Other Transactions

This tab enables you to capture transactions of a general nature, for example:

• Payments received from medical aids and patients
• Other types of credit such as bad debts written off
• Debits such as interest charged and refunds

All transactions are captured in batches.  This reflects the nature of how most transactions originate.  For example, remittance advices  (received from medical aids) usually reflect payments for more than one patient.  By capturing these payments together into one batch you are associating them together.  At a later stage you are able to bring up the contents of a particular batch, which might be useful if you were querying a particular remittance advice .

In short, the idea is for each remittance advice  to be captured into one batch.

Allocations

In simple terms allocations are links between payments and the transactions that are being paid.  Allocations make it possible for Panacea to calculate the outstanding balance per charge item.  This is important because medical aids often short pay some charge items and may skip others altogether.  By having the outstanding balance per charge item you can identify where this has happened and take appropriate action.  Action may take the form of transferring responsibility for payment to the Person Responsible  or it may involve contacting the medical aid to point out their mistake.  Panacea's statements also indicate the outstanding balance per transaction, which makes it clear to the recipient (person responsible or medical aid) where they have short paid.

The Other Transactions tab is divided into 3 panels: Header, Transactions and Allocations....

Header

This should contain information that describes what is in the batch.  At a later stage you will be able to retrieve the batch (if necessary) by searching on fields in the header.  It is a good idea, therefore, to provide as many details as possible to make searching easier.

For example, if you are capturing a remittance advice  from a medical aid (e.g. Discovery) the header may be captured as follows:

Note the following:

• The Type field has been set to Payment by funder.
• The Select... combobox  was clicked and Company selected.
• Discovery Health was specified as the company.
• The Description was automatically generated because the Type and Company were specified.
• Most remittance advices  from medical aids have some kind of unique reference.  This should be captured in the Reference field.  This uniquely links the batch to the original remittance advice .  If you cannot find a unique reference on the remittance advice  then you could use the date of the remittance advice  instead.

Tick items that apply to the whole batch
You will notice that there is a checkbox  next to most fields in the header.  If you place a "tick" in a checkbox  you are indicating that the value placed in the field next to it applies to all transactions in the batch.  For example, if you "tick" the checkbox  next to Type: Payment by funder (see example above) you are indicating that all transactions in the batch are payments by funders.  In this case Panacea will remove the Type column from the transactions panel, since it knows that all transactions have Type Payment by funder.  If you wish to mix different types of transactions in the batch you should NOT indicate the type in the header and you should not place a "tick" in the checkbox  next to the Type field.

Transactions

Once you have completed the relevant fields in the header you will move into the Transactions panel.  This panel is arranged as a grid.  After capturing each item (in a column) you can use the tab key to move to the next column.  Note that some columns may have been removed - see Tick items that apply to the whole batch above.

After capturing all columns of a typical payment by funder the transactions panel may look like this:

Notice that Panacea has highlighted the amount in yellow.  This indicates that the payment has not been fully allocated.  i.e. you have not yet indicated which transactions have been paid.  You can now use the Allocations panel to allocate the payment.  Notice that once you have captured the Account column in the Transactions panel the Allocations panel will be updated to show the transactions on that account.

Allocations

The Allocations panel shows how the current item in the Transactions panel has been allocated against charge items.  If you move up or down in the Transactions panel the Allocations panel will be updated to reflect the allocations attached to the current row in the Transactions panel.

After capturing the payment above the Allocations panel may look like this:

Notice that the unallocated amount is also shown is yellow.  The account details, including balance and ageing are also shown (top left) for convenience.

In the example you will notice that there are unpaid amounts in the Outstanding (Funder) column.  There are a number of ways to allocate the payment:

• Click Allocate to Funder.  This will automatically allocate the payment to the oldest unpaid items owing by the funder .
• Click Allocate to Person Responsible.  This will automatically allocate the payment to the oldest unpaid items owing by the Person Responsible .
• Click one of the  buttons.  This will allocate the full amount outstanding for that transaction.
• Click in the Allocated (Funder) or Allocated (Person resp.) column and type in the amount you want to allocate.

Each time you allocate an amount the Unallocated and Total allocated values will be updated.  By the time you are finished there should be zero in Unallocated.  The exception to this is when you are capturing an overpayment, i.e. the funder  or Person Responsible  has paid more than they owe.  In this case you would leave the overpaid amount unallocated.

After allocating the Allocations panel may look like this:

Notice that the Unallocated amount is now zero (circled in green).  Most transactions have been allocated in full, but notice that 3 transactions (next to the red arrows) have been under allocated or not allocated at all (i.e. they were short paid).

 Allocating before entering the transaction amount

Sometimes you may not know the total amount being paid, but you do know the individual amounts being paid.  Some medical aids send remittance advices  that do not show a total per account.  Users would normally have to calculate this total before capturing the payment, but Panacea gets around this problem by allowing you to capture the allocations first.  To illustrate, the following shows the payment with an amount of zero:

You can leave the amount on zero and capture allocations like this:

Notice that Panacea shows the Over allocated amount in red.  The Transfer over allocated button will also appear.  Once you have finished allocating simply click the Transfer over allocated button and Panacea will adjust the transaction amount to match the sum of the allocated amounts.

Transferring amounts outstanding between the Funder and the Person responsible

While you are capturing a remittance advice  from a medical aid you may discover that they will not cover a certain charge item.  It is good idea to transfer this outstanding amount to the Person Responsible .  This helps to make it clear on the statement that the Person Responsible  is liable for that amount.  Outstanding amounts can also be moved in the opposite direction, i.e. from the Person Responsible  to the funder .

To transfer an outstanding amount right-click on the amount in the Outstanding (Funder) or Outstanding (Person resp.) column.  A context menu will appear (see right) with two options: Move funder's outstanding amount to person responsible (or vice-versa) - click on this to transfer the full outstanding amount. Enter amount to move to person responsible (or funder) - click on this and Panacea will allow you to enter the amount you want to move

The screenshot on the right shows what happens after clicking Enter amount to move to person responsible.  Panacea suggests 102.51 in this example but you can change this to any amount that is less than the outstanding amount.  After entering the amount press Enter and Panacea will move it.