Top tips from NHS Dental Services

NHS Dental Services is providing a series of top tips on the use and functions of E Reporting.

Top tips will be added to this page weekly.  

Further advice on the use of the system is available from the NHS DS helpdesk on 0845 126 8000.

Tip one

E Reporting is the most powerful tool for monitoring your dental contracts. Until recently a PCT could have up to four licences, but an additional licence is now available taking the maximum to five per organisation.

Tip two

Dashboards on E Reporting provide a visual and interactive graphical display of key information areas.  Therefore is it not a static report. You can print screen and paste to a word document if you wish to save a snapshot of the dashboard screen.

Tip three

You can download all your standard reports at once, just check “Download All”, then save it to your local drives. Once you have done this then other colleagues who may wish to review the reports can access them.

Tip four

Each SHA area has a representative on the E Reporting User Group. Should you wish to pass on any comments you can find out your local representation.

Tip five

The "Need Help?" section of the homepage contains links to a guide to getting started, a comprehensive training manual, FAQs and a performance factsheet.

Tip six

You can access the standard reports for previous periods by clicking on the Archived folder in the Standard Reports Directory.

Tip seven

When running a template or a report, make sure you enter the prompts correctly. Scheduled months are always entered YYYYMM(so for example June 2010 is entered as 201006).

Tip eight

Each table or chart in a dashboard has a help button attached which will provide an explanation of that table or chart.  There is also a help button to access the relevant section of the contract management handbook on the PCC website.

Tip nine

The E Reporting homepage contains links to information on what is new in E Reporting, factsheets, training, user groups and a good practice guide.  The link to the homepage is http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/2607.aspx

Tip ten

Be aware that for data security reasons E Reporting has a timeout, therefore please ensure that you save your reports regularly.

Tip eleven

If a report returns no data make sure you have entered the prompts correctly and in the right format, such as start and end periods i.e. an end period must be after the start period.

Tip twelve

Users may find it helpful to refer to the guidance attached to templates and reports. This should explain what data is used, how it is extracted and include definitions.