How Andre Sets Up Payment Plans (Contracts) In Eaglesoft
(Updated 8/23/2023)
So, Mrs. Jones need $3,600 worth of work and she is the sweetest patient in the practice. We agree to go forward with treatment, and she will pay us back $100 a month for the next 36 months.
Fine! post the $3,600 charge for the treatment.
Now go to Activities>Payment Plan and let’s create a way to move that $3,600 off our Accounts Receivable to the Contract. You know that field on the Account Screen below 30, 60, 90 days outstanding.
When you create a Payment Plan, you are removing that amount from the Aging categories of the Account and moving it to the Contract line of the Account Balance aging and the Patient has a structured repayment schedule set as a monthly amount or a monthly portion of the total amount.
Got to Activities > Payment Plan
Create a payment plan for Past Service balance of $3,600 with $100 payment for 36 months.
Each month, $100 will be deducted from the Contract amount in the account and move to the Current Amount. It is important to include a new step to your End of Day routine. That step is to check the Update Late Payment Plans box in the EOD Processing.
Example:
Mrs. Jones has a Contract for $3,600. If she has not paid her monthly $100 payment by the end of the month, $100 will “roll” from Contract to Current and a statement would be generated for her.
If she paid her monthly payment, the contract would roll to $3,500 and no statement would generate because there would be no amount due in the Current field.
It is VERY important that Contract Payments MUST be posted in the Account as “Payment Plan” payments (there is a check box in the payment screen).
There is an Outstanding Payment Plans report used to follow-up on patients who have not fulfilled their commitment to their Payment plans.
If you see an account that has a balance in the Contract and a Credit in the 30,60,90 days areas, it’s possible that the contract was never updated with the EOD and/or payments were not applied to the Contract. The best option is to go to Activities>Payment Plans and delete the original Payment Plan.
After working with the Patterson Technology Center (“Support”) it was discovered that the FAQ was not updated to reflect changes after an update in the system. So, since the update unpaid balances into the aging column based on the service date. My suggestion is:
BEFORE creating a Payment Plan
1) Do a Credit (decrease) Adjustment Impacting Adjustments lowering the balance to $0.
2) Do a Debit (increase) Adjustment Impacting Adjustments increasing the balance back to the previous amount but make sure to put the amount into the Current Aging Category.
3) Now you can create the Payment Plan and it will begin moving the balance into the correct ageing category.
DISCLAIMER:
This is a resource guide and all decisions on each dental office setup should remain the sole decision of the dentist/owner of the practice. Eaglesoft is a registered trademark of Patterson Dental Company. All other software or products mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Although Andre Shirdan was an employee of Patterson Dental, he is not associated with Eaglesoft or Patterson Dental Company or endorsed by Patterson or any other Company Mentioned in this blog
