Aging is the length of time a balance has been outstanding and is useful for billing

In the upper-left of the Account Module is Family Aging.

Aging is automatically calculated in the Family Aging grid when opening the Account Module.

Aging can be set to run automatically at a specificed time each day:

• The Open Dental Service must be installed on the server
• An Automated aging run time must be set in Preferences. For Enterprise users, this also determines the Aging Service Time Due preference.
• Aging only runs when the DateTime the currently running aging started in Preferences, is blank or was more than 24 hours ago.

Aging is also automatically calculated on affected accounts when users:

• Run the Repeating Charges tool, if the Run aging after posting charges preference is enabled.
• Run Billing/Finance Charges or Late Charges.
• Open an unsent statement from the Billing List.
• When receiving a Batch Insurance Payment if the preference, Aging calculated on receipt of batch claim payments is enabled.

Aging is automatically calculated when generating the following reports, but not updated in accounts at that time:

• Aging of Accounts Receivable (A/R) Report
• Insurance Aging Report

Additional settings for Aging are found in Preferences.

How Aging is Calculated

By default, all charges within a family are sorted into four aging categories based on the date of the charge:

• 0-30
• 31-60
• 61-90
• over 90

Categories represent the number of days the remaining balance of a charge has been outstanding, then, the sum of all credits for the entire family history is applied to the oldest category with a remaining balance. If the total credits were not sufficient to cover the total charges, categories still contain amounts due.

By default, credits are applied to the oldest debts first in order to give the family as much credit as possible. This way, if a family has a balance in the over 90 category, the practice might be more comfortable moving the guarantor account to precollections.

If the preference, Transactions attached to a procedure offset each other before aging, is enabled, credits (e.g., adjustments, pay plan charges) attached to procedures are applied to the procedure balance instead of the oldest family balance.