Navigate to Billing > Charges or Billing > Payments to access the features described on this page.
Charges
Navigate to Billing > Charges to view and manage all charges across your organization.Charges Table
The table displays each charge with:- Amount: The charge total and status badge (Outstanding, Paid, Payment Plan, Written Off, External Settlement, Refunded, Void, Chargeback, Collections).
- Outstanding Balance: If the charge is partially paid, the remaining amount is shown.
- Patient: The patient’s name and identifiers.
- Created Date: When the charge was created, plus the date of service if different.
- Payment Date: When the most recent payment was recorded.
Charge Actions
Click the settings icon on any charge row to access actions specific to its status: Outstanding charges:- Take Payment — Opens checkout pre-loaded with the charge.
- Edit Charge Amount — Opens an adjustment window to increase or decrease the charge total.
- Write off charge — Marks the outstanding balance as uncollectable.
- Externally Settle Charge — Mark as paid outside Decoda (cash, check, Venmo, etc.). The charge shows as settled without processing a card.
- Cancel Payment Plan — Stops future automatic installment charges.
- Detailed Receipt — Opens a printable receipt in a new tab.
- Edit Details — Modify the charge description, external ID, or date of service.
- Add/Edit Comment — Attach or update an internal staff comment.
- Delete Charge — Permanently remove the charge (disabled for charges with card payments). Before confirming, choose which side effects to undo in the Reverse side effects panel.
Charge Timeline
Click the caret on any charge row to reveal the Charge Timeline, which shows every event in the charge’s lifecycle — creation, payments, refunds, adjustments, write-offs, invoice sends, and status changes.Export Charges
Click Export Charges to download all charges matching your current filters as a CSV file. Requires the Export Charges permission.Payments
Navigate to Billing > Payments to view every individual payment transaction.Payments Table
Each row shows:- Amount: The payment amount in green, with the payment ID, creator, and location.
- Status badges: Refunded, Refund Failed, Payment Plan, Succeeded, Processing, or Failed. A Failed badge shows the failure reason underneath (for example, an ACH return code and description). See ACH Returns.
- Patient: Contact details including phone, email, and external IDs.
- Card: The card brand icon and last four digits (if a card payment).
- Payment Method: The method used (POS Terminal, Virtual Terminal, Cash, Patient Credit, Payment Plan, Payment Link).
- Date: When the payment was recorded.
Payment Actions
Click the settings icon on any payment row:- Refund Payment — Opens the refund window. Only available when the payment has un-refunded balance remaining. Requires the Process Refunds permission, or the more limited Refund to Patient Credit permission. See Who can refund.
- Receipt Details — View and send the receipt via SMS or email.
- Generate Detailed Receipt — Opens a printable detailed receipt in a new tab.
- Move to Another Patient — Transfer the payment to a different patient’s account.
- Move to Location — Reassign the payment to a different clinic location.
- Change Settlement Type — Change the payment method label on a non-card payment (e.g., reclassify “cash” to “check”). Not available for card payments.
- Delete Payment — Permanently remove the payment (disabled for card payments, insurance payments, and payments with refunds).
One-Time Payment
Click One Time Payment to record an insurance or manual payment without going through the full checkout flow. This creates a standalone payment record linked to a patient.Export Payments
Click Export Payments to download all payments matching your current filters. Requires the Export Payments permission.View Deposits
Click View Deposits to navigate to the Deposits page. Requires the View Deposits permission.ACH Returns
When a patient pays by bank transfer (ACH), the bank can pull the funds back days or weeks later — usually because of insufficient funds, a closed account, or the patient asking their bank to reverse the transfer. This is called an ACH return. When a return arrives, the payment’s status flips to Failed with a short reason under the badge (for example,R01 - Insufficient Funds), and the original charge goes back to Outstanding for the returned amount. To find returned payments, filter the Payments table by Status: Failed.
Because the charge is outstanding again, follow up with the patient and collect a new payment using Take Payment on the charge — or write it off / start a payment plan if they can’t pay. Turn on the ACH Return alert in Settings > My Decoda > Notifications to be notified when a return comes in.
Unlike a chargeback, there’s no dispute process and no evidence to submit — you simply collect the money again.
Process a Refund
Who can refund
Two permissions control refunds, so you can give staff exactly as much authority as they need:- Process Refunds — full refund authority. Staff with this permission can send a refund back to the original payment method (card, cash, or CareCredit) or to patient credit.
- Refund to Patient Credit — limited authority. Staff with only this permission can refund to patient credit but cannot send money back to the original payment method. When they open the refund window, the “Original payment method” choice is hidden and every refund goes to patient credit.
1
Navigate to Payments
Go to Billing > Payments and find the payment you need to refund.
2
Open Refund Window
Click the settings icon on the payment row and select Refund Payment.
3
Choose how much to refund
At the top of the window, pick Amount refund to enter one amount against the payment, or Item refund to pick exactly what comes back — see Refund specific items.
4
Review Existing Refunds
If previous partial refunds exist, they are listed with their dates, reasons, statuses, and amounts.
5
Choose where the refund goes
Under Refund to, pick one:
- Original payment method — the money goes back to the card, ACH, or whatever was originally used.
- Patient credit — Decoda issues a fresh credit on the patient’s account for the refund amount instead of reversing the original payment. Useful when the patient prefers to keep the money on file.
6
Say what's coming back
On Amount refund, enter the Amount — from $0.01 up to the remaining refundable balance. If the payment bought one or more packages that are still active, a Remaining package value option appears with the unused dollar amount in parentheses. Pick it to refund only the portion the patient hasn’t redeemed yet — Decoda cancels the package and refunds the unused value. If multiple packages qualify, choose which one from the list that appears.On Item refund, there is no single amount field. Tick the lines coming back and set each one’s quantity or units instead — see Refund specific items.
7
Give a reason
- Reason: Select a reason (Duplicate, Dispute, or Other).
- Description: If you selected “Other,” provide a written explanation.
8
Choose what else to undo
On a full Amount refund, a Reverse charge-wide side effects panel lists everything this charge touched. Check the boxes for whatever should be undone alongside the money. See Reverse side effects for what each option does.A partial amount refund has no panel — it returns money only, not item quantity or item resources. The panel is also hidden once the payment has any item refunds against it, and Decoda says so in place of the panel.On Item refund, the choice is per line instead: each ticked item offers its own Optional item reversals.
9
Process
Click Refund amount, or Refund selected items on an item refund. Card refunds take 6-7 business days to reach the patient’s account. Patient credit refunds are added back to the patient’s credit balance immediately — for how a refund-to-credit moves between liability and revenue, see Patient Credit Accounting. Cash/external refunds are marked as processed.
If a refunded payment includes a booking fee that became patient credit, Decoda removes the unused booking-fee credit so the patient cannot spend refunded money. If that credit was moved to another patient before the refund, Decoda removes the remaining moved credit too.
Refund Specific Items
Choose Item refund in the refund window when the patient is getting only part of the payment back and you want the refund attributed to the right lines rather than spread across the whole payment. Everything the payment funded is listed with a checkbox. Tick what’s coming back and set the quantity, or the exact package or gift card units, on each line. The Refund total at the bottom adds up as you go. Tips appear as their own line, named Tip for the provider who received it, with the tip amount filled in. Refund the whole tip or type a smaller amount — you can’t refund more than the tip on this payment. Refunding a tip on its own leaves the items alone, and the rest of the payment can still be refunded in full afterwards. A ticked line can also give back what it consumed. Where that’s possible, Optional item reversals appears with a checkbox per action — restoring inventory, returning package sessions, and so on. On a line refunded by quantity the options sit under the line; on one refunded by individual package or gift card units, each ticked unit gets its own set. Some actions, such as reversing a membership renewal, apply to the whole line and are labelled (full line). Leave a box unchecked when the patient is keeping that benefit. This is how an item refund returns stock or sessions; the charge-wide Reverse side effects panel belongs to the amount workflow.Reverse Side Effects
When you do a full refund or delete a charge, Decoda can also undo the things that charge did to the patient’s account — restock products, give back package sessions, roll back a membership renewal, and so on. The Reverse side effects panel lets you pick which of those to reverse, one category at a time. Only options that apply to this specific charge appear. For a refund, all boxes start unchecked so you reverse only what you mean to. For a charge deletion, the boxes most staff want — restoring banked credits, member discounts, and rolled-back memberships — are checked by default, since deleting a charge usually means it shouldn’t have existed at all.
Leave a box unchecked when the patient is keeping the benefit — for example, refund the money but let them keep the product, or delete a duplicate charge without giving the package session back.
Receipts
Receipts can be sent after any successful payment.Send a Receipt
From the Payments table, click the settings icon on a payment and select Receipt Details. From there you can:- Send via SMS: Sends a receipt link to the patient’s phone number.
- Send via Email: Sends a formatted receipt to the patient’s email address.
Detailed Receipt
For paid and externally settled charges, select Detailed Receipt or Generate Detailed Receipt to open a printable receipt page in a new tab. This receipt includes itemized services, editable medical codes (ICD-10 and CPT), and a payment summary that breaks down each payment.Write-Offs & Adjustments
Write Off a Charge
To write off an outstanding charge:- Navigate to Billing > Charges.
- Find the charge and click the settings icon.
- Select Write off charge.
- Confirm the write-off. The charge status changes to Written Off and the outstanding balance is zeroed out.
Adjust a Charge Amount
To increase or decrease an outstanding charge:- Navigate to Billing > Charges.
- Find the charge and click the settings icon.
- Select Edit Charge Amount.
- Enter the adjustment amount (positive to increase, negative to decrease).
- Confirm the adjustment.
External Settlement
To mark a charge as settled outside the payment system:- Navigate to Billing > Charges.
- Find the outstanding charge and click the settings icon.
- Select Externally Settle Charge.
- Confirm the settlement. The charge status changes to External Settlement.