Updated 5/25/2022

Occasionally, you may discover you made a mistake on a payment posted to the Ledger, but that payment has been moved into history. You cannot delete payments in history, but you can correct the error. That way, the patient account remains accurate as you enter an adjustment to offset the incorrect amount and post a corrected, backdated payment. Knowing how to correct posting errors in history will allow you to close each month without fear that you won’t be able to go back and correct mistakes later.

Consider this scenario:
Corey Hansen called today with a question about his billing statement. His statement shows a balance of $270, but he says he made a $300 payment the last time he was in the office. You look at his Ledger and see that there was a $30 payment entered last month on the date of his visit. You check your credit card receipts and verify that he did make a $300 payment, it was just posted incorrectly. Since the payment is in history, you cannot delete it. To correct the mistake, you will need to post an adjustment to offset the incorrect payment amount and then post a corrected, backdated payment.

To enter an adjustment for a payment in history:

1. In the Ledger, select the patient.
2. Find the payment that needs to be corrected and double-click it to open the Edit History Payment dialog box. You won’t be making any changes in this dialog box, but you need to open it to take note of the Date, Amount, and Provider the payment was allocated to, which you will need to know when entering the adjustment. Once you have noted this information, click OK to close the dialog box and return to the Ledger.
   Note: If the original payment was split between family members when it was entered, you may need to find two or more payments that, when added together, equals the payment amount you are trying to correct.
3. From the Ledger menu, select Transaction > Enter Adjustment.
4. Select Charge Adjustment. To learn the difference between credit and charge adjustments, read Credit and Charge Adjustments in Dentrix Help.
   
5. In the Enter Charge Adjustment dialog box, perform the following tasks:
   
   • In the Amount field, enter the amount of the initial payment.
   • Select the Charge Amount Type that will negate the initial pyament’s amount.
     Note: If you do not already have one, you should set up a debit (+) adjustment type specifically for correcting payments in history.
   • Select the Provider to whom the adjustment should be applied. This should be the same provider the payment was originally applied to.
   • In the Note field, enter a note that explains why the adjustment is being made. This is a good practice to be in the habit of doing, so you have a record of why an adjustment was made.
6. Click OK to post the adjustment to the Ledger.

To posted a corrected, backdated payment:

Now that you have posted the adjustment, it’s as if the payment was never made. You must next post a new payment with the correct information to complete the process.

1. 1. From the Ledger, click the Enter Payment button.
   2. In the Enter Payment dialog box, perform the following tasks:
      
      • In the Date field, enter the date the original (incorrect) payment was made.
      • In the Amount field, enter the correct amount of the payment.
      • Enter the rest of the payment information as you normally would.
        Note: Make sure you apply this payment to the specific patient for whom you are correcting the procedure in history, and make sure you apply it to the correct individual provider. You should not split by provider or by family when posting a corrected, backdated payment. If you have two providers with incorrect payments, you should correct them individually and post two separate backdated procedures.
      • In the Note field, enter a note explaining the situation and reason for this corrected payment.
   3. Click OK to post the corrected payment.

Bonus Tip

• Backdated payments will have a ^ symbol listed in the Transaction Flags (*) column of the Ledger to indicate that it was backdated. And when that backdated payment is moved into history, the carat will change to an asterisk (*) indicating it is in history.

For additional information, read Editing Transactions in History, as well as the topics under Credit and Charge Adjustments in Dentrix Help.