Managing Credit Codes and Payment Types

Every payment, discount and write-off in OfficePro is recorded against a credit code - CA for cash, CH for check, WO for a write-off, and so on. The code decides whether an amount is money received or a reduction in what the patient owes, which bank deposit it belongs in, and how it appears on every report. You can add, change and retire these codes yourself.

Open the credit codes screen

1. Open the Admin page and click the Payments tab.
2. Payment Types & Discounts at the top explains the settings. Below it are three lists: Payment Types, Discounts & Adjustments, and Gift Cards & Fixed Credits.

Each list shows the Code, Name, whether the code is Available, whether it is a Quick pick, and its Sort position. Discounts also show their Discount rate, and payment types their Deposit Group. A retired code is greyed out and reads Retired. A key icon marks a system code (see below).

The same tab also holds your gift cards and your card processing setup.

Add a code

1. Click the add icon on the Payment Types or Discounts & Adjustments heading. The Add Credit Code window opens.
2. Choose the Type: Payment - money received, or Discount or adjustment - reduces what is owed.
3. Enter a Code of 1 to 10 letters or numbers, with no spaces, and a Name staff will recognise. The code is what staff type into the payment search box, so keep it short.
4. For a discount, fill in the Discount. For a payment, choose its Deposit group. Both are explained below.
5. Leave Available for use ticked. Tick Show on quick payment screens for a code staff use every day - it goes on the one-click payment picker. Codes that are not quick picks are still available from the full payment list.
6. Set the Sort order - lower numbers appear first - and click Add Credit Code.

You cannot add a code in Gift Cards & Fixed Credits. Gift card redemption only works through the built-in gift card code, and any other code in that list would be reported as a gift card redemption. Contact NaturaeSoft support if you think you need one.

Discounts are entered as a whole percent

Type 20 for 20% off, not 0.2. A full write-off is 100. OfficePro converts the number for you.

Leave Discount blank for a code with no set rate, where staff type the amount at the time of payment. That is how most write-off and adjustment codes work, and the list shows those as Entered at payment. A blank rate is not a mistake.

Deposit groups

A payment type's Deposit group decides which bank deposit its payments land in on the Create Deposit screen. Payment types that go to the bank on the same slip should share a group - cash and checks together, for example, and card payments in a group of their own.

• Pick an existing group from the list, or choose Add a new group... and type a name.
• Give American Express its own group only if your processor settles it separately from your other cards.
• Choose Does not reach the bank for payment types that reduce what a patient owes without any money arriving - opening balances, trade value, payroll deductions, owner payments. Those payments are kept off the Create Deposit screen entirely, so they can never be swept into a deposit by mistake.

If any payment type in use has no group, a Not assigned to a deposit group: warning at the top of the screen names it. Payments under those types appear as Unassigned on the Create Deposit screen until you give each type a group.

Edit or retire a code

1. Click the pencil beside the code. The Edit Credit Code window opens.
2. Make your change and click Save Changes.

To stop using a code, untick Available for use. The code disappears from every payment screen, but the payments already taken under it are untouched and keep reporting exactly as they did. To bring it back, tick the box again.

Codes are never deleted. Every payment ever taken refers to its code by name, so deleting one would leave those payments meaning nothing. Retire it instead.

What you cannot change, and why

• System codes, marked with a key: Ins, InsAdj and GIFTCARD, and on practices using FortisPay also cc, ach and inscc. OfficePro posts insurance payments, gift card redemptions and card payments to these itself, so they cannot be renamed or retired. Hover over the key to see which part of OfficePro uses the code.
• Codes already used. Once any payment has been taken under a code, the edit window reads Used on however many payments, and the Code and Type are locked. Renaming the code would cut those payments off from it, and changing the type would turn every one of them from a payment into a discount, or the other way round, across every report at once. You can still change the name, the rate, the deposit group and the sort order, and you can still retire it.

Choose codes that describe the real reason for a discount. A Senior Discount, a Write Off and an Insurance Adjustment all reduce the balance the same way, but they mean very different things on your reports. See Managing Payments, Discounts and Write-Offs.