Best Practice

HotDoc Payments lets you accept online payments for appointments – whether booked through HotDoc or directly at your practice – and send manual requests for immediate charge on late cancellations, no-shows, or outstanding debt.

With HotDoc Payments, you can:

• Automatically collect and receipt payments in Best Practice, cutting the time reception spends processing payments manually
• Customise the amounts for different appointment types, specify which doctors receive online payments, and choose who receives the payouts (practice or individual doctors)
• Prevent debt by pre-authorising payments for specific appointment types, holding funds until the appointment is complete
• Exempt specific patients from adding a payment method (e.g. bulk-billed patients)
• Charge the final amount after adding MBS item numbers or if the appointment type changes mid-consult
• Use reporting tools to simplify reconciliation and end-of-day banking

The Patient Journey 

Before setting up HotDoc for payments, we strongly recommend reviewing the patient journey to understand what they experience.

The patient journey will be different depending on how you have configured HotDoc Payments. You can set up and collect payment for the following:

• Online booked appointments
• Practice booked appointments
• Upcoming appointments without an existing payment setup
• Immediate payment requests

To provide an overview of the patient journey:

1. Patients will be prompted to add a payment method when booking online, or may receive an email, push notification or SMS to add a payment method for appointments booked directly with your practice.
2. Patients will be shown an estimated cost and enter their card details, which are never visible to HotDoc or your practice. We partner with Stripe, Pin Payments, and Spreedly – Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) Level 1 certified providers – to securely verify, store, tokenise, and process patient payments.
3. If you've enabled pre-authorisations, a hold is either placed immediately if the appointment is within six days, or placed five days before the appointment if the appointment is more than six days away.
4. After the appointment, we'll sync the final amount on the patient's invoice and charge the patient's card automatically or when you click 'collect,' depending on your settings.
5. If the charge fails, the patient will receive an SMS prompting them to update their payment method. We'll retry this 24 hours later.
6. Once successful, the patient receives a payment confirmation email. If eligible for a Medicare rebate, you can submit the claim for them, or they can do so via their Medicare account. See: How should we process a patient's Medicare Rebate for appointments paid for via HotDoc? for more information.

1. Get started: Set up your payment provider 

If you're setting up for the first time, you will be required to complete the onboarding checklist in the Dashboard under Payments > Get Started and set up a payment provider to accept payments online.

Step 1 is to set up and link your payment provider by clicking "Get Started". This will direct you to Payment Setup > Account Settings > Setup Payment Provider where you can choose either Stripe or Pin Payments, and follow the prompts.

If you've already linked a payment provider for Routine Requests, you can continue to step 2.

Please note: You must complete this step before you can move through the checklist.

Please note:

• Upon sign up, you'll be required to provide some information about your business, such as your bank details and ABN – have this information ready before you begin.
• Stripe requires you to enter a Statement Descriptor for patients to see in their bank statements. We highly recommend entering the name of your practice in the descriptor to avoid patients disputing payments.
• Pin Payments also requires you to provide identification in order to comply with laws regarding fraud prevention. Once your account has been authorised, you will receive an API key, which you will need for your Payments setup.

Once your payment provider is enabled, all practitioners will be enabled, and all funds will be paid to your practice account. You can also set up a provider account for individual practitioners so they are paid out directly.

2. Customise your payment account settings 

In the "Customise your payment account settings" step, click the "Go to Account Settings" button to get started, and it will direct you to the Payments > Payment Setup > Account Settings section, where you can configure the settings below.

Understanding the provider platform fee

This setting is on by default, meaning the fee is passed on to patients – you can turn it off if your practice prefers to absorb it instead. Keeping it enabled helps streamline your reporting and ensures your payments match up with receipts and bank payouts.

The fee is a flat $2.45 per transaction. When the setting is on, it's added to the price you charge patients for appointments or payment requests. When it's off, your practice absorbs it.

Please note: This setting doesn't apply to Routine Requests. 

Other account settings

When your clinic first sets up HotDoc Payments, you'll see a Promotion Settings option in your Account Settings. This setting controls whether HotDoc sends a one-off push notification to patients, letting them know your clinic now accepts secure online payments. It's on by default while you're onboarding, and you won't be able to access it after clicking 'Go live'. See: How to Manage Promotion Settings for HotDoc Payments

Scroll down to the Bulk Billing Payment Exemptions setting, where you can use our patient and bulk billing exemption features to remove the payment method requirement for eligible patients when they book online or directly through your practice reception team.

• You can exempt individual patients in the Patients section of your Dashboard, for those who are bulk billed, have a valid concession card, are elderly or are long-standing regular patients.
• You can add bulk billing criteria to your practice profile, so that patients eligible for Bulk Billing based upon age or concession card are exempt from adding a payment method.

For more information with adding exemptions, please see: How to exempt a patient from adding a payment method for their appointment

Best Practice Automations

Under Payments > Payment Setup > Account Settings > Best Practice Automations, there are two different automation settings that you can enable to streamline your workflow and reduce admin time processing payments and invoices:

• Automatically collect payment in HotDoc once an invoice has been "Stored". Payment is automatically collected 10 minutes after an invoice is generated. The collection is delayed to prevent double charging the patient if an invoice is paid at reception.
• Automatically receipt an invoice that has been successfully paid in HotDoc. Once HotDoc has successfully received a payment, we can receipt the invoice in Best Practice.

You can also add settings that allow you to delay the receipt of any payment made outside of your business hours, so that you can process Medicare claims manually in Best Practice on the same day that the patient's invoice is receipted.

3. Set up your appointment types 

Now that your account settings are configured, you can select the appointment types you'd like to accept payments for by clicking "Go to Appointment Setup" and you will be directed to the Payment Setup > Appointment Setup section.

Here you can choose:

• Whether you'd like to enable payments for both online and practice-booked appointments
• The appointment types which should have a payment option – we recommend always starting with your Telehealth or high-value appointments
• The estimated cost of the appointment
• The card setting, whether you'd like to pre-authorise funds on the patient's card at the time of booking, or to store the patient's card so you can collect the funds afterwards
• Any cancellation settings if they don't add a payment method for practice booked appointments, providing a sense of urgency for them to secure their appointment.

Also see: How do I enable payment pre-authorisation settings for my appointment types?

4. Set up your practitioners

The last step before going live with Payments is to set up your practitioners. Click "Go to Practitioner Setup" and you will be directed to the Payment Setup > Practitioner Setup section.

Here you can configure which practitioners accept payments by toggling on/off and set up payment accounts for direct payouts into their own bank accounts, rather than a central practice bank account.

Note: Practitioners will only receive payments for appointment types they're enabled for, or if you have sent a manual payment request to one of their patients where the practitioner is on the invoice.

Also see: How to set up Direct to Practitioner Payouts for Payments

5. Go Live

Once you've made your way through the checklist and you have at least one appointment type and practitioner set up to receive payments, you are ready to go live with HotDoc Payments!

Please note: Once you click Go Live, patients will be prompted to add a payment method for appointments with payments enabled.

To help promote payments at your practice and increase patient awareness, you can access our free resources for printable posters, videos and TV slides for your practice, or digital images and assets for your website/social media. We recommend sharing our payments security video to your socials or your TV slides to assist with patient security concerns.

Managing payments day to day

Once you're live, use the sections below whenever you need to collect a payment, check reporting, or send a manual request.

6. View your payments and learn how to collect

Now that you're live with payments, it's important that you learn how to view appointments with a payment method and learn how to collect and charge the patient's card. There are two ways to collect a payment: via the HotDoc Sidebar, or automatically through Best Practice Automations, if you enabled them in Step 2.

Collecting via the HotDoc Sidebar: once the appointment time has passed or the patient is in billing, the Sidebar shows that their card is ready to collect. Staff confirm the amount and charge the patient in the Sidebar, then receipt the invoice and send any Medicare claim in Best Practice.

• Have full visibility and control over all payments for the day
• Collect funds from the patient's stored card or pre-authorised amount
• Once the payment is successful, click 'Pay Now' on the patient's account in Best Practice to receipt it straight away, or click 'Store' and receipt it later

Collecting with Best Practice Automations: if you turned on automations in Step 2, staff finalise the invoice (add consult/item number details) and click 'Store' in Best Practice. HotDoc then:

• Syncs and charges the patient the final amount on the invoice, 10 minutes after the invoice is stored
• Receipts the invoice in Best Practice, if you've turned on automatic receipting
• If the patient is eligible for a Medicare rebate, you'll still need to go back into their invoice to send this off

Please note:

• Always put the total cost of the appointment in the receipt/invoice in your PMS, no matter if the practice or patient covers the platform fee.
• We do not recommend adding a line item in your invoice for the platform fee.
• When collecting with automations, if the 'Bill to' field is set to 'Medicare Direct Bill', or you select 'Pay now' instead of 'Store', we'll treat the invoice as bulk billed or paid at your practice and automatically cancel the HotDoc payment.

Go to Payments > Booking Activity to view appointments with a payment method. Here you can:

• View a list of payments ready for collection, and any failed payments
• Manually cancel a payment
• If you have the 'automatic receipting' features turned on, the "Send Patient Claim" tab shows a list of patients that have an invoice receipted today with Medicare items for you to send the claim
• The "Needs Receipt" tab will show a list of patients where payment has been collected via HotDoc, but the invoice is still outstanding in Best Practice

7. Learn how to use the reporting tools and how to reconcile

To view our reporting tools, go to Payments > Reporting.

Our Payments 'Reporting' can assist you in reconciling your payments with your receipts and reports in your Practice Management Software, as well as the payouts to your bank.

It consists of a Payment Activity section (subtotal figures, all completed and refunded payments) as well as a Payouts section (funds processed from the payment provider to your bank account), and you will see every payment processed through HotDoc for your practice.

Want to see the value this feature has brought your practice? See: How to view Practitioner Value Reporting and Pulse Check in the HotDoc Dashboard

For assistance with reporting, please see our guides:

• How do I view Payments Reporting in the Dashboard?
• How do I use HotDoc payments to reconcile my receipts in my Practice Management Software?
• How do I use Payments Reporting to reconcile payouts to my bank account?

8. Sending manual payment requests

In addition to automatic payments, you can also send manual payment requests to patients when needed. These are useful for requesting payments for immediate charge (e.g. no-show fees, debt collection) or requesting card details in advance for upcoming appointments that require payment. HotDoc offers two types of manual requests:

1. Manual payment requests for immediate charge: to collect payment for ad hoc requests such as no-show fees, late fees, debt or outstanding invoices, you can do this in Payments > Payment Requests. This will send the patient an SMS with a secure link so they can enter their card details and pay immediately – see the patient journey here.

   Learn how to create a payment request Open Payment Requests 

   

2. Manual card detail requests for upcoming appointments: you can do this from within the Payments > Booking activity page. This will send a patient a request via SMS, push notification or Email to log into the HotDoc app and add a payment method for their appointment – see the patient journey here.

   Learn how to request card details Open Booking Activity 

   

9. Managing payments and educating your team and patients 

You're now set up and know how to manage HotDoc Payments day to day. From here, we recommend training your team and promoting payments around your clinic and on your website to assist with patient awareness. As your patients and team start to use this, they may naturally have questions. Most questions can be preempted by good education and knowledge of the product.

Educate your patients and promote payments

• Send out a Broadcast to let them know you are accepting payments for appointments online. See How to create a Broadcast SMS for further information.
• If they are unsure of the payment process, direct them to our help page guide How to pay for an appointment using HotDoc
• If your patients want more resources on payments security, please direct them to these pages: HotDoc Payments Security, Payments Security FAQs, and How we manage payment security at HotDoc

Educate your team

• Get your team to review this Getting Started article.
• For guided content and videos, access our HotDoc Academy course. Just log in with your HotDoc user account email and password.
• Access all the Payments support articles here. We recommend favouriting this link in your browser for easy access and checking out our Payments FAQs page for more assistance.
• Review this article: What happens to a patient's payment details if I modify their appointment? to understand the actions you may need to take to re-capture payment details if you edit the patient's appointment.
• Also useful: How do I cancel a HotDoc Payment?, How do I refund a HotDoc Payment to the patient?, how to view past and upcoming payments, and the Payments Reporting and Reconciliation FAQs
• Download our marketing resources, including downloadable images, printable items for your practice, a video for your socials and TV Slides