You can record full or partial payments that you receive for any outstanding private bills. Payments can be recorded when the service is rendered or at a later date, depending on when the payment is made.
Before you can record a private bill payment you must have a private bill. To learn more, see Creating private bills. This article covers recording cash, debit/credit, bank transfer, and cheque payments. For Stripe payments, see Collecting payments for private bills using Stripe.
If you have CHR Connect enabled and Stripe integrated to your CHR, you can allow patients to view billing items or make payments via the Connect app. For more information, refer to TELUS Collaborative Health Record Connect Settings. However, patients cannot make partial payments via the Connect app. In that case, after sending the bill to the patient, you can record the payment as you normally would.
In private billing, you can see a list of unpaid bills for that patient. If you want to see a report for more than one patient, navigate to the Billing dashboard. Here you can see all unpaid private bills and other standard reports. If you have analytics permissions, you can also run in-depth reports using analytics (see Third party and private billing reports).
Steps
From the patient's chart, click Start/Open > Private Billing, and the private billing section opens.
At the top of the window, click the checkbox for each item you want to make a payment for.
📌 Note: Selected checkboxes change to darker blue.
Click Make a Payment.
If you have CHR Connect with billing enabled, the billing item is now visible for the patient on their Billing page. A Confirm Billing Notification window appears; select if you would like to Send or Skip sending a notification to the patient. If you select Skip, the billing item is visible on CHR Connect, however the patient does not receive a notification.
The Continue Payment window opens.
If you are using CHR Connect and the patient is paying via the Connect app, click Close. When the patient makes an online payment, the system automatically records the payment for you. For reference, the payment details are shown in the History section of the Continue Payments window.
Item | Description |
Location | Appears on the invoice. Defaults to the location you currently have selected. At the top-right corner, select the clinic location from the list. |
Payments tab | The main payment window. |
Billing Items tab | Quickly view the billing item details, including product name and date of service. |
Invoice tab | Create an invoice (see Generating a PDF invoice). |
Invoice number | The first digits of the invoice number are the chart ID, followed by a sequential number. For more information, see Finding a patient from an invoice Number. |
Practitioner Name | Appears on the invoice. Click the magnifying icon, and select the provider. |
Total Amount | The billing item total. |
Processed | The total of Discount, Paid, and Written Off amounts minus any Refunded amount. |
Discount | The total discount on the invoice. Click + to add a discount. For more information, see Writing off, discounting, or refunding private bills. 💡 Tip: Add the discount reason to the note section. |
Paid | The total amount paid. Click + to make a payment. |
Refunded | The total refund. Click + and record the transaction details. |
Wrote off | The total amount written off. Click + and record the transaction details. For more information, see Writing off, discounting, or refunding private bills. 💡 Tip: Add the reason you wrote off the claim to the note section. |
Unpaid | The total amount outstanding on the billing item. Calculated as Total Amount minus Processed. |
Currency | The billing item currency. If necessary, select a different currency from the list. To set the default currency, see Configuring your private billing settings. |
Tags | Selected tags appear in the All Payments section of Private Billing. Click on a tag to add it; the tag turns from grey to yellow. For more information on configuring tags, see Creating Payment Tags. |
External Note | Appears on the invoice. Type a note in the blank field. |
History | Shows all transaction items, including a time stamp. Click X to delete the transaction. Click the pencil icon to edit the payment or view the payment note. |
5. Next to Paid, click +, and the Add Payment window appears.
6. Complete the payment details. The following chart describes the fields.
Item | Description |
Method | Select a payment method from the list (e.g. Cash, Debit Card). |
Amount | Defaults to the full amount of the bill. If the patient is not paying in full, change the amount.
You can also change the currency, if necessary. |
Processed Date | Defaults to today's date. To change the date the payment was made, click the calendar icon. |
Note | Add an internal note associated with the payment. Shows in the History section of the payment window. |
7. Click Submit. The Paid, Processed and Unpaid amounts in the billing item are updated.
8. To create an invoice, click the Invoice tab at the top. For more information on invoices, refer to Creating an invoice.
9. Click Close.
10. The payment is recorded, and the billing item moves from the Unpaid section to All Payments.
📌Note: For CHR Connect-enabled locations, you can send a New Bill notification directly to a patient for any unpaid billing items by clicking Resend beside the amount due.
Updated June 16, 2025