New Features, Fixes, and Enhancements
This week's release delivers more highly-requested enhancements!! If you want to see what customers are requesting or provide your own suggestions, click How to Submit Feedback (User Voice) to learn more.
Patient Credit Balance Transfers 
The process for transferring a credit balance from one family member (or connected patient) to pay toward the balance of another has been simplified. When the patient wants to transfer their credit amount, select Patient > Financials > Ledger.
The new Transfer Patient Credit option becomes active in the Patient Ledger when:
- The patient has a credit balance, AND
- The patient has Connected Patients defined in the Patient Record, AND
- At least one connected patient has a positive (debit) balance.
Select this option to enter the connected patient and relevant "from" (location of credit balance) and "to" (location of debit balance) information, and then click Post Transfer.
Once the transfer is posted, line items are documented on both Patient Ledgers as: Patient Balance Transfer (Debit) To ___ and Patient Balance Transfer (Credit From) ___.
Select the transfer on the receiving patient's Ledger to view details and apply the transferred amount to specific Providers or Services.
Note: These items also appear on the Financial Day Sheet(s) for the designated location(s), and are included in relevant financial reporting.
For more detailed instructions, see How to Transfer a Patient's Credit Balance.
Payment Acceptance and Accounting Locations 
Sensei Cloud has updated the payment process to accommodate multi-location practices that accept payments at locations other than the location where the work was performed. These payments (particularly those for deposit such as cash and checks) are included in the day's posted transactions (and Deposit Slips) for the accepting location, but also must be applied toward balances at the locations where the associated charges were posted.
To improve the accuracy of posting these transactions, the Post New Payment window has been updated with new fields for Acceptance Location and Accounting Location.
From the Patient tab, select Financials > Ledger > New Payment.
- Under Payment Information, you can now select the appropriate locations as needed for accuracy.
- The Acceptance Location defaults to the User's current logged-in location (left tab on the screen). Use this field for the location where the payment was physically collected.
- The Accounting Location defaults to the location where the patient has a balance. Use this field for the location of the charges being addressed by the payment.
- Payment transactions are represented in each of the associated location's Financial Daysheet reporting Payments section. Payments for deposit are also listed in the Accepting location's Deposit Slip.
Tip: Use the Accounting/Acceptance toggle in the Payments section of the Daysheet.
Correcting Payment Locations After Posting
To correct one or both of these locations for a payment after posting:
- Select the payment in the Ledger to expand the details.
- Click Adjust this Payment and then select Correct Information.
- Use the Accounting Location and/or Acceptance Location fields to correct the entry, and then click Adjust Payment.
IMPORTANT: You must use the Correct Information function and not the Update Entry function to ensure accurate accounting. The original payment is corrected and the off-setting adjustment is posted. A new, correct Payment transaction is posted. One transaction becomes three, all of which are then reflected and displayed in the transaction and financial reporting activity, including the Daysheet. To view these transactions in the Ledger, select the Show Audit View filter.
For more information, see How to Post Charges and Payments From the Patient Ledger and How to Adjust or Remove Payments on the Patient Ledger.
Accounting Location Cleanup
Following up on the addition of the Accounting Location field, the Sensei Cloud team has performed related data maintenance to correct patient accounts with a net zero balance stemming from offsetting debit and credit balances in different locations.
Discrepancies occur when credits (payments) are posted to a different practice location from where the work is performed/charges are posted. The fix was applied automatically, and only to a small number of cases in which the discrepancies met clear and specific criteria proving the payment location was posted in error.
Payment Manager: ACH Payment Type Support
Sensei Cloud customers using Payment Manager (version 3) electronic payments service can now accept payments directly from patient bank accounts using the ACH (ePay transaction) payment type. No checks required!
Note: Contact your Carestream Dental representative to set up this service and have your merchant account(s) configured to accept ACH payments.
Once your account is configured to accept ACH payments:
- The Post New Payment window presents this Payment Type option.
- You can also set up Automatic Payments in Ortho Contracts to debit the patient's bank account for recurring charges as defined in the contract's schedule.
To accept ACH payments:
- From the Checkout Queue (or Patient Ledger, A/R Worklist, etc.), select Take Payment or Post New Payment. The Post New Payment window is displayed.
- Enter the relevant information, select the Payment Type: ACH (ePay transaction) and then click Post Payment. The Payment Manager Transaction window is displayed.
- For Credit To Merchant, select the merchant account that has been configured to accept ACH payments, and then click Submit. Note: If the selected Merchant account is not configured to accept ACH, a note is displayed.
You are prompted to Enter Account Details. - Enter the patient's Account Number and Routing Number, and then click Submit.
Note: This functionality is only available for payments from patients, not insurance companies.
For more information, see Payment Manager Overview.
Referral Source Tracking Enhancements
The Referral tracking screens have been updated with First Appointment Only filtering to help streamline your reporting and follow-up workflows.
Referral Source Management
New filter options enable you to refine the list to exclude referral sources that were added after a patient's first appointment date or for a patient's subsequent appointments.
Select Admin > Practice Settings > Referral Sources.
The First Appointment Referral Only filter refines the list so that the Referral Count for a given source is based on the date of referral being before or on the date of the patient's first appointment to your practice. When this filter is selected, the Referral On filter becomes active, enabling you to select a Date Range to apply to the First Appointment Referral Only filter.
To provide more accurate, reliable data, this filter:
- Bases results on referrals that were active at the the time of the patient's first appointment.
- Excludes appointments marked as ‘cancelled’, ‘broken’, ‘failed,’ or ‘was not brought.'
- Includes scheduled appointments, even if not yet completed, when determining referral activity.
- Retains the first appointment to count for referral tracking, even if the referral source is no longer active for the patient, ensuring historical accuracy.
Note: These filters do not remove items from the list, but only refine what is viewable on-screen.
For more information, see How to Manage Referral Sources.
Referral Follow-Up List
Select Location or All Locations > To Do > Referral Follow-Up List.
The First Appointment Referral Only filter has also been added to this worklist, to use when you only want to follow-up on the patient's first appointment associated with a given Referral Source.
For more information, see How to Send a Referral Follow-Up Letter.
Defects and Small Enhancements
13 additional items were addressed.
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