Recurring Charges 

Recurring charges can be used to process multiple Credit Card charges at once. Recurring charges works with X-Charge. It does not currently work with PayConnect. This feature does not automatically process credit cards on the process date. You must manually process the charges using the CC Recurring Charges tool.

The Recurring Charges feature requires two steps:
1. Authorize a Credit Card charge to the patient account.
2. Run the CC Recurring Charge tool to process the charge with X-Charge.

Authorize a Charge to Account
Before running a recurring credit card charge, you must fill out the Authorized Recurring Charges section on the Credit Card Edit window.

Run the Credit Card Recurring Charges Tool
Before running the tool, run any Repeating Charges. After running the tool, run the Production and Income Report, Payment Report, Aging of A/R Report and Statements. This will prevent confusion.  Do not run the tool while using X-Charge on the same computer.

In the Main Menu, click Tools, CC Recurring Charges.

To be listed on this window, patients must meet three criteria:
- An authorized recurring charge is setup.
- A charge has not been processed and applied to the recurring charge date, as set on the Credit Card window.
- They have a balance owed that is equal to, or greater, than the Charge Amount.
Declined charges also remain in the list until the charge is successful, or the authorization is removed.

Select the patients you wish to charge. Click All to select all patients, click None to deselect all patients, or click on each to highlight. Click Send to charge the credit cards.

While the charges are processing, do not click on the list.  Doing so will reset the list, and, while payments may be successfully processed with X-Charge, the patients will still appear in the Recurring Charges list, and payments will not appear as posted in Open Dental. In this case, you will need to go to each patient's Account and post a Payment manually. Use the X-charge report to enter the approval code in the note section of the Payment window.  Also, if you minimize Open Dental while the charges are processing, you will be unable to maximize it until all charges are complete.

This window can be left open to make it easy to view each patient's account. Remember to always click Refresh before charging more cards to make sure you have the most recent list of recurring charges.

Failed Charges
If a patient remains in the list after running the tool, their charge was not successfully processed. Double click on any row to go directly to that patient's Account. Possible causes are a declined credit card or an old expiration date. Contact each patient to determine the cause, then make the needed changes. If the patient gives you a new card, you must add a new Credit Card and delete the old card.  Do not edit existing cards because that can cause problems with X-Charge tokens.

Processing Dates
Patients will appear in the list as long as their authorized recurring charge has not been processed in at least the last 30 days. If you run the tool on a date other than the credit card's authorized recurring charge date, the Payment date will be backdated, unless there is a Security lock date in place to prevent it. The entry date will always reflect the actual date the charge was made.

Payment Plans
Recurring charges can be set up for Payment Plans. See Credit Cards under Authorized Recurring Charges. Once set up, payment plans will show in the Recurring Charges list just like regular recurring charges.