How to Export Claims Data from Eaglesoft

What is an Eaglesoft claims export?

Eaglesoft is Patterson Dental's practice management system. A claims export is a file of its insurance claims, open or closed, that you can work outside the program. That might be a spreadsheet, a billing company's worklist, or the starting list for a software switch.

Eaglesoft has no single "export all claims" button. You get claims data out in one of three ways:

1. A built-in insurance report, saved from its preview as CSV or Excel.
2. An SQL file run through Database Navigator, for data no report shows.
3. An API connection, which Patterson gives to software developers that meet its criteria.

Most billing teams only need the first. Patterson covers it across several support answers, so this guide puts them on one page, with links to each.

How to run the Eaglesoft outstanding claims report

The report built for follow-up is Outstanding Claims by Insurance Company. Patterson describes it as one that "shows basic information on all open claims in the system, grouped by insurance company" (Patterson Support, Insurance Reports).

The steps, from Patterson Support answer 394:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Click the Insurance tab.
3. Choose Outstanding Claims by Insurance Company.
4. Set the filters: one insurance company or all of them, the provider, and the date range.
5. Click Process, then Preview Report.

Run it for all insurance companies for one office-wide list. Run it for one company to work a single payer at a time.

Which insurance report to pick

Patterson's list of insurance reports (Insurance Reports) includes these three for claims:

The tab also lists Electronic Claims Submission Summary, Insurance Companies by Payer ID and Outstanding Pre Authorizations by Insurance. Closed claims have their own report, covered in a separate Patterson FAQ that answer 98 points to.

How to export an Eaglesoft report to CSV or Excel

With the report in preview, the export takes four steps, from Patterson Support answer 39174:

1. With the report open in Preview Report, right-click anywhere on the report.
2. Choose Save Data As.
3. Pick Comma Delimited (.csv) or Microsoft Excel (.xls).
4. Name the file and save it.

Two notes from the same answer matter. First, "some reports in Eaglesoft have the capability of being exported," so not every report offers Save Data As. Check the right-click menu before you build a workflow around a report. Second, exported reports "may have additional data that otherwise is not able to be obtained." Open the export before you decide it lacks a field.

CSV is the safer choice when the file feeds another system. Excel suits a person who will sort and filter by hand.

Eaglesoft data export beyond the reports

When no report holds the data you need, Eaglesoft has a database route. Patterson distributes SQL files that an administrator runs from Utilities, Database Navigator, and the result is written as a CSV to C:\Eaglesoft. Patterson's published example exports prescription data, and its steps begin with "Log into Eaglesoft as an Administrator" (Patterson Support answer 43917).

What this means in practice:

• You need an administrator login on the office's Eaglesoft.
• The SQL file comes from Patterson. For claims data, ask Patterson support for the file that fits.
• The output lands on the local drive of the machine that ran it, so treat it as patient data from the moment it is written.

For a live connection rather than a file, Patterson runs the Patterson Innovation Connection (PIC). At its February 2017 launch, for Eaglesoft 18 and later, Patterson said "software developers that meet specific criteria receive an API" (Dentalcompare, PIC announcement). The API goes to developers, so an office gets a live connection through software built by one of them.

How Eaglesoft compares with Dentrix and Open Dental

A billing company that serves several dental offices usually meets more than one system. Here is how the claims export differs, from each vendor's documentation.

The Dentrix and Open Dental steps have their own guides: how to export claims data from Dentrix and how to export claims data from Open Dental. For the wider problem of working claims across several systems at once, see how a billing company works across several practice management systems.

Exporting outstanding claims when an office leaves Eaglesoft

If the export is for a software switch, plan for claims that will not move on their own. Open Dental's conversion guide says "most final conversions do not convert outstanding claims," and tells the office to "print an outstanding claim report from the old software (as of the final conversion date)" and recreate each claim in the new system (Open Dental, Converting Claims).

For an office leaving Eaglesoft, that means:

1. Run Outstanding Claims by Insurance Company for all insurance companies on the final conversion date.
2. Save it as CSV or Excel as well as printing it, so the list can be sorted and checked off.
3. Run Outstanding Pre Authorizations by Insurance the same day, so open predeterminations are not lost.
4. Keep the file until every claim on it is paid, denied and worked, or written off.

Timely filing limits keep running through a conversion, so work the oldest claims first. Our guide to how dental timely filing works covers the limits.

Is an export the right way to follow up?

An export is a snapshot. It suits a conversion, an audit, a client's monthly report or a one-off cleanup. It is a poor fit for daily follow-up. The list is stale by the next morning, and someone still has to ask each payer about each claim and type the answer into Eaglesoft.

That second part is what Daybook does for dental billing teams. Daybook connects to the clearinghouse, downloads the raw EDI files, parses the 835s and matches each payment to its claims. Its agents ask the payer where each claim is and balance every remit. Eaglesoft is one of the dental practice management systems the answers are written back to. Daybook works through the billing companies, RCM firms and software vendors that serve dental offices, not with individual practices. For write-back, see how claim data gets written back to a dental practice management system. For status checks, see how to ask every dental payer where a claim is. The buyer's view is on AI claim status for dental offices and the best dental claims automation software.