In the Account Module, at the upper right, is the family Unearned Income balance.

Unearned income is typically a prepayment. It's income from a patient Payment to be allocated towards future treatment or an over-payment to be refunded. When a Payment Split's unearned type is set, the paysplit is considered unearned / prepayment. Prepayments may be allocated to treatment planned procedures at the time of the payment or left as unallocated, and manually allocated when treatment is complete. See Allocate Unearned Income.

Unallocated Prepayment

Prepayments can be unallocated to indicate payment towards undetermined treatment. When the treatment is complete, you then allocate the prepayment. To instead allocate a prepayment to treatment, see Allocated Prepayment below.

A prepayment not yet allocated to treatment is useful to collect payment in advance for treatment still to be determined.

To create an unallocated prepayment, in the Payment window, verify the Clinic and Payment Type. Also, process any Credit Card Payment.

Click Prepay. One unallocated paysplit will be created with the default unearned income type, and the payment window will immediately close.

The payment will show as a credit line item in the Account Module, affecting the patient's current balance. The family's total unallocated amount will show under Unearned in the top aging bar. Allocate Unearned Income when treatment is complete. Run the Unearned Income Reports to track accounts with these prepayments.

Allocated Prepayment

Alternatively, if the prepayment is for a specific treatment planned procedure, allocate the payment to the procedure. For payments to be allocated to treatment planned procedures, you must enable Allow pre-payments to allocate to treatment planned procedures in the Account Module Preferences.

To create an allocated prepayment, in the Payment window, click Delete Splits to clear the default payment allocation.

In the Treatment Plan tab, highlight the treatment planned procedures (TP) and click Pay. Paysplits will be created for each TP procedure selected and be assigned the default treatment planned procedure unearned income type.

Process any Credit Card Payment then click OK to finalize the payment.

The payment will be hidden from the Patient Account tab and most reports, to not affect the patient balance until the treatment planned procedure is set complete. It's also excluded from the Unearned balance since it is already allocated. A summary of the prepayment can be viewed under the Hidden Splits tab. Once the procedure is set complete, the prepayment is transferred to the Patient Account with an automatic Income Transfer. Run the Hidden Payment Splits Report to track accounts with these prepayments.

Change a Paysplit's Unearned Type

The default unearned type for unallocated prepayments is Prepayment and for allocated prepayments is Treatment Plan Pre-Payment. Other types can be created in Definitions: PaySplit Unearned Types. To assign custom prepayment types as default, see Default unearned type for unallocated paysplits and Default Treatment Planned Procedure Unearned Type in Account Module Preferences.

To change the unearned type on a paysplit, re-open the payment and double-click the Paysplit.

From the Unearned Type dropdown, select a new type. Unearned types flagged as Do Not Show on Account will be treated as allocated prepayments, even if no TP procedure is attached.

Assign a clinic and provider (optional, Allow prepayments to providers must be enabled in Account Module Preferences). Useful to pay providers on unearned income. If the prepayment is allocated to a TP procedure, the clinic and provider of the procedure is inherited.

Click OK to save changes.