Overview:

The Month End Update is a critical routine in patient data management, essential for maintaining system performance, data accuracy, and operational efficiency. Although it is not mandatory to run the update on the first day of the month, it should be completed promptly after the prior month has ended. Failure to run this process can lead to performance degradation and inaccurate data, which can affect various aspects of your workflow.

Why Run the Month End Process?

The Month End Update performs several key maintenance tasks to ensure your system runs smoothly and patient data remains current. These tasks include:

1. Aging Account Balances:
   Running the update ensures that account balances are aged correctly on your Aging Report and within patient accounts. Without this, balances will remain current, preventing accurate financial reporting and potentially leading to mismanagement of overdue accounts.
2. Move Procedures, Clinical Notes, and Perio Exams to History:
   The Month End Update archives all procedures, clinical notes, and Perio exams from the past month, locking them to prevent changes or deletions. Without this step, past records remain open to modification, which can compromise data integrity and legal compliance.
3. Create Totals Records for Reporting:
   The system generates a monthly totals record during the Month End process, which speeds up report generation. If the update is not completed, reports will be slower to generate as the system will need to calculate analysis data on the fly.
4. Reset Insurance Benefits (Optional):
   The utility will reset insurance benefits for patients whose renewal occurs in the following month. Skipping this step can lead to inaccurate insurance estimates, as old benefits and deductibles will not be cleared.
5. Purge Old Appointments (Optional):
   To enhance appointment book performance, old appointments are purged based on a default cutoff date (one year before the close-out month). This step does not affect patient histories or ledgers but significantly improves appointment scheduling efficiency.

What Happens If You Delay or Skip the Month End Process?

1. Inaccurate Aging Reports: Account balances will not reflect accurate aging, making it difficult to assess overdue payments and handle collections effectively.
2. Unsecured Historical Data: Procedures, Perio exams, and clinical notes will remain editable, risking accidental changes or deletions.
3. Slower Reporting: Without the generated totals, reports will take longer to compile as the system must manually calculate data for each query.
4. Incorrect Insurance Estimates: Outdated insurance information can lead to incorrect patient billing and estimation of benefits.
5. Slower Appointment Scheduling: Failing to purge old appointments can clutter the appointment book and slow down scheduling operations.

Performing the Month End process promptly ensures your system remains efficient and patient data is both secure and accurate.

For more information on how to run Month End see Close Month for Month End Process (G7.5+)