The Client billing summary provides a detailed overview of your client's current billing status. This summary will show your client's current balance, any payments that haven’t been fully allocated, and any unpaid or uninvoiced amounts.

In this guide, we'll cover: 

• Understanding a client’s balance
• Allocating a client’s payments
• Addressing unpaid and uninvoiced amounts
• FAQs

Understanding a client’s balance

The Client balance reflects the difference between the client’s total invoiced amount and their total paid amount. Expanding the Client balance will show the total for each of these amounts.

If Client balance is zero, then the client’s payment and invoice amounts match. If the client has a balance, click Unpaid invoices to see where the balance is coming from. When ready, you can add a payment.

A credit amount (CR) in the Client balance indicates that the client’s total payment amount is higher than their invoiced amount.

For accurate reporting, all client payments should be fully allocated to invoices. If a payment isn’t fully allocated, it’ll be recorded in the Client billing summary as an unallocated payment. To learn more, see Allocating a client’s payments. If you’re unsure where an unallocated payment stems from, we recommend reviewing the client’s Payments to see if any payments were recorded incorrectly, as well as the client's Invoices to make sure the client's responsibility is correct.

Allocating a client’s payments

The Unallocated section of the Client billing summary shows any payments that aren’t allocated to an invoice. The three types of amounts that can appear here are Unallocated payments, Unallocated invoices, and Adjustments.

Unallocated payments

Unallocated payments can be created in a couple of ways:

• Client payments being added that aren’t attached to invoices
• A paid invoice is deleted
  • The payment amount that was attached to the deleted invoice becomes unallocated

Important: We don’t recommend deleting paid invoices, as this will result in the associated payments becoming unallocated. If a client’s responsibility has changed, and the appointment has already been invoiced and paid, see How do I update an appointment’s fee if it’s already paid?

Click the Unallocated link in the Client billing summary to view a client's unallocated payments.

If the unallocated payment is the result of a client having been overcharged, you can keep the unallocated payment and use it as a credit towards future payments. If a payment was added and needs to be allocated, click View.

If the client has unpaid invoices, you can click Select invoice to apply the unallocated payment as a credit and mark the invoice(s) as paid.

If there are no unpaid invoices to allocate the payment to, the payment can be left as unallocated and applied as a credit towards future appointments.

For more information on unallocated client payments, see Unallocated payments.

Unallocated invoices

A fee adjustment invoice is a record of when an appointment's fee is changed. If an appointment's fee is reduced, you'll be prompted to create a credit invoice for the fee adjustment to balance out the charge. That amount will be listed as an unallocated invoice in the client's unallocated payments.

For example, if a client’s appointment fee is invoiced for $100 and the responsibility is reduced to $75, you’ll be prompted to create a fee adjustment invoice for $25. Once created, the fee adjustment invoice will be listed as a $25 unallocated invoice that can be applied towards future appointments as a credit.

For more information, see Fee adjustment invoices.

Addressing unpaid and uninvoiced amounts

The Client billing summary highlights any uninvoiced amounts, unpaid invoices, and any uninvoiced credit fees.

• Click Unpaid invoices to see which appointments haven’t been fully paid
• Click Uninvoiced to create a new invoice for any uninvoiced appointment
• Click Uninvoiced Credit to create fee adjustment invoices for an appointment fee that’s changed

Tip: Use the Appointment status report to see a full breakdown of every appointment and its financial status. 

FAQs

Below you'll find answers to common billing questions: 

• How do I charge a client in advance?
• Why is my client balance $0, but I still have unallocated amounts?
• How do I allocate a credit invoice?
• Why can’t a payment be allocated?
• When clicking Unpaid invoices, no items appear

How do I charge a client in advance?

If you need to charge a client for an appointment in advance:

• Click the appointment on the Calendar
• Click Create Invoice

• Click Save
• Choose Add Payment

If an invoice has already been created, click Add Payment:

You can also charge a client in advance for an upcoming series of appointments. To do this: 

• Navigate to the client’s profile and click Add Payment

• If the client doesn’t have any unpaid invoices, enter a custom Payment amount in Step 1 of the Add Payment flow

• If the client has an unpaid invoice, but you’d like to add a payment not associated with it, deselect the invoice in Step 1 and enter the Payment amount

• • In either scenario, the payment will result in a new credit equivalent to the Payment amount
• Choose a payment method
• Review the Summary and add the payment

The amount added will show as an Unallocated payment in the Client billing summary.

Once an invoice is created for the appointment(s), the payment won’t automatically allocate to it unless the client has AutoPay enabled. To manually allocate the payment, open the invoice and check Apply available credit:

If the credit covers the invoiced amount, you won’t need to choose a payment method. Click Allocate credit to mark the invoice paid. 

Tip: If AutoPay is enabled, a client’s payments will automatically allocate to their unpaid invoices. If they have unallocated payments, those will be allocated first and the client will only be charged if there is a balance after all payments have been allocated. For more information on AutoPay, see Getting Started with AutoPay.

Why is my client balance $0, but I still have unallocated amounts?

The Payments section of the Client billing summary includes all payments that have been added, including any that are unallocated. If this matches the Invoices amount, the balance will be $0. The client’s balance isn’t impacted by allocation status, meaning that a client can have a balance of $0 while still having unallocated payments. 

If the client’s balance is correct and there’s unallocated payment(s), click Unpaid invoice(s) to see which invoices don’t have payments allocated to them. 

For more information on allocating client payments, see Unallocated payments.

How do I allocate a credit invoice?

If a client’s responsibility is reduced after it’s already been paid, you’ll be prompted to create a credit invoice to reflect the fee adjustment. To do this: 

• Click Uninvoiced Credit

• The credit invoice will cover each appointment where the client's responsibility was reduced 

• Click Create Invoice

The credit invoice will be listed in the Unallocated portion of the Client billing summary. 

The credit invoice can be allocated towards an unpaid invoice or saved and used as a payment method for future appointments. If the client has a balance, click Add Payment and choose Apply available credit in Step 1: 

If the credit doesn't cover the Payment amount, choose a payment method for the remaining balance, review the Summary, and add the payment. 

Why can’t a payment be allocated?

Payments can only be allocated to unpaid invoices. If a client doesn’t have any unpaid invoices in their Client billing summary, you won’t be able to allocate an unallocated payment. 

If a payment was added and doesn’t have an invoice to be applied to, you can leave the unallocated payment as a credit and use it as a payment method for a future appointment. 

Alternatively, cash, check, or external card payments can be deleted if they were added in error. Deleting an unallocated payment will clear it from the Client billing summary. To delete a payment:

• Navigate to the client's Billing page
• Sort by Transactions by client to locate the payment
• Find the payment and click View

• Click the trash icon

• Click Delete payment

Important: Online card transactions can't be deleted. If a client has an unallocated online card payment, it can be left as is and used as a credit for a future appointment, or it can be refunded. 

When clicking Unpaid invoices, no items appear

The Unpaid invoices section of the Client billing summary shows how many unpaid invoices the client has in parentheses, as well as the total dollar amount. Clicking this link will filter the client's Billing tab to Unpaid by client.

There are times when an appointment’s fee is reduced. This can be done from an appointment level billing change, or because an electronic Payment Report (ERA) automatically updated the client responsibility. When this happens, multiple invoices will be associated with the appointment. 

The first invoice will list the original amount, and the fee adjustment invoice(s) will reflect the discrepancy between the original fee and the updated one to balance out that amount. 

If the appointment's fee is reduced to $0, the original invoice will appear under Unpaid invoices, and clicking this link will show that there are no items in the selected period:

There will also be a credit invoice for the original invoiced amount: 

To resolve these amounts, allocate the credit to the original invoices. To do this: 

• Filter the client's Billing page to Billable items
• Locate the appointment in question and click the first invoice listed

• Click Add Payment
• Click Apply available credit in Step 1 of the Add Payment flow

• Click Allocate credit