Payment Allocation
In the Payment window, at the lower left, the paysplits are listed.
Paysplits allow income to be allocated to providers and procedures, or mark a payment as unallocated (e.g. for prepayments, other unearned types).
Related Links:
Blog post: Patient Payments: Allocating Made Easy
Webinar: Entering Patient Payments
Paysplit Allocation Options
There are varying levels of allocation options and each are determined by a combination of the selected Account module preferences. Below is a description of each option and which preferences to select.
Allocate Paysplits by Procedure (recommended): The suggested paysplits will be allocated to procedures and the procedure's treating provider. Or as Unearned / Prepayment (e.g. prepayments, overpayments) to be allocated later (e.g. when treatment is complete or as a refund). We recommend this method of allocation so that reports and patient accounts are as robust and accurate as possible.
- Track production and income by procedure and provider.
- Use reports to determine pay for providers based on production and/or income. See Production and Income Reports.
- Easily determine patient portion by procedure on patient accounts.
- Use the Patient Portion Uncollected Report to determine outstanding patient portion amounts due by procedure.
- Create custom reports based on procedure income, provider income and patient portion remaining.
- Easily associate accurate procedures and credits to payment plan charges (Payment Plan).
- Track prepayments, overpayments, or other unearned types.
- Create custom reports based on unearned income types.
Additionally set whether staff is required to allocate to procedures, or have more flexibility. Here are some questions to ask, and the settings and steps we recommend based on the answers.
| Do you require payments to be split to procedures? | Recommended Settings |
| Yes: Staff can modify allocations, but all splits must be allocated to a procedure or unearned type. | Enforce Valid Paysplits: Enforce Fully Recurring charges use primary provider: Uncheck |
| No: Paysplits will be allocated to a procedure or unearned type, but staff can also make splits not allocated to procedures (e.g. splits for finance charge adjustments). | Enforce Valid Paysplits: Auto-Split Only Recurring charges use primary provider: Uncheck |
| Do you also attach adjustments to procedures? | Recommended Settings |
| Yes: All of our adjustments (including any sales tax), must be associated with procedures too. We allocate all paysplits to procedures or as unallocated paysplits to be allocated at a later time. | Enforce Valid Adjustments: Enforce Fully Auto-split payments preferring: Adjustments (then FIFO) |
| No: Some of our adjustments are not associated to procedures (e.g. sales tax, finance charges), however in most cases staff will allocate paysplits to procedures or as unallocated income to be allocated at a later time. Since we have adjustments not associated with procedures, our staff needs the flexibility to complete payments where adjustments are not attached to procedures. | Enforce Valid Adjustments: Link Only Auto-split payments preferring: Adjustments (then FIFO) |
| When an insurance overpayment is received, do you apply the payment to the claim? | Recommended Settings |
| Yes: Insurance overpayments are applied to claims and then refunded back to the carrier with a negative supplemental insurance payment. | Payment exceeds procedure balance: Warn |
| No: Insurance overpayments are not applied to claims, they are immediately returned to the carrier. | Payment exceeds procedure balance: Block |
*Enforce Fully will require staff to always allocate to procedures. The only way to allocate to adjustments will be to attach the adjustment to a procedure. Paysplits will be suggested for adjustments, but you cannot edit the suggestion and they will not be explicitly allocated to adjustments.
**Auto-Split only will suggest paysplits, but staff is not required to always allocate to procedures. Paysplits for adjustments will be suggested and you can change the adjustments they are associated to.
If you have not been allocating payments to procedures and would like to start follow the steps below.
- Select a date to start allocating (Allocation Date). All procedures completed on and after this date will be allocated. Procedures completed before this date should be ignored.
- Set payment preferences.
- Begin entering payments. Ignore all outstanding procedure charges dated prior to your Allocation Date.
- Manually re-allocate paysplits as needed until the patient's family balance is 0.
- Once the patient's family balance is 0, the paysplits suggested by Open Dental should accurately be allocated to the correct outstanding charges.
Allocate to Providers Only (old behavior): The suggested paysplits will be allocated to the oldest procedure's treating provider with a patient portion due. Staff can manually create splits to allocate to procedures or unearned types (unallocated), but no suggestions beyond treating provider will be given. This method is only useful for small, single provider practices that do not track production or income.
- Track income by provider only.
- Some reports may not be accurate since income by procedure won't be included.
- If you decide to track/allocate later, using this method will cause problems.
Settings:
- Enforce Valid Paysplits: Don't Force
- Enforce Valid Adjustments: Don't Enforce
When you have accounts where you have not directly (explicitly) allocated outstanding charges to payments in the past, Open Dental still implicitly associates outstanding charges and payments based on patient, provider, and clinic.