Principle includes a Lab Job Tracker to help Practices manage and monitor all laboratory work in one place. By using Labs and Lab Jobs together, your team can easily keep track of cases sent to external laboratories, monitor progress, and ensure jobs are never lost or forgotten.
Contents:
Labs
The Labs page acts like an address book for all the Labs your Practice works with. This is where you can store and manage the details of each lab you send work to, such as crowns, splints, dentures, implants, retainers, and other fabricated appliances.
From the Labs page, you can:
Store lab names and contact information
Create and manage Lab Job Types
View all Lab Jobs associated with a specific lab
Filter Lab Jobs by status
Record interactions with labs
Create specific contacts for each lab
Send emails or leave call logs directly from the Lab record
View the interaction history for a lab
Once a Lab has been created, it becomes available when creating Lab Jobs throughout Principle.
How to Create a Lab
Click the Create Lab button in the top right corner.
Enter in the Name of the lab
Optionally enter the Address of the lab.
Enter the phone and/or email
Click the Add New Lab button to save this lab contact.
You can edit lab details by clicking on the name of the saved lab, and clicking the 'Edit' icon.
After you've created the Lab, you'll need to add specific Lab Job types:
Click on the Lab Job Types.
Click Create Lab Job Type.
Write the name of the job, the cost and click create.
Do this for as many lab types as the lab has.
Adding Members at the Lab
In the Contacts tab, Click the Create Member button.
Enter the Name of the individual member of the lab you have selected
Enter in one or more of the following fields: email, address, phone
If you have the information, you can include job title and mobile phone number.
Click the Create button to save the Member contact.
This will also be saved in the Contact tab\
Lab Jobs
The Lab Jobs page is a centralised location where your Practice can track the full lifecycle of a Lab Job from creation through to completion.
This helps Practices monitor outstanding work, track due dates, assign responsibility, and ensure cases are returned from the Lab on time.
Each Lab Job can also be associated with a Practitioner, making it easy to see who the work belongs to. When a Lab Job is created from an appointment, the Practitioner is automatically populated where there is a single assigned practitioner. If there are multiple practitioners assigned to the appointment, or no practitioner has been assigned, the field is left blank for your team to complete.
You can create a Lab Job through:
The Lab Jobs page.
By clicking Lab Jobs inside of a specific Lab.
In the Appointment Workflow.
We'll start by clicking into the Lab Jobs page on the main menu, but you can easily follow the same steps by creating a new Lab Job inside your Lab's page.
Creating a Lab Job
In the main menu, click Lab Jobs.
Click Create Lab Job in the top right corner.
Select the Patient.
If the patient has an existing appointment, select it from the Appointment dropdown.
Selecting an appointment links the Lab Job to that visit, creates a scheduling alert if the Lab Job is overdue, and automatically assigns the Practitioner where possible.Select the Lab.
Select the Job Type.
The Cost is automatically populated from the selected Job Type, but can be edited if required.
Select a Due Date. While optional, this is highly recommended if no appointment has been booked.
Enter any additional information in Add Job Details, such as shade, material, or special instructions.
If required, select or update the Practitioner responsible for the Lab Job.
Click Create.
Creating a Lab Job in an Appointment
Open the patient's appointment.
Under the Today's Appointment section in the right-hand sidebar, click the three-dot menu.
Select Add Lab Job.
When the appointment has a single assigned practitioner, the Practitioner field is automatically completed on the new Lab Job.
Dispatching & Receiving Lab Jobs
A newly created Lab Job begins in the Sending status.
Once the case and paperwork have been sent to the laboratory, update the status to Sent. When the completed work is returned, update the status to Received.
If a Lab Job is linked to an appointment, it will automatically move to the Issued status when the appointment is checked out or completed. This status change is also recorded in the appointment Timeline, reducing the need for manual updates.
You'll receive an alert if a Lab Job has not been received before the patient's appointment or before its due date.
Note: As the Lab Job progresses, continue updating its status where required to accurately reflect its lifecycle.
Finding & Filtering Lab Jobs
The Lab Jobs page includes filters to help you quickly locate outstanding work, overdue cases, or jobs assigned to you.
Any filters you apply—such as Overdue For Me—remain in place when you refresh the page, navigate away and back, or share the filtered view with another team member, making it easier to continue where you left off.
Contacts
Think of the Contacts page like the address book for any non-patient contacts.
This can be for all professional associates including suppliers, catering companies, florists, and more.
Creating a contact:
Click Contacts in the main menu
Click Create Contact button in the top right corner.
Enter in the Name of the contact or business
Enter in the email, address and/or phone number.
Optionally enter in the Job Title of the contact.
Optionally enter the Mobile Number of the contact.
Click Create to save this contact.
You can edit contact details by clicking on the name of the saved contact, and clicking the Edit button.
Using Contacts
Once a contact is created you can click on their name to open up their profile:
Use Principle to SMS or Email any contacts directly from their profile, there is also a notepad to record any notes relevant to that contact. Type '@' to mention any staff members or patients in the note and leave a link to their profile.
If this contact is a business with multiple members, you can add them individually in the Members Tab.
The History Tab shows an outline of all of your notes and communication with that contact.
Using Contacts allows you to have all of your communication with your professional contacts in one place without leaving Principle.
⏭️Next up: Module 8 : Conversations & Team Chats