A free dental lab case tracking sheet, and when you’ll outgrow it

This sheet tracks every lab case your practice has out, on one page. It has ten columns and costs nothing.

Download it below, then follow the routine in this guide. The routine is what makes the sheet work.

It will carry a small practice a long way. The last section lists the signs that you have outgrown it.

Download the sheet

Download the lab case tracking sheet (CSV)

The file opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets. For a team, import it into a shared Google Sheet so that everyone edits one copy.

The first row is an example. Delete it before you start.

The ten columns

Each column answers a question someone will ask about the case.

Two columns matter more than the rest. The date due back and the seat appointment sit side by side, so a clash is visible.

Keep the status to five words

Use the same five words for every case: sent, at the lab, on its way, received, seated.

Make the column a drop-down list. A status typed freehand soon has a dozen spellings.

Set it up in five steps

1. Import the file into a shared sheet. One copy, in the place your team already keeps its files.
2. Freeze the top row, and add drop-downs. One for status and one for your labs’ names.
3. Add every case that is out today. Go through the schedule for the next three weeks and work backwards.
4. Add one colour rule. Turn a row red when the date due back falls after the seat appointment.
5. Name the owner and a backup. Tell the whole team who they are.

Step three is the slow one, and it is worth an hour. A sheet that starts with half the cases is trusted by nobody.

The routine that keeps it honest

A tracking sheet is only as good as its last update. Four moments keep it current.

When a case leaves

Add the row before the patient leaves the chair. Fill in the lab’s date as soon as the lab confirms it.

Every morning

Sort by seat appointment and read the next five working days. Every one of those cases should say on its way or received.

Phone or message the lab about any that do not. This is the check that protects chair time.

Save a filtered view for it. One click should show only the cases with a seat in the next week.

When a case arrives

Open the box the day it lands and mark the row received. Put the case where the team expects to find it.

Once a week

Look two weeks ahead, and ask each lab about anything with an open question. Move seated cases to an archive tab.

Who does what

The sheet has one owner, and four roles touch it. Agree on them out loud.

In a small practice one person may hold two of these. What matters is that each job has a name beside it.

One case, followed through the sheet

Here is a single crown, from the scan to the seat.

One crown, followed through the sheet

A timeline of one crown through the tracking sheet. On Monday the row is added with the status sent. On Tuesday the lab confirms a date. On Thursday the lab asks for a shade photo, and on Friday the dentist sends it. The next Wednesday the case ships, on Thursday the box is opened and the status is received, and on Friday the crown is seated and the row is archived.

1. Monday

   The row is added

   The assistant adds it before the patient leaves. Status: sent.

2. Tuesday

   The lab confirms the case and a date

   The owner fills in the date due back.

3. Thursday

   The lab asks for a shade photo

   It goes in the open question column.

4. Friday

   The dentist sends the photo

   The column is cleared.

5. The next Wednesday

   The lab says the case has shipped

   Status: on its way.

6. The next Thursday

   The box is opened

   It is matched to the patient. Status: received.

7. The next Friday

   The crown is seated

   The row moves to the archive.

Seven updates for one case is normal. Each takes seconds when it is made at the moment the thing happens.

Rules that stop a sheet going stale

• One owner. Others can add rows, and one person is answerable for the whole sheet.
• Every case, every lab. Work you make in-house belongs on it too, because it is forgotten just as easily.
• No side lists. A sticky note on a monitor is a second system, and the two will disagree.
• Archive, never delete. When a lab asks about a case from the spring, you will want the row.
• Write the question down. The open question column is the only place a lab’s query lives in this sheet.

Signs you have outgrown it

It helps to know the limits of a sheet before you rely on it.

The sheet cannot hear from the lab. Every status in it was typed by your team after a call or an email.

It cannot warn you. The red row only helps if somebody opens the file that morning.

And it holds one line per case. The Rx, the scans and the conversation with the lab all live somewhere else.

Those limits show up as the practice grows. Each sign below means a list kept by one team has gone as far as it can.

• Updates arrive after the fact. The sheet says at the lab for a case that is already in the drawer.
• Two people edit at once. A sort or a paste overwrites someone else’s change.
• Your labs multiply. Each one reports in its own way, and the owner spends the morning chasing.
• A seat appointment is missed anyway. The dates were in the sheet, and nobody read them in time.
• You cannot find what was agreed. The answer to a lab’s question is in an inbox, away from the row.

One of these now and then is normal. Two in the same month means the sheet is costing more than it saves.

How to track dental lab cases in your practice compares the options, and the practice calculator puts a number on the time.

When cases are late for reasons the sheet cannot see, read how to protect chair time when lab cases run late.

After the sheet

The next step up is a list that the lab updates too, so nobody at the practice retypes a status.

Tusko works that way. The practice and the lab open the same case, and Chair Time flags a late case before the patient sits down.

See how it looks for practices.