Payment Allocation
In the Payment window, at the lower left, the paysplits are listed.
Payment Splits (paysplits) allow income to be allocated to adjustments, pay plan charges, procedures and providers, 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
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. Also, see Payment Preferences for another version of this discussion.
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.
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: All paysplits must be allocated to an adjustment, procedure or unearned type. | Enforce Valid Paysplits: Enforce Fully Recurring charges use primary provider: Uncheck |
No: Paysplits will be allocated to an adjustment, procedure or unearned type, but staff need the flexibility to make splits not allocated to these items. | 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. | Enforce Valid Adjustments: Enforce Fully Auto-split payments preferring: FIFO |
No: Some of our adjustments are not associated to procedures (e.g. sales tax, finance charges) and staff need the flexibility to create adjustments and not be required to attach them 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 adjustments or procedures.
**Auto-Split only will suggest paysplits, but staff is not required to always allocate to adjustments or procedures.
If you have not been allocating payments to procedures and would like to start follow the steps below.
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.
Settings:
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.