Why keep your own log at all
The practice software belongs to the practice. You can read it while you work there, and the day you leave, your login and years of your own work go with it. Every report you are handed is built from records you did not keep and cannot check. A daily log of your own is the only version of your working life that is yours.
It is also the only way to answer the questions that matter later: was my pay right, what do I actually do most, which office is worth my day, and could I carry a practice if I bought one.
What to record for each day
- The date and the office. If you work at two places, every day belongs to one of them.
- Each visit, numbered. Visit 1, visit 2, visit 3. Never a patient name. You do not need one and you should not keep one.
- The procedure codes for each visit, with the fee and how many. Three surfaces of composite on one tooth is one code; two crowns is a quantity of two.
- Whether a procedure needs a lab. Crowns, bridges, dentures, night guards. Lab is where pay errors hide, so flag it as you go.
That is all. Times, notes and diagnoses are not needed for anything a pay or production check will ask of you.
Which fee to type
Use the figure your pay is based on, and use it the same way every day. If the office reports production at its full office fee, type the office fee. If your contract pays on adjusted production, the plan's allowed fee is closer to what will actually be counted. The day sheet usually shows one of these; pick the one that matches your contract and stick to it. Consistency matters more than which one you choose, because every comparison you make later is only as fair as the inputs.
When to do it
Most associates log in the gaps: the day sheet is open on the office computer anyway, and adding the visit you just finished takes under a minute. The other common habit is five minutes at the end of the day, before you leave the building, while the schedule is still in front of you. What does not work is "I will catch up on Friday." By Friday you are reconstructing, and reconstructed records are the ones you stop trusting.
When a day is done, mark it complete. A finished day is a number you can rely on; an open one is a reminder.
Or skip the typing: upload the office's report
Some offices hand associates a production report every month. If yours does, you do not have to type it in. Ask for it as Excel or CSV if you can (production by provider, by procedure, with the date, code and fee on each line) and upload it once the month closes. You still get the same daily record, without the daily habit. Many associates mix the two: log by hand at the office that gives nothing, upload at the one that sends a report.
Mark your working days and set a goal
Marking which days you are scheduled to work, a month at a time, does two things. It shows you which days you still have to log, and it makes a goal meaningful: a monthly target only tells you something when you know how many working days are left to hit it. A daily average goal is simpler; a monthly total suits people with irregular schedules. Either way, the useful number is the one that says what each remaining day needs.
Missed a day? Lost a month?
Missed days happen. Open the day later and add it; a late entry is still better than a hole. If a whole month is gone, do not try to rebuild it visit by visit. Ask the office for that month's production report and upload it, or enter one total for the month from your pay stub and move on. The daily detail is lost for that month, but the trend line and the pay checks still work.
How cuspd handles it
In cuspd the Log is a calendar with a + button. Tap +, type a code and press Enter, or tap one of your saved combos or most-used codes. Fees fill in from the last time you used the code, lab codes flag themselves, and Next visit starts the next one. On a slammed day, quick add just the day's total. Have the office's production report instead? Upload it from the Log for that month, or from Import for several months at once, check what it found, and every procedure lands on its day. A month that came out wrong can be cleared and redone. In the iPhone app you can turn on a reminder for working days you have not logged yet. Everything else in cuspd, from Overview to Clinical development to the pay checks, is built from this one habit. See it in the demo, no account needed.