November 07, 2018
Dentrix Ascend uses line-item accounting, which means that when a credit—such as a payment or credit adjustment—is entered, it should be posted against a debit transaction, such as a procedure or service rendered. In some cases, when a payment is made, there is no procedure to apply it to. For example, a patient makes a payment for a procedure that has not yet been posted, or a payment is made for more than the cost of the procedure. In these cases, the payments can still be entered; however, they are considered “unapplied credits” and remain as such until you apply them.
How to:
- First you must recognize that the patient has an unapplied credit. In the patient’s ledger, look for a negative number in hyperlink text under the Unapplied Credits heading.
- Once the patient has a balance—for example if you just posted a procedure—you will then be able to apply the credit. Click the credit amount hyperlink, and then click Apply Credits in the panel that appears.
- The Unapplied Credits amount will reset to 0.00, and you can see the payment in the ledger, along with an updated balance.
Additional Information
- If an insurance payment is pending, and there is a balance owed on a patient’s account, there may be an unapplied credit because the amount paid by the patient exceeded his or her portion of the bill. Once the insurance payment is applied to the bill, you will also be able to apply the unapplied credit to the bill.
- Unapplied credits are easily located in the Aged Receivables report. Sort the report by Balance ▼ and negative numbers (credits) will show at the top of the list.
- Unapplied credits should be applied promptly, especially if the office is paying providers on collection, because a provider doesn’t receive credit for the payment until it’s applied.
- To learn more, read Applying unapplied credits.