Skip to main content
Money arrives two ways: somebody hands it over at the desk and you record it, or you send them a link and they pay by card. This page covers both, and how to see what is still outstanding.

​
What you’re looking at

Payments sits under Billing in the sidebar. The page is headed Payments Management — “Process and track payments from patients for services, medications, and more” — with Refresh and New Payment in the header, the latter for a payment that is not tied to an invoice you already have open. A new practice sees all three empty. The Pending tab is the one to watch daily: it is your outstanding balance, in your practice’s currency, and it should shrink as you work it.

​
Record a payment against an invoice

This is the usual route, because it settles a specific balance.
1

Open the invoice's actions

Find the invoice under Billing → Invoices and select Record Payment. The dialog names what you are settling: “Record a payment for invoice {number} — balance due {amount}”.
2

Check the amount

Amount is prefilled with the balance due. Overtype it for a part payment — the invoice then reads Partially Paid and keeps the remainder outstanding.
3

Choose the method

Payment Method defaults to Cash; the others are Card, Bank Transfer, Mobile Money, Insurance and Other. Set it to what actually happened: the Overview tab breaks takings down by method, and a bank transfer logged as cash quietly ruins that.
4

Add a reference

Reference (optional) takes the transfer reference, cheque number or terminal receipt number — “Transaction / receipt reference”. It is what makes a payment findable when a client queries it three months later. Notes (optional) carries anything else.
5

Select Record Payment

You get a Payment recorded confirmation, and the invoice’s balance drops immediately.
Once a payment is recorded against an invoice, that invoice can no longer be deleted — only cancelled. Record against the right invoice: correcting one afterwards is a deliberate, recorded reversal, not a quiet edit.
If the client is not standing in front of you, send them a link and let them pay by card.
1

Open the client's record and start a payment

Choose Send payment link — “Collect payment via a secure link sent to contact”. The Send secure payment link panel opens: “We’ll send a Stripe Checkout link to the patient. They can pay using their card without you seeing their details.”
2

Enter where it goes

Recipient Email Address is the address that receives the link. It does not have to be the address on the record.
3

Select Send Link

A toast confirms it went. The email tells the client the link expires in 24 hours, and invites them to reply for a fresh one if it lapses.
The panel states the cost in the same breath: “A 1.9% platform fee will be auto-deducted from this transaction by Stripe.”
Payment links need a connected payment account under Settings → Online Payments. A practice collecting through Paystack cannot use Stripe links — the product says so: “This clinic collects payments via Paystack — Stripe payment links are not available.” Send your bank details on the invoice instead, via Payment details.
To charge a card on file automatically after an appointment rather than asking each time, see Auto Pay.

​
Who can do this

Adding and reversing are deliberately separate: taking money is a daily job, and putting it back is not.
  • Enforcement is opt-in, per person. Someone 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 Payments from a sidebar tidies the rail; the permission is the boundary.
A figure you may not see renders as a dash, not a zero. See Staff permissions.

​
Check it worked

  • The payment is listed under Payments with the method and the reference you entered.
  • The invoice shows Paid, or Partially Paid with the correct remaining balance.
  • The Pending tab no longer lists that balance.
  • For a payment link: the client received the email, and the payment appears once they have paid.

​
Common issues

Overtype it. The prefill is the balance due, not a fixed value, and a part payment is a normal thing to record.
Do not try to delete the invoice — you cannot once it has a payment on it. Reverse the payment and record it correctly. Reversing is a separate permission from adding, so you may need an owner or manager.
Online payments record themselves, but not always instantly. Refresh the Billing page before recording it by hand — recording it manually as well double-counts the money.
You may open the screen but not see the financial figures. Viewing the financial dashboard and viewing payment reports are separate permissions — see Staff permissions.

​
FAQ

Yes — New Payment on the Payments page. Attach it to an invoice when you can, though; an unattached payment settles no balance and shows up as a reconciliation puzzle later.
Not automatically. Download the invoice PDF, which then shows what has been paid — see Create and send an invoice.
It counts payments recorded in ClinikEHR, not settlements landing in your account. Your provider pays out on its own schedule. See The executive dashboard.