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submissions to | Home > Reviews > AcuBase CD-ROM for Windows95 & Macintosh |
AcuBase CD-ROM for Windows95 and Macintosh |
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Reviewed by a User
Reviewed by Marian Blum, L.Ac. I'm mostly very happy with Acubase, and the programmer reports that updates are on their way. I will certainly hang in for these upgrades. I have found Jason to be very helpful and available for support with Acubase. I've only been playing with Acubase for a couple of months and don't have all my patient data, etc. loaded and operational so my comments here are not from a very experienced user! These comments are in no way comprehensive, they're just the issues I find most notable at this point. Acubase has a large amount of information for the student and those preparing for board exams. I have not used it. I only noticed when I perused it once that there were minor typos in the Latin names. I was using it to give information on which herbs my patient with a heart condition should avoid in the future and I wanted to give the Latin names as well as the pinyin. I chose Acubase for its comprehensiveness and ease of use. It prints out great-looking HCFA's and superbills easily. You enter the patient info once and then you don't need to do it again. It also has a great inventory section that is easy to use. You don't have to enter every item yourself as it has a large database of products from the major suppliers. I work solo but this program can be used in a larger practice. I also noticed in passing that it seemed to be made for international use. I can't give any details on that since I didn't look closely at those features. It surprised me that there wasn't a way to print out at the end of a certain time period, your gross income from various sales such as formulas, herbs or even treatments. These kinds of numbers are needed for Sales tax and Income tax preparation. One of my favorite herb companies, Institute of Traditional Medicine, will sell its formulas at substantial discounts at various times, and even a further discount if order is placed in the morning. This means that there are 3 different possible costs for a single product. Figuring inventory at year end then depends on which products I sold during the year vs. which are still on my shelves. I can't imagine what others do for this. Jason described to me a way I can manage it with Acubase where I can enter the item as an 'other item' and with a marking that identifies its discounted cost . . . It looks like this will work fine and even though it seems complicated I imagine its easier (and hopefully as accurate) as using another inventory program. One concern I have using Acubase is that when you enter numbers, it's perhaps too easy and if you make a mistake it may be hard to find later. Say I receive an insurance payment and I enter it on the superbill screen to show that those visits are now paid. I wouldn't have to mark where the money came from. There is a place for notes that could serve well in this regard. If I were to mark carefully on the insurance statement where it's been entered, it may work fine. I once used another program meant for MD's that had so many safety stops--ways to keep you from making errors--that it was very complex. Having not used this program for very long it's hard to say whether I'll be sacrificing accuracy for ease of use. Perhaps the program isn't meant to use as a complete accounting package. It doesn't seem to be an accounting program meant for managing your whole business. I welcome others' comments on this. The manual is well-written but not super comprehensive. I like to be able to look everything up and not have to bother Jason. I hope this is helpful. I've often found with software that nothing substitutes for personal use. For my needs, Acubase is very good. The support is excellent and if a few features are added I would say the program is excellent, too. For more on Acubase's upgrades, contact Jason Luban at: support@trigram.com
AcuBase for Windows95 and Macintosh |
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