Payments

The payments module runs the clinic's real cash flow: every payment received from a patient, split across budgets and on account, with their refunds, plus a per-patient ledger. It also feeds the financial reports under the reports module.

It is a patient-centric module, not invoice-centric. A single payment can cover several budgets, sit partially on account, or spread across different treatments. Billing links payments when a formal invoice has to be issued — never the other way around.

Screens

• Payment list — every payment with filters, allocations, and a refund shortcut.
• Payment reports — KPIs, trends, payment methods, professionals, aging, refunds.

Quick reference

Action	Required permission
View list, patient ledger, and allocations	payments.record.read
Record a payment or reallocate it	payments.record.write
Issue a refund	payments.record.refund (admin/dentist by default)
See the payment reports	payments.reports.read

Related modules

• Budgets — every payment can be allocated across one or more patient budgets. The budget page shows a Paid / Outstanding sidebar card with the breakdown.
• Patients — the Administration tab on the patient record includes the patient ledger (KPIs + timeline + refund row menu).
• Billing — billing depends on payments, not the reverse. An invoice may link to one or more payments (invoice_payments lives inside the billing module).
• Odontogram and treatment plans — feed earned data (PatientEarnedEntry) to payments via the odontogram.treatment.performed and treatment_plan.treatment_completed events. Reports use it for aging analysis.
• Reports — the /reports page links to /reports/payments whenever the payments module is installed.