What do I do with negative unallocated credit?
- Graham Comben (Unlicensed)
You are looking at an account's balance and you see a negative amount appear in the unallocated credit field. What is this and how do you fix it?
What is Negative Credit?
A negative amount in the unallocated credit field is caused by reversing or deleting a Payment which has already been allocated to one or more unpaid invoice lines.
Let's follow the example:
Mr Smith is invoiced $50.00 against Dr 1. His balances would show
           Doctor             Invoices                       Unall Credit                  Net Balance
           01                    50.00                           0.00                             50.00
You put a payment against Dr 1 for $20 and allocate the payment to an invoice line. His balances would show
           Doctor             Invoices                       Unall Credit                  Net Balance
           01                    30.00                           0.00                             30.00
You would see 2 transactions in his financial history
           Date                Details            Private             Paid                Balance
    Â
           dd/mm/yy        Invoice details  50.00               20.00               30.00
           dd/mm/yy        Payment          20.00                                       20.00
You then realise that the payment was incorrect and you reverse the payment out. Your history shows
           Date                Details             Private             Paid                Balance
          Â
           dd/mm/yy        Invoice details  50.00               20.00               30.00
           dd/mm/yy        Payment          20.00                                      Â
           dd/mm/yy        Rev Payment   -20.00                                     Â
however Mr Smith's balances will show
           Doctor             Invoices                       Unall Credit                  Net Balance
           01                    30.00                     -20.00                                50.00
This negative unallocated credit appears because you have reversed out the $20 payment AFTER you have allocated the original $20 payment amount. Because Oasis does not keep a record of which invoices were paid off by which Payment, it cannot make an arbitary decision about which invoices are to be unpaid whenever you reverse or delete a payment line. Note: If you reverse out a payment BEFORE you allocate it to invoices then there is never a problem as the allocated credit - negative credit cancel one another out.
Fixing the Balance
If you have negative unallocated credit, there are two things you can do:
- Do Nothing!
Leave the balances as they are. As the patient comes in and has more treatment and pays, any further payments will reduce down the negative credit. This is the recommended option.
- Unpay Invoices
Alternative, you can click on Billing, Credit Allocation Program. Click on the View Icon and choose All. Oasis will show you all invoices for this patient including those completely or partially paid. Select the invoice(s) to which the original payment has been allocated and unpay the line by entering in a negative amount. Using our above example we would select the $50 line and allocate -$20. This would take off the $20 allocation and our balances would then show
           Doctor             Invoices                       Unall Credit                  Net Balance
           01                    50.00              00.00               50.00
our history would show
           Date                Details             Private             Paid                Balance
          Â
           dd/mm/yy        Invoice details  50.00       00.00               50.00
           dd/mm/yy        Payment       20.00                                      Â
           dd/mm/yy        Rev Payment   -20.00                                     Â