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How to explain or unexplain a payment
How to explain or unexplain a payment

Explaining and unexplaining payments to the correct invoices, to ensure accurate reporting.

Hebe Neate-Clegg avatar
Written by Hebe Neate-Clegg
Updated this week

πŸ’‘ Top tip: It is important first to understand when explaining/unexplaining a payment is useful, and how automatic explanations work.

How do I unexplain a payment?

πŸ“ Please note: Users on certain versions of Dentally will have the option to add a practitioner when processing a payment. If you do this, and then you later need to amend it, you will have to delete and redo the payment.

You may need to unexplain a payment, for example if the payment was put through incorrectly, or if it was explained to the wrong invoice.

To unexplain a payment:

  • In the 'Account' tab in the patient record, locate the payment in question. If the payment has been explained previously, it will have a green tick next to the amount.

  • Click the 'Unexplain' button (which looks like an unlink icon) on the far right of the chosen payment.

  • A popup will appear asking you to confirm the request to unlink the invoice and payment.

  • Click 'Unexplain'. The amount will now have an amber question mark next to it instead of a green tick. This means it has successfully been unexplained.

  • The payment now needs to be explained.

πŸ“ Please note: Explaining a payment is effectively the same as allocating a payment. There is one difference - an allocation can't be undone. The payment can be unexplained and reexplained, but in this instance 3 allocations would be shown - one with the original transaction, one with it being unexplained, and one with it being explained to the correct person.

How do I explain a payment?

To explain/allocate a payment:

  • In the 'Account' tab in the patient record, locate the payment in question. If the payment has not been explained, it will have an amber question mark next to the amount.

  • Click the amber question mark to open the 'Explain' window.

  • In the popup that appears, choose the amount (you may wish to change this if you are splitting the payment and assigning it to multiple invoices). Then select the invoice to explain it against, and add any notes as needed.

  • When you are ready, click 'Save'.

  • The amount will now have a green tick next to it instead of an amber question mark. This means it has successfully been explained.

  • If you have made a mistake, the payment can be unexplained.

πŸ“ Please note: It is not possible to transfer a payment from one patient to another. If a payment has been taken on the wrong patient file, you will need to remove the payment from the incorrect patient and enter the payment again on the correct patient.

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