Documentation

How can we help you?

Dental Lab Guides

Featured Integration

Email-to-Case Automation

Learn how to configure SimpleLabOS to automatically create cases from your inbox. This feature allows you to forward emails from iTero, 3Shape, or direct doctor emails to a special address.

# Format Example
Patient: John Doe
Tooth: 14, 15
Material: Zirconia
View Full Guide

Frequently asked questions

Real questions from labs like yours — answered straight.

How do I create a case from a doctor's email?

Forward the email to your lab's intake address (shown at the top of Email Imports). It appears in Email Imports — click Create Case and the form opens pre-filled with everything we could read: patient, teeth, material, shade, urgency. With AI email understanding turned on, even free-form emails in any language get read. Review, click create, done.

Can one case include several restorations?

Yes. A case can carry multiple line items, each with its own restoration type, material, and shade — the 2026 material catalog and shade guides are built in, organized the way technicians order.

How do doctors send me cases?

Three ways: through the free doctor portal (they submit directly and track status), by forwarding an email in any format, or you check cases in yourself — including from a phone with QR photo upload.

A forwarded email never showed up — what should I check?

Open Email Imports and check the Spam and Manual Review tabs — use the Not Spam button to pull a message back into your queue. Emails from doctors saved in your account are never marked as spam, and neither is anything with a scan or photo attached.

Is my email content shared with an AI provider?

Only if you turn on AI email understanding, which is off by default. When enabled, incoming email content is analyzed by an AI service to extract case details. Everything else in Email Imports works with it off.

How do I generate monthly statements?

Go to Invoices → Statements. Pick the month — note it defaults to last month, so switch to the current month if your invoices are recent — then tick the doctors and generate. You get one PDF per doctor covering that month's invoices plus any older unpaid balances.

Why did my statement come out empty?

Almost always the month picker: it defaults to last month. If your invoices were issued this month, switch the month and generate again.

Can I download a separate PDF for each doctor instead of one combined file?

Yes. On the Generate Monthly Statements screen, when two or more doctors are selected you'll see "A separate PDF for each doctor." Leave it off (the default) for one combined file with a page per doctor, or turn it on to download one named PDF per doctor.

Why isn't a doctor showing up on the statements screen?

The statements screen lists only doctors with billing activity in the month you picked — an open invoice or shipped-but-uninvoiced work. A doctor with nothing to bill that month won't appear. Archived doctors are also excluded; unarchive them from the Doctors page if you still bill them.

Do statements show patient names?

Yes — each line shows the patient name right under the invoice number, so your doctors can see at a glance which invoice belongs to which patient.

How do I get my logo on invoices and statements?

Settings → Lab Information → Upload logo, then Save Changes. Your logo appears on every invoice and statement PDF you generate from then on. Available on every plan — branding is never a paid add-on.

What do the invoice statuses mean?

Draft is your internal working copy — doctors never see drafts. When you finalize an invoice (or include it in a statement), it becomes Sent; your doctor sees it as Unpaid in their portal until it's paid.

How does a doctor view and pay an invoice?

Invite the doctor to the portal, then email the invoice from the Invoices page. View Invoice opens their invoice list after sign-in; Pay Now uses a separate secure link that accepts card or ACH without requiring a login.

My doctor works with several labs — do they need separate accounts?

No. One login covers all their labs; they switch between labs inside the doctor portal.

A doctor's invite link isn't working — what now?

Invite links work in normal and private/incognito windows. If a link has expired, send a fresh invite from the Doctors page — each link connects one doctor account.

Can a doctor get their statement by email without a portal login?

Yes. Tick "Email doctors their statement (PDF attached)" when you generate, and it goes to whatever address is on that doctor's record with the statement attached as a PDF — no portal invite required. An invite only matters if you also want them viewing and paying invoices online; doctors who have one get an extra portal button in the email, and doctors who don't are never shown a login they can't use. Doctors with no email address on their record are skipped, so add one or print their copy instead.

How can I tell whether a doctor was actually emailed their statement?

The Generate Statements screen shows "Statement emailed" with the date and time under each doctor who has been sent one. It records what actually left our mail server, so a doctor with no line under their name has not been emailed a statement.

Can I change the color used on my invoices and statements?

Yes. Go to Settings → Lab Information → Brand Color, pick your color and click Save Changes. It sets the accent used for the INVOICE and STATEMENT headings, the table headers, and the totals on every PDF generated afterwards, alongside your logo. Documents you generated before the change keep the old color — generate a fresh one to see it.

How do I change a case's due date?

Open the case and click Edit Details, change the Due Date field, then click Save Changes. The new date shows immediately on the case, the board card and the dashboard counts. If you previously saw an edited due date snap back to the day before, that was a timezone bug on our side — due dates were stored correctly but drawn one day early for any lab west of GMT, so pushing a case out by one day looked like nothing saved. That is fixed: the day you pick is the day you see.

Can I enter different shades for the incisal, body, and cervical zones?

Yes. In the Shade field (when creating a case or in Edit Details), click "Split into zones" to get separate incisal, body, and cervical pickers — fill any two for a half/half prescription, or all three for thirds. Each zone offers the full shade guides plus a custom option for instructions like "match to old crown". The combined shade (e.g. "Incisal 3R1.5 / Cervical 3R2.5") shows on the case and prints on the work ticket and case label.

I have several teeth on one case with different shades — will the work ticket show each one?

Yes. When the units on a case differ from each other, the work ticket stops printing one case-level value and prints a row per unit instead — "#2 — 1M2", "#19 — 2L1.5" — under a TEETH & SHADE heading, and the big shade at the top of the ticket changes to "PER TOOTH — SEE BELOW" so nobody at the bench reads a single shade and runs with it. The same applies when the units differ in material or restoration type: the heading names whichever columns actually vary, and the field above stops asserting one value. Enter the per-unit detail in the line items on the case; if every unit matches, the ticket keeps its shorter one-line form.

Can I add a note that prints next to the shade on the work ticket?

Yes. Under the Shade field — on the case form, in Edit Details, and on your doctors' order form in their portal — there is a Shade notes box for a short remark like "incisal third is gray with calcification, snow caps on 8 and 9". It prints in the specs box directly beneath the SHADE line on the work ticket, so the bench reads it alongside the shade instead of finding it further down under Instructions. It holds 110 characters and shows a counter as you type: the limit is there because that is what fits on three printed lines, so the ticket always shows the whole note rather than cutting it off. Longer background still belongs in Notes & Instructions, which prints lower on the same ticket.

How do I give a technician their own login?

Go to Settings → Technicians, make sure the technician has an email address on their row, then click Give login. You get two choices: Set password creates their account straight away with a temporary password you type, or Invite link gives you a one-time link (valid 7 days) that they open to choose their own password. The part labs miss: nothing is emailed automatically — you copy the password or the link and send it to the technician yourself, however you normally reach them. Each technician login uses one of your plan's user seats.

What can a technician see when they sign in?

They sign in at the same address you do, and their role decides the rest — there is no separate technician URL. A technician lands on My Work and can only open the cases assigned to them: they download the scans and work ticket, upload the finished files, add notes, and move the case to QC. Invoices, pricing, payments, your doctor list and lab settings are not just hidden from the menu — the database refuses those rows for a technician account. A technician also cannot mark a case ready or shipped; an owner or admin does that after QC.

Can I see SimpleLabOS before I enter a card?

Yes. Sign in with the account you created and click "Take a look first" on the start-trial screen. It opens a sample lab inside your own account — a filled-in case board, doctors, a price list, invoices and the doctor portal — with no card and no clock running while you look around. Change anything you like: the sample data is rebuilt weekly and cleared when you start a real trial, so nothing you try in it can end up mixed into your live lab.

What is actually different between Starter and Standard?

Three things: case volume (150 a month on Starter, 500 on Standard), lab staff seats (3 against 10 — doctor portal logins are free and unlimited on both), and Email Imports, which creates cases automatically from 3Shape, Medit and iTero notification emails and starts on Standard. Everything else is on both plans, including the price list and product catalog, the Kanban board, the 3D scan viewer, the doctor portal, invoicing and online card payments. You can move up or down a plan at any time from Settings → Billing, including during your trial.

Technical Support

Need help with a specific bug or issue? Our engineering team is here.

Email Engineering