Payment Plans 

Payment plans are especially important for Orthodontic offices. You can set up as many payment plans as you like, each with its own guarantor. Instead of being tracked in the Aging of A/R Report, amounts due are tracked in the Payment Plan Report. Also, see the less powerful Installment Plans feature.

In the Account module toolbar click Payment Plan.

A payment plan will reduce the patient's account balance by the payment plan amount. For example, if the patient has $2000 worth of procedures, and you create a payment plan that totals $2000, the patient balance will be $0. The $2000 payment responsibility will instead fall to the guarantor, whose account will show $2000 due in the Payment Plan grid at the top of the Account module.

Patient/Guarantor: The guarantor does not have to be in the same family as the patient, making situations where a guarantor does not reside with the patient much easier. Click Go To to quickly switch between the patient or guarantor accounts. Click Change to select a different guarantor. The payment plan shows in both the patient account and the guarantor account.

Same for all charges:
  - Provider: Select the Provider.
  - Clinic: Only visible if Clinics is turned on in Show Features.

Use for tracking expected insurance payments: Check this box when you are setting up a payment plan to track installment payments by an insurance company. For example, if you do orthodontics for $4,000, insurance might pay $1000. But they might pay it in four installments of $250 each, not all at once. To track these installment payments, setup a payment plan. The patient balance will also show correctly. See Tracking Insurance Payments below.

Date of Agreement: 

Terms:  Enter the terms of the agreement. The terms entered will determine the Amortization schedule.
  - Total Amount: The total amount, not including interest.
  - Date of First Payment: When the first payment will be due.
  - Down Payment:The amount of the down payment.
  - APR: The percentage of interest to charge.

Either:  The options selected will determine the payment amounts and frequency in the amortization schedule.
  - Number of Payments: To create an amortization schedule based on the number of payments, enter the total payment number.
  - Payment Amount: To create the amortization schedule based on a fixed payment amount, enter the amount.
  - More Options:  Indicate how often the payments will be due.

The default is Monthly. If using Recurring Charges, you must use Monthly; the other options won't work.

  - Create Schedule:  Click to create the amortization schedule based on the entered terms.

Once the schedule is created, these calculations are automatic:
  - Total Cost of Loan: Total Amount plus interest and any added charges.
  - Accumulated Due: The current amount due.
  - Paid so far: The total that has been paid towards the payment plan to date.
  - Principal paid so far: The total that has been paid towards the principal to date.

Tx Completed Amt: If the treatment has not yet been completed, continue to update this amount as it is. This amount will be subtracted from the patient's Account balance, keeping them from ending up with a credit due.

Note: When you create the schedule, a detailed note will list for future reference.

Amortization Schedule
The amortization schedule is created based on the Terms entered on the left. Principal and interest are calculated automatically when you click Create Schedule.

A horizontal bold line indicates today's date and separates past items from future items. The amount currently due is bold. Payments that are attached to this payment plan show as Credits and affect the running balance. If extra payments show here, but shouldn't, on the Payment window for each payment, uncheck the Attached to Payment Plan box. In the Account module, payments to the payment plan show in Payment Plans grid, not the main Account module grid.

Interest: EZ2000 Plus Dental calculates interest (APR) using the following method:
1. Subtracts the down payment from the payment plan balance.
2. Calculates the number of payments, or the payment amount, based on the new balance (balance minus down payment).
Most online calculators use the same method, but some may differ (e.g. assume down payment is first month's payment).

Clear Schedule: If you are unhappy with the schedule, click Clear Schedule and try again, or edit individual charges by double clicking on them.  If you manually edit or add charges, you must manually calculate any changes you want to make to interest.

Add: Add a charge to the amortization schedule.

Tracking Expected Insurance Payments
A payment plan can be set up to track insurance installment payments, so that patient balances show correctly. 

1. Create the insurance payment plan when you get the first payment from insurance along with the EOB.
2. Check the 'Use for tracking expected insurance payments' checkbox.
3. The guarantor for an insurance payment plan is always simply the patient.
4. Create the amortization schedule based on the information on the EOB. But you can be more flexible with the dates on an insurance payment plan.
5. As each payment comes in over the next year, delete the corresponding payment plan charge so that all that remain are the future charges. 

Payments made to an insurance payment plan will not show as line items within the payment plan window. There is no way to "attach" insurance payments to any payment plan. Instead, all insurance payments will affect the main Account module balance and aging. So the only way to keep the balances accurate is to delete the payment plan charges from inside the payment plan window as the payments come in.

Running Billing
Payment plans due are always included when you run Billing. The amount due for the payment plan shows in the last column of the list of generated bills. Bills are triggered to be printed a set number of days in advance of when the payment is actually due. The number of days can be changed in Module Setup. The payment plan info will show in separate grid on each bill/statement. The amortization charges that will show are determined by the date range selected to show for the statement. The amount due on a payment plan will be added to the total amount due at the top of a statement.