There may be instances when you will need to capture extra costs from the patient. This could be because:

• The patient initially qualified for a bulk-billed appointment but now does not
• The patient did not attend their appointment
• The patient has engaged in additional services that require the capturing of extra funds
  

In these cases, you can create a Payment Request to capture the additional costs from the patient.

How to view or create a Payment Request

1. In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Payments > Payment Requests. Here you can see the history of any payment requests you've already created. Select New Payment Request to create a request:
   
   
   
   
2. In the New Payment Request box, search for the patient you would like to send a payment request to, then click Select:
   
   
   
3. The next page will show the patient details as well as their four most recent appointment history (from the last 30 days). If you would like to link the payment to a specific appointment, you can choose which one from this list using the Select button. Alternatively, you can skip this step by selecting Skip Step:
   
   
   
   
4. The last stage will ask you to verify the Payment Request details. Please verify: 
   
   - The mobile number you would like HotDoc to send the request to
   - The Practitioner who took the appointment
   - The description you would like to appear in the SMS sent to the patient
   - The overall amount you are charging
   - Any optional reference notes for your own records
   
   Once this information is entered, select Send Now:
   
   
   
   
5. You will see the payment request appear in your list with a Requested status:
   
   
   
   
6. The patient will then receive an SMS with a link to pay. Once they've selected the link, they will be taken to the payment page to enter their credit card details:
   
   
   

How to refund a Payment Request

1. In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Payments > Payment Requests:
   
   
   
   
2. Select Refund next to the payment you wish to refund:
   
   
   
   
3. A box will pop up to ask if you are sure. Select Yes, Refund to continue:
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. The payment request status will move to Processing Refund and the patient will be sent an email advising them of the refund:
   
   
   
   

How to cancel a Payment Request

There may be cases where a payment request has been sent, but the patient has already paid via a different method e.g. over the phone or in person. In this instance, you may wish to cancel the initial request so the patient does not pay twice.

1. Select the Cancel button next to the payment request:
   
   
   
   
2. Select Yes, Cancel if you wish to continue with the cancellation:
   
   
   
   
   
3. You will then see a confirmation of the cancellation in the Dashboard:
   
   
   

What if a patient does not pay?

We recommend that you routinely check the HotDoc Dashboard to make sure that the Payment Requests are "Paid". However, there may be times when a patient does not pay even after sending a payment request.

1. If a patient doesn’t pay even after sending a request, the Payment Status will remain “Requested”. You can resend an SMS to the patient by clicking on the Resend button, which will appear 24 hours after the previous SMS was sent:
   
   
   
   
2. Hit Yes, Resend to confirm that you wish to resend the payment request.
   
   
   
   
3. You can resend an SMS up to 3 times. If the patient still has not paid after 3 SMS attempts, please consider payment via phone.