FrontDesk resolves one fee per visit from the rates you keep at three levels: the practice, the provider, and the client. You set them once; booking and charge capture do the rest.
Practices connected to athenahealth do not use any of this; their fees come from athena.
The order of precedence
The first rule that applies wins:
| Order | Source | Where you set it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A fee typed on this appointment | Booking modal or appointment editor |
| 2 | The client's rate for this service | Client → Billing tab |
| 3 | The client's default rate for everything | Client → Billing tab |
| 4 | The provider's rate for this service | Provider editor, Rates section |
| 5 | The practice price for this service on the visit date | Settings → Services |
| 6 | The billing code's default fee | Billing code catalog |
| Otherwise | Nothing known | The charge waits as a draft for you to price |
Two rules make grandfathering and price rises safe:
- Snapshot at booking. The resolved fee and its source are written to the appointment when it is booked or when its service, provider, or client changes. Later price changes never touch it.
- Dated prices. A practice price is a schedule of amounts with effective dates; the one in force on the visit date is used.
Practice prices
Settings → Services. Each service has a Price quoted (no price, fixed, from, varies, or free) and an amount. Under it, "$150.00 since {date}" is an inline date: a new price applies to visits on or after that day (today by default), and earlier visits keep theirs. "N changes · View history" lists every previous price.
Provider rates
Settings → Providers → edit a provider, the Rates section. A table of your services with the practice price beside an optional rate for this provider. Leave a row blank to use the practice price. Owners, admins, and managers can edit these.
Client rates
Client → Billing tab → Billing profile → Edit.
- Client rates: Add rate, then pick the service and enter the Client fee, a From date (blank means always), an optional Until date, and a note ("grandfathered 2021 rate"). One active rate per service at a time.
- Default rate: one amount for every service, the usual way to record a sliding-scale fee.
- Billing type: Self-pay, Insurance, or Sliding scale, so the profile says how this client pays.
Rate changes on a client are written to the HIPAA Audit Log (Settings → Account Activity) with the old and new amounts.
The fee on the appointment
The booking modal shows the resolved fee and where it came from (for example "$150 · client rate for this service") as soon as you pick the client, service, and provider. Type another amount to override it for this visit; the ↺ button ("Use the resolved price again") drops the override. With no price at any level it says "No price set for this service. Type one, or add a price in Settings → Services."
In the appointment editor, practices that don't bill with codes see the same fee row with the snapshot. Practices that bill with codes (CPT, CDT) see a Services & modifiers section instead, with a fee on each line and the Appointment total; a line with no price says so there. Group sessions show a fee box per client in Manage clients.
When the visit is completed, the charge is captured at the snapshotted fee. Manual charges resolve a fee fresh.
Good to know
- A charge with no fee (nothing known at any level) sits as a draft on the client's Billing tab until you price it.
- Autopay charges the client's share of the fee, not always the whole fee; see Card on file and autopay.
- The financial reports keep each charge's fee source, so you can see how much revenue came in at client rates versus practice prices.