> ## 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.
# Payments
> Record what the lab collects, chase what is still owed, and void a payment taken in error — for payers who are often employers, not patients.
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Check Troubleshooting first —
it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
contact support and include
your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
matching entry in your audit log.
;
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{plans ? Plan : null}
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**Payments** is where money the lab has actually received gets written against the work it settles. It is the other half of [Billing and payments](/lims/business/billing): the invoice says what is owed, this screen says what came in.
## The payer is often not the patient
This is the thing a lab has to get right and a clinic never thinks about. In a diagnostic business the person who gave the specimen is frequently **not** the person who pays for it:
* A **DOT or workplace drug panel** is almost always billed to the **employer**. The donor should never receive an invoice for their own regulated test.
* A **referred test** is often settled by the **referring practice**, which bills its own patient separately.
* Only walk-in and self-pay work is genuinely paid by the patient at the desk.
So when you record a payment, the question is not "did the patient pay" but "who owed this, and has that account settled". Money collected here is also the base for what you owe a referring doctor, and commission is worked out on money **collected**, never money invoiced — see [Referral commissions](/lims/business/commissions) and [Referring doctors](/lims/business/referrers).
The billing screens are shared across every ClinikEHR edition, so their wording is clinic-flavoured — you will see **Patient** on columns that, for you, may hold an employer's account. The behaviour is the same; only the noun differs.
## What you're looking at
The screen is headed **Payments Management**, with a date range picker, **Refresh** and **New Payment** across the top, and three tabs.
| Tab | What it holds |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Overview** | The tiles — **Total Collected**, **Outstanding Balance**, **Recent Payments**, **Top Method** — plus a payments-by-method chart and a recent activity list |
| **Payments** | Everything received: **Date**, **Patient**, **Invoice**, **Amount**, **Method**, **Type**, **Reference**, **Received By**, with a **Search payments…** box |
| **Pending** | Accounts that still owe: **Patient Name**, **Patient ID**, **Items**, **Oldest Item**, **Total Pending**, with **Search patients…** |
**Outstanding Balance** counts everything pending and partly paid, and **Oldest Item** on the **Pending** tab is your ageing list in one column — sort your chasing by it.
A voided payment stays on the list with its amount **struck through** and a red **Voided** badge; hovering the badge shows the reason someone gave.
**The empty state.** A new lab sees **No payments recorded** on the Overview tiles, **No payments found** on **Payments**, and **No Pending Payments** on **Pending**. Nothing appears here until an invoice exists to settle.
## Record a payment against an invoice
The quickest route is from the invoice itself, because the amount is already known.
On **Billing Dashboard › Invoices**, open the row menu for the invoice being settled and select **Record Payment**. The option is not offered on a cancelled invoice, or one already paid in full.
**Amount** is prefilled with the **balance due**. Leave it for a full settlement; type a smaller figure for a part payment — an employer settling half a month's collections, for example — and the invoice moves to partly paid rather than paid.
**Payment Method** offers **Cash**, **Card**, **Bank Transfer**, **Mobile Money**, **Insurance** and **Other**. Choose what actually happened; this is what the **Top Method** tile and the method chart are built from.
**Reference (optional)** is the field that makes reconciliation possible later — put the bank transfer reference, the employer's remittance number or the purchase-order number in it. **Notes (optional)** takes anything a colleague would need to understand the payment.
The toast reads **Payment recorded**, the invoice balance drops, and the payment appears on the **Payments** tab.
Use **New Payment** on this screen instead when money arrives without an invoice in front of you — a walk-in paying at the desk, or an account settling several items at once. That opens the fuller payment screen, where you choose the payer and tick the items being paid for.
## Void a payment taken in error
On the **Payments** tab, open the row menu and select **Void Payment**.
The dialog asks **Void this payment?** and explains what will happen — the payment is marked voided and the invoice balance is restored. Give a reason; the placeholder suggests "e.g. Recorded in error — already paid by card".
The toast reads **Payment voided**. The row stays visible, struck through and badged **Voided** — the record is kept for your books and audit trail rather than deleted.
## Who can do this
Role decides whether the money screens open at all; the Diagnostics permission list governs bench and referrer work, not billing. So the table below is mostly role-driven, and that surprises people who expect a switch for it.
| Action | Who by default | Governed by |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Open **Payments** | Owner, Manager, **Lab Manager**, **Accessioning Clerk** | Role → route |
| Record a payment | The same people | Role → route |
| **Void** a payment | Owner, Manager, **Accountant** — nobody else | Role. Others are refused with "Only a clinic owner, manager or accountant can void a payment." |
| Open a referring practice's account or statement | **Referrer Liaison**, **Lab Manager** | Permission — **Access the referrer portal** |
| See lab-wide revenue reporting | Owner, Manager | Permission — **View turnaround-time analytics** |
A **lab scientist** does not reach the billing screens, and a **QC Officer** is review-only by design. Two behaviours catch people out:
* **Enforcement is opt-in, per person.** Someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**.
* **A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not.** A figure you are not entitled to see renders hidden or as a dash — never as a zero.
See [Permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
## Check it worked
* The payment appears on the **Payments** tab with the right **Method** and **Reference**, and names you under **Received By**.
* The invoice's balance has fallen by the amount you recorded, and its status has moved.
* The payer has dropped off the **Pending** tab, or their **Total Pending** has fallen.
* **Total Collected** on **Overview** has risen by the same amount.
## Common issues
The invoice is cancelled, or already settled in full. A cancelled invoice cannot take money; raise a corrected one.
Voiding is deliberately narrow, because it moves money back out of your books. Ask an owner, manager or accountant to do it.
The payment went in without being attached to the invoice it settles. Open it and record it against that invoice, or the account keeps appearing on **Pending**.
Check the **Oldest Item** column — usually one old item was never settled while later ones were. Part payments leave the remainder pending by design.
Commission and revenue are both worked out on money **collected**. Anything invoiced and not yet paid counts as nothing — see [Referral commissions](/lims/business/commissions).
Currency is a lab-wide billing setting, not a per-payment one — see [Set your currency](/platform/settings/currency).
## FAQ
Yes. Type a figure below the prefilled balance and the invoice becomes partly paid, with the remainder still showing on **Pending**. Employers settling a month's collections in instalments are the usual case.
There is no delete. Voiding keeps the row, marks it **Voided** with your reason and restores the invoice balance — which is what an auditor and your own reconciliation both need.
Not from this screen. Send the invoice from **Billing Dashboard** and choose who receives it — the employer's accounts address rather than the patient, where the employer is paying.
**Bank Transfer**, with the remittance number in **Reference**. That pairing is what lets you match a bank statement line back to this row months later.
Yes — every revenue figure across the lab's reporting is collected money on orders created in the range, and it comes from this screen. See [Lab analytics](/lims/business/lab-analytics).