Payment Preferences
How Open Dental behaves when entering Payment Allocation is based on your selected preferences and setup options.
When deciding how to set up the system, here are a few questions to think about:
Once you have an idea of how you want the software to behave, select the preferences and options in Open Dental. If you don't know where to start, see the bottom of this page for typical scenarios and examples for the following:
Blog post: Patient Payments: Allocation Made Easy.
Webinar: Entering Patient Payments
Definitions: These definitions determine the options available as payment types and unearned types.
Account Module Preferences: These preferences determine the level of allocation and logic used for allocations, as well as a several default settings.
Pay/Adj tab
Misc Account tab
In this scenario, Open Dental will always suggest paysplits allocated to procedures or as unallocated income to be allocated later. You can 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 your answers.
Do you also attach adjustments to procedures? | Recommended Settings |
Yes: All of our adjustments (including any sales tax, finance charges, etc.), 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 Paysplits: Enforce Fully or Auto-split Only. 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 that are not allocated to procedures. | Enforce Valid Paysplits: Auto-Split Only Enforce Valid Adjustments: Link Only Auto-split payments preferring: Adjustments (then FIFO) |
*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.
Are you a New Customer or an Existing Customer? | Enter a Payment and Allocate Procedures |
New Customer with a blank database |
Suggested paysplits should be accurately allocated to the correct outstanding charges. |
New Customer with a converted database |
Suggested paysplits should be accurately allocated to the correct outstanding charges. |
Current customer who has been allocating payments to procedures |
Suggested paysplits should be accurately allocated to the correct outstanding charges. |
Current customer who has not allocated payments to procedures in the past, but wants to start |
Note: Reports prior to your allocation date may be inaccurate.
|
You do have the option of setting Open Dental to work as it did in version 17.2 and earlier. We only recommend this method if you have no intention of ever paying providers by income, are not concerned about the detail in your production and income reports, or you want to manually create every paysplit.
Open Dental will only suggest paysplits allocated to the procedure's treating provider. Staff can manually create splits to allocate to procedures or unearned types (unallocated), but no suggestions will be given. Only useful for small, single provider practices that do not track production or income. If you decide to track/allocate later, using this method will cause problems.
Beware: When you do not allocate payments to procedures, some reports/user queries may be useless and inaccurate.
Settings:
The system will suggest paysplits allocated to procedures (outstanding charges) or to the default unearned type (unallocated). Staff can modify allocations, but all splits must be allocated to a procedure or unearned type. This method is often used by large or multi-clinic offices who require users to allocate all income, including adjustments, to procedures.
Account Module Preference | Select... | Why |
Patient Payments Use | Any | Sets the payment's default clinic. |
Default unearned type for unallocated paysplits | Prepayment | Prepayments will default to this unearned type. |
Enforce Valid Paysplits | Enforce Fully | Requires user to allocate paysplits to procedures or unearned types. |
Enforce Valid Adjustments | Enforce Fully | Requires user to allocate adjustments to procedures. |
Auto-split payments preferring | Adjustments | The logic for split suggestions will consider outstanding adjustments first, then FIFO logic. |
Recurring charges use primary provider | Uncheck | Ensures that recurring charges use the same logic for paysplit allocations. |
Open Dental will still suggest paysplits allocated to procedures (outstanding charges) or to the default unearned type (unallocated), but staff can also make splits not allocated to procedures (e.g. splits for adjustments).
Account Module Preference | Select... | Why |
Patient Payments Use | Any | Sets the payment's default clinic. |
Default unearned type for unallocated paysplits | Prepayment | Prepayments will default to this unearned type. |
Enforce Valid Paysplits | Auto-split Only | User has option of allocating to procedures and unearned types, or only to provider. |
Enforce Valid Adjustments | Link Only | User has option to link adjustments to procedures. |
Auto-split payments preferring | Adjustments | The logic for split suggestions will consider outstanding adjustments first, then FIFO logic. |
Recurring charges use primary provider | Uncheck | Ensures that recurring charges use the same logic for paysplit allocations. |