Updated 10/3/2019
If you’ve been reading our posts the last couple of weeks, you know the importance of keeping notes in Dentrix, and keeping them in the correct location. The Ledger is another key area where notes are valuable. Because money is a big deal to everyone involved, it’s essential to keep good quality notes about payments, additional charges, and/or adjustments made to a patient account, and document terms and agreements made about an overdue balance.
The following are are a couple of financial notes, and a description for each:
- Guarantor Notes and Billing Statement Notes – both notes are accessed by selecting a patient in the Ledger and clicking the Guarantor Notes button )or by clicking File > Guarantor Notes.)
- Account Note – The top portion of the Guarantor Notes dialog box has an Account Note field where you can enter financial notes about the account. Every patient in the family shares this note.
- Billing Statement Note – The bottom portion of the Guarantor Notes dialog box has a Billing Statement Note field where you can enter reminders that you want to be printed on the billing statement for the selected family. Here you have the option of using any custom billing statement notes you may have previously created and entering a Print on Statement until date. This field is limited to 82 characters, so keep it brief.
- Payment Agreement Note – This note should be used to record information related to a payment agreement terms. The terms can be added to the payment agreement by clicking the Copy Agreement to Note button (a). To view the note, click the Agreement Notes button (b) and select the note’s date. Additionally, when a payment agreement is cleared from a patient, a copy of the terms of the cleared agreement are added to the agreement note (under a ***CLEARED*** heading).
- Payment Plan Note – This note should be used to record any information related to a Future Due Payment Plan that is included in the payment plan’s terms.
- Transaction Note – Like a procedure note, you can add notes to any financial transaction posted to the Ledger, including payments, adjustments, finance charges, and late charges.
Be sure to read our previous posts about Scheduling Notes and Patient Information Notes.