Glossary of terms

A quick reference for the terminology you'll see across CuspFlow.

Clinical terms

• FDI notation — the international tooth-numbering system CuspFlow uses on the teeth chart. Each quadrant is numbered: upper-right teeth are 11–18, upper-left 21–28, lower-left 31–38, lower-right 41–48.
• Quadrant — one of the four sections of the mouth: Q1 (upper right), Q2 (upper left), Q3 (lower left), Q4 (lower right).
• Teeth chart — the interactive FDI diagram in a treatment plan where the clinician marks which teeth are involved.
• Treatment plan — the complete record of a single visit: procedures, prescriptions, clinical notes, X-rays, the invoice, consent forms, the care team and the patient's journey timings.
• Procedure — a billable clinical action (filling, extraction, cleaning, crown prep).
• Prescription — a medicine, gel or product issued during a visit; appears as a line item.
• SOAP note — a standard clinical-note format (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan). Note templates help you write these faster.
• Care team — the staff who worked on a plan. A Main Doctor is required before checkout; anyone who adds an item, changes status or takes payment is recorded automatically.
• Lab case — external laboratory work (crown, bridge, denture, aligner) tracked through its lifecycle and linked to a treatment plan.
• Ortho case — an orthodontic course of treatment (fixed braces or clear aligners) tracked on the patient's profile over time.
• Implant component — a tracked implant part (implant body, abutment, crown, screw) recorded per tooth.

Front-desk & billing terms

• Patient code (MRN) — a unique code per patient for quick lookup, e.g. PT-00123.
• Head of Family — the billing/contact anchor for a household group. A family's outstanding balance can be viewed as a whole.
• Walk-in — a patient who arrives without a booking; CuspFlow creates the appointment, checks them in and adds them to the queue in one step.
• Patient journey — the four tracked stages a patient moves through in the Waiting Room: Waiting → In Treatment → Billing → Discharged.
• Invoice — the single billing record attached to a treatment plan; tracks items, discount, amount paid and balance.
• Installment — a partial payment toward a balance; the invoice moves Unpaid → Partial → Paid as money comes in.
• Receipt — proof of payment, printed in A4 or thermal format with a gap-free number per clinic (e.g. RCP-00001).
• Finalised — an invoice whose balance is cleared; finalising is what allows a patient to be discharged.

Operations terms

• Price catalog — the list of procedures and prescriptions your clinic bills for. Separate from inventory.
• Inventory — the physical stock the clinic owns and consumes (medicines, consumables, equipment).
• Bill of Materials (BOM) — the link between a catalog item and the physical stock it uses up. Billing a catalog item automatically deducts the linked inventory.
• Stock movement — a recorded arrival ("Stock In") or use ("Stock Out"). Current stock is always the sum of movements — a ledger, not a single editable number.
• Reorder level — the threshold at which an item shows a red Low Stock badge.
• Batch / expiry — inventory can be tracked by batch with expiry dates and near-expiry alerts.

Account & subscription terms

• Seat — one staff login. Your plan includes a number of seats; extra seats can be added.
• Storage — your imaging/document storage quota. You can't drop below what you're already using.
• Trial — a 30-day free period for a new clinic, with no card required.
• View-only window — if a subscription lapses, the clinic enters a 60-day period where all data stays readable and fully exportable, but new changes pause until billing is fixed. See Billing lifecycle.
• Add-on — extra capacity billed alongside your plan: recurring staff seats and storage blocks.