While our support staff do everything they can to give you the best "bang for your buck", custom reports (as created by TotalMD staff) are not free. They often require a great deal of time for our staff to produce. Therefore, the following procedures were put in place to allow us to best assist you with your requests.
What does a "Custom Report" entail?
Technical Support is happy to make minor tweaks and fixes to existing reports, provided said tweak can be completed in a timely manner. "Tweaks" can include moving around a column, adding a simple customization to the header, sometimes even adding a column that doesn't require additional work to configure. However, any change to the core functionality of the report, tweaks that will take more than an hour to complete, or entirely new reports classify as a "Custom Report" and therefore apply to the procedures and fees described below.
What is the process of commissioning a custom report?
Attached is a form (much of which contains the same information found in this article) for you to fill out and return with details of your request. After completing this form, one of our report writers will contact you via phone or email within two business days.
The purpose of this call will be to clarify any finer points of your request to ensure the program they build will be exactly what you need. This conversation may be brief, but may take as long as twenty minutes depending on the complexity of your request. The report writer may have several questions about seemingly trivial and redundant details. This can be time consuming, but it assures the report will be versatile for your practice's needs.
After the conversation, an email will be sent with a specific proposal of the report to be built, a timeline to complete it and any charges involved in building it. The process of building your report will begin as soon as you send back a confirmation email agreeing to the terms of the email.
When the report is complete, a second appointment will be set up to install and test the report. This will generally only take a few minutes. The report writer will run the report with whatever criteria you wish to test it with to ensure the report is to your specifications. Payment will be collected at the time of delivery unless other arrangements have been made ahead of time.
What kind of information do you need to create a report?
An ideal request is comprised of three key things:
- What do you want to learn from this report? It may be tempting to try to break down the intricate details of the report for us, but ultimately the first thing we need to know is what you want the report to tell you. Are you looking for a breakdown of revenue from insurance carriers based by month? Do you need to know how many Macaw attacks you've tended to (ICD 10 code W61. 12xA) in a period of time? Essentially, if you can put it into a single sentence, we should be able to do it.
- What information do you want shown? Keep in mind that TotalMD reports can only report on data that is actually IN TotalMD. We can't say what day of the week it was when something occurred without significant work and we definitely can't say what the weather was. However, If we need to pull data from the ledger or patient demographics, we can fairly easily. We also have a few options for custom data entry that we can use for the report (ask us about Custom Tabs).
- What calculations will you need? Lists are easy, but perhaps you need totals, averages, minimums or maximums. That's where things begin to get more complicated (aka "expensive"), but also where the custom report really comes into its own. Please understand that some requests may be exceptionally difficult and others may cause the report to run unreasonably slow. Some, realistically, are simply impossible. However, don't be afraid to ask. We'll do our best to deliver whatever you imagine.
- Bonus: Layout. If you can show us a report from a previous software or even a hand-drawn diagram, that will help a great deal to make sure we're on the same page about what you envision.
What if I change my mind about the functionality of the report?
It's not uncommon for users to realize after the fact that what they had pictured in their head is not what was understood by our staff. Please read the report description sent to you carefully. The report described in that email and agreed to will be the report that is made. Any requests for changes after this point may be possible but even small changes in the functionality of the report may require building a new report at additional cost.
How do I report errors in the report after delivery?
All reports come with 60 days of (report related) technical support. If the report does not function correctly (as described in your initial email description), the report will be repaired at no cost either by technical support or the original programmer. Depending on the complexity of the fix, this can be done via a phone call or by setting up an appointment.
What will this report cost?
The cost of the report is dependent on the complexity of the report and the time required to build
it. The rule of thumb is $99/hour, but a simple hourly rate may not be a good representation of the 'cost' of creating the report. Simple reports, regardless of time it takes to make them, typically work out to $198 while complex reports such as custom superbills or specialized claim forms might cost upwards of $800. For this reason, the price will be quoted alongside the written description of the report after fully evaluating the project with the Report Programmer and the Sales team. Note that the price can change after the initial quote, but not without discussing it with you first.
Are there alternatives to ordering a new report?
Yes. We understand the cost of a custom report can be intimidating, particularly in unpredictable financial times. We will attempt to help you find a free solution with you whenever possible. Often, one of the more than 100 existing reports in our system can provide the same information as a report you are looking for. Sometimes this information can be found elsewhere in TotalMD (are you aware of the interactive Insurance Aging Drill Down introduced in TotalMD 18?).
If all else fails, the Report Writer software is openly accessible to any user. It has a steep learning curve to get started and advanced usage requires fluency in SQL and the Delphi programming language. Support is happy to answer your questions and give you a quick crash course, as well as provide you with the 300+ page PDF Manual upon request. That said, we cannot support any errors you make in writing your own report in the same way that we do existing and TotalMD-made reports. Put simply, if you choose to write your own report, you do so at your own risk.
By the way, while I've got you, why don’t these existing reports match?
It is common to receive requests for a “fix” to an existing report because the numbers do not match between reports. While it is always possible that an error exists (often we are already aware of these issues and have a quick fix ready to deploy in the event you run into it), it is typically the case that the two reports in question are not in fact measuring the same information. Some reports include planned items, some don't. Some account for adjustments, some only payments. If you believe two reports should show the same results and they are not, please contact technical support before requesting a custom report. They may be able to explain the difference between the two reports and help you determine which one is more applicable to your needs?
A special note on deposits and payments:
Just to be clear, it is easy to think of deposits made in your “Payments” screen and transactions made your “Ledger” screen as interchangeable. These numbers are not actually representative of the same
thing. As a result any report measuring payments (such as Deposit Slip Report) will not necessarily match a report which measures transactions (such as Day Sheet). Deposits represent payments made by an insurance or the patient but to be represented on the Ledger, they must be distributed. If you are unclear on the difference, please consult the software manual or speak with one of our software trainers.
What information should I put on the request form?
Aside from the tips provided above, the more information you can include in your request, the better. Some information can be very helpful in accelerating the process. The following information is not only useful for the programmer, but useful for you to think about and discuss with your staff to make sure
everyone in in agreement of your needs.
- What is this a list of? Although most reports can be formatted to be very aesthetically complex, they are essentially lists of things. Usually they are lists of patients, transactions or claims. Please
think about exactly what this report will be a list of. - What are the search criteria? It is very uncommon for a report to be run with no search criteria. Typically, a report will need to be run for a specific date range, a specific group of patients, providers, insurance companies or facilities. Please consider which search criteria you would like for the report. A note on dates: Many financial reports will have a date range. Keep in mind that a single transaction has many dates attached to it; date of procedure, date entered into system, date of claim creation, date of insurance payment, etc. When creating a report with a date range, please consider exactly which date is being taken into consideration.
- How will this information be sorted and grouped? Most times, the information being presented is most readable when sorted in a particular way. Do you want the report to list results chronologically, alphabetically? Once the information is sorted, it can also be grouped into smaller sections. For example, a list of patients could be grouped together based on their default provider, or by their head of household. Not all reports require information to be grouped together,
but the option is available when needed. - Identifying labels - It is not uncommon to have a request to build a report that existed in another piece of software. We are happy to recreate these reports as closely as possible. In those cases,
please identify what the specific columns and rows from the existing report represent so we can best match them (Patient name is pretty self-explanatory, but not all column headings are).