How to Post a Refund to a Patient Balance

To post a refund to a patient balance:

1. From the Patient tab, select Financials > Ledger.
2. Under Actions, select Adjust Balance. The Adjust Balance window is displayed. 
   
3. Select Refund.
4. Confirm the Location.
5. In the Date field, enter the service date for which the refund is being applied. 
6. Select a Refund Type. 
   Note: Refund types can be managed and added from the Administration tab (Administration > Procedures & Fees > Manage Adjustments). See How to Create and Manage Adjustment Types for more information. 
7. Enter the Refund Amount.
8. In the Reference field, enter any additional information as needed (e.g., a check number).
   Note: This is a reportable field that you can include in reports such as the Transaction Report. You can update the refund entry at any time to change the information in the Reference field without impacting the daysheet.
9. Enter a Comment.
10. Click Save Changes. 
    Note: A message may be displayed if posting the refund will result in the patient having a debit balance.
    
11. Click Yes, Post Refund to post the refund to the patient's ledger and adjust their balance. 

Automatically Prompt to Apply Payments to a Refund

You have the option to enable a setting where you can apply payments to a refund immediately after posting the refund, eliminating the need to remember to allocate the refund later. When enabled, you are prompted to select from the patient's previous payments and apply to the refund. 

Enable the prompt from the Administration tab (Admin > Practice Settings > Financial Rules > Credit Distribution Rules) by setting Automatically Prompt to Distribute to Yes. 

To apply payments to a refund:

1. Post the refund using the process described in the preceding section. When the Automatically Prompt to Distribute setting is enabled for your practice, the Apply Refund window is displayed.
   
   Note: 
   -- The top of the window displays details such as the user who posted the refund and the refund amount.
   -- As you select payments and enter allocation amounts, the Applied and Left to be paid values update automatically.
   -- The first table lists the patient's previous payments along with important information such as the payment amount, the amount of the payment that is currently applied to debits, and the number of charges and providers to which the payment is allocated is displayed. 
2. Select one or more payments to apply to the refund. The currently selected payment is highlighted in blue.
3. Enter the amount to allocate per payment using the Apply to this Refund column field.
4. When you select a payment that has existing allocation to services or providers, these allocations are displayed in the second table underneath Step 2. Reallocate the amount of your choice by adjusting the value in the Allocated column.
   Note: 
   --There may be more than one provider or charge listed and you can adjust as many as needed. 
   -- If a payment has already been fully allocated to charges and providers, the Apply to this Refund amount defaults to $0.00. To apply part of that payment to the refund, you must first reduce the amount currently allocated to charges or providers, making those funds available for refund allocation.
5. Click Save. The refund is applied to the payment(s) and any changes that were made to existing allocations are saved as well. 

See How to Adjust a Patient Balance and How to Adjust or Remove Refunds on the Patient Ledger for more information.