Payment Processing Overview

Configuring Your Preferred Payment Processing Method

You can configure your payment processing method for your practice as a whole under Settings, then Payment Details. If you plan to use Manual Processing, you do not need to update anything as this is the default setting.  If you plan to use automatic processing, you can select Process Immediately or Process Nightly under the Payment dropdown menu.

Once you set your preferred processing method under Payment Details, all new clients will be set according to your preference.

If you have have a few clients who you would prefer to have a different payment method than the rest of your clinic, you can adjusting their individual payment terms.  Head to the Clients view, select a client and select View, then Contact & Clinical, select the Account Details tab, and finally select Edit in the bottom right. Under the Payment section, select the desired payment method from the dropdown menu and select Save.

Bulk Updating Client Settings

Should you wish to update all or part of your client base's payment settings at once, you can make those changes under Bulk Update Client Settings from the Payment Details menu in Settings. 

This modal allows you to change the payment, invoice or receipt settings for select segments of clients. Select the Review Clients link to access a filtered list of your clients that will be affected prior to saving any changes.

Processing Payments Manually

When the client is ready to pay, simply select Record Payment like you normally would.  Next, select the Payment Method dropdown menu and you will see any credit cards or bank accounts that have been saved to the client's record listed here in the Stripe section. Select the payment method the client wishes to use from the list and select Record Payment button.

A prompt will appear showing the details of the transaction you are about to process so you can review and then confirm the transaction.

Once the transaction has been processed, the receipt will be generated and on it you will see the payment method displayed with last 4-digits of the card or account.

You can process payments for the full amount owed or for a partial amount. The amount processed will be accurately reflected on the receipt and the client balance will be updated accordingly.

All of the transactions that you process will be displayed in the client profiles in their individual Finance sections. Each payment will be displayed with a status of Success, Pending, or Failed.

The Success status will be displayed on any transactions that have been processed using Stripe Payments that have gone through the network successfully, or any payments that have been recorded in Zencare but processed externally (e.g. e-transfers or checks).

The Pending status will be displayed on any ACH transactions that have been processed through Stripe Payments where the funds have not yet fully settled.

The Failed status will be displayed on any ACH transactions that have been processed through Stripe Payments where the funds could not be routed successfully from end-to-end (e.g. when transactions come back as NSF, or when a chargeback is initiated).

The Client Profile will always display the current balance on file for the client. If there are outstanding payables, the amount will be tabulated and displayed in the Balance section. If there are ACH transactions on file that have not yet fully settled, the amount of those will be tabulated and displayed in the Pending section. If a client has any credit on file, it will be tabulated and displayed in the Credit section.

These fields are updated and displayed automatically in the client profile based on the financial standing with your clinic. A brand new client will appear without a balance on file, so their profile will be displayed simply with a $0.00 balance.

If a client has a balance owing and you've processed a payment using ACH, the balance on file will not be reduced until the ACH payment has fully settled. In cases like this, you'll see the pending amount of ACH transactions processed and the balance still outstanding. Once the ACH transactions have fully settled the balance owing will be reduced accordingly.

Processing Payments Automatically

For clients that have straightforward billing arrangements, your clinic can save time on recording payments by enabling Autopay. If the client has a default payment method on file, any invoices that are generated for them will be picked up and payments will be automatically processed on a nightly basis.

Configuring Autopay Timing

Users can configure the default payment timing to instantly, nightly, or manually for the entire clinic. You can configure payment timing by going to Settings, then Payment Details, and finally selecting your preferred timing from the Payment dropdown menu.

Payment timing can also be configured on a client by client basis. To configure an individual client's payment timing, go to the Account Details of a client and selecting Edit, then selecting the drop down menu under Payment. If a client is connected to another client via the Circle of Care, the payment timing will default to the same settings as the primary account that would be billed.

Managing & Reconciling Autopay Transactions

Queued

Autopay transactions that are queued to process overnight will show in the Workflow under the new Autopay section.

Select the box beside one of the line items and select Actions in the action bar and access the following options:

• Remove from Queue: If the client requests to delay their payment, you can remove an item from the queue, and the system will not attempt to process that transaction automatically. You will need to record a manual payment to settle the invoice
• Record Payment: Recording a manual payment for an invoice will re-adjust the autopay amount accordingly
• Client Summary: Generate a Client Summary document for the selected Client
• Make Adjustment: Adjust the invoiced amount. The autopay transaction will be updated accordingly
• Send Forms or Measures: Open the forms/measures modal and select what to send for completion
• View: Open the PDF Preview screen for the selected invoice

Failed

If an Autopay transaction fails, it will show in the Autopay Workflow section, with the Status column indicating Failed. Hovering over the Failed label will show the reason for failure, provided by Stripe.

Select the Failed transaction to see an option to Send Failure Notification in the edit bar. This option will open a PDF Preview with a Receipt you can send to the client showing the charge that was attempted and the reason for failure from Stripe.

You can configure the e-mail message that will be sent with the Failure Notification under Settings and Payment Details, or modify it manually from the PDF Preview screen.

Exports

The following exports can be used to review successful autopay transactions:

• Session Export
• Receipt Export
• Payment Export
• Stripe Payout Transactions Export
• Accounting Export

You can identify autopay transactions using either the Payment Method or Processing Type columns; automatically processed transactions will show Autopay in the relevant column.

Repairing Billing Errors

Occasionally, you may make an error on an invoice or a receipt.  You cannot edit any invoices or receipts once they have been created in Zencare Practice Management.  This is to protect the integrity of your financial documents.

This means that to repair an error in an invoice or a receipt, you will need to void (delete) the document, fix the error, and then recreate the document. Please note that there is one exception to this rule - if you only made an error in the amount you charged a Client in their invoice, and haven't recorded payment for the invoice yet, you can do a Financial Adjustment, which saves you from having to delete any invoices!

For payment errors, you will need to void the receipt and then re-record the payment.

To delete a financial document, open it and click the Delete button. You can also delete it from the Finances area of the Client Account.

To void a receipt:

• Head to the Client Account.
• Select Finances, open Receipts.
• Select the checkbox next to the receipt you need to void.
• This opens the edit bar at the top of your list.
• Select Delete.
• You can now go in and re-record the payment with the correct amount or method.

If you made an error in relation to the session information (such as the session time), you will also need to void the invoice related to the session before you can edit these details.

To void an invoice:

• Head to the Client Account.
• Click Finances, open Invoices.
• Click the checkbox next to the invoice you need to void.
• This opens a green edit bar at the top of your list.
• Press Delete.

Before you create a new invoice, you will need to edit any session details on the Calendar. Head back to the Calendar and open the Session Overview window. In the bottom left, select More Information. This enables you to edit any pertinent details.

You can then manually create the invoice from the Session Overview Window, or from the Clients view.

Non-Session Charges

Non-Session Charges is a feature which allows you to document and create invoices for any fee you are giving to a client other than their session fees. You can specify the name of the fee, the cost, and automatically generate an invoice.

You may use a Non-Session Charge for administration hours, reports, books, letters, or anything else you need to charge your clients for. These are not tied to Calendar events, so your invoices will not reflect the "session date."

To create a Non-Session Charge:

• Head to the Client Account, then Finances.
• Select the Non-Session Charges tab.
• Select the plus icon (+) in the top right of this tab, to open the Add a Charge window.

• Name the charge under Service Name, specify the Amount Charged, set a Tax Rate, and decide if you want to auto-invoice for this.  When you are finished, select the Save button.

If you have selected to Auto-Invoice, you'll find the invoice under the Invoices tab. You can record payment the same way you would a session. If you have opted not to auto-invoice, you will need to use the Create Invoice tool to generate the invoice for the fee.