Compliance

Settings → Compliance keeps the practice's regulatory evidence: what was checked and when, which autoclave cycle sterilised the instruments used on a patient, what went wrong and how it was closed, which policy wording each member acknowledged, and when a registration or indemnity runs out. Nothing here is installed by default: checks, policies and records are the practice's own.

Checks

Owners and managers define a check with its kind (daily test, spore test, fridge temperature, fire, first aid, X-ray QA, audit or custom), a title, how often it is due in days (blank means ad hoc), if it applies to one site, the location, and its Assignee. Everyone who can record compliance clicks Pass, Fail or N/A with an optional note. A check with fields, such as a temperature or a yes/no, shows a box for each above those buttons: Pass and Fail need every required one filled in, and N/A records none. A text or number field set up as optional is marked "(optional)" and may be left blank; when it is filled in, it is still checked. Entries are never edited or deleted.

A check's fields

Owners and managers click Edit fields on a check to choose what each entry records. Add field adds one: its Label, its Kind — Text, Number with an optional unit such as °C, or Yes / no — and whether a text or number reading is Required. Click Save.

A field that is already saved can be renamed and made required or optional, but its kind and unit stay as they are, and it can't be removed. Every entry keeps its readings under the fields it was recorded with, so changing a field's kind or unit would change what the readings already recorded mean. Renaming is safe: each entry also keeps the labels and units its fields had when it was recorded, so after "Fridge temperature" is renamed "Room temperature", the readings already recorded stay fridge temperatures and only later entries take the new label. To stop asking for a reading, untick Required; to record something different, add a new field. Smileline holds the same rule for apps that change a check through the API.

If another manager changed the check's fields while you had them open — added a field, say — your save is refused, so it can't drop their field. Nothing is saved: the dialog says the fields changed and shows them as they are now. Make your change again and click Save.

A recurring check that falls due opens one task, due at 09:00 practice time on its due day and assigned to the check's assignee, and recording the check closes it — whether you record it from the task or straight from the Compliance page. Nothing opens twice while that task is still open; the next occurrence opens on its own due day.

Who a check is assigned to

Pick the Assignee when you add the check, or change it on the check itself. Only active team members are offered. If the assignee's access was suspended, the check shows them as "(suspended)" until you choose someone else, and a task that falls due meanwhile opens unassigned, where the whole team sees it. Changing the assignee moves the check's open task to the new person straight away.

Deactivating a check

Deactivate stops a check falling due and cancels its open task, with "Check disabled" kept as the reason in the task's history. Tick Show deactivated checks to see it again, and click Reactivate to bring it back: if it is due, its next task opens at once, and only one.

A check's history

Click History on a check to see everything recorded for it, newest first: the outcome, who recorded it and when, the note, and each reading under the label and unit it was recorded with. Click Load more for older entries.

Recording the check is the only way to close its task, so every closed check task has an entry behind it:

• Mark done, cancelling the task, or changing its kind is refused. You can still hand it to someone else or change its due date, priority, title or note.
• Recording a check closes that check's task and no other. An entry that names a task belonging to a different check, or an ordinary task, is refused and nothing is saved.
• Nobody can create a check task by hand; only a check that falls due opens one.

A dentist, hygienist or nurse finds the check tasks assigned to them under To do → My tasks, where a check task offers Record check — the same entry as on this page — instead of Mark done.

Sterilisation

Click Start cycle with the autoclave and its cycle number, then Pass, Fail or Aborted when it ends. The outcome is sealed once. Narrow the list by Location, Outcome or Running only; Load more shows older cycles.

Instruments used

Click a cycle's name to open it. On a passed cycle, Record instruments used takes the patient, optionally their appointment, and the instrument set; a running, failed or aborted cycle refuses it. If the connection drops before Smileline answers, the form says it was not saved and keeps what you entered: Retry sends it again and never records it twice, and Discard drops it.

Recorded uses are never edited or deleted. If one is wrong, click Correct, give the right patient, appointment or set and a reason; or click Entered in error with a reason if it should not be there at all. The original stays in the list, struck through, with the reason beside it, and only current entries count towards the patients a cycle was used on. A use can be corrected once; to change it again, correct its latest entry.

When a patient is erased and their records are kept, a cycle no longer lists the instruments used on them. Only the owner can see those uses, with the rest of the patient's kept record.

Incidents

Anyone who can record compliance reports an incident with its kind, severity, when it happened and what happened. Open incidents are listed first, newest first. Narrow the list by Status, Location or a From and To date, and click Load more to see further back. If a page fails to load, what is already shown stays and Retry fetches that page again. Managers move it to Investigate, add the root cause and the actions taken, and Close it. A closed incident is never edited; a mistake is a new incident.

An incident about a patient who has been erased, with their records kept, leaves this list and can no longer be changed. It stays in the patient's kept record, which only the owner can open.

Policies

Managers draft a policy under a key such as infection-control, then Publish it. Publishing freezes the wording and archives the previous version of that key in the same step, so exactly one version is live. Members click Acknowledge on the live version; acknowledgements are kept per version and never removed. A draft that was never published can be deleted; a published version can only be archived.

Staff records

Add registrations, indemnity, immunisations, training and the like per staff member with the expiry date. The kinds follow the practice's country — a DBS check is offered in the UK and a DEA registration in the US. A record within its reminder window (30 days by default) or already expired opens one task for the member, and Archive retires a record that no longer applies.