Payments are handled in two places: the Payments page for the whole location, and each patient's Payments tab. This is money patients pay you; your own subscription is under Billing.
Card payments need Stripe connected for the location; cash and check payments do not.
The Payments page
Open Payments in the left navigation. It opens on Overview. Record payment logs one for any patient, and the ⋯ menu has Export payments (CSV), Filing info, AutoPay clients, Billing settings and, for the money roles, Import balances from SimplePractice. Card fees and Stripe payouts are on the Financial report under Payment processing.
Payments are dated by when the money came in: a pay link sent on the 28th and paid on the 3rd shows on the 3rd.
Five tabs:
- Overview: what clients owe now, how many visits aren't on an invoice yet or are missing a fee, what came in from clients and insurance, AutoPay clients without a card, balances by age (current, 31–60, 61–90, 90+ days) with what is 60+ days old to start with, and the latest billing activity. See The Payments page.
- Payments: every payment with the patient, amount, method (card brand and last four, cash, check, insurance, other), its type (AutoPay, payment plan, portal, pay link, or taken by staff), status, and date. Narrow it with the date range and the type drop-down. Click a payment to open its details: what it paid, credit left over, the processing fee and net, and Stripe's details. Statuses are Completed, Pending, Processing, Failed, Refunded, Partial refund, Cancelled (a pay link replaced by a newer one, or whose invoice was paid or voided), plus Disputed or Chargeback when a bank dispute is open or lost. Row actions: open or copy a pending payment link, Send receipt (emails the client a receipt now), and Refund. Refund is for the account owner, admins, practice managers and billers; for anyone else it is greyed, with the reason when you point at it.
- Invoices: every invoice for the location with its status (Draft, Sent, Viewed, Partly paid, Overdue, Paid, Void). Click one to open it: Record payment logs cash, check, insurance or a card run outside FrontDesk, up to what the invoice still owes; Void asks for a reason; Edit reopens a draft in the invoice builder. The same list is on each client's Billing tab. See Invoices.
- Balances: each patient with a balance, split by age, and a Request Payment button that opens Send a pay link. On a phone-width screen each row has a Send payment reminder button instead, which sends the client's existing link again (see below).
- Appointments: each billed visit by date of service, with what the client owes, insurance, write-offs and the next step (Create invoice, Add payment, View details), or switch to Client balances for every client with their balance and card. See The Payments page.
Owners, admins, managers, practice managers and billers also see a Daily close button that opens the day's transactions on the Financial report. A view-only member can't record payments or send pay links, so Record payment is greyed for them, and Request Payment (on a phone-width screen, Send payment reminder) isn't shown.
A patient's Payments tab
Open the patient → Payments. The bar at the top shows what is due, charged to date, how many payments they have made, and any credit on account, with Collect and Apply credit buttons when they apply. Buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Collect payment | Take a payment now: card (through Stripe), cash, check (with a reference number), or insurance. |
| Record manual | Log a payment taken elsewhere: amount, method, description, an internal note, and whether to send a receipt. |
| Send request | Text or email a secure pay link for their balance or one of their open invoices, expiring in 3, 7, 14, or 30 days. See Pay links below. |
| Create invoice | Build an invoice with line items, visit charges, discount and tax, then save it or send it with a pay link. See Invoices and visit charges below. |
| Payment plan | Split the balance into installments; see Set up a payment plan. |
The history below lists every payment with a Refund action while anything is refundable. Open plans show as a card above it.
Refund, Apply credit and Payment plan are for the account owner, admins, practice managers and billers. A view-only member can't collect or record payments, send a pay link or create an invoice, so they don't get Collect payment, Record manual, Send request or Create invoice. A line under the buttons says why when one is missing.
The FrontDesk phone app follows the same rules: a view-only member doesn't get Take a payment, Send a payment link, Remind, Save a card, Add charge or New → Invoice there either, and refunds, balance adjustments and payment plans stay with the account owner, admins, practice managers and billers.
The options when you collect
- Send receipt to patient via email. Ticked, the client gets one receipt (Stripe's for a card, FrontDesk's for cash, check, or insurance), and the confirmation says where it went or why it didn't (no email on file, do not contact, email not allowed). Unticked, nothing is emailed.
- Apply payment to outstanding balance (shown when the patient owes something and no visit is picked). Ticked, the payment pays down what they owe: open charges not on an invoice first, then open invoices, oldest first. Unticked, it's kept as a credit toward future visits: the balance stays as it is, the Payments tab shows "$X credit on account", and visit charges added later draw on it. A payment for a visit always pays that visit.
Credit on account
A client can have credit when a payment was kept toward future visits or was more than they owed at the time. While they also owe something, Apply credit on the Payments tab bar (or on the Billing tab) puts the credit against the balance, paying the oldest open charges and invoices first. Owners, admins, practice managers and billers can apply credit. See Client credit.
- A card that Stripe doesn't confirm. If the connection drops mid-charge, the window holds the amount, visit, and notes as they were and shows Check again, which asks Stripe about that same charge and can't charge the card twice. Start a new charge is only for when the patient's payments show the last one didn't go through.
Pay links
Send request (on a patient) and Request Payment (on the Balances tab) open Send a pay link:
- What is it for? Choose Outstanding balance or one of the client's open invoices (sent, not voided, with something still due).
- Amount: pre-filled with the balance or what the invoice still owes. An invoice link can't be for more than the invoice owes.
- Description, Send by (Text or Email), and Link expires in (3, 7, 14, or 30 days).
- Click Send pay link.
How links behave:
- One balance link at a time. Sending a new balance link closes the client's older ones, so only the newest can be paid. Closed links show Cancelled, and a client who opens one is told the office cancelled it.
- Never more than is owed. A balance link charges at most what the client owes when they pay. If the balance was paid another way meanwhile (at the desk, in the portal), the page says it has already been paid and nothing is charged.
- Nothing owed, no link. If the client owes nothing, FrontDesk says so instead of sending a balance link. Add the charge first, or send a link for an open invoice.
- Invoice links pay that invoice and close when it is paid or voided.
- Paid once. A link can't be paid twice, even if the client opens the texted and emailed copies at the same time.
- Remind (the Send payment reminder button on a phone-width screen, and the phone app's reminder) sends the client's existing balance link again, for what they owe now, and keeps it open at least another week. If they have no open link, a new one is made.
If a text or email can't go out (no number, the client said no texts, the texting allowance is used up), the link is still created and you can copy it from their payments.
Invoices and visit charges
Create invoice builds an invoice with line items, a discount, and tax. A completed visit's charge is already on the client's balance, so an invoice for visits should bill those charges rather than retype them:
- Add visit charges lists the client's open visit charges. Tick the ones to bill and click Add selected. Each becomes a line for what the client still owes on it. A charge already on another open invoice is shown but can't be picked.
- An invoice adds only its other lines (and tax, less the discount) to the balance; the visit charges were already there. Paying the invoice pays those visits, so each one shows paid, and a refund reopens them.
- The discount can't be more than the invoice's non-visit lines. To discount a visit, adjust its charge instead: Adjust balance on the client's Billing tab, picking that visit's charge. A draft invoice billing it follows the new amount; if the invoice was already sent, the adjustment is refused until that invoice is voided.
- Save or send. Save Draft keeps it for later; Send Invoice emails it with a pay link (the client needs an email on file). Open a draft from Payments → Invoices or the client's Billing tab and click Edit to change or send it.
- Record a payment or void. In the invoice, Record payment books money taken at the desk against that invoice, never more than it still owes, and warns you when a bank payment on the invoice is still clearing (record one only if it is a different payment). Void asks for a reason: what the invoice still owes for its own lines comes off the balance and its pay link stops working, while visit charges it billed stay owed. Money already paid on it stays paid; refund it from the payment if it should go back. An invoice can't be voided while a bank payment on it is still clearing. See Invoices.
Refunds and disputes
Refund takes a full or partial amount, a reason, and a note. Card payments taken through FrontDesk go back to the card through Stripe; cash and check refunds are recorded for the books. Disputes a patient opens with their bank show as badges and notifications. See Refunds and disputes.
Good to know
- Balances and charges. A client's balance is their charges (completed visits, charges added by hand, missed-visit fees) plus invoice lines that aren't visit charges, less payments and adjustments. A payment that isn't for a particular visit or invoice pays their open charges that are not on an invoice oldest first, then their open invoices oldest first, and each invoice it reaches shows the payment; a refund reopens them. The Financial report shows open charges on their own and explains any difference.
- Receipts and invoices send from your practice's verified email sender.
- Autopay can charge a card on file automatically, each night for open invoices or the moment a visit completes; see Card on file and autopay.
- A payment the patient makes on their own (portal or pay link) raises a Payment received notification saying where it came from.
- Export payments for a date range from Settings → Account Activity → Billing Activity: the CSV lists each payment and refund with the date, client, method, card, reference, how it was paid (autopay, online, payment plan), who took it and the amount. Owners, admins, managers, practice managers and billers can open it. See Review account activity.
- In the portal, a client with a payment plan is only asked to pay the part of their balance the plan doesn't already cover; see Set up a payment plan.