What you’re looking at
Billing in the sidebar expands into three children.
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, 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.
The order things happen in
1
Define your services
An invoice line is a service at a price. Build the list once — see Your services and prices.
2
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.
3
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.
4
Record what you receive
Cash and transfers you record by hand; online payments record themselves. See Record and collect payments.
Invoice statuses
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.
Settings that govern billing
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.
- 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 and the online store. See 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.- 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.
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
The invoice form finds no services
The invoice form finds no services
Your catalogue is empty or every service is inactive. Add one under Services.
Prices show in the wrong currency
Prices show in the wrong currency
Currency is a practice-wide setting under Settings → Billing, and only an owner can change it. See Currency.
Every charge is zero and I cannot bill anything
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.
My bank details are not on the invoice PDF
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.
The Overview figures are all dashes
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.
FAQ
Where do I bill an insurer instead of the client?
Where do I bill an insurer instead of the client?
Electronic claims are their own workflow — see Insurance claims.
Can I charge a card automatically after an appointment?
Can I charge a card automatically after an appointment?
Yes, with a connected payment account and a card on file. See Auto Pay.
Does changing a service price change existing invoices?
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.
Where do memberships and store orders show up?
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 and Run an online store.
Is this the same billing screen a hospital uses?
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.