When paying providers on production, linking procedures to providers is critical. In this post, we will discuss what Account Module Preferences to set, what reports to run, and other key points that will help ensure your providers are paid properly when paying on Production.
If you’re paying your providers on Collections, see this post.

Definitions

Account Module Preferences

First, set the following Account Module Preferences. This helps ensures users are accurately associating production to the provider.

Enforce Valid Paysplits: Whichever you prefer. The recommended setting is Auto-Split Only. This keeps accounts more organized and avoids problems in the future should you switch to paying on collection. 

Enforce Valid Adjustments: Set to Enforce Fully. This requires that adjustments are attached to a procedure.

Remember, adjustments affect production. By forcing adjustments to be associated with a procedure, you guarantee you are not accidentally giving or taking production from the wrong provider. 

TECH TIP: If your office gives general discounts and you do not want those adjustments to affect the provider, set this preference to Link Only. This way, you can manually change the provider on the adjustment to the Office Provider. 

Reports

Running the following reports will help you review production numbers to make sure they are correct before payroll. 

Production and Income Report: Naturally, you will want to run the Production and Income report for provider production. This report can be run by provider for any date range. 

It is important that you always have the same write-off setting selected when running this report, as changing the setting will change the numbers. 

When paying on production, we recommend setting the Show Insurance Writeoffs setting to the third option: Use initial claim date for write-off estimates, and the insurance payment date for write-off adjustments.

Write-offs may change after the end of payroll (maybe you thought the write-off was going to be $50, but insurance paid differently, so it’s actually $40). This is going to affect your net production. With the third method selected, you can make sure numbers even out by using the write-off estimate, and the adjusted write-off on the payment date. 

Note: You can default the report to run with your preferred write-off method in Report Misc Settings. 

Daily Adjustments Report: Since adjustments affect production, each provider should run this report daily to verify it’s accurate.

Daily Procedures Report: Each provider should also run this report daily to verify it’s accurate.

Other Key Points

Here are some other points to keep in mind.

• Always verify the provider is correct on procedures and adjustments. Even retail items should have the correct provider associated.
  TECH TIP: Assign providers to operatories. This ensures the procedures on an appointment are automatically assigned to the correct provider.
• Never change the actual fee on the account. If a fee is wrong, use an adjustment to the procedure. This shows the changes and tracks both positive and negative production.
• Try not to backdate procedures, especially if they occurred in a previous pay period.

Using these settings and being consistent and disciplined about how things are recorded will help make reports accurate, and allow you to pay providers accurately. If you have questions about any of these settings or need help troubleshooting something in Open Dental, please reach out to our support team – we’re here for you!