Action Center FAQ

“I didn’t get an alert for…”

…a payment someone made at the front desk. Card-reader (terminal) payments don’t alert, because the patient is right there. Only payments made through a payment link or a treatment plan link do. See Payment alerts.

…a payment a patient says they made. It may still be confirming with the card processor. Those never alert, so nobody sends a second link that could charge the patient twice. Check the Payment Report.

…a form I filled out for the patient. Editing a submission in Teamio doesn’t alert. A form filled out and submitted on the form page, including on an office tablet, does.

…each form in a packet. Packets get one card for the whole packet, not one per form. See Packet alerts.

…a broken appointment. The Action Center doesn’t alert on broken appointments. Work them from the Broken Appointments list, or have a workflow text the patient and assign a task automatically.

…a patient’s text. A text alert only appears once the text has waited 15 minutes. You also won’t get one when:

the reply is just a confirmation word like yes or c,
the conversation is closed,
the text is more than 7 days old, or
someone already replied.

See Text message alerts.

…a booking. Only bookings made on your online scheduling page alert. Appointments your team schedules in Open Dental don’t.

”A card disappeared”

Most likely one of these happened:

A teammate cleared it. By default, clearing a card clears it for everyone. An Admin can change that in Settings → General.
Someone handled it. Text alerts, questions on plans and failed payments clear for everyone once someone replies or sends a new link.
It was cleared by mistake. If it was just now, select Undo in the bar at the bottom of the panel.
It was more than 30 days old, or it was a text alert and the text passed 7 days.
A filter is on. Check that the All chip is selected and the filter button (like Needs action) isn’t highlighted.

”My list is different from my teammate’s”

If your office clears cards only for the person who cleared them, each person’s list reflects what they have cleared. Also check that you’re both on the same chip, with the same filter.

”The packet card says 3 of 7 forms”

The patient has submitted 3 of the packet’s 7 forms so far. The card updates as more arrive and changes to Packet submitted when they finish. If they stopped partway, a packet link sent to that patient picks up where they left off, and the same card keeps updating. See Packet alerts.

”The time on a card looks wrong”

Action Center times use your practice’s time zone, not the time zone of the computer you’re on, so everyone sees the same time. If you’re working from another time zone, that’s why it looks off. An online booking’s appointment time is always shown exactly as the patient booked it.

”Why is it called Mark read on some cards and Dismiss on others?”

They do the same thing. Mark read is on form and packet cards, which are things to look over; Dismiss is on everything else. See Clearing alerts.

”My Action Center is always empty”

If it never shows anything, check your role. Alerts go to Admin, Manager and Employee users; Outsourced users see the bell, but it never gets alerts. Ask an Admin to check your role if that seems wrong. See Understanding roles.

Otherwise, an empty list is good news: nothing is waiting, and new alerts appear on their own.