:
Are we celebrating, or are we tweaking the system?

Want Help Building Your Dentrix Workflow?

If you’re reading this thinking, “We’re totally in that 15–20% Dentrix usage group,” you’re not alone – and you don’t have to stay there.

You can:

• Start with the daily, weekly, and monthly structure I outlined here

• Use my Dentrix workflow resources  to see concrete examples

• Dive deeper into continuing care with Continuing Care is the Lifeblood of Your Dental Practice 

• Explore on-demand training and membership options in the Novonee Membership.

When Dentrix becomes the central hub for your workflows not just a fancy scheduler, your team stops guessing, your systems become repeatable, and your practice finally starts running the way you always thought it could.