A walkthrough of how AngelTrack's ledgers can track balances for your customers, and how to use them
Every facility, every affiliate, and every patient in AngelTrack has a ledger, allowing you to record overpayments, overcredits, and miscellaneous fees, for settlement later.
Carryforwards
The ledger is used to store incidental overpayments and overcredits that occur from time to time during invoicing. AngelTrack's invoicing system actuates the ledger to keep a record of such overages, so that you do not need to remember to apply a credit (or invoice a debit) later.
When closing an invoice as 'paid', you can direct AngelTrack to apply any overpayment to the ledger, to be automatically settled in the next round of invoices.
Receivables Not Associated with a Dispatch
The ledger can also store a charge for a receivable that has no associated dispatch. For example, AngelTrack's subscription system will assess each subscription fee as a "receivable" entry on the customer's ledger, from whence it will get included by the customer's next invoice. You can also create "receivable" ledger entries manually, to represent services you provided that don't have dispatch records, such as training visits or one-time fees. More about this below.
The Revenue Accrual report counts these "receivable" ledger entries as gross revenue. When the customer eventually makes a payment, the monetary amount likewise goes on their ledger, creating a balancing entry.
How the Accounting Works
Suppose in February, you run your very first call: a $100 transport, but you don't invoice it yet.
The revenue accrual will show $100 in new retail charges, and no other activity, for a net AR change of $+100, yielding an AR gross balance of $100.
Suppose in March you invoice the customer, and he accidentally pays $140 instead of $100.
When you input that check, AngelTrack will write a $140 transaction to the check register, create a $100 payment event for the dispatch (marking it "paid in full"), and then place a $40 credit on the patient's ledger.
The revenue accrual will then show $100 in payments received, and $-40 in ledger activity, for a net AR change of $-140, yielding an AR gross balance of $-40 because there are no other receivables and $40 is currently owed to the patient.
Suppose in April the patient has a $95 transport. On the subsequent invoice, AngelTrack will place the $95 charge plus the $40 ledger credit, for a total invoiced amount of $55.
When the patient sends a $55 check, AngelTrack creates a $95 payment event for the new dispatch (marking it "paid in full"), and then create a $40 ledger debit to cancel the credit that was applied, bringing the patient's ledger balance back to zero.
The revenue accrual will then show $95 in new retail charges, $95 in payments received, and $+40 in ledger activity, for a net AR change of $+40, yielding an AR gross balance of $0, bringing everything to zero.
The ledger system thereby has these benefits:
- Avoid the hassle of cutting small checks when customers accidentally overpay, instead letting the invoicing system gracefully zero everything out.
- All of the relevant dispatches are exactly paid in full, even though one trip was actually overpaid.
- The revenue numbers are correct at all points in time.
- Nobody has to remember to carry forward the overpayment; AngelTrack remembers it for you.
- All ledger balances are conveniently displayed in the various statements and outstanding-balance reports.
Settling a Ledger
AngelTrack balances ledgers using its invoicing system. During your monthly reinvoicing cycle, AngelTrack will generate invoices for any customers who has receivable dispatches or a non-zero ledger balance.
You can also print a quick statement for any customer that will show -- among other things -- their current ledger balance. However, it is best to use the invoicing system for settling any ledger, so that when you apply a payment received, it will get recorded in the check register in the normal way.
AngelTrack constantly settles your ledgers during invoicing
AngelTrack's Invoice Generators automatically include the current ledger balance when creating a new invoice. When that invoice is subsequently paid, AngelTrack will update the customer's ledger as necessary to reflect any overpayment, and any credit applied.
It does not matter how often a ledger balance changes; with each invoice, AngelTrack includes the appropriate debit or credit, over and over, always seeking to zero it out.
Invoice underpay
If a customer pays an invoice with less money than the amount owed, AngelTrack will apply the counterparty's ledger credits, if any, to cover the shortfall.
Invoice underpayments can thereby drain a ledger credit, but they cannot create a ledger debit. This is because AngelTrack prefers to leave any balance due on the associated dispatches, rather than zeroing out the dispatches and moving the balance due over to the ledger. It does this because AngelTrack's balance tracking and aging features work better when balances are still pinned to the underlying dispatches.
Paying an invoice using only a ledger credit
You can pay an invoice using only a ledger credit balance, without an actual payment received: Just enter zero as the amount received and then click "Pay". AngelTrack will then use as much of the ledger balance as necessary to pay off the invoice, in the usual way.
A new entry will be added to the ledger, reflecting the amount of debit and a comment to the effect of "Invoice xxxx ledger credit applied".
Checking Ledger Balances
In the Billing Home page, the Facilities With a Balance, Affiliates With a Balance, and Patients With a Balance reports show (among other things) the current ledger balances of all counterparties. You can also open any Facility Edit/Affiliate Edit / Patient Edit page and visit the "Ledger" tab to see their current ledger balance and its contents.
Using a Ledger to Manually Add Charges to an Invoice
The invoice generator will automatically add charges or credits in order to settle any ledger balance. Later, when the invoice is paid, the ledger is re-settled using any underpayment or overpayment.
You can use this feature to add miscellaneous charges to an invoice. (If you wish to add charges for a specific dispatch, then add them directly to the dispatch as service charges or as finance charges.)
If you have not yet created the invoice, then create a new ledger entry, being sure to mark it as ☑ Receivable and include an explanatory comment. Then generate an invoice with the ☑ Include any ledger balance box checked. Your invoice then will show the charge/credit, along with a chart of all unsettled ledger items, including the one you just created.
If you have already created an invoice, and wish to add a charge or credit to it, you can edit the invoice right in the grid in the Invoices page. Change the ledger balance entry as needed. Then create a ☑ Receivable ledger entry to match it, so that it will all settle out when the invoice gets paid.
Reviewing All Ledger Activity
Under Billing home there is a report named Ledger Activity, which shows all activity across all facility ledgers and all affiliate ledgers.
The report has date filters, and of course can export its data to Excel for further manipulation.
AngelTrack's Report Builder also has a dataset just for pulling ledger activity.
Writing Off a Ledger Balance
If a ledger balance cannot be settled, you can write it off by creating a balancing entry on the ledger and marking it as a ☑ Writeoff.
Afterward, such entries will be reported separately during the calculation of taxes.