Appointment fees often change after initially being invoiced, resulting in complex billing scenarios with multiple invoices. Simple Invoicing is a new billing setting that creates one invoice per appointment that will automatically update to show these changes.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- Understanding Simple Invoicing
- Enabling Simple Invoicing
- Reviewing updates to an appointment’s total
- FAQs
Understanding Simple Invoicing
Standard invoice settings include daily, monthly, or manual options.
In addition to determining when invoices are created, these settings also allow for multiple invoices to exist for a single appointment.
This happens when updates are made to an appointment’s billing total, either manually or through an Electronic Payment Report, and a fee adjustment invoice is needed to reflect the change.
With daily or monthly invoicing enabled, fee adjustment invoices will be created overnight or at the end of the month. With manual invoicing enabled, you’ll be prompted to create these invoices in a client’s billing summary by clicking Uninvoiced Credit.
Client balances are tied to invoices, including fee adjustment invoices. Having multiple invoices for certain appointments can make it difficult to determine how much a client owes and may require manual corrections.
With Simple Invoicing enabled, there’ll only be one invoice per appointment, and it’ll update as changes are made to the total fee to show the correct amount.
Enabling Simple Invoicing
Simple Invoicing requires that daily invoicing also be enabled.
Important: Simple Invoicing is recommended for practices that already rely on daily invoice creation. Practices using monthly or manual invoicing should review any outstanding client balances before switching to Simple Invoicing, as this may result in unintended charges to your clients. For more information, see Is Simple Invoicing recommended for my practice?
To enable Simple Invoicing:
- Navigate to Settings > Client billing and insurance > Client billing documents
- Select Simple Invoicing
- Click Save changes
Important: Only appointments created after enabling this setting will have Simple Invoices.
Simple Invoices are marked with a S next to the invoice number in a client’s Billing page.
While invoices will automatically be created overnight, you can still manually create an invoice after an appointment and it’ll be a Simple Invoice.
Reviewing updates to an appointment’s total
Simple Invoices automatically update to show an appointment’s current fee, where it’ll be listed under the Amount.
The invoice won’t show the changes that took place. However, you can click the caret in the client’s Billing page to view an appointment’s timeline.
For a more detailed billing history, click Manage > View details.
Then, scroll down to see the appointment’s full billing history.
For more information, see Reviewing an appointment’s billing history.
FAQs
- Is Simple Invoicing recommended for my practice?
- Can I still create product invoices for add-on charges?
- Can I return to standard invoicing?
- Can I include multiple appointments on a Simple Invoice?
Is Simple Invoicing recommended for my practice?
Simple Invoicing simplifies the billing experience and is highly recommended for practices that take insurance and currently rely on daily invoice creation.
Practices that use manual or monthly invoicing can switch to Simple Invoicing at any time, but we recommend first reviewing outstanding client balances and uninvoiced appointments. Switching to Simple Invoicing will create invoices overnight for any uninvoiced appointments, and if you also use AutoPay, balances will be charged overnight.
Can I still create product invoices for add-on charges?
Yes, you can still add surcharges such as sales tax or processing fees to appointments using product invoices. We recommend continuing to use this workflow.
With Simple Invoicing enabled, you can edit the appointment’s total and the invoice will update automatically, but the add-on fee won’t be listed as its own item. For more information, see Adding sales tax and processing fees to invoices.
Can I return to standard invoicing?
Yes, you can disable Simple Invoicing at any time by navigating to Settings > Client billing and insurance > Client billing documents. All invoices will revert to standard invoices, and their totals will reflect the most recently listed amount. However, if you then switch back to Simple Invoicing, those invoices will remain standard invoices.
Conversely, enabling Simple Invoicing won’t affect any already created invoices. Only invoices created after enabling the setting will be Simple Invoices.
Can I include multiple appointments on a Simple Invoice?
No, with Simple Invoicing enabled, only one invoice can be created per appointment. If there are multiple uninvoiced appointments when manually creating an invoice, you’ll be prompted to create an invoice for each one.
If your billing workflows rely on including multiple appointments on a single invoice, we don’t recommend switching to Simple Invoicing.