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 Clinical Hours Matter
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 is available chairside with patients — these are called Clinical Hours.
Setting these 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
Clinical (Scheduled) Hours represent when a provider is expected to be chairside with patients — not just when they’re in the building. For example:
If a provider is in the office from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM but takes a 1-hour lunch and has a 2-hour team meeting, their Clinical Hours for that day are 6 hours.
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.
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.
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
3. Set the Clinical Hours Schedule by Provider
Once your providers are being tracked, it’s time to set their schedules:
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.