Database Utilities and What They Do

This article contains a summary of each Database Utility's function. Some commonly used or complicated database utilities will link to their own article to expand upon the functionality of a given utility.

If you are looking for a more refined list of commonly used database utilities and how to use them, click here.

It is strongly recommended that you log out of all terminals before performing a database utility to avoid data loss. Please do not leave any terminals logged in during a database utility. It may be wise to perform database utilities after the office has closed or on weekends to avoid disrupting anyone's work.

MacPractice strongly recommends that you create a backup before continuing with running a database utility. The backup will allow you to restore MacPractice to its original state, in the event you ran the database utility by mistake or the wrong database utility was performed.

Finally, as Database Utilities are powerful tools that impact your entire database, you may want to limit who has access to run these utilities. The privilege that controls the ability to run Database Utilities is the Enable Database Utility Ability option, located in References Ability > User Group Privileges > Managers category.

All utilities are listed in alphabetical order.

A

Archive Encounter Forms: This utility will archive all encounter forms that were printed before the entered date.
Archive Paid Incidents: This utility will archive all incidents that have a zero unpaid value (zero balance) and no open claims. You also have the option to archive all incidents, which will create a new blank incident, or keep the last incident for your patients.
Archive Patients with Provider: This utility will archive patients with the selected provider. Patients with a remaining balance or unapplied payments will not be archived.
Archive/Delete Unused Insurance Companies and Plans: This utility will archive all insurance companies and plans that are not tied to any patient or transaction.

C

Capitalize Addresses: This utility will change the capitalization of all address records in the database. You have the option to choose between Initial Caps, which will capitalize the first letter of each word; All Caps, which will capitalize all letters in each address; or All Lower, which will put all letters in each address to all lower case.
Capitalize City Names: This utility will change the capitalization of all city names in the City State Zips reference. You have the option to choose between Initial Caps, which will capitalize the first letter of each word; All Caps, which will capitalize all letters in each address; or All Lower, which will put all letters in each address to all lower case.
Capitalize Patient Names: This utility will set the capitalization of all patient names in the database. You have the option to choose between Initial Caps, which will capitalize the first letter of each word; All Caps, which will capitalize all letters in each patient name; or All Lower, which will put all letters in each patient name to all lower case. When using the Initial Caps option you also have the option to choose Smart Last Name Caps, which will only change the capitalization if the name is all uppercase or lowercase.
Capitalize Procedure Descriptions: This utility will capitalize all procedure code short descriptions in your fee schedule. You have the option to choose between Initial Caps, which will capitalize the first letter of each word; All Caps, which will capitalize all letters in each address; or All Lower, which will put all letters in each address to all lower case.
Change Billing Contract Charge Code: This utility will update the procedure code associated to existing contract charges. Enter the code you wish to update the procedures to (select the fee schedule that contains the code from the Fee Schedule menu). Check the "Select to Change" checkbox for the charges you wish to update, then click Go.
Change Carrier for Plan: This utility will move all patients associated to one insurance plan from one carrier to another. Typically this only needs to be done if a plan was created under the wrong insurance, or if insurance companies need to be combined. Any patients tied to the original plan will be changed to the new plan; the original plan will not be erased.
Change Fee Schedule for Fee: This utility will take a fee that is associated to one fee schedule and move it to a different fee schedule.
Create Default Insurance Plans (4.4 and earlier): This utility will create an insurance plan with the selected name for all insurance companies that do not currently have plans associated to them. Patients associated to these companies without plans will be updated to the new plan.
Create New Incidents: This utility will create a new empty incident with the given name for every patient in the database.

D

Delete All Employers: This utility will remove any ties to employers and delete all employer records from the database. The employer records will be entirely removed, so use caution with this utility.
Delete All Referrers: This utility will remove any ties to referrals and delete all referral records form the database. The referral records will be entirely removed, so use caution with this utility.
Delete Appointments Before Date: This utility will delete all appointment records before the selected date. You have the option to also include Missed and Cancelled appointments from before that date as well by selecting the appropriate checkboxes.
Delete Archived Image/Attachments Records
Delete Closed Claim PDFs: This utility will delete all .pdf copies of closed claims that were created before the selected date. The claim will still exist in the database and the patient's ledger, however the .pdf copy of the form will be removed, meaning you will not be able to view the claim anymore.
Delete Credit Card Number For Accounts: This utility will delete unused credit card numbers for selected accounts. MacPractice recommends using the search function to locate the account, to avoid misspellings. Once you select the account above, select the desired numbers below before clicking Go.
Delete Finance Charges: This utility will remove any finance charges that were incurred after the entered date. Usually this only will be done if a batch of statements with finance charges was created by mistake.
Delete Follow-Ups/Recalls: This utility will delete any follow-up/recall records that have the specified criteria. You will need to check one of the options before continuing.
Delete Statement PDFs: This utility will delete any PDF copies of statements from the database if they were created before the selected date. The statement will still exist in the database and the patient's ledger, however the .pdf copy of the form will be removed, meaning you will not be able to preview the statement anymore.
Delete Transparency Blocks: This utility will delete all blocks in the selected transparency type.
Delete Unused Account Alerts: This utility will delete all account alerts from the database that are not associated to an account.
Delete Unused Adjustment Types: This utility will delete all adjustment types from the database that are not associated to any transactions.
Delete Unused Appointment Types: This utility will delete all appointment types from the database that are not currently in use by any appointments.
Delete Unused Attorneys: This utility will delete all attorney records from the database that are not tied to any incidents.
Delete Unused City/State/ZIPs: This utility will delete all city/state/zip references that are not currently in use in any address in the MacPractice database.
Delete Unused Custom: This utility will delete all custom references from the database that are not associated to any patients.
Delete Unused Custom Medications: This utility will delete all Medications (Custom) records that are not tied to any other records.
Delete Unused Employers: This utility will delete all employer references that are not currently associated to any guarantor.
Delete Unused Facilities: This utility will delete all facility references that are not currently associated to any fees, transactions, incidents or offices.
Delete Unused Fee Schedules: utility will delete all fee schedules that are not currently associated to any transactions, insurance carriers or patients.
Delete Unused Financial Status: This utility will delete all financial status references that are not currently associated to any accounts.
Delete Unused Follow-Ups/Recalls: This utility will delete all follow-ups/recalls that are not currently associated to any fees, transactions or patients. (This option appears in the MD, DC, 2020 software)
Delete Unused Incident Name: This utility will delete all incident name references that are not currently in use by any incidents.
Delete Unused Laboratories: This utility will delete all laboratory references that are not currently associated to any fees or transactions.
Delete Unused NDC Medications (4.4 and earlier): This utility will delete all medication references that are not currently tied to any prescription records. This utility was phased out in 5.0.
Delete Unused Patient Alerts: This utility will delete all patient alerts that are not currently associated to any patients.
Delete Unused Procedure Categories: This utility will delete all procedure category references not currently associated to any fees or transactions.
Delete Unused Procedure Types: This utility will delete all procedure type references not currently associated to any fees or transactions.
Delete Unused Referrer Types: This utility will delete all referral types that are not currently associated any referrals references.
Delete Unused Referrers: This utility will delete all referrals not tied to any transactions or patients.

E

Export EMR Narrative PDFs: This utility exports all EMR narratives as PDF files to a folder on the desktop.

L

Lock EMR Forms Before Date: This utility allows your office to lock all patient EMR forms before the entered date. This can assist in keeping the EMR sidebar organized.

M

Merge City State Zips: This utility will allow you to merge City/State/Zip references that may have been mistakenly duplicated or misspelled.
Move Patient to Another Account: This utility is used to move a Patient from one Account to either another pre-existing Account, or to move a Patient to a brand new Account. This Utility is great for situations like when a child on one Account has come of age and wants to be on their own Account so the parents aren't paying their medical bills anymore, or in cases where a family splits up but continues to see the practice separately.
Move Unpaid to Insurance: This utility will move all unpaid amount of charges on outstanding claims to the insurance portion. You can set this utility to run based on either the procedure or the posted date and set a date range.
Once these are set, click the "Show Affected Claims and Charges" button. This will bring up the Claim Manager's Outstanding Claims node to display all claims that are captured by this criteria.
If you have reviewed those claims and they are the ones you wish to shift the unpaid balance to insurance portion, navigate back to the Database Utilities node in the Managers Ability and click the "Go" button to run the Utility.

R

Raise/Lower Fee Schedule by %: This utility allows you to raise or lower all fees in a selected fee schedule by a percentage amount. For example, you can choose to lower all fees by 4.5%. This utility also contains options to control how the utility handles rounding. Click the link to learn more.
Raise/Lower Fee Schedule by $: This utility allows you to raise or lower all fees in a selected fee schedule by a given dollar amount. For example, you can choose to raise all fees by a flat $50 rate. Click the link to learn more.
Refresh All Remaining Coverages: This utility will refresh the remaining coverages and deductibles in all patients in the database. This is the equivalent to clicking the Refresh Remaining Coverage button on the Patient > Insurance tab for each patient.
Remove Duplicate Procedure Codes: This utility will search for and delete all duplicate procedure codes from a selected fee schedule.
Remove Insurance Portion: This utility removes any unexpected insurance portions. You will be able to run this utility for all patients or for a specific account. Click the Show Charges With Insurance Portions button to load the charge table below. The Hide Charges with Correct Portions checkbox is checked by default. For all other charges, any description in blue will give the reason why there should be an insurance portion. You can export the needed information if more investigation is needed on these accounts, allowing you to create of list of the associated charges. Also, if you wish to look at the account before continuing with the utility, you can double click on the line item and be taken to the account to review the ledger.
Remove Prefix From Last Name: This utility will remove the entered prefix from the last name of all patients in the database.
Repair Note Images: This utility will scan the saved notes and note templates and remove any note images found to be outside of the note boundaries.
Reset Default Narrative Status on Patient Forms: This utility will set the default narrative status on patient/locked forms for all the EMR/EDR forms and for sections.
Reset Follow-Up/Recall Frequency: This utility will reset the frequency of all follow-ups/recalls to the default value stored in the associated reference. This will override any manually overridden follow-up/recall frequency.
Resize Digital Radiography Images: This utility will reduce the size of any existing Digital Radiography images to the maximum width and height provided. Note that the utility creates smaller images from the original images, however the original images are not deleted by the utility. The original images will be removed from the database at 2:00 AM on the day after running the utility. Any backup run prior to 2:00 AM after running the utility will be initially larger as it will contain both the new and original sets of images. The overall reduced database size will be present in the first backup event after 2:00 AM.
Revert Write-Off to Open Balance (10.7 and above): This database utility was added in response to write off changes implemented in MacPractice Build 10.7 and later. For more information regarding these changes and how to use this database utility, please click the link.
Run Accounting Migration Report: This utility is exclusively used in MacPractice Build 7.3 prior to updating to MacPractice Gen 10 and later. Running this utility simulates the update process and determines if there will be any issues updating your database to Gen 10 and later, due to the accounting changes implemented in Gen 10. Click the link for more information.

S

Set Account Alert: This utility will add an account alert to all accounts in the database. Either select an existing alert or create a new one.
Set Default Calculation Criteria in CMS-1500 Box 29: This utility will globally change the box 29 settings for all insurance company references.
Set Default Patient Phone Type: This utility will globally set the pop-up menus for phone types for all patients in the database. This utility will not affect any phone records that have a number entered.
Set eClaims Template: This utility will set the default eClaim template for all insurance companies that do not currently have a template set. You also have the option to choose all insurance companies in your database.
Set Encounter Form Status: This utility will globally change the status of all encounter forms/care slips in the database to the selected status. You also have the option to specify a date range for when the forms were created.
Set Insurance Timely Filing Warnings
Set Patient Area Code: This utility will add the entered area code before all patient phone numbers that currently have 7 digits. Once three numbers have been entered in the Area Code field then the Go button will become active.
Set Plan Type: This utility will globally set the insurance plan type for all selected carriers and their corresponding plans.
Set Relation to Primary: This utility will globally set the Relationship to Primary pop-up menu for all patients in the database to the selected value.
Set Relation to Secondary: This utility will globally set the Relationship To Secondary pop-up menu for all patients in the database to the selected value.
Set Zero Balance Claims to Paid/Closed: This utility will set all claims with 0.00 balance remaining to 'paid/closed'.
Swap Referrer Prefixes and Suffixes: This utility will globally swap the Title and Suffix fields for all referral references.

U

Update Accepts Assignment: This utility will globally set the Accept Assignment status for all providers and insurance carrier references in the database.
Update Account Alerts: This utility will change the account alert for accounts with one alert to a different selected alert. This includes the option to globally change all accounts to a specific alert.
Update Account Financial Status: This utility will change the financial status for all accounts with one financial status to a different selected status. You can also choose to set all accounts globally or just accounts with no current status to the selected status. You can also use this alert to delete the selected financial status at the same time.
Update Account Office: This utility will change the account office for all accounts with one office reference to a different selected office. You also have the option to set all accounts globally. You can also set the account provider at the same time.
Update Account Provider: This utility will change the account provider for all accounts with one account provider to a different selected provider. You also have the option to set all accounts globally. You can also set the account office at the same time.
Update Account Statement Status: This utility will set the Monthly Statement Option for all accounts that have one status to the selected status. You also have the option to change all accounts globally or only archived and deleted accounts. You can also use this utility to change the address statements are sent to.
Update Allowed Amounts: This utility will set the allowed amounts for a selected insurance carrier and plan to the fees in the selected fee schedule. You also have the option to change all plan allowed amounts globally.
Update Appointment Status: This utility will update all appointments with one status to another selected status. You can also use this utility to delete the status at the same time. You can also run this utility to change all appointments globally if you choose.
Update Appointment Type: This utility will update all appointments with one appointment type to a different selected type. You can also use this utility to delete the type at the same time. You can also run this utility to change all appointments globally if you choose.
Update Bill as Individual: This utility will set the bill as individual flag for all providers in the database.
Update Carrier Always Pays Provider: The Update Carrier Always Pays Provider utility will set the Carrier Always Pays Provider flag for all selected insurances in the database.
Update Default eClaim Template: The Update Default eClaims Template utility will change the eClaim template for all insurance carriers with one template to the selected template. You also have the option to set all carriers to the selected template.
Update Default Paper Claim Form: The Update Default Paper Claim Form utility will change the paper claim form for all insurance carriers with a particular form to the selected form.
Update Ethnicities: This is an old utility that would run between 4.3 and 4.4 on log in after an update, when MacPractice started to codify the Ethnicity field for Meaningful Use purposes. Update Ethnicities would allow you to re-map any previously set ethnicity to a codified standard ethnicity. This utility is not accessible via the Managers Ability.
Update Fee Schedule: This utility allows you to change settings within a selected fee schedule. You can also change the values for all fee schedules globally. When running this utility you can also enter a range of codes, i.e. 00000 - 10000, and all values in between will be updated. You will need to ensure there is a check next to any value you wish to change, then select the appropriate value using the pop-up menu. Any values that are not checked will not be changed.
Update Finance Charge: This utility will globally enable or disable finance charges on all patient accounts. If you choose to disable all finance charges, the Exempt Finance Charge checkbox will be checked on the patient's Account tab.
Update Follow-ups/Recalls: This utility will change the follow-up/recall type for all patients with one type to a new selected type. You also have the option to update the frequency of the follow-up/recall, however if this is not checked the frequency will be untouched. You can also choose to delete the follow-up/recall at the same time.
Update Incident Name: This utility will charge the name of all incidents with one incident name to a different selected name. You also have the option to change all incidents globally.
Update Incident Type: This utility will change the type of all incidents with one incident type to a different selected type. You also have the option to change all incidents globally.
Update Insurance Company Fee Schedule: This utility will change the fee schedule for any insurance carrier with one fee schedule to a different selected fee schedule. You also have the option to change all carriers globally.
Update Insurance Plan Type: This utility will change the plan type for all insurance carriers and/or plans with one plan type to a different selected plan type.
Update One Referrer: This utility will change the referral for all patients with one referral to a different selected referral. Any transactions will also be associated to the new referral. You also have the option to delete the referral at the same time.
Update Patient Alerts: This utility will update all patients with one patient alert to a different selected alert.
Update Patient Fee Schedule: This utility will change the fee schedule for all patients with one fee schedule to a different selected fee schedule. You also have the option to update all patients globally.
Update Patient Fee Schedule by Provider: This utility will change the fee schedule for all patients with a selected provider to the selected fee schedule.
Update Patient HIPAA Release: This utility will globally set the HIPAA release for all patients in the database. The HIPAA release is typically set on the patient's Insurance tab and is only used for eClaims.
Update Patient Hygienist: This utility will change the preferred hygienist for all patients with one hygienist to a different selected hygienist. You also have the option to update all patients globally.
Update Patient Insurance: This utility will change the carrier and plan for all patients with one carrier and plan to a different carrier and plan. You also have the option to set the end date of the old insurance, and the start date for the new insurance for the patient; this is recommended to avoid having duplicated coverages.
Update Patient Language: This utility will change the default language for all patients that have the first selected language to the second selected language.
Update Patient Office: This utility will change the patients office for all patients with one office to a different selected office. You also have the option to change the patient's provider.
Update Patient Provider: This utility will change the patient provider for all patients with one provider to a different selected provider. You also have the option to change the patient's office.
Update Plan Participation: This utility will set the participation status for all plans in the selected insurance company for the selected providers. You also have the option to change all insurance carriers globally.
Update Pre-Existing Charting Dates
Update Procedure Category: This utility will update all transactions and fees with one procedure category to a different selected category.
Update Procedure Type: This utility will change all transactions and fees with one procedure type to a different selected type. You can also delete the procedure type at the same time.
Update Procedure Type by Code: This utility will set the procedure type of all fees in the selected fee schedule between the entered code range.
Update Release Of Info: This utility will globally set the Release Of Info checkbox for all guarantors in the database.
Update Signature On File: This utility will globally set the Signature on File checkbox for all guarantors in the database.
Update SSN Format: This utility will insert dashes into the SSN (Social Security Number) field for patients, primary and secondary records.
Update VFC Eligibility Status: This utility will change the VFC Eligibility Status for all patients with the selected status, to another status of your choosing. This relates to the VFC Eligibility field located in Patients > Clinical > Immunizations.