Sometimes it may be helpful to add an "opening balance" to a patient—for example, if you're transferring your data to Cliniko from another practice management system, and some of your patients still owe money, you can record this in Cliniko. (Conversely, if they have a lump sum of account credit to use towards future services, you can record this, as well!)
In this guide, we'll walk you through how to add an opening balance, as well as how to "clear" that balance (either by creating an invoice to "pay" with the credit, or enter a standalone payment, not allocated to any invoices, to zero out the balance owing).
Add an opening balance to a patient
Go into the details for the patient you wish to add an opening balance for, and edit their details. Scroll down a bit, and under Billing information, you'll see a field called Opening balance:
There are some important things to remember about this field, mentioned below.
A positive number will indicate money owing to you.
A negative number will indicate a credit on the patient's account.
For example, if we add a positive 50, we can see that the patient now owes $50:
If we add negative 50, we can see that the patient now has a credit balance of $50, which can be used towards future services:
These values will be added on to any additional outstanding balances or credit balances that might be added in the future.
In order to "clear" either of these balances, you would need to:
Enter a standalone payment (not allocated to any invoices).
To learn more about how to allocate a credit balance to an invoice, head over here! Additional resources on credit balances and refunds can be found here.