Perfect Practice Case Management has been designed from the beginning as a user customizable solution. One of the many ways that a user (with appropriate permissions) can customize Perfect Practice to their unique requirements is via “Questionnaires”.

A questionnaire within Perfect Practice is essentially a blank canvas that the user can add, create and modify fields within the practice management solution. This functionality empowers our customers to customize Perfect Practice to their unique needs without the need of a programmer. Although in some cases with a complex requirement (calculating interest as an example) a client may require a Perfect Practice consultant to assist them.

Before a user can add a new blank questionnaire, he/she must define the questionnaire category. To do this, select system utilities from the main menu.

Select System Codes
Select Category – Questionnaire

All the current questionnaire categories will be displayed. If you’re using templates “setups” provided by Perfect Practice, numerous questionnaires will already exist. Which ones, will depend on the templates you have loaded.

Click on the plus sign to add a new questionnaire category.

Type in your new category code then save your entry by clicking on the check mark.

The new questionnaire will now be available for all case types.

The new questionnaire can now be setup by pulling up any case. Select the questionnaire tab. Select the ellipsis dropdown.

All available questionnaire categories will be displayed. Type into the search box, to find the one you just setup. Click OK.

The selected questionnaire will appear. As you will see, this is a blank canvas. You’ll need to define each questionnaire field for this new questionnaire. Rather than trying to design the questionnaire as you go, we suggest you first create a screen on paper. It should contain fields that you wish to use in documents; print in reports, interface with transactions or just fields you need to work the case. When you’re ready to add fields, press the control alt M keys.

The maintenance mode will engage, as confirmed by the yellow information box, and the yellow questionnaire background. Move your mouse to where you wish to add the new field. Click the left mouse button to indicate a new field.

The questionnaire setup screen will appear. To see examples of the data types available, see the questionnaire field types section.

Now to setup a field, for example: The Referral Date. Click on the field format dropdown, to get a list of available field types. Since this is a date, select the date format.

New fields, have a number of defaults set. Tab Order is normally left blank. This will result in the tab order being, left to right, top to bottom. The position settings are in pixels. By default, the height is set to 21 pixels, the width to 100 pixels. The top and left settings were determined by where on the questionnaire you clicked your mouse.

Type the label you wish to have display on the questionnaire. You can also add an operator hint, if you wish to give specific instructions or help.

Save the field by clicking on the check mark. Select the close button, to return and see the results of your work. Repeat this process until your questionnaire is complete. When you’ve finished, press the control alt M keys. This turns off the maintenance mode, and returns you to normal operation.

Unless you’ve paid careful attention, you may find your new fields, are not aligned properly. To align the fields hold down the shift key. Click on each of the fields you wish to align. Click on the first field with your mouse. It’s important to note, that all alignment, will be to the field first selected. When you select a field, its title will darken. This shows it’s been selected. Click on the next field. When all the fields you wish to align have been marked, right click. This will display the options menu. If you want to adjust the field’s vertical position, so select align vertically. You might want to make a backup of your data before using the alignment options. The selected fields will now be aligned. These fields are still linked. If you drag one to a new position in the questionnaire, the others will follow.

Let’s say we wanted a vertical column, instead of a straight line. Follow the same procedure. While holding down the shift key, mark the fields you wish to align. This time, we want to align the fields horizontally.

To adjust a field’s data entry area, right click on the field and again the setup screen will appear. The current height is 21 pixels and the current width, is 100 pixels. To can change this, enter in your new dimensions, save the changes and close the setup screen.

You can add as many fields to a questionnaire as you wish.