Payments and refunds

Payments and refunds on invoices are finance transactions of type Invoice. They’re recorded on one of your accounts and follow its staff access and approval rules.

Before you begin

• The invoice must be Issued or Partially paid to take a payment.
• You need staff access on the account you’re using: allowed to record money In for payments, Out for refunds.

Record a payment

Start from the invoice (Payments & refunds › Add payment), or from Finance › New Transaction › Invoice (“Record a payment or refund against a patient invoice”).

1. Which invoice is this for? Search by invoice number or patient name. Only invoices that can still take a payment are listed: “Only invoices that can still receive a payment show up here.” Each shows its Total invoice, Payments, Refunds and Balance due.
2. Is this a payment or a refund? Choose Payment: “Money coming in against this invoice.”
3. Details:

Field	Notes
Account	Where the money goes. Only accounts you may record money in on are offered.
Amount	Up to the Balance due. Pay full balance fills it in. A larger amount is refused: Payment amount exceeds the balance due. Maximum: …
Method	Cash, Card, Bank transfer, Check or Other.
Date	“Backdate if this happened a few days ago.”
Reference number	For example a card slip or bank reference.
Notes	Optional.

When the account is in another currency than your base currency, an exchange rate is also asked for. See Foreign currencies.

4. Select Record a payment. You see Transaction recorded.

The invoice updates straight away: its balance due goes down, and it becomes Partially paid or Paid.

Approval and the invoice

The payment is…	On the invoice	In the account balance
Pending (waiting for approval)	Counts as paid.	Doesn’t count yet.
Approved	Counts as paid.	Counts.
Voided	No longer counts. The invoice status moves back.	Doesn’t count.

So an invoice can show Paid while the payment still waits for approval in Finance. If your clinic wants payments approved before anyone relies on them, approve them promptly from Finance › Transactions or the Pending Approvals dashboard widget. Staff with Auto-approve on the account skip this step.

Record a refund

Start from the invoice (Add refund), or Finance › New Transaction › Invoice with Refund: “Money going back out to the patient.”

What can be refunded:

• only payments that are approved (pending ones can’t be refunded),
• received within your clinic’s refund window: 30 days unless changed in General settings. The window doesn’t apply to a Cancelled invoice: all its approved payments can be refunded,
• minus refunds already made.

The picker shows “Up to … of this can still be refunded.” The details step shows Refund max and Total refundable. Choose the Account the money comes out of, and the Amount (at most the refundable amount), Method, Date, Reference number and Notes. Then select Record a refund.

If there’s nothing to refund, you see This invoice has nothing left to refund: “There’s no approved payment within the refund window that hasn’t already been refunded.”

Correct a mistake

Mistake	Fix
Payment recorded but not yet approved, and it’s wrong	With Can delete pending transactions on the account, open the transaction and Delete transaction.
Payment approved, and it’s wrong	With Can void approved transactions, open it and Void. It stays on record, stops counting, and the invoice status moves back.
Patient overpaid on another invoice	Record a refund there, or apply the money as a payment here.

Troubleshooting

Message	Cause and fix
This invoice can’t receive a payment right now / Invoice cannot receive payments in its current status	It’s a Draft (issue it first), Paid or Cancelled, or has no balance.
Payment amount exceeds the balance due. Maximum: …	Lower the amount to the balance due.
No refunds allowed for this invoice. Either no approved payments within refund window or refund limit exceeded.	Payments are still pending, older than the refund window, or already refunded.
Refund amount exceeds available refund limit. Maximum available: …	Lower the amount.
An account isn’t listed	You don’t have staff access on it, or not in this direction.