Proper configuration of your Payments Settings in Practice by Numbers (PbN) is essential for managing patient payments efficiently, ensuring accurate syncing with your Practice Management System (PMS), and automating follow-ups. This page acts as the control center for all things related to billing, helping you automate, personalize, and streamline your financial processes.
Importance of the Payments Settings Page
Clarity for Patients: Default payment notes ensure patients receive tailored, easy-to-understand communication for each type of request.
Accurate Financial Syncing: Seamless integration with Dentrix, Open Dental, and Eaglesoft reduces reconciliation errors and supports smooth backend operations.
Smart Follow-Ups: Automated reminders keep collections on track, reduce manual work, and improve cash flow without sacrificing personalization.
Practice Customization: From choosing who gets followed up with, to assigning task owners, to snoozing sensitive cases—this page lets you match settings to your workflow.
Team Efficiency: Reduces billing team workload while increasing transparency and accountability.
By configuring each section of the Payments Settings page thoughtfully, your practice can:
Improve automation and communication with patients
Ensure accurate and clean syncing with the PMS
Reduce manual work and billing errors
Tailor the system to reflect your practice’s tone and workflow
Let’s Walk Through Each Setting
Now that you understand the value of the Payments Settings page, let’s explore each setting in detail. We’ll cover how it works, why it matters, and how it can be customized to fit your practice’s needs—from setting default payment notes to automating follow-ups and syncing with your PMS.
Each section below breaks down specific settings and gives you practical examples and tips to help you get the most out of PbN Payments.
Default Payment Notes
Default payment notes are used to communicate contextually appropriate messages to patients based on the type of payment request sent.
One-Time Payment Request: Shown when sending a one-off, custom payment request to a patient.
Example: “For dental service”
Account Balance Request – Patients with Insurance: Used when requesting a balance from patients who have insurance, typically after all claims are closed.
Example: “Outstanding balance on your account after all claims have been closed”Account Balance Request – Patients without Insurance
Shown to patients without insurance when they are expected to cover service costs out-of-pocket.
Example: “Outstanding balance on your account”
These default notes auto-populate with each relevant request type but can be edited for tone or practice-specific instructions.
These notes help ensure patients receive clear, consistent messaging tailored to their payment scenarios.
Payment Sync Settings
Payment Sync Settings ensure that patient payments in PbN are correctly reflected in your PMS (e.g., Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft).
Key Features
Automatically Sync Payments: When enabled, payments automatically sync to the PMS if a match is found using the patient's name and DOB. Payments without a match appear in the Summary Tab, where they must be manually assigned.
Allocate Payments to Balances: Automatically applies payments to open balances. If disabled, payments are synced but remain unallocated.
Apply Payment To: Select how payments are applied:
Oldest Balance (default)
Newest Balance
(Note: Eaglesoft does not support this setting)
Override Automatically Selected Provider: By default, PbN selects the provider based on balance sync order. This checkbox lets you override the automatic assignment and select a specific provider manually.
Payment Type Assignment
Assign unique payment types to ensure accurate PMS reconciliation:
Customer Online Payment: Used for payments through the patient portal. Create a labeled type such as “Online Payment.”
In-Office POS Payment Post Payment Type: For PbN Payments terminal transactions. Use a dedicated label like “In-Office POS.”
Charged by Practice Post Payment Type: Required if using PbN Payments or Stripe to directly charge patients. Helps distinguish these transactions from others.
Separate Payments and Fees: If checked, PbN will sync payments and associated fees separately to help with financial reconciliation.
For Dentrix users: Payments initiated within PbN are automatically synced when matched with a patient. Payments made via terminal require manual assignment to sync successfully.
⚠️ Payments cannot be reassigned in PbN once posted to a patient. Corrections must be handled in the PMS.
Payment Follow-Up Sequence
The Payment Follow-Up Sequence allows practices to automate reminders to patients with outstanding balances.
Functionality
Automated or Manual Triggers: Patients can be added to a sequence either automatically via automation rules or manually.
Custom Timing: You can set multiple follow-ups (e.g., Day 7, Day 14, etc.) at intervals of your choice.
Multi-Channel Notifications: Messages are sent via email and/or text, depending on your communication configuration.
The first message is delayed by 7 days to give your team time to review or cancel before it goes out.
Buttons like “Reset Templates” and “Translate All Templates Using AI” help practices quickly adjust or localize messaging.
Click here for an in-depth look at the payment follow-up sequence.
Payment Automation Settings
This section allows you to define automation logic for who is enrolled in the follow-up sequence and under what conditions.
Key Options
Charge Payment Processing Fee from Practice: If toggled on, the practice—not the patient—absorbs the credit card processing fees for payments made through the online portal.
Automatically Send Follow-Up Messages: Enables message delivery as configured in the follow-up sequence.
Automatically Add to Follow-Up Sequence Based on Criteria: Patients are enrolled if they meet all of the following:
Balance Range: Define a minimum and maximum balance (e.g., $5 to $1,000).
Interaction Timeframe: Last payment or service must have occurred within a set number of days (e.g., Within 60 Days).
Pending Insurance Claims: Toggle ON to exclude patients with unresolved insurance.
Age Range: Filter out younger or older patients if needed (e.g., only patients between ages 1–100).
Account Type Exclusions: Exclude specific account types (e.g., internal, test, or staff accounts).
Patients with Tags: Exclude or Include patients with certain tags.
⚠️ Note: These last two features are only available to PbN Payments practices. It does not function with Stripe-integrated accounts.
Don't include accounts on active payment plans: Avoid duplicating follow-up messages for accounts already on structured plans.
Offer Payment Plans with Automated Follow-Ups: If checked, patients added to the sequence will be presented with payment plan options.
Use automation thoughtfully. While it saves time, patients with sensitive account situations or aged balances may require manual review.
Click here for an in-depth look at the payment automation settings.
Owner, Closure, and Expiration Settings
In this section, you can define who will own follow-up tasks. Assigning a task owner ensures follow-ups are reviewed, managed, or resolved consistently across your billing team.
Payment Snooze Reasons
The Snooze feature pauses communication for patients who cannot or should not receive a payment reminder immediately.
Configuration
Where to Manage: Snooze reasons and durations are created and managed in the Settings > Snooze Reasons section.
Where to Apply: Snoozes are applied on the Summary page, specifically for patients with active follow-ups. You can select the appropriate snooze reason during follow-up review.
You can click “Add New” to define custom snooze reasons that match your internal billing process.
When a snooze expires, the patient automatically resumes the follow-up sequence unless snoozed again.
By configuring each section of the Payments Settings, your practice can:
Improve automation and communication with patients
Ensure accurate and clean syncing with the PMS
Reduce manual work and billing errors
Tailor the system to reflect your practice’s tone and workflow