Credit Card Autopay Posting Sequence

[cleizer]

When using eServices for credit card processing, the sequence to process the transactions and post them to the patient's ledger seems out of order. The system has you post the payments to the ledger FIRST, and THEN settle the transactions. Isn't this backwards? Wouldn't you want to settle the transactions first to make sure they go through before you post them as paid to the ledger?

Is there some aspect of this that i am not understanding correctly?

[Anon · Accepted solution]

Good day Dr. Leizer,

The answer is a complex one:

1.  From a design standpoint, the payments are posted first to the ledger because not all clients who accept credit card payments also process the payments through our E-Services.  Thus, the payments post first to the ledger and then if they are being processed through our E-Services, they are then added to the settlement report.

2.  From a design standpoint, most offices do not settle their credit card payments as each one is done.  They wait until the end of the day to settle the credit card batch.  Waiting to post the payments to the ledger until the batch is settled would therefore cause the payments to post to the ledger out of sequence, possibly hours after other activity that was done on the ledger at the time the patient / responsible party was in the office.

3.  From a design standpoint, not posting the payment to the ledger until the batch is settled would prevent clients from printing receipts for that payment until it was posted, possibly keeping the patient / responsible party from getting a receipt.

I hope these reasons provide sufficient explanation.  If you ever need to remove a transaction from the settlement report, or a payment appears on the settlement but not on the ledger, or vice versa, please feel free to contact Support at 866-722-2567 and we will be happy to assist.

[cleizer]

Thanks Phil. This makes sense now. I guess the times when it is problematic for us is when we have a large monthly batch of autopays, rather than a single transaction here and there. On those large batches, it would be helpful if we could batch out first to avoid posting to accounts that didn't process. But I understand the rationale for why it is set up the way it is.

Thanks for the response.