Entry Date vs. Procedure Date

Do you find that sometimes you run a report from one workstation and the same report from another workstation, and you get different numbers? Or, do you run one report and the production number is different from another report? This can happen for a few different reasons. However, the most common reason I find is that you may be selecting Entry Date on one report and Procedure Date on another report. Let’s define what the difference is so you can make the right choice for your reporting.

• Entry Date – This is the date that you enter the transaction into the computer. For example, your doctor came in on Monday, January 31 when the office was closed, to see an emergency patient, and he did an emergency exam and took a PA. Then on Tuesday, when the office was open, your doctor asked you to post the exam and PA to the patient and send it in to insurance. The Entry Date for this transaction is February 1.
• Procedure Date – This is the true date of service. In the above example, the procedure date would be January 31.

What you see here in this example is the possibility of your month-end totals being different depending on how you filter your reports. There are several reports in Dentrix that you can check by Entry Date or Procedure Date, and if you choose one option on one report and a different option on another report, you will get different numbers.

• Daysheet
• Analysis Summary
• Practice Analysis Reports
• Provider A/R Totals Report
• Practice Advisor Report

The discrepancy between Entry Date and Procedure Date happens when someone on the team must backdate something for it to be posted on a certain date. This could happen if the doctor sees a patient on a closed office day, if a procedure was posted incorrectly and you need to fix it, or if you want your EFT deposit in Dentrix to match your bank deposit date.
Now I know that accountants and bookkeepers do not like backdating transactions because it can be linked to suspicious activity. However, these transactions will show up on the Audit Trail and be flagged on the patient ledger.