🚨 Important: The deposit feature is currently in Beta testing and not yet widely available - please note that once it is fully available, you will need to have the new account screen enabled in order to turn on deposits.
How do I take a deposit?
If you are using the new account screen, you can take deposits which will be be held against the account so that they can be used to pay for future treatment invoices. They will stay locked as deposits unless you manually allocate them to an outstanding invoice, meaning you can ensure they go towards the right invoices (this is different from unallocated payments sitting in the 'Payments' tab of the account, which can be automatically allocated to any invoice that comes in).
There are three ways you might record a deposit:
Take one or multiple deposits by clicking '+ Deposit' - this is useful if the patient wishes to pay for individual or multiple deposits for future treatment.
Take a deposit as part of a larger payment, which includes both payment for an existing invoice, and a deposit towards a future treatment
Assign an existing unallocated payment as a deposit - this is useful if the patient has outstanding unallocated payment on their account which you want to convert to a deposit.
These deposits are visible in the patient's 'Account' tab in the blue box below the balances, and can be allocated to an outstanding invoice at any time.
📝 Please note: The deposit feature can also be used for large up-front payments for courses of treatment. Deposits will stay unallocated until you manually allocate them, whereas normal unallocated payments in the 'Payments' tab can be automatically allocated when invoices are charged.
To take one or multiple deposits:
In the 'Account' tab in the patient record, click '+ Deposit'.
In the window that appears, complete the fields:
Add the amount you want to be taken as a deposit.
Include a description to help you identify the payment if you have multiple deposits for that patient.
Assign the deposit to a particular practitioner to help you identify it later - this is optional and not required.
You can take multiple separate deposits at once, with a single payment from the patient. Click '+ Deposit' on the right of the window to add a second deposit, and complete the fields as above.
Once you have added all the deposit details needed, input the payment details - select the payment method and date, and add the transaction number if applicable.
When you are ready, click 'Record X.XX payment' - the number displayed will be a sum total of all deposits added above.
In the patient's account screen, all deposits will be displayed in a blue box - detailing the amount, date, description and practitioner. Each deposit will be shown as a separate row, regardless of whether they were taken as part of the same payment/on the same date. This makes it easy to see at a glance when a patient has deposits available.
💡 Top tip: If you take a deposit for a patient who is part of a linked family, any deposit taken is assigned to the patient you are viewing at the time.
Deposits might have been taken for multiple upcoming treatments - the descriptions help to identify which deposit(s) to use for future invoices.
The deposits will also be reflected in the patient's balance overview - the overall 'Balance' column is the sum of the 'Patient' and 'Deposit' columns; it represents the overall value of the account.
If you have allocated any relevant deposits to invoices, and any remaining deposits are being held for future appointments, the amount in the 'Patient' column is what you should charge the patient on the day (this column is the overall balance, less any deposits, and so can be thought of as what the patient needs to pay).
💡 Top tip: If a patient is part of a linked family in Dentally, their deposits will also be displayed in the family balance overview at the top of each family member's account screen - the total will include all deposits held for any patient in that family.
You can complete actions for each deposit by clicking the three dot menu to the right of the deposit - from here you can allocate the deposit to an outstanding invoice, view and edit the deposit, or release to the payer's account (if you select this option, the deposit will disappear from the blue deposit box and will appear in the 'Payments' tab as an unallocated payment - this may be useful if you need to refund the deposit).
To take a deposit as part of a larger payment:
Select your chosen invoice(s) and click 'Take payment' at the bottom.
In the payment window that opens, the amount shown will be the total amount on the invoice(s).
Manually increase this amount by however much you need - so if the invoice balance was $50.00, and you wanted to take a deposit of $20.00 for a future treatment, edit the amount to be $70.00.
Proceed to take the payment. The invoice will be paid off (so in the above example, $50.00 would be allocated to that invoice), and the remaining amount (in this case $20.00) will appear in the 'Payments' tab as unallocated.
From here, you can convert the unallocated payment to a deposit.
How do I convert an existing unallocated payment into a deposit?
If you have an unallocated payment (or payment allocated to a note) in the patient's 'Payments' tab which was taken but not assigned to an invoice (eg. a previous deposit before the feature existed, an overpayment or an error), you can turn this into a deposit which will be added to the blue deposit box for future use.
To assign an existing unallocated payment as a deposit:
Find the chosen unallocated payment (or payment allocated to a note) in the 'Payments' tab. If it has been allocated to a note, you will first need to unallocate it before proceeding.
Click the three dot menu to the right of the payment, and click 'Allocate to deposit'.
Choose the amount, add a description and practitioner if needed, and click 'Allocate payment'.
The amount will now appear as a deposit in the blue deposit box - from there you can assign it to a future invoice or take other actions as needed.
💡 Top tip: If you are new to the deposit tracking feature, we recommend converting unallocated payments (or payments allocated to notes) to deposits using the steps above whenever you come across them in your patients' accounts, as well as adjusting your process going forward. This will make it easier to manage your existing deposits as well as any new deposits you take. You can also use the 'Patients' report to find patients with positive account balances, to speed up this process.
How do I allocate a deposit to an outstanding invoice?
If the patient has deposits on their account, and now have completed treatments and invoices to pay, you can assign the existing deposit to the relevant invoice for the treatment.
When a patient's treatment has been completed and an invoice has been raised, go to the 'Account' tab in the patient record. You can immediately see if any deposits have been taken via the blue box.
These deposits might have been taken for multiple upcoming treatments - the descriptions help to identify which deposit(s) you want to allocate to a specific treatment.
Once you have identified which deposit you'd like to allocate to the invoice, click the three dot menu to the right of the chosen deposit.
In the dropdown that appears, select 'Allocate to XXX' - if the patient has multiple outstanding invoices, you can choose which invoice to allocate it to. The invoice number and invoice balance will be displayed to help you identify them.
Click the chosen invoice - if the entire deposit amount has been used for that invoice, the deposit will now disappear from the blue deposit box. If the invoice amount was lower than the deposit amount, the remaining deposit balance will be reduced accordingly.
Under the invoice you assigned it to, you will see that the total invoice balance has reduced by the amount of the deposit, and if you click the arrow to expand that invoice, the deposit amount will be shown as a payment against it.