Writing off debt
If you need to write off a debt from a Patients record, we recommend following these steps to ensure your reports reflect these changes.
Before you begin, you will need to add a new treatment to your treatment list. To add a new treatment item please follow the steps here.
Create a treatment named Bad Debt
Make sure that the Appear on invoice flag is set to Yes
If you are a UK/NHS 🇬🇧 practice, DO NOT set an NHS Banding against it
How to write off an unpaid invoice?
Watch the GIF below or follow the step-by-step instructions.
Step-by-step instructions
Go to the patient’s chart
Create a new course of treatment
Select the bad debt treatment (that you created above)
Chart this item
Set the price as a negative amount equal to the amount you are writing off
For example, if you would like to write off £/$100, then set the price as -£/$100.
Change the dental practitioner if you’d like to allocate the debt to a specific practitioner in your practice
Save and charge the treatment to raise an invoice of this amount on the patients account screen
The patient’s balance should now be showing as £/$0.00
Lastly, complete this course of treatment
The patient’s account should now balance as the debt has been written off. However, there are a few more steps that you need to complete in order to ensure that the invoices no longer show up in your invoice reports.
How to explain refund invoices?
Watch the GIF below or follow the step-by-step instructions.
Step-by-step instructions
Go to the patient’s account page and take a new payment
Setting the amount to £/$0.00 and the method to Other
Once the payment has been created
Click on the question mark to explain it
First, you need to explain the negative invoice
Use the £100 example, you will need to enter -£/$100 into the amount field and select the invoice for -£/$100
Finally, you will need to add another explanation. Repeat the explanation process again but this time for the remaining invoice. This would be £/$100 in our example.