Trying to look at the Patient Ledger and have it make sense can be daunting. Matching up payments and adjustments to invoices can be confusing. That's because the Patient Ledger is simply a transaction log showing invoices, payments, and adjustments in the order they are entered.
That's where you want to click on the Finance tab, so you can see a more common sense approach to these payments.
Click the TRACE OPEN button and it all starts to make perfect sense.
This opens an interactive window called the Ledger Register, where open invoices and their associated payments, and adjustments are all grouped together so you can see which credits were applied to which invoices. You also have a running Patient Balance, Insurance Balance, and Total Balance, so you can easily see the effect of each transaction on each invoice.
Ledger Register Screen
As you can see in this example above, an invoice was entered on July 23. From this screen, you can see that when the invoice was entered, the entire invoice was to be billed to insurance.
(Please note that when an amount is $0.00, it is blank).
Then, on July 24, an adjustment was entered, and the Patient Balance now became $27.53 and the Insurance Balance became $182.53.
Then, on July 24, another adjustment was entered bringing leaving the Patient Balance alone, and reducing the Insurance Balance to $127.47.
Then, finally, on July 24, a patient payment was entered, leaving only the insurance balance remaining for $127.47.
Since the Patient Balance, Insurance Balance, and Total Balance are running totals, the final line amounts reflect the current state of the invoice.
In this example, by looking at just the last line, we see the Patient Balance for this particular invoice is blank ($0.00), the Insurance Balance is $127.47, and the Total Balance is $127.47.
Notice how convenient it is to have the invoice and the related credits all grouped together, and to be able to see the effect of each payment and adjustment on the invoice balance.
As you have more invoices entered, it becomes even more helpful.
How is the Ledger Register Interactive?
Simply double-click on a line in the Ledger Register, and that transaction appears in a new window, showing exactly how the item looked when it was entered.
If you are signed in as Practice Owner, you can modify or delete the payment right from there, then watch the effect on the Ledger Register once you save your changes.
And a Shortcut Makes It Even Better
Click anywhere on the Balance area on the bottom of the Personal Information Screen or the Ledger Screen and the Ledger Register opens automatically.
Click anywhere here to open the Ledger Register
What if I want to see the ALL invoices and not just the open invoices?
You have the option to see every invoice or only the invoices with a balance. The shortcut method shows only the open invoices.
To see every invoice, click the Finance tab and then click the TRACE ALL button.
