The 5.43 Release brings a host of exciting updates that you won’t want to miss! Take a moment to explore the new and improved features and their benefits.
What’s New!
- Manage schedules, access patient information, set your availability, and communicate with patients, all from your mobile device with the CareStack Mobile App.
- A completely revamped Patient Tracker to give you greater control and visibility into patient flow.
- Experience an all-new dashboard experience with Practice Analytics, designed to dive into practice performance using pre-configured dashboards or by building your own custom dashboards. Track metrics through visualizations, drill into underlying data and monitor trends.
- Send quick updates to referring providers after a referral is accepted. Create Treatment Reports from the Referral Hub or Patient Overview, attach files, and track all sent reports in one place.
- Introducing automated financial lockout (Close Out) to help practices protect financial data by automatically processing a lockout for transactions after a set period of time.
- Create, customize, and share Treatment Plan Templates to automate your clinical workflow.
- Manage Treatment Plans directly from the Chart with the new odontogram filtering, resizing, and quick access to add codes or phases.
- The new Location Assignment module helps you assign items to specific practice locations, thus controlling visibility and reducing clutter.
- Track implant records from placement to completion with the new Implant Tracker Report.
What’s Been Enhanced!
- Practices can now add recurring breaks to a provider's schedule and manage schedules for specific dates directly from the Scheduler.
- Previous linked lab cases are retained when an appointment is rescheduled from the Reschedule Queue or Clipboard.
- Collect Deposit Fees for multiple online appointments in one go with this update.
- You can now set unique default Treatment Plan Agreements for each practice location.
- Users now have full control over Bulk Messaging templates, including the ability to create, edit, duplicate, and delete templates with real-time feedback and enhanced reliability.
- New quick link options like Yesterday, Day Before Yesterday, and End of Previous Month have been added to the Aging Report, Credit Balance, Production, and Collection reports, with the Previous Month option made available across reports.
5.43 comes with even more improvements. Discover it all for the ultimate practice experience!
Introducing the CareStack Mobile App; designed to help providers stay connected and informed anytime, anywhere. Providers can now easily manage daily schedules, access patient information, manage availability by blocking slots, and communicate with patients, all from their mobile devices.
- Gain instant visibility into daily appointments (confirmed, unconfirmed, and total) and easy access to patient information.
- Enjoy efficient management with both List and Calendar views in the Scheduler.
- Providers can now easily block slots and update blocked slots directly from the Calendar View.
- Critical patient details, medical alerts, and treatment history are accessible via a quick search.
- Providers can initiate communications (Call, Email, or Chat) right from the patient details page.
- Stay connected with patients using IRIS, which aggregates all patient conversations and helps start new chats directly for faster communication.
Get the app and start your journey! Now available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
1. Enhanced Patient Tracker for Better Appointment Status Management 
We have completely revamped the Patient Tracker to give you more control and visibility over your patient flow.
a. Use the brand-new Patient Tracker Compressed View to see a quick overview of patients under an appointment status displayed across the system. Appointment Status chips will be displayed at the top for easy access.
In the Tracker Settings tab under Practice Settings → Patient Tracker, you can now configure the Patient Tracker Compressed View by selecting the exact Statuses you want to display.
The Upcoming Arrivals chip helps you track expected patient arrivals by automatically grouping all appointments that have a configured Pre-Arrival Status.
Pre-Arrival Statuses can be grouped using the Appointment Status Group option under Practice Settings → Scheduler → General Settings.
- Clicking a Status chip shows detailed appointment cards, organized by appointment time, along with Pending Actions.
- A visual indicator appears on the status chip when a threshold is exceeded, automatically prioritizing these appointments at the top of your list.
Users can effortlessly change a patient's status by simply dragging and dropping their appointment card to the intended status.
On clicking an appointment card, you can take relevant actions, which upon selection will guide you to the relevant action page.
b. Clicking the Patient Tracker icon opens the Patient Tracker Expanded View, where you can view and filter appointments by ‘Upcoming Arrivals’, ‘In Practice’, and ‘Checked Out’, while retaining all functionalities available in the Patient Tracker Compressed View.
c. You can enable or disable the new Display Patient Tracker Compressed View toggle in User Settings.
2. Lab Case Linkage Retained During Rescheduling & Clipboard Actions
When an appointment is rescheduled, either via the Reschedule Queue or Clipboard, any linked lab cases are automatically retained, ensuring lab case associations are not lost during the rescheduling process.
3. Add Breaks within Provider’s Schedules
a. You can now add up to 3 break times to a Provider’s Schedule directly from the Provider Availability setting.
Break hours will appear as non-working hours in the Scheduler and will be excluded from Find Slot and the Online Appointment Portal.
4. Ability to Edit a Provider’s Schedule from the Scheduler
a. Front Office staff can now mark a provider as unavailable directly from the Scheduler, without heading into the Production Calendar. For a specific date, you can quickly edit a provider’s schedule by hovering over the operatory header to manage availability, breaks, and start/end times in one place.
- Click the pencil icon next to the provider’s schedule to make edits.
Making edits via this modal for a particular date will automatically create a date template for that provider against that date, which can be viewed in Production Calendar → Provider Availability.
5. Print Future Appointments for Patients and All Linked Members
You can now Print a patient’s future appointments, including those of any linked account members, from the Global Print menu.
6. View the Patient’s Inbox from an Appointment
With the new View Inbox quick link, users can access a patient’s inbox straight from the Appointment Menu, skipping the Patient Overview and reviewing past communications right from the Scheduler.
7. Enhanced Scheduler Filter Behavior
When accessing the Scheduler via 'View in Scheduler' from Online Appointments or 'Find Slot', the temporary custom scheduler filter will now apply only to that session. Once you leave the Scheduler, it is cleared, and your previous filter is restored, ensuring a consistent and predictable view.
8. Billable vs. Non-Billable Operatories with Enhanced Permissions
a. Operatories can now be classified as Billable or Non-Billable in Operatory Settings. This enhancement helps accurately distinguish between physical (billable) and virtual (non-billable) operatories, ensuring correct billing.
- The info banner now displays the count of billable operatories for better visibility.
- To change an operatory from Billable to Non-Billable (Virtual), please contact support@carestack.com.
- Operatories now have separate permissions for Add, Edit, and Delete actions.
Note: The billing process will continue as it currently does. This update will only begin to impact your current location–operatory level billing starting March 18, 2026.
9. Relocation of Working Hours and Holidays Settings
The configuration for Working Hours and Holidays has been moved from Location settings and is now permanently accessible under Practice Settings → Scheduler.
10. Referral Sources Visibility on the Appointment Slide-out
You can now view the number of Referral Sources of a patient on the appointment slide-out. Click on the button to view detailed information.
1. Introducing the Treatment Plan Template 
a. Set up Treatment Plan Templates by creating phases and adding codes, making it easy to reuse them on the Treatment Planner, reducing the time needed to add them manually each time.
b. Create treatment plan templates with a name and status.
c. Easily enable the treatment plan template for everyone or a specific provider.
d. Users can edit or set treatment times, view the number of phases and procedures, and rename phases as needed.
e. On creating a new treatment plan using the treatment plan template, all procedure codes that do not require tooth or surface details will automatically appear in the Code Grid.
Codes that require linking of a tooth or surface will be listed as an action item on the Plan Template Actions pop-up, along with the associated phases.
2. Treatment Planning in the Chart
a. A new Tx. Plans (Treatment Plans) tab has been added to the Chart, allowing users to manage treatment plans while viewing the Odontogram without heading to the Treatment Planner. Key enhancements include:
- Odontogram resizing for better visibility on smaller or larger screens.
- You can now filter the odontogram after selecting a treatment plan from the chart. Choose from options like ‘Selected Treatment Plan’, ‘Conditions’, ‘Existing Treatments’, ‘Planned Treatments’, and ‘Completed Treatments’. Your selected view will be saved as the default for future sessions.
- Create a New Treatment Plan using a predefined template or create a new one directly from the Chart.
- When using a template-based treatment plan, you can now select teeth directly from the Chart to assign the corresponding codes.
- Quickly add codes to the desired phase.
- Edit or set treatment time for procedures and rename phases.
- Accept, Print, Present, or Reject treatment plans.
- View the sum of selected codes, including total fee, insurance estimate, and patient payable, across the Chart, Tx. Plans tab, and Treatment Planner.
3. Easier Workflow for Pending XChart Reports
You can now easily access and sign Pending XChart Reports from System Menu → Operations → XChart Pending Reports, while still having the option to access them through Clinical Cases.
4. Enhancements in Treatment Phases
Previously, the system imposed a restriction to delete the first phase of a Treatment Plan.
a. Users can now delete the first phase.
b. Deleting a Treatment Phase will now remove all codes in that phase. They will not be carried over to the previous phase anymore.
Deletion will not proceed if any code in the phase meets any of the following conditions:
- Code Lockout
- Code Close Out
- Linked to a Payment Plan
- Ortho Base Code
- Claim Raised Code
5. Make ‘Treatment Coordinator’ Mandatory for New Treatment Plans
a. Now you can make the ‘Treatment Coordinator’ a mandatory field when creating a new Treatment Plan.
To request this feature, contact support@carestack.com.
6. Mandatory Location Selection for Treatment Plans
a. When you create a new Treatment Plan, you will be asked to choose a Treatment Location. This helps ensure the plan is linked to the correct location where the treatment plan will be used. For convenience, the location automatically defaults to the one you are currently logged into for both new plans and predefined templates.
You can Edit the plan to update earlier treatments and select a Presented Location for accurate tracking.
7. Default Treatment Plan Agreements by Location
a. Multi-location practices can now set a unique default Treatment Plan Agreement for each office, replacing the single account-wide default. This eliminates the need to manually select templates, ensuring consistent documentation across all your sites.
To set it up, navigate to Location → Print Settings and toggle the default from Account to Location. Simply select your preferred agreement from the list and click Save.
8. Making Discounts Easier to Apply
a. Applying Discounts at the code level is now easier. Users can click the Discount amount to open the Apply Discount modal, reducing extra clicks.
b. Select the required treatments and right-click to remove discounts at the code, phase, or treatment level.
9. Simplifying ‘Discounting’
Define the final Net Fee in the Apply Discount modal, and the system will automatically calculate and populate the Discount Amount, reducing manual intervention and calculation. This option can be used only with Amount; it is not available for Percentage.
1. Now Collect Deposit Fees for Multiple Online Appointments
a. With this update, we support Deposit Fee collection for Multiple Online Appointment Bookings. Previously, deposit fees could only be collected for a single appointment.
b. To collect Deposit Fees for Multiple Appointments:
- Ensure Multiple Appointment Booking is enabled in Online Appointment Settings.
- The Deposit Fee must be enabled at the location and added for the Appointment Reasons.
2. Standardized Forms and Letters with Better Spacing Options
a. For improving the documentation standards of a practice, we have updated the line spacing options for Forms and Letters, providing a cleaner, gap-free document formatting.
- The Enter Key moves the cursor to a new line without adding extra spacing.
- Shift + Enter moves the cursor to the new line and inserts paragraph breaks.
- Line Height
controls spacing between lines (recommended ≥1.1).
3. Enhancements to the Online Appointments List
a. The Preferred Time is now clickable on any Online Appointment to view its specific slot in the Scheduler. This applies to both scheduled and requested appointments, and you can still use ‘View in Scheduler’ from the three-dot menu.
b. You can now click Patient Names for directly scheduled and requested online appointments to quickly view patient details in the Patient Snapshot. For requested appointments, only existing patients are clickable, as new patients are created after booking.
c. The Online Appointment Messages section now makes managing requests easier. Users can filter messages by Received Time or Preferred Appointment Time (earliest or within a date range) to quickly prioritize follow-ups. Additionally, a new Patient Category column indicates whether the requester is a new or existing patient, eliminating the need for manual checks.
4. Quickly Navigate to the Relevant Treatment Plan from Notifications
Users can now click the Treatment Plan Notification, which will redirect them directly to the specific treatment plan that was signed or rejected from the Patient Portal.
5. Enhanced Document Processing
a. We have upgraded the way Documents are saved to keep you moving faster. You can now continue working in the system while larger files process in the background.
- Smaller files will pop open in a new tab instantly for quick printing or downloading.
- If a document takes longer than 3 seconds, it will continue to process in a separate tab so you can navigate the system and finish other tasks immediately.
- When a large file is finished, a notification will pop up: ‘<Document_Name> of <Patient_Name> is now available.’
- On the Patient Documents page, you will see files marked as ‘Processing’ until they are completed.
6. New Patient Information Fields: Biological Sex at Birth and DSD
a. To help meet regulatory requirements (such as the Texas Senate Bill), CareStack now includes fields for capturing 'Biological Sex at Birth' and 'Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD)
in the patient profile.
This feature is available to qualifying practices with at least one location in Texas. If your practice qualifies but does not see these fields, contact support@carestack.com to have them enabled.
1. New Actions for Managing Bulk Messaging Templates
a. Users now have full lifecycle control over Bulk Messaging templates, including the ability to create, edit, duplicate, and delete templates with real-time feedback and enhanced reliability.
These improvements extend across key touchpoints such as the Reschedule Queue List, Short Call List, and Opportunity Miner, delivering a smoother, more efficient experience for users leveraging bulk messaging features in their daily workflows.
2. ‘Mark as Unread’ Feature Added to Text Messages
Users can now mark text messages as unread in the Communication Hub to revisit or route them for action later.
3. Unicode Handling
Text messages now clearly show when special characters like emojis reduce the allowed message length, helping you avoid messages being split or not delivered and ensuring patients receive your messages as intended.
Note: Any existing templates that contain special characters or emojis and exceed the 600-character limit must be updated to ensure the content is within 600 characters.
4. Send Emails without a Configured Mailbox
You can now send emails even if the location has no configured mailbox, with clear visibility into which address is used, to avoid confusion or blocked workflows.
1. Reverse Adjustments from the Ledger
a. Users can now reverse adjustment amounts from the Ledger with the new ‘Reverse Adjustment’ right-click action.
The Reverse Adjustment modal will appear, showing all related transactions pertaining to the selected adjustment.
Note: If there are other transactions (like Payments or other Adjustments) that need to be reversed first, the user needs to verify and reverse them first.
i. If the adjustment is the latest entry, you can reverse it directly.
ii. If subsequent transactions exist, they must be reversed before proceeding with the adjustment reversal.
iii. For adjustments linked to multiple codes, you have the option to reverse the adjustment amount for codes individually. A tick confirms that the adjustment has been successfully reversed for a specific code.
2. Delete Completed Codes from the Ledger
a. Use the new 'Delete Code' right-click action to easily remove completed codes from the Ledger.
- Warning messages will appear informing of any consequences of the action. Click Delete to confirm.
3. View Attachment History in CS Attachments
a. Now you can view the history of electronic attachments added to a claim. A new ‘History‘ tab is available when you are adding electronic attachments, showing a date-sorted list of documents attached to past submissions of a claim.
- Past attachments can only be viewed and attached to the current claim.
4. Automated Close Out with Enhanced Permissions
a. Introducing Automated Close Out to help practices protect financial data by automatically processing a Close Out for transactions after a set period of time. You can configure it at the location level, and super admins can override it when needed and manually finalize transactions as usual.
b. When a closeout is initiated, it will be in Pending status. You can use the new permissions to edit or check out procedure codes during a pending close-out. This access can be assigned to specific providers or roles under Profiles → Manage Permissions.
c. The permission for Override Pending Close Out has been separated from the Finalize/Reject Close Out permission. This change enables users to take action on a pending close-out without needing to finalize or reject it.
5. Apply Adjustment Amounts Proportionally Across Codes
- Previously, only percentage-based adjustments could be distributed evenly. Now, you can use the Distribute Proportionally option to apply amount-based adjustments across multiple treatment codes, ensuring they are evenly allocated even when treatments involve multiple providers.
6. Insurance Manager Updates & Enhancements
a. Rejected codes are now excluded from fee calculations when applying exclusions or limitations, so patients may still have coverage for subsequent procedures.
b. Updated rules for Existing Codes in Insurance Plan Exclusions and Limitations include the following:
- D9310: The limitation has been updated from once per lifetime to two every 12 months per provider, applicable to all age groups.
- D9223: The alert has been updated to clarify that hour calculations are not performed within the system.
c. The new setting ‘Consider codes in different phases to be completed on different dates’ under Fee Tables → Settings allows codes in different phases to be seen as it will be completed on different dates. When enabled, this ensures accurate insurance estimates during treatment planning by calculating fees based on phase-specific dates of service.
d. You can now set a Plan Reset Date to calculate the Fiscal Year as 365 days from that date. Previously, the system used a rolling 365-day calculation.
1. Treatment Reports for Specialty Referrals
a. We have introduced Treatment Reports, enabling specialty practices to send timely updates to referring providers once a referral is accepted.
Users can now create and send treatment reports from the Referral Hub (Accepted tab) or the Incoming Clinical Referrals section in the Patient Overview, attach documents or images, and track all sent reports in the new 'Treatment Reports' section.
b. Referrals can now be Marked as Completed once all patient care is finished. This automatically moves them to the all-new 'Completed' tab in the Referral Hub. After this, no further treatment updates can be sent, thereby allowing practices to easily identify active referrals from completed ones.
1. Practice Analytics
Introducing 'Practice Analytics', a powerful addition to the Insights module that lets you visualize and drill into data to better track and optimize practice performance.
- Explore Pre-configured Dashboards for key areas like Collections, Front Office, Provider Performance, Production, and Patient Analysis.
- Build your own personalized data views from scratch or customize existing templates. Create unique layouts, set default filters, and share your dashboards with others or transfer ownership as needed.
- Drill down into individual metrics from aggregate numbers to detailed data with Location and Date filters.
- Click the View Trends icon to see how a metric has performed over a selected period.
- Multi-metric cards to spotlight Key Metrics and quickly access Detailed Views.
Each dashboard includes Multi-metric cards that highlight key metrics, allowing for easy access to detailed data when Individual Metrics are needed.
Check out these tutorials to learn more about the Practice Analytics feature and how to create a Custom Analytics Dashboard.
2. Introducing the Implant Tracker Report
a. We have introduced a new 'Implant Tracker Report' to help practices analyze implant volume and effectiveness using data from the Implant Tracker. The report includes a Summary View showing total implants and patients, grouped by dimensions such as provider, location, or supplier, and a Detail View with complete implant timelines and treatment information to help identify missing data.
b. The report supports flexible date options (Created On, Implant Placed On, and Completed On), multiple grouping options, and advanced filters, including lot number filtering to quickly identify patients impacted by implant recalls.
3. New Quick Links Added to Reports
a. Quick link options such as Yesterday, Day Before Yesterday, and End of Previous Month have been added to the Aging, Credit Balance, Production and Collection Reports with saved filters automatically updating each time the report is generated.
b. We have brought the previous month quick link across reports to enable easy selection of the last calendar month and for use in saved filters.
4. New Service Type Grouping in Utilization Report
a. To help users analyze the usage of services across providers, the Utilization Report now includes a Service Type grouping.
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You can now filter the report by Service Type, with the results shown in a new column in the generated data.
1. Location Assignment and Visibility Control
a. Enhance operational efficiency in your practice with the new ‘Location Assignment’ settings (accessible via Practice Settings → Locations).
- You can now assign specific items like Explosion Codes, Production Types, Appointment Statuses, Templates, etc., to relevant locations, thereby reducing clutter.
- Users will only be able to view the assigned items in their allowed locations.
2. Hide Deactivated Locations
a. Practices can now deactivate locations that are shut down or acquired. Deactivated locations will be hidden when creating or editing data, helping prevent accidental data entry in inactive locations.
Location deactivation is handled through a service request and requires explicit confirmation from the practice point of contact (POC). This ensures that location deactivation is performed only with authorized approval.
3. Location Restrictions Across Workflows
Patient creation and procedure code addition now respect user location restrictions. Only the user’s allowed locations are available for selection, helping maintain consistent location-based access and preventing unintended data association.
4. Access ACE DSN from CareStack
ACE DSN is now available directly within CareStack! This integrated digital procurement platform simplifies ordering, reduces costs, and centralizes spend management. Additionally, ACE DSN includes centralized lab case management and offers an optional facilities management module to support equipment and real estate needs, all in one place.
Explore the new and updated features and let us know your thoughts. We can’t wait to hear what you think!
Stay ahead with the exciting 5.43 updates, coming to practices by late January!