Updated 10/3/2019

The wonderful thing about the Dentrix Ledger is that patient balances are automatically updated every time you enter procedures, whether it be from the Ledger itself or by completing procedures in the Patient Chart.

However, if you convert your accounts to Dentrix from another practice management program, you may need to transfer existing account balances manually. This may be something you’ll rarely do, but it’s good to know how to do it correctly.

Keep the following in mind regarding initial balances:

• Initial balances always appear under the guarantor’s name (head of household).
• Initial balances print as part of the Balance Forward on statements and appear in the Ledger, Practice Analysis, Day Sheet, Analysis Summary, and Provider A/R Totals reports.
• You can enter an initial balance for a family only if the family has no transactions (including completed, treatment-planned, or existing procedures or conditions) or if the month in which the new patient was created has not been closed. Because of this, it’s recommended that you add the new patient/family to Dentrix before you do anything else. Then, immediately enter their initial balance using the steps outlined below.

To set initial balances manually:

1. Create a new family in the Family File.
2. Double-click the Balance and Payment block to open the Billing/Payment Agreement Information dialog box.
3. Click the Edit button next to the Aged Balance table.
4. In the Enter Initial Balances table, specify initial balances for each of the past-due periods, and enter the Last Payment Amount and Last Payment Date, and click OK.
5. Note: Entering a Last Payment Amount or Date does not change the patient or account balance. Instead, entering an amount updates the billing/payment summary information in the Ledger.
6. Click OK.

For more information, see the Setting Initial Balances topic in Dentrix Help.