Patient credit is money the clinic has accepted from (or owes back to) a patient that hasn’t been spent yet. On your books it’s a liability — sitting alongside outstanding gift card balances and deferred package revenue — until the patient actually uses it. When they do, it becomes revenue. This guide covers where patient credit comes from, when it shows up in reports, and how Decoda avoids double-counting it as revenue twice.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decodahealth.com/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Where patient credit comes from
A patient ends up with credit on their account through one of several routes:| Source | What happened | Where it surfaces in reports |
|---|---|---|
| Overpayment | Patient paid more than the charge total. The extra lands as credit automatically. | Patient credit liability increases by the overpaid amount. |
| Manual grant | Staff added credit to the patient’s account directly (goodwill, settlement, dispute resolution). | Patient credit liability increases by the granted amount. |
| Refund to credit | Instead of returning a refund to a card, staff issued it as account credit. | Patient credit liability increases; revenue from the refunded sale reverses (see Refunds below). |
| Membership grant | A membership product with an account-credit benefit billed a cycle. The cycle billing creates credit equal to the plan’s monthly amount. | Patient credit liability increases. See Membership Revenue Recognition for how the cycle revenue itself recognizes. |
| Booking fee | A non-refundable booking deposit was held and later converted to credit. | Patient credit liability increases when the conversion happens. |
| Gift card | A gift card was redeemed to the patient’s account rather than spent at checkout. | Gift card liability decreases; patient credit liability increases by the same amount. |
| Import | Credits brought in from a previous platform during onboarding. | Patient credit liability increases by the import total. |
Patient credit is never revenue at issuance
Adding credit to a patient’s account doesn’t count as revenue under either cash or accrual reporting. The clinic took money in (or already had it) but now owes the patient that value in services or product. Until the patient redeems the credit, it’s a balance the clinic has to deliver against — exactly like an unredeemed package or an unspent gift card. This is why your Product Sales Breakdown may show $0 revenue for a charge that was paid $200 from credit — the original revenue event was wherever the credit came from (a cycle billing, an overpayment, a refund). Spending the credit is the second half of that transaction, not a new sale.When patient credit recognizes as revenue
Revenue recognizes when the patient spends the credit on a real service, product, or other deliverable — the same moment a card payment would recognize. The mechanics:- A $300 facial billed at checkout, paid $200 from credit + $100 from card → $300 of revenue recognizes on the facial line. The clinic’s bookkeeping records $200 less liability (credit was drawn down) and $100 more cash.
- A $50 product purchased entirely from credit → $50 of revenue recognizes on the product line. Liability decreases by $50.
- Credit applied to a charge that has not yet been delivered (e.g., paying down a package up front) defers the recognition. The credit moves from “patient credit liability” to whatever the new deferred bucket is (deferred package revenue, deferred banked-item revenue). Revenue recognizes when the underlying service is delivered.
Why a $200 credit payment doesn’t add $200 to revenue twice
A common confusion: if a patient pays $200 from credit, isn’t that a separate $200 revenue event in addition to the service itself? No. Here’s the rule Decoda follows: A patient-credit payment is a liability draw-down, not a separate revenue event. The facial is the revenue event. The patient-credit payment is just how the patient paid for it — same as paying with a card, but pulling from a balance the clinic already owed them instead of from outside the clinic. If we counted both the facial and the credit payment as revenue, the books would inflate every time a patient spent credit. Where you’ll see this play out:- Product Sales Breakdown counts the service line, not the patient-credit payment line.
- Accounting Overview shows the credit moving out of liability (credit balance decreases) as the same dollars move into recognized revenue (the service recognizes).
- Payment Breakdown counts the $200 patient-credit payment as a transaction for reconciliation purposes (you can see how patients are paying), but separately tracks revenue elsewhere.
Refunds and credit
Refunds to credit are common — easier to issue than card refunds and often what the patient prefers. The accounting moves both directions at once:| Action | Liability | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Refund $80 from a delivered facial back to credit | +$80 patient credit liability | −$80 facial revenue (reversal on the refund date) |
| Refund $80 from a delivered facial back to card | No change to credit | −$80 facial revenue (reversal on the refund date) |
| Refund $80 to credit when the original charge has not yet been recognized (e.g., a package was refunded before any redemptions) | +$80 patient credit liability | No revenue reversal (no revenue was recognized to reverse — deferred liability moves from “deferred package” to “patient credit” instead) |
| Patient later spends the $80 of credit on something else | −$80 patient credit liability | +$80 on the new service/product |
How patient credit shows up on each dashboard
- Product Sales Breakdown: never lists “patient credit” as a line — credit is a payment method, not a product. Items paid with credit appear as their normal line (service, product, etc.).
- Payment Breakdown: lists patient credit as a payment method alongside card, cash, and the rest. Use this to see how much patients are paying from credit vs. other methods.
- Accounting Overview: lists Patient Credit Liability as a balance bucket. Click the bucket to drill into the individual credits contributing to the total (which patient, when issued, source, expiration if any). The Roll-forward column next to the bucket shows the period’s new credit issued, credit spent (Redemption), credit refunded, and credit expired.