What is Unallocated Credit?

Many practices view patient balances or print an Aged Debtor's Report and wonder why amounts are in the Unallocated Credit column. What is Unallocated Credit and how do you handle it?

Oasis uses an "open invoice" system where credits are not tied to debits. Credit can be used (or re-used) as required.

Understanding Balances

In Oasis, each account (or family) has a financial balance. The balance is made up of two amounts

Invoices Outstanding

Unallocated Credit

and the balance is a calculated formula of Invoices Outstanding - Unallocated Credit.

Separate balances are maintained for each doctor for each account and a total balance is kept for each account for all doctors.

eg Mr Smith is invoiced $30.00 against Dr 1 and $20 for Doctor 2. His balances would show

Doctor Invoices Unall Credit Net Balance

00 (all) 50.00 0.00 50.00

01 30.00 0.00 30.00

02 20.00 0.00 20.00

Processing Payments

Entering payments against an account involves a two step process under Oasis.

Step 1. When you enter the payment details and OK, Oasis puts the payment value into the Unallocated Credit Column. eg Mr Smith pays $10.00 against Dr 1

Doctor Invoices Unall Credit Net Balance

00 (all) 50.00 10.00 40.00

01 30.00 10.00 20.00

02 20.00 0.00 20.00

Step 2. Oasis then moves you into the Credit Allocation Screen. In normal circumstances, when the patient pays all the bill, this step is bypassed and Oasis simply allocates all the funds against the balance and then prints out a statement. However, if you part pay the bill, Oasis stops at the Credit Allocation screen. This is because Oasis doesn't know which invoices you want to pay off with the Credit you have created with the payment. You can do three things here:

a) Click on OK and force Oasis to use its Unallocated Credit and pay off all invoices from the oldest forward until all the Unallocated Credit is used up.

b) Click on individual invoice lines and tell Oasis how much you want to pay off each invoice.

c) Cancel out of the screen. The payment amount will still stay in Unallocated Credit until you go back into the Allocation Screen and do a) or b) above.

Cross Doctor Allocation

Also affecting Credit Allocation is the problem where you may have invoiced one doctor but put the payment against a different doctor. Oasis won't allow you to allocate the Credit from One Doctor to Another.

Here's an example, Dr 1 is owed $50, Dr 20 is owed $20.

Doctor Invoices Unall Credit Net Balance

00 (all) 50.00 0.00 50.00

01 30.00 0.00 30.00

02 20.00 0.00 20.00

You enter a payment of $40.00 against Dr 2. Before allocation, this is what the balances look like.

Doctor Invoices Unall Credit Net Balance

00 (all) 50.00 40.00 10.00

01 30.00 0.00 30.00

02 20.00 40.00 -20.00

Oasis will allow you to take up $20.00 worth of Unallocated Credit against Dr 2, but won't allow you to allocate anything against Dr 1. In this situation, if Dr 2 should not have allocated all the payment, you would go to Financial History screen and reverse or delete the payment and reenter again against the right doctor(s).

Printing Aged Debtors Reports

If you look at an account's balances on screen or you print an Aged Debtors Reports and you see accounts with Unallocated Credit its usually caused by cancelling out of the Allocation Screen when a part payment is made or by having crossed doctor allocation.