🚨 Important: The deposit feature can only be used if you are viewing the new account screen. If someone in your practice has recorded a deposit using the new account screen, but you are still on the old account screen, you will see a yellow banner at the top telling you deposits exist and reminding you to upgrade to the new screen.
How do I take a deposit?
If you are using the new account screen, you can take deposits which will 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, select what kind of deposit you are recording.
'Record payment' means the payment is being taken right now, with the patient in the practice.Select the payment method and date, and add the transaction number if applicable, and then take the deposit payment as you would a standard payment. This is the default selection.
'Send payment request link' and 'Generate payment link' allow you to request money for the patient to pay remotely via a link - you would send them a correspondence with a link included, and when they open the link they can send the payment. The deposit will show as pending until the patient has opened the link and completed the payment.
When you are ready, click the blue action button in the bottom right corner of the window - this will say 'Record X.XX payment' if you are taking the payment now, 'Request X.XX payment' if you are sending a correspondence with a payment link, or 'Save and copy to clipboard' if you wish to save the payment link to send somewhere else.
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.
If you have sent a deposit payment link, the deposit will be recorded but will show 'Pending' to indicate the patient hasn't paid yet.
If you are a Dentally Portal customer and a patient pays a deposit organically while booking online, these will also be displayed here.
💡 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. The deposit summary in the blue box will include deposits for all family members that you currently have selected when viewing - not just the family member whose account you are on.
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:
Look for the 'Allocate X.XX' button to the right of the patient balance at the top of the account screen. If the user is part of a family, you will also see the family's combined unallocated total by the family balance.
Click the dropdown, hover over the relevant unallocated payment and click 'Allocate to deposit'.
Choose the amount you wish to allocate, add a description and a practitioner (if applicable) 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.
You can also do this manually by going to the 'Payments' tab, finding the relevant unallocated payment and clicking the three dot menu (if it has been allocated to a note, you will first need to unallocate it before proceeding) - but we recommend using the quick allocate feature at the top of the account as this is the fastest and easiest method.
💡 Top tip: If you are new to the deposit tracking feature, we recommend converting all 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.
How do I ask a patient to pay a deposit remotely via a link?
If you'd like a patient to pay a deposit but they're not in the practice right now, you can send them a link, which will allow them to pay a deposit.
📝 Please note: You must have Stripe enabled in order to be able to send deposit links.
In the 'Account' tab in the patient record, click '+ Deposit'.
Add the deposit details as you would if you were taking the deposit payment normally.
Instead of completing the 'Record payment' section in the window, you can select either:
'Send payment request link' - This will allow you to send a correspondence immediately, which will include a deposit payment link. You can select a correspondence template and adjust the text as needed. When you are ready, click 'Request X.XX payment' and the correspondence will be sent immediately.
'Generate payment link' - This will allow you to copy a deposit payment link, to then paste somewhere else or use later. Click 'Save and copy to clipboard', and then you can navigate elsewhere to paste the link as needed.
In both instances, when you are finished the deposit will be recorded at the top of the patient's account as it would with a normal deposit, with a 'Pending' badge indicating that the deposit has been recorded but the payment has not yet been received. When the patient follows the link and completes the payment, the 'Pending' badge will disappear.
When the patient follows the link, they will be able to pay electronically - this does not require you to be a Dentally Portal customer.
You can also cancel this pending deposit by clicking the three dot menu next to the relevant deposit and clicking 'Cancel'. You will be prompted to confirm, and once confirmed, the patient's payment link will no longer work and the pending deposit will disappear from their deposit summary.
