> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Billing overview

> How money moves through your practice — the billing dashboard, payments, services, and the settings that decide currency, tax and how clients pay you.

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Solo and Team" roles="Owners and managers see everything; staff see what their permissions allow" />

Billing is one sidebar entry with three screens under it. You define what you sell, you raise an invoice against a client, and you record what they paid. Statements, memberships, the online store and insurance all hang off those three.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Billing']} />

<TaskHeader before="Your currency set under Settings → Billing" time="Ten minutes to get the shape of it" after="A priced service list, an invoice you can send, and a payment recorded against it" />

## What you're looking at

**Billing** in the sidebar expands into three children.

| Screen                  | Tabs                                         | Buttons                                                                                      | What it answers                        |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| **Billing Dashboard**   | **Overview** · **Invoices** · **Insights**   | **Refresh**, **New Invoice**, and a date-range picker                                        | What have we billed, and what is owed? |
| **Payments Management** | **Overview** · **Payments** · **Pending**    | **Refresh**, **New Payment**                                                                 | What has actually come in?             |
| **Services Dashboard**  | **Overview** · **Services** · **Categories** | **Refresh**, plus **New Service** — or **New Category** while the **Categories** tab is open | What do we charge for, and how much?   |

On the **Billing Dashboard**, **Overview** is the money picture and **Invoices** is the working list of every invoice. **Insights** is headed **Financial Insights** and currently says "Financial analytics and insights will be shown here." — the trend charts live in [Reports and analytics](/practice/insights/analytics), so go there rather than waiting for this tab to fill.

The **New Service** and **New Category** buttons never appear together: the header swaps to **New Category** while you are on the **Categories** tab and back again when you leave it.

A brand-new practice sees empty tabs and zeroes rather than an error. Start at **Services**; an invoice is built from your service list, so an empty catalogue is what makes the invoice form feel broken when it is not.

Money everywhere in this section is shown in your practice's own currency, set once under **Settings** → **Billing**. See [Currency](/platform/settings/currency).

## The order things happen in

<Steps>
  <Step title="Define your services">
    An invoice line is a service at a price. Build the list once — see [Your services and prices](/practice/money/services).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Raise the invoice">
    **New Invoice** on the **Billing Dashboard**, or from the client's record. A new invoice is created as **Pending**, not **Draft**, and the create form has no status field at all — see [Create and send an invoice](/practice/money/invoices).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send it">
    Email it as a branded PDF to the client, to whoever is actually paying, or to both. Or send a secure payment link they can pay by card.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record what you receive">
    Cash and transfers you record by hand; online payments record themselves. See [Record and collect payments](/practice/money/payments).
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Invoice statuses

| Status             | Meaning                                                                |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft**          | Not issued. Nothing is owed yet.                                       |
| **Pending**        | Issued and awaiting payment. **This is the default on a new invoice.** |
| **Paid**           | Settled in full.                                                       |
| **Partially Paid** | Some money received, a balance outstanding.                            |
| **Overdue**        | Past its due date and still unpaid.                                    |
| **Cancelled**      | Withdrawn. Use this instead of deleting once money has been received.  |

<Note>
  People expect a new invoice to be a draft. It is not — it is **Pending** and reads as owed, and there is no **Status** field on the create form to change that. To hold a bill open while you add to it, create it and then reopen it with **Edit Invoice**, where **Status** appears.
</Note>

## Settings that govern billing

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Settings', 'Billing']} />

| Setting              | What it does                                                                                                                           | Who can change it   |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| **Currency**         | "Currency for all transactions. Search by name or code." Everything you bill is priced and printed in it.                              | Owner only          |
| **Tax Rate (%)**     | "Applied to invoices and receipts."                                                                                                    | Owner only          |
| **Free Clinic Mode** | "Enable this if your clinic provides free services. All charges will be disabled." Your practice then carries a **Free Clinic** badge. | Owner only          |
| **Flat Rate Fee**    | A single standard charge you can apply instead of pricing line by line.                                                                | Owners and managers |

Two more settings tabs decide how a client can pay you:

* **Settings** → **Payment Details** puts your offline channels on your paperwork — "How patients can pay you — bank transfer, Cash App, Venmo, PayPal and more." Each entry has its own toggle for showing on invoice PDFs and invoice emails while a balance is due. This is the only thing that prints your bank details on an invoice. See [Payment details](/practice/settings/payment-details).
* **Settings** → **Online Payments** connects card collection — **Stripe Connect**, or **Paystack Connect** in Nigeria. A connected account is what makes payment links and online checkout possible, and it is a hard prerequisite for [memberships](/practice/money/memberships) and the [online store](/practice/money/store). See [Online payments](/practice/settings/online-payments).

## Who can do this

Role decides whether **Billing** opens at all. Permission decides which action inside it is allowed — which matters here, because the person who raises an invoice is not necessarily the person who should be refunding one.

| Action                                | Who by default             | The permission, in the product's words |
| ------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Open **Billing** and its children     | Owner, manager, front desk | Role — no permission of its own        |
| Create an invoice or receipt          | Front desk, billers        | **Create billing documents**           |
| Record a payment                      | Front desk, billers        | **Add client payments**                |
| Change a service price                | Owner, manager             | **Edit service fees**                  |
| Reverse or refund a payment           | Owner, manager             | **Refund payments**                    |
| See the money figures on **Overview** | Owner, manager             | **View financial dashboard**           |
| Open the payment reports              | Owner, manager, billers    | **View Payment Reports**               |

* **Enforcement is opt-in, per person.** A staff member never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted; the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**.
* **A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not.** Hiding **Billing** from someone's sidebar is a convenience, not a security boundary.

A figure you may not see renders as a dash, never as a zero. See [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

## Check it worked

* **Services** lists at least one active service with a price in your currency.
* **New Invoice** produces an invoice that appears under the **Invoices** tab with a **Pending** badge.
* Recording a payment moves that invoice to **Paid** or **Partially Paid**, and the **Pending** tab on **Payments** drops the balance.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The invoice form finds no services">
    Your catalogue is empty or every service is inactive. Add one under [Services](/practice/money/services).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Prices show in the wrong currency">
    Currency is a practice-wide setting under **Settings** → **Billing**, and only an owner can change it. See [Currency](/platform/settings/currency).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Every charge is zero and I cannot bill anything">
    **Free Clinic Mode** is on — "All charges will be disabled." Your practice carries a **Free Clinic** badge while it is.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My bank details are not on the invoice PDF">
    They only appear if you added them under **Settings** → **Payment Details** *and* switched that entry on. See [Payment details](/practice/settings/payment-details).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I have no New Invoice button">
    Creating billing documents is granted per person. Ask an owner or manager — see [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The Overview figures are all dashes">
    You may open the screen but not see financial figures. Viewing the financial dashboard is a separate permission from opening **Billing**.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Where do I bill an insurer instead of the client?">
    Electronic claims are their own workflow — see [Insurance claims](/practice/money/insurance-claims).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I charge a card automatically after an appointment?">
    Yes, with a connected payment account and a card on file. See [Auto Pay](/practice/settings/auto-pay).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does changing a service price change existing invoices?">
    No. An invoice keeps the price it was raised at. Repricing a service affects new invoices only.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where do memberships and store orders show up?">
    Both keep their own screens and their own reports, and their takings roll into the Revenue report. See [Sell memberships](/practice/money/memberships) and [Run an online store](/practice/money/store).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is this the same billing screen a hospital uses?">
    The screens are the same; the words differ. A hospital says **patient** where your practice says **client**, and its reporting adds departments you do not have.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="billing" />