This method of setting Clinical Hours is available for Dental Intelligence bundle users. Interested in the full Dental Intelligence suite? CLICK HERE to request a demo!
If you are an Analytics-Only user, please use these instructions to set your Clinical Hours.
Why Tracking Clinical Hours Matters
Your providers’ Production per Hour is one of the most important metrics in Dental Intelligence. To calculate it accurately, we need to know how many hours each provider spent chairside with patients. Setting scheduled and actual hours correctly ensures that production goals and performance data reflect what’s actually happening in your practice.
💡 Best Practice: At the start of each week or month, review your providers’ scheduled hours to make sure everything is accurate. If hours change frequently, assign a team member to update them daily.
Only users with Full permissions can add or edit Clinical Hours. Learn how to adjust permissions here.
Scheduled Hours vs. Actual Hours
Scheduled Hours represent when a provider is expected to be chairside with patients — not just when they’re in the building. This is set in advance based on their planned schedule. For example:
If a provider is in the office from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (9 hours total) but takes a 1-hour lunch and has a 2-hour team meeting, their scheduled hours for that day are 6 hours.
Actual Hours can be updated later to reflect what truly happened (for example, if a provider left early or stayed late). Keeping both sets of data up to date helps ensure your production metrics stay accurate.
⚠️ Important: Don’t change scheduled hours unless a provider’s schedule truly changes for that day.
How do scheduled hours impact provider goals?
Provider goals are intentionally tied to scheduled hours — not actual hours.
Here's why: Goals represent what you're aiming for. If a provider is scheduled for 8 hours, that's the target window you're planning production around. Tying goals to actual hours would mean your targets shift after the fact, making them unreliable for planning and performance tracking.
As seen in the Morning Huddle, the Hours column in the Schedule by Provider shows the scheduled hours for each provider, which matches the scheduled hours entered for that provider in the Clinical Hours configuration.
What changes if actual hours are different from scheduled hours?
If a provider works more or fewer hours than scheduled, their production per hour rate will update to reflect that. The production per hour rate is directly tied to a provider's actual hours.
For example: As seen in the Provider Pulse, a provider scheduled for 8 hours but who actually works 10 hours will show a slightly lower production per hour, because the same production is now spread across more time. Their goal, however, stays the same — because the goal was set based on their expected scheduled hours.
1. Choose How Clinical Hours Are Entered
You can manage Clinical Hours manually in Dental Intelligence or automatically through your Practice Management Software (PMS).
To select your method:
Go to Settings > Practice Setup > Clinical Hours
Click Show Configuration
Choose how you’d like to input hours:
Manually in Dental Intelligence, or
From your PMS Provider Hours
Click Save
Most PMS systems (like Open Dental, Eaglesoft, and Dentrix) store Provider Hours separately from Office or Operatory hours. Learn more about setting provider hours in your PMS:
2. Track Providers on the Clinical Hours List
Go to Settings > Practice Setup > Clinical Hours
Use the Filter providers dropdown to view specific roles or show only non-tracked providers, then click Apply
To start tracking a provider, click Track Clinical Hours under their name
When finished, deselect Non-Tracked and click Apply to return to your full list
Hover over the black "i" information icon to verify provider connections and ensure the correct ID is linked. Correct provider IDs are crucial for accurate tracking and metric alignment
3. Set the Clinical Hours Schedule by Provider
Once your providers are being tracked, it’s time to set their schedules. Enter the number of hours each provider is scheduled for production each day. Every day must have a value — either a number or 0 for days off.
In the Clinical Hours list, find the provider you want to update
Click Schedule under the desired date
Add the total hours and minutes they’ll be chairside for that day
Choose how often this repeats:
This Occurrence Only
Every Other Weekday
Every Weekday
Click Set Scheduled Hours
If they’re off, click Off instead and choose the recurrence option
Click Update Hours to save
Pro Tip: To get a clear view of past performance, enter the previous three months of Clinical Hours.
Edit an Existing Schedule
Need to make a change?
Simply click the existing hours for a day, adjust the time, and click Set Scheduled Hours again.
If hours were originally set as This Occurrence Only, select that option again to overwrite them.
Did you know that you can also set clinical hours for providers in the Provider Pulse? Learn more here.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Missing or Incorrect Provider Connections
If clinical hours for a provider are not being tracked properly:
Verify provider IDs using the black "i" icon in Settings > Practice Setup > Clinical Hours.
Ensure hours are being tracked for each provider. If 'Track Clinical Hours' is visible beneath the provider name, they are not being tracked. Follow the steps above to set their clinical hours.
