Protect your practice from potential bad debtors

There’s no doubt that working in a vet practice can put you in a high-pressure environment. Finding the balance between day-to-day operations, providing quality patient care, and managing billing can be a constant struggle, and unfortunately, bad debtors come with the territory.

No one wants to chase clients up for payment as it's a stressful job and a waste of precious time trawling through client accounts, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Did you know that ezyVet has a handy feature that triggers an alert to help keep your team a step ahead of unpaid balances?

To make sure you're getting the most out of ezyVet, we share how you can create Custom Credit Limits to help protect your practice's financials from potential bad debtors.

What is a Credit Limit? 💳

Credit Limits allow you to control how much credit/unpaid balance a client can have on their account, without any manual intervention needed.

Before you get started it’s important to think about what types of Credit Limits would work best for your practice, for GP practices, the biggest risk to the business is new clients, due to not knowing their financial history. Creating a specific Credit Limit Status that allows a smaller amount of maximum credit available for new clients until they have a proven financial history, is just one way you can utilize ezyVet to monitor debt levels

How do Credit Limits work? 💸

Simply create a Credit Limit status, apply the status to the client's contact record, and then ezyVet will do the hard work for you. If a client reaches the maximum Credit Limit you have configured, the system will automatically apply for a stop credit. This means when a client with an unpaid balance reaching the maximum threshold tries to book an appointment, the system will automatically trigger an alert advising your team that the client has a stop credit on their account and they have been unable to book an appointment. ezyVet will also generate the same alert if a team member attempts to approve an invoice for the client. Giving your team complete visibility of client debt.

Here's how you can start putting your clinic back in the driving seat and take control of bad debtors

Setting up a Custom Credit Limit

Follow the steps below to create your own custom Credit Limits in ezyVet, that work best for your practice.

1. Select ADMIN.

Admin Tab

2. Select Financial from the drop-down menu

Financial button


3. Next select Credit Limits - ezyVet automatically comes with two default Credit Limits, you can use these or simply credit your own custom Credit Limit.

Credit Limits

4. In the Credit Limit Name box, pop in the name of your custom Credit Limit.

New client

5. Select Base on invoice due date or Base on invoice date.

6. Next press SAVE.

Save

Once you have pressed save, you will be directed to a new table.

Credit Limit Table

Take a look at what each setting means in more detail:

Setting

Description

Time Period

The Time Period has four related settings. The function of the settings is different if you select Base on invoice due date or Base on invoice date.

If you select Base on invoice due date, this is the function of each Time Period setting:

• Current: Before the invoice due date
• 30 Days: 30 days from the invoice due date
• 60 Days: 30 days to 60 days from the invoice due date
• 90 Days: 60 days to 90 days from the invoice due date
• 120 Days: 90 days to 120 days from the invoice due date

If you select Base on invoice date, this is the function of each Time Period setting:

• Current: In the same month as the invoice date
• 30 Days: From 30 days to 60 days after the invoice date
• 60 Days: From 60 days to 90 days after the invoice date
• 90 Days: From 90 days to 120 days after the invoice date
• 120 Days: From 120 days after the invoice date

Note: You cannot make new time period settings. And you cannot change the value of the time periods.

Warn

The credit limit warning in dollar units.
If the client’s credit quantity during the selected time period is more than the Warn value:

  • ezyVet shows the WARNING credit limit status in the client’s contact record
  • You can continue to approve the client's invoices
  • ezyVet shows a warning message after a staff member approves the client’s invoice

If you enter a Warn value of 0, ezyVet sets the credit limit warning at $0.00.
If the Warn box is empty, ezyVet does not set a credit limit warning.

Stop

The credit limit in dollar units.
If the client’s credit quantity during the selected time period is more than the Stop value:

  • ezyVet shows the STOP credit limit status in the client’s contact record
  • ezyVet does not let staff approve the client’s invoices

If you enter a Stop value of 0, ezyVet sets the credit limit at $0.00.
If the Stop box is empty, ezyVet does not set a credit limit.

6. Select the applicable time period and enter the applicable Warn and Stop values.

Threshold - credit Limits

7. And the last step is to press SAVE.

Save credit Limit

You will now see your newly created custom credit limit appears in the credit limit list.

New custom credit limit

Now the credit limit has been created you can now apply this to a client's account.

8. Head to the relevant client and then head to the General Information section.

Client contact record

10. In the Credit Limit Name box, select your newly created credit limit.

custom credit limit

11. And the last step is to press Save for changes to take affect

press save

Preventative measures stop the problem before it even starts

Taking on a proactive approach, rather than reactive, is the best way to anticipate possible challenges. Preventative measures like Credit Limits give your clinic the freedom to make its own decisions, rather than responding to an issue after it's already got out of hand. Setting up limitations and using automated reminders creates the visibility and certainty for you and your team to tackle any client at the right time and prevents those awkward conversations down the track. The flow-on effect from this initiative is a happy bank balance, a happy team, and more time to focus on what really matters, the patients.

Want to learn more about exciting new features exclusive to Version 30?

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