> ## 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 and payments

> Price your tests, invoice the patient, employer or referring facility that owes for the work, and record what you collect against each invoice.

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={['lims']} plans="All plans" roles="Owner, Manager, Lab Manager, Accessioning Clerk" />

A lab's money runs on three things: a **test has a price**, the **work is invoiced** to whoever owes for it — the patient, an employer or a referring facility — and **payments are recorded against invoices**. Those three live on three screens under **Billing**.

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

| Screen                | Tabs                                         | What it is for                                                          |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Billing Dashboard** | **Overview** · **Invoices** · **Insights**   | Raising and tracking invoices. Buttons **Refresh** and **New Invoice**. |
| **Payments**          | **Overview** · **Payments** · **Pending**    | Recording money received. Button **New Payment**.                       |
| **Services**          | **Overview** · **Services** · **Categories** | The priced catalogue. Buttons **New Service** and **New Category**.     |

<Note>
  These three screens are shared across every ClinikEHR edition, so their wording is clinic-flavoured — you will see "patient" and "clinic" on them even though the rest of your navigation says lab. The behaviour is the same; only the nouns differ.
</Note>

<TaskHeader before="Your tests priced in the services catalogue" time="2 minutes per invoice" after="A sent invoice and a recorded payment against it" />

## Price the work first

A test gets its price in the services catalogue, and that is where an invoice line finds its amount. Set it up before you invoice anything — see [Add your tests and panels](/lims/get-started/tests-and-panels). Use **Categories** to group panels the way your price list is organised, so the catalogue stays navigable once it holds a few hundred tests.

## Raise and send an invoice

<Steps>
  <Step title="Create the invoice">
    On **Billing Dashboard**, select **New Invoice** and add the tests being billed. The amounts come from the services catalogue.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Expect Pending, not Draft">
    A new invoice is created as **Pending** — it is a live receivable from the moment you save it, not a draft you have to promote. If you are only exploring what something would cost, do not save an invoice for it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose who receives it">
    Sending opens **Send Invoice**, which attaches the invoice as a PDF and asks **Send to**. The choices are the patient's **email on file**, **A different email**, or **Both**. Picking either of the last two reveals **Other emails**, which takes up to three addresses separated by commas.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send it">
    The confirmation names the invoice number. The recipients you picked each get the branded email with the PDF attached.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### The case this exists for: employer-billed drug testing

Regulated collections are almost never paid by the person who gave the specimen. The employer pays. So on a DOT invoice, choose **A different email**, put the employer's accounts address in **Other emails**, and the invoice goes to the people who will actually pay it — without sending an employee an invoice for their own test. Where the employer wants a copy and the patient needs one too, choose **Both**. See [DOT testing](/lims/dot/index).

## Record the payment

On **Payments**, select **New Payment** and record what you received against the invoice it settles. The **Pending** tab is where money that has not yet been matched to an invoice waits — work it down rather than leaving it, because an unmatched payment leaves the invoice looking unpaid and keeps the patient or employer on your chase list.

Money collected here is also what feeds the lab's revenue figures and any referral commission you owe — both are worked out on money **collected**, not money invoiced. See [Reports and analytics](/lims/business/analytics) and [Referral commissions](/lims/business/commissions).

## Cancel, do not delete

<Warning>
  An invoice with a payment recorded against it cannot be deleted — cancel it instead. Deleting removes the record; cancelling leaves it visible with its history intact, which is what an auditor and your own reconciliation both need.
</Warning>

## Where the settings live

| Setting                                                                     | Where                                            |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Currency and tax                                                            | <Path steps={['Settings', 'Billing']} />         |
| The payment channels printed on an invoice — bank account, transfer details | <Path steps={['Settings', 'Payment Details']} /> |

Currency is set once for the whole lab and every amount follows it; see [Set your currency](/platform/settings/currency).

## Check it worked

* The invoice appears on the **Invoices** tab as **Pending**, and moves once payment is recorded.
* The recipients you chose received the email, with the invoice PDF attached.
* The payment appears on the **Payments** tab against the right invoice, and not on **Pending**.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="An invoice line has no price">
    The test is not priced in the services catalogue. Price it there and it carries through to every future invoice — see [Add your tests and panels](/lims/get-started/tests-and-panels).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The invoice went to the patient when the employer is paying">
    **Send to** defaults to the address on file. Re-send with **A different email** and the employer's accounts address in **Other emails**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I cannot delete an invoice">
    It has a payment recorded against it. Cancel it instead, then raise a corrected one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A payment is sitting on the Pending tab">
    It has not been matched to an invoice. Open it and attach it to the invoice it settles, or the invoice will keep showing as owed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Amounts show in the wrong currency">
    Currency is a lab-wide billing setting, not a per-invoice one. Change it under **Settings › Billing** — see [Set your currency](/platform/settings/currency).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The invoice PDF has no bank details on it">
    Those come from **Settings › Payment Details**, not from the invoice. Fill them in once and every invoice carries them.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="an invoice" />