Welcome to Crownbeam ❤️
This guide takes you step by step from creating your first order yourself in the lab to integrated intraoral scanners and your own customer portal.
We've packed the knowledge from hundreds of projects with dental labs and dental practices into short, easy-to-follow steps so you can get up and running quickly.
👉 Go through the chapters in order — they build on each other logically.
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for every team member in the lab who wants to understand every feature and setting.
How to use this guide
Open the guide in one browser window and Crownbeam in a second one
Work through the chapters in order and make the matching settings in Crownbeam as you go
If you get interrupted, use the links in the checklist to quickly jump back to where you left off
Tip: Bookmark this guide in your browser's bookmarks bar, or print out the table on paper if you'd rather check things off by hand ✅.
Ready? On your marks, get set, go!
Here's an overview of every topic we'll walk you through.
Your checklist
☑️ | Chapter | What you'll do |
| You teach Crownbeam what can be ordered from you | |
| You teach Crownbeam who you're making orders for | |
| You understand the 3 ways orders are created in Crownbeam: lab, customer portal, scanner | |
| You create your first order yourself 🎉 | |
| You know how an order moves through your lab | |
| You integrate orders from 3Shape, DS Core and Medit (soon!) | |
| You automate orders with multiple appointments too | |
| Your basic setup is done! 🎉 |
|
| You experience Crownbeam from your customers' point of view |
1. Set up and fill your product catalog
Before you create your first order, Crownbeam needs to know what can be ordered from you. For that you need a product catalog filled with your indications.
This video walks you through setting up your product catalog and adding your first customers — it covers both this chapter and Chapter 2.
Create a new product catalog
Open the Product Catalog section in the navigation bar
Create a new catalog on the right by giving it a name and clicking Create
Set this catalog as the default catalog via Default
Your product catalog is now set up and ready to be filled
Fill the product catalog with indications
Crownbeam offers a huge number of combinations of indication, material and variant. That's exactly what makes the catalog flexible. For your start, though, it doesn't make sense to map your entire range right away — that would make getting started unnecessarily complicated.
Instead, think about which practice you want to start with. Which 5 indications does this practice order from you most often? Start with exactly those. That way you'll get to your first real order faster and can expand the catalog step by step later.
Check that the product catalog you just created is selected at the top
Click an indication category, for example Crowns and bridges
Select the material you want in the material selector
Pick the matching indication variant from the templates and click Offer
Enter at least one production time under Digital or Analog
Click Save
Repeat the process for your 5 most important indications
How simple or complex it is to create or order a later order depends on how you've built your product catalog. A lean catalog makes it easier for you and your customers to work with Crownbeam.
2. Add customers
Once your product catalog is set up, you can add your first practices. Crownbeam needs to know who the work is for.
The video in Chapter 1 already covers adding customers — watch it there if you haven't yet.
Don't worry: At this stage we're not inviting any customers to Crownbeam yet. You can keep going undisturbed without anyone being notified.
Open the Customers section in the top navigation bar
Click Create practice
Enter the new practice's details
Select the product catalog you created earlier for this practice
Click Create practice to save the customer
Add additional practitioners for this practice if needed via the person icon with the plus sign
Enter title, first name and last name, then click Create user
Excellent! The two basic requirements for creating your first order are now met: Crownbeam knows what can be ordered and who this work is being made for.
💡 It's best to enter your remaining customers right away. This is especially important once you connect intraoral scanners later, since you'll need a complete customer list.
3. How are orders actually created in Crownbeam?
Before we continue, a bit of theory. Orders can be created in Crownbeam in three different ways:
In the lab — you create the order yourself
In the customer portal — the practice orders directly from you
Via the intraoral scanner — scanner orders come in automatically
Each path represents a different way of working with your customers. Together, they let you bring all your orders into Crownbeam efficiently and give you 100% visibility.
4. Your first Crownbeam order
Time to roll up your sleeves 💪
How to create an order in your lab account
Click New order in the navigation bar
Select the practice this order belongs to
If applicable, select the right practitioner from the dropdown
Select an existing patient or create a new one
Click Create order and continue
Now add indications to the order: first select the category (e.g. Crowns and bridges), then the matching indication
Configure the indication, for example color, material or variant
Click the affected teeth on the tooth chart — the indication now appears in the cart on the right
Choose the impression type Analog or Digital and adjust the shipping method if needed
Click Create order and continue
Enter the patient appointment and shipping date, then complete the order setup
Done 🚀. Your first order is now set up in your lab account. Click Home to see your order on the dashboard.
5. Manage order status
Every order has a status that shows where it currently stands in the workflow.
You see this status in the lab, and the practice sees it in the customer portal at the same time. That means no more "where's my order" questions.
Here's how the status sequence looks:
Order received → Accepted → In progress → Preparing shipment → Shipped → Completed
Change your order's status
Take the order you just created and move it one step forward:
Open the order by clicking the patient's name on the dashboard. At the top you'll see the progress bar with the current stage the order is in.
Click the displayed next action at the top right — Accept.
Watch: The progress bar jumps one stage forward. The practice now sees this exact change in the customer portal too — and it's logged with timestamp and user in the event log.
Now click Case sheet and print the sheet for later. The status automatically jumps to In progress. Crownbeam recognizes what you're doing from your action and sets the status accordingly — you usually don't have to choose it by hand at all.
Keep clicking through until the order reaches Completed.
💡 The status is always set by the lab, never by the practice. You can also change or reset it manually via the pencil icon on the order.
6. Connect an intraoral scanner
This chapter is for you if you work with an intraoral scanner. If you don't, skip it — you can always come back to it later.
What the connection does: Instead of jumping from portal to portal, once connected scanner orders land automatically in your Crownbeam Inbox — including the scan data sets. You set this up once, and after that it runs on its own.
How to connect your scanner
In your account navigate to setting and then Integrations
Choose from the available integrations
Connect your Crownbeam account with your account on the intraoral scanner portal
Decide which data types Crownbeam should download for you
Once connected, new intraoral scanner orders appear in the Inbox and now need to be turned into a Crownbeam order.
Creating an intraoral scanner order
A new scanner order in the Inbox is not yet a complete Crownbeam order.
Converting it gives you the familiar order view, a unified case sheet, and the order is mirrored to the customer in the customer portal.
Open the Inbox in the top navigation bar
Select an intraoral scanner order at the top left
Use the dropdown to assign the matching customer in Crownbeam to the detected sender
Save this assignment for future orders if you like, so you can skip this step going forward
Click Create order
Add the matching indications just like a normal order — use the information from the original order on the right as your guide
Check the text information that was carried over automatically and click Continue
The intraoral scan data sets are placed directly in your order via the integration. You can download them as a .zip from the submenu.
7. Creating orders with multiple appointments
As soon as you start creating real orders, you'll quickly run into your first case that doesn't fit into a single appointment — a full denture, a telescopic restoration, a crown with a framework try-in. That's exactly what appointment sequences are for.
Plan a few extra minutes for this chapter — it's one of the most powerful features in Crownbeam, and it pays off once you've set it up.
The appointment sequence concept
An appointment sequence is a predefined series of appointments that you set up once and attach to an indication. Instead of laminated appointment lists the dental assistant has to calculate by hand, the practice orders once — and Crownbeam calculates all appointments automatically, including weekends and public holidays.
It consists of three building blocks that build on each other:
Appointment step — a single building block like "Custom tray", "Try-in" or "Finishing", with a name and a duration in days. All steps live in a central pool and can be used across multiple sequences.
Sequence — a named series of these steps in a fixed order, e.g. "Denture": Custom tray → Try-in → Finishing.
Indication — the trigger. The sequence only becomes active once you attach it to an indication in the product catalog.
When do you need a sequence? Whenever an order needs more than one appointment by default — full denture, partial framework, a crown with a framework try-in.
Important 🚨: a sequence order is made up of multiple orders
This is the point that catches most labs off guard at first — read it carefully, it'll save you a lot of searching later:
If you're used to a traditional lab, you're probably used to all appointments for one piece of work being on a single case sheet.
In Crownbeam this is deliberately different: each appointment in the sequence is its own order with its own case sheet, showing exactly that one appointment. A three-step denture sequence therefore creates three orders — one per treatment step — each with the date and tasks for that specific appointment.
This is intentional: at each appointment you're working on something different, and the sheet shows exactly what needs to be done for that appointment. How you can still see all appointments at once is explained next.
Psst... linked orders only count as a single order on your monthly invoice 😉
Creating an appointment sequence
Build a sequence for a typical multi-step piece of work in your lab — in three steps, in this order:
Step 1 — Create appointment steps
Open Settings via the gear icon at the top right and select Appointment sequences on the left.
In the Appointment steps section on the left, click Add and give it a name (e.g. "Try-in").
Enter the duration in days — each step has Analog standard, Digital standard, and optionally the two express fields. Save.
Repeat this for every step you need.
Step 2 — Assemble the sequence
In the Sequences section on the right, click Add and give it a name (something generic like "Denture" if you want to use it across multiple indications).
Drag the appointment steps via drag-and-drop into the correct order.
Step 3 — Attach it to an indication
Go to the Product Catalog and open the indication you want — e.g. Full denture (removable)
In the dropdown, select product-specific and pick your sequence — instead of the day value for a single appointment. Save.
Watch: When the practice orders this work now, they'll see "Multiple appointments" and enter all appointments directly while creating the order.
Try out your appointment sequence
Now create a new order with this indication, as described in Chapter 4.
The first sign of your appointment sequence already appears in the cart. Instead of the usual production time, Crownbeam shows you Multiple appointments as the production duration.
In the next step, you'll also have the option to fill in the appointments you defined earlier.
Note: In the lab, you can always assign appointments freely. For a practice, appointments are pre-calculated here, with no option to move them earlier.
You can still see all appointments at once
Open any order that belongs to a sequence. At the top you'll see a row of tabs — one per order in the sequence, so you can switch directly between appointments.
On the far left of this row is the "All" tab. Click "All" and you get the entire case aggregated in one place:
all appointments in the sequence at a glance,
all chat conversations from the individual orders merged together,
all internal notes from the individual orders merged together,
and more.
That way you have the whole job, including all communication, at a glance — while the individual case sheets are meant for the specific work at each appointment.
Rule of thumb: a single order / case sheet = one appointment (for the work at the bench), the "All" tab = the whole case (for an overview, chat and notes).
🎉 Congratulations — your basic setup is done!
You've built your product catalog, added a customer, you're creating orders, and you're integrating intraoral scanners.
You can now manage orders independently in the lab.
The next chapters round out your setup: you'll experience the customer portal from your customers' point of view and take care of the finishing touches.#
8. Try out the customer portal
Once a customer is set up, you can give them access to the customer portal via Send invitation.
There, the practice sees their orders, communicates with you, exchanges files, and orders new work. To understand your customer portal from the practice's point of view too, you can try it out with your own test practice.
How to create a test practice
Create a new practice using an email address you haven't used before (e.g. a private one)
Send this test practice an invitation
Make sure you're not logged into your lab account in the browser or on the device where you accept the invitation
Open the invitation, accept it, and log in with the practice account
Now try out Crownbeam from the practice's point of view
Don't use the test practice in the same browser as your lab account. Otherwise you may run into error messages.
Ideally, test with two devices: device 1 with your lab account, device 2 with your test practice.
Placing an order through the customer portal
Creating an order in the practice account runs in four steps: Create patient → Add indication → Upload files → Review and order
Click New order in the customer portal
If multiple practitioners are set up, select the right one
Select an existing patient or create a new one, then click Create order
Add the indication you want and click Continue
In the file upload area, upload the files — via file picker, drag-and-drop, or QR code scan — and click Continue
Enter the patient appointment in the summary and confirm with Apply
Click Order now
Done. The order has been forwarded to the lab account. Log into your lab account to see the order. You may need to refresh the page briefly.
How simple ordering is in the customer portal is determined by your product catalog. The most successful customer portals are usually the ones with the fewest indications.
You did it. You've set up Crownbeam cleanly, created your first order, connected your scanner, and tried out the customer portal. You're all set.
Come back to this guide any time you want to look something up. If you ever get stuck, reach us at [email protected]