What is my A/R and what is collectible?

Many of you have been asking, “What is my true accounts receivable balance?” and how do I know what is collectible? The answer is that it depends on what your parameters are and what you consider collectible. Let me help you define the different numbers from a couple of different reports so you can make up your mind about which number you want to use. Also, you can filter your accounts receivable by using different billing types if you want to separate out a group of accounts that have been sent to collection or Medicaid patients.

The most accurate accounts receivable number available is located on the Practice Advisor Report because it looks at all balances (credit balances and money owed). The Practice Advisor also does not care about the month-end process for aging the accounts. It looks at the date of service on the ledger. You can also filter this report by billing type if you want to skip accounts like “sent to collection,” “Medicaid” or “Ortho.” For more information on this report, check out Knowledgebase article #49693 for an online tutorial available in the Dentrix Resource Center.

This number on the Practice Advisor Report should match the Aging Report if you select the same parameters. The Aging Report is also the way you can get a list of all your patient credit balances. I think the Aging Report is a good way to see what your total accounts receivable is. However, it is not the most effective way to “work” your A/R.

If you have been reading my blogs for a while, you know how much I love the Collection Manager Report for managing the accounts receivable because of all the interactive tools it has and you do not have to print it. The one thing to remember about this report is that it only shows you positive money. It does not include credit balances. So your Practice Advisor report might show an A/R of $22k and your Collection Manager might show $56k. What’s the difference here? You have about $34k in credit balances sitting on your books that need to be sorted out. For more information on credit balances, CLICK HERE. For more information on the Collection Manager Report, CLICK HERE.

The final way you can find your office’s accounts receivable is by looking at the snapshot of your practice numbers from the Practice Analysis. From the Office Manager > Analysis > Practice and you will see a snapshot of your practice numbers. This snapshot is affected by the month-end process because one of the things the month-end does is move the ending balance from the previous month to the beginning balance of the new month. Therefore, if your month-end is not up to date, this ending balance might not be accurate.

Now with the new Month End Task Scheduler with Dentrix G6.6, this should make things better because the month-end processes now run in the background. For more information on the new Month End Task Scheduler, CLICK HERE.

from  The Dentrix Office Manager https://ift.tt/2JAZOU1