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Getting Started with Payments

Last updated   ∙   ~ minute read

Best Practice

HotDoc Payments allows you to provide an online payment option to patients for appointments booked online and directly through your practice. It also provides the ability to send payment requests for immediate charge, such as for debt collection, late cancellations or no-show fees. 

If using Best Practice, we have automated features that allow HotDoc to automatically collect payment from a patient's stored payment method once an invoice has been created in Best Practice, and automatically receipt the invoice in Best Practice, reducing admin work for your team and creating a seamless and efficient process. 


Some of the benefits of using HotDoc Payments include:

  • Automatically and securely accept payments from the patient when they make an appointment online through HotDoc, or through your practice directly
  • Charge the patient the actual cost after you have added MBS item numbers or if the appointment type changes mid consult
  • Prevent debt by pre-authorising payment for specific appointment types. This places a temporary hold of funds on the patient's card to ensure they have sufficient funds at the time of collecting the payment. 
  • Enable a feature to automatically pass the payment processing fee on to the patient
  • Reduce reception's time spent manually processing payments over the phone
  • Customise how much you wish to charge for different appointment types
  • Send adhoc payment requests for immediate charge

Please read the article below to get started!

Full-Colour_Logo__1_.svg

Prefer a guided tutorial on how to set this up?
Click here to view guided learning options on HotDoc Academy
Log in with your HotDoc Dashboard username and password

   In this article

 

1. The Patient Journey 

Before setting up HotDoc to process payments for your consults, we recommend that you first review the payment journey from a patient point of view. See Payments - The Patient Journey

 

We understand that using an online system to process payments for an appointment may be a new experience for your practice and patients. By reviewing the patient journey, you and your team will be able to know what to expect and confidently preempt any concerns or questions.

  • The patient journey will be different depending on how you have configured your HotDoc Payments. The types of payments you can setup include:
    • Payments/Pre-authorisation for Online booked appointments 
    • Payments/Pre-authorisation for Practice booked appointments
    • Payments for upcoming appointments (online booked or practice booked appointments that do not have payments setup already)
    • Payment requests for immediate charge
  • Firstly the patient will be required to enter their card details for their upcoming appointment (we recommend viewing Payments - The Patient Journey for step by step instructions on what they see based upon what payments you have setup)
  • If the appointment is set up to require pre-authorisation, at this point a hold will be placed on the patients stored card for the defined amount for 7 days from time of booking.

  • Once the patient's appointment has concluded and their invoice has been finalised in Best Practice, HotDoc will sync the invoice attached to their appointment and attempt to charge the nominated payment method. You will then be required to collect the payment in the HotDoc Dashboard, and we will charge the patients card.
  • Please note: if the appointment has a pre-authorisation and the finalised invoice:
    • Is equal to the held amount:
      • We will capture payment using the pre-authorised hold.
    • Is larger then the held amount:
      • The pre-authorised hold will be released and a new payment taken.
    • Is smaller the the held amount: 
      • Using Stripe: We will capture payment using the original pre-authorised hold, releasing the remaining amount.
      • Using Pin: The pre-authorised payment will be released and a new payment taken.
  • If HotDoc is unable to charge the nominated card, we will automatically SMS the patient requesting them to opt for another payment method. We will then attempt another charge 24 hours after the first charge.

  • Once the charge is successful the patient will receive an email confirming the actual cost of the appointment, and some links on how to claim a Medicare rebate if they are eligible. See How should we process a patients Medicare Rebate for appointments paid for via HotDoc? for more information.

 

2. Set up your payment provider

An account with either Pin Payments or Stripe is required to process payments online from your patients.

To set up your payment provider account for your practice, see How to setup a Payment Provider.
ⓘ Why do I need to do this?

 
In order to take payments, you will firstly need to sign up with an account with one of our preferred payment providers. You may already have signed up with either Stripe or Pin Payments if you've use our Repeats product. If so, go ahead and move to the next step.


Payments are set up in your HotDoc Dashboard under Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts:

payments_setup_screen.png

Please note:

  • During sign up, you will be required to provide some information about your business such as your bank details and ABN so it's handy to have this information ready to fill in.

  • Stripe requires you to enter a Statement Descriptor for patients to see in their bank statement. 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.

By default, funds will be paid to your practice account.

You can also set up individual practitioner accounts so that practitioners can be paid directly to their bank account. To do this, see How to set up Direct to Practitioner Payouts for Payments

 

3. Understanding the payment processing fee 

The payment processing fee is 1.75% +30c per transaction.

We will automatically add this fee on-top of the cost that you wish to charge patients for your appointment types or payment requests.

 

Example of a consultation costing $50.00

Example:

Payment break down if passing the fee onto the patient

 Screen_Shot_2023-02-14_at_10.36.38_am.png

 This setting is on by default for your practice, and you will be required to have this on for access to our new features.

This is to streamline your reporting and reconciliation process, ensuring you use the 'net' amount to reconcile and balance your payments to your receipts in your practice software, and payouts to your bank account. 

  • This setting is in the Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts section, under the Provider Processing Fee. 
    Screenshot 2024-01-16 at 2.12.15 pm.png

 

How do I view Payments Reporting in the Dashboard?

How do I reconcile my HotDoc payments to the receipts in my practice software?

How do I use Payments Reporting to reconcile payouts to my bank account?
ⓘ Important

 

 4. Choose who will be exempt from adding a payment method

If your clinic offers Bulk Billing, you can set up the criteria in your dashboard so that eligible patients are not required to provide a payment method when booking online or directly at the clinic.

Patients can be exempt from payments based on their Age and if they hold a specific concession card (based on the options in HotDoc). 

 

We will read your Bulk Billing criteria from your Practice Profile Billing section. Here you can select whether you want to exempt patients based on their age and/or if they have a specific concession card.

Once this feature is enabled, we will show which patients were exempt in the Bookings > Booking History in your Dashboard and also in the patient's appointment notes in your Practice Management Software.

For further information and instructions on how to enable this feature, see How do I make patients that are eligible for Bulk Billing exempt from payments?

image__10_.png

Once this feature is enabled, it will be applied for both online and practice-booked appointments:

- The concession card screening will only be applied for online bookings

- The age criteria will be applied based on the patient's DOB listed in their HotDoc account for online appointments. It will also be applied to clinic-booked appointments based on the patient's DOB in your clinical software.

For more information, please see: Payments - The Patient Journey
 

 

5. Enable Payment Automation settings (automatically collect and receipt invoices) 

With Best Practice, we have two different automation settings that you can enable to streamline the payments process and reduce the time spent going back and fourth between HotDoc and Best Practice:

  • Automatically collect payment in HotDoc once an invoice has been "Stored" in Best Practice

  • Automatically receipt an invoice in Best Practice, that has been successfully paid in HotDoc

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. 

 

To set this up, please view the article:

How to set up and use Payment Automations for Best Practice (automatic collect and receipting)

 

6. Setting up for your appointment types and using Payments

There are many ways to use HotDoc Payments.

You can set up automatic requests or send manual requests for online booked and reception booked appointments, as well as send manual adhoc payment requests for immediate charge.


Use the following resources below to setup payments for your appointment types. In this step, you will also be required to select a cost at which you charge for these appointments: 

 

7. Collecting payment for appointments

If you have enabled the automation setting for payment collection and a patient has provided their payment method for an appointment, we will automatically collect funds from a patients stored payment method once you have created the invoice and clicked "Store".

If you have not enabled the automation settings, you can collect funds manually in the Dashboard once a patient has been seen for their appointment.

In the Payments > Booking Activity section, there is a "Collect" tab that allows you to view which payments are ready to be collected. 

To see how to collect a payment, please follow the steps in the guide:  How to collect a payment for a patient's appointment

 

 Always put the total cost of the appointment in the receipt/invoice in your PMS, no matter if the practice or patient covers the processing fee.
We do not recommend adding a line item in your invoice for the processing fee.

ⓘ Please note!

 

8. Managing your Payments

Now that Payments is activated, you can keep a track of your payments in the Payments section of the HotDoc Dashboard. You can see an audit of the following:
  • Booking Activity - History of online or practice booked appointments and ability to collect, refund, cancel payments, as well as send manual request card details for upcoming appointments. Navigate through each of the tabs and complete actions associated with each. 
  • Payment Requests - History of and ability to create, cancel or refund adhoc payment requests for immediate charge
  • Reporting - Payment Activity details (subtotal figures, completed and refunded payments) as well as Payout details (funds processed from payment provider to your bank account) - Use this information to assist in reconciling your payments.  
  • Payments Setup - Includes account setup settings, but practice and individual practitioner accounts), passing on fee, bulk billing exemptions and payment automations, as well as Appointment setup to access both online and practice booked appointment types for payments 

The following articles will assist you in understanding how to use and best manage your payments. You can view all of our payments support resources here. 

 

9. Reporting and reconciliation 

The Payments 'Reporting' section of the Dashboard 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 Payouts section (funds processed from payment provider to your bank account).

Screen_Shot_2022-11-15_at_3.53.22_pm.png

We've created plenty of resources and recommendations below on how you can use the reporting features to reconcile:

 

10. Educate your team

As with anything new, education is key to ensuring a higher patient engagement rate. The more you promote the system to your team, the more comfortable they will feel with managing payments.


Congratulations! You have now fully setup and learnt how to manage HotDoc Payments. 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.

To educate your Team:

To educate your patients:

 

Medical Director, Zedmed, HotDoc Calendar

 

Full-Colour_Logo__1_.svg

Prefer a guided tutorial on how to set this up?
Click here to view guided learning options on HotDoc Academy
Log in with your HotDoc Dashboard username and password

 

HotDoc Payments allows you to provide an online payment option for appointments booked online and directly through your practice. It also provides the ability to send payment requests for immediate charge, such as for debt collection, late cancellations or no-show fees. 

For practices using Best Practice, HotDoc Payments has extra functionality that allows you to automatically charge your patients an exact amount based upon the invoice generated for their appointment.

 

With Payments you can:

  • Automatically and securely accept payments from the patient when they make an appointment online through HotDoc, or through your practice directly 
  • Charge the patient the actual cost after you have added MBS item numbers or if the appointment type changes mid consult 
  • Prevent debt by pre-authorising payment for specific appointment types. This places a temporary hold of funds on the patient's card to ensure they have sufficient funds at the time of collecting the payment.
  • Enable a feature to automatically pass the payment processing fee on to the patient
  • Reduce reception's time spent manually processing payments over the phone
  • Customise how much you wish to charge for different appointment types
  • Send ad hoc payment requests for immediate charge

 

   In this article



1. The Payments Journey

Before setting up HotDoc to process payments for your consults, we recommend that you first review the payment journey from a patient point of view. See Payments - The Patient Journey

 

We understand that using an online system to process payments for an appointment may be a new experience for your practice and patients. By reviewing the patient journey, you and your team will be able to know what to expect and confidently preempt any concerns or questions.

  • The patient journey will be different depending on how you have configured your HotDoc Payments. The types of payments you can setup include:
    • Payments/Pre-authorisation for Online booked appointments 
    • Payments/Pre-authorisation for Practice booked appointments
    • Payments for upcoming appointments (online booked or practice booked appointments that do not have payments setup already)
    • Payment requests for immediate charge. 


  • Firstly the patient will be required to enter their card details for their upcoming appointment (we recommend viewing Payments - The Patient Journey for step by step instructions on what they see based upon what payments you have setup)
  • If the appointment is set up to require pre-authorisation, at this point a hold will be placed on the patients stored card for the defined amount for 7 days from booking.
  • You will then be required to collect the payment in the HotDoc Dashboard, and we will charge the patients card. (Please note: if you have a hold taken through a pre-authorisation of equal or less than the final charge amount, the payment will be taken from this held amount and any additional amount will be released)

  • If HotDoc is unable to charge the nominated card, we will automatically SMS the patient requesting them to opt for another payment method. We will then attempt another charge 24 hours after the first charge.

  • Once the charge is successful the patient will receive an email confirming the actual cost of the appointment, and some links on how to claim a Medicare rebate if they are eligible. See How should we process a patients Medicare Rebate for appointments paid for via HotDoc? for more information.

 

2. Set up your payment provider

An account with either Pin Payments or Stripe is required to process payments online from your patients.

To set up your payment provider account for your practice, see How to setup a Payment Provider.
ⓘ Why do I need to do this?

 
In order to take payments, you will firstly need to sign up with an account with one of our preferred payment providers. You may already have signed up with either Stripe or Pin Payments if you've use our Repeats product. If so, go ahead and move to the next step.


Payments are set up in your HotDoc Dashboard under Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts:

payments_setup_screen.png

Please note:

  • During sign up, you will be required to provide some information about your business such as your bank details and ABN so it's handy to have this information ready to fill in.

  • Stripe requires you to enter a Statement Descriptor for patients to see in their bank statement. 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.

By default, funds will be paid to your practice account.

You can also set up individual practitioner accounts so that practitioners can be paid directly to their bank account. To do this, see How to set up Direct to Practitioner Payouts for Payments

 

3. Understanding the payments processing fee 

The payment processing fee is 1.75% +30c per transaction.

We will automatically add this fee on-top of the cost that you wish to charge patients for your appointment types or payment requests.

 

Example of a consultation costing $50.00

Example:

Payment break down if passing the fee onto the patient

 Screen Shot 2023-02-14 at 10.36.38 am.png

 This setting is on by default for your practice, and you will be required to have this on for access to our new features.

This is to streamline your reporting and reconciliation process, ensuring you use the 'net' amount to reconcile and balance your payments to your receipts in your practice software, and payouts to your bank account. 

  • This setting is in the Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts section, under the Provider Processing Fee. 
    Screenshot 2024-01-16 at 2.12.15 pm.png

 

How do I view Payments Reporting in the Dashboard?

How do I reconcile my HotDoc payments to the receipts in my practice software?

How do I use Payments Reporting to reconcile payouts to my bank account?
ⓘ Important

 

 

4. Choose who will be exempt from adding a payment method

If your clinic offers Bulk Billing, you can set up the criteria in your dashboard so that eligible patients are not required to provide a payment method when booking online or directly at the clinic.

Patients can be exempt from payments based on their Age and if they hold a specific concession card (based on the options in HotDoc). 

 

We will read your Bulk Billing criteria from your Practice Profile Billing section. Here you can select whether you want to exempt patients based on their age and/or if they have a specific concession card.

Once this feature is enabled, we will show which patients were exempt in the Booking History in your Dashboard and also in the patient's appointment notes in your Practice Management Software.

For further information and instructions on how to enable this feature, see How do I make patients that are eligible for Bulk Billing exempt from payments?

image__10_.png

Once this feature is enabled, it will be applied for both online and practice-booked appointments:

- The concession card screening will only be applied for online bookings

- The age criteria will be applied based on the patient's DOB listed in their HotDoc account for online appointments. It will also be applied to clinic-booked appointments based on the patient's DOB in your clinical software.

For more information, please see: Payments - The Patient Journey
 

 

5. Setting up and using HotDoc Payments 

There are many ways to use HotDoc Payments.

You can set up automatic requests or send manual requests for online booked and reception booked appointments, as well as send manual adhoc payment requests for immediate charge.


Use the following resources below to setup payments for your appointment types. In this step, you will also be required to select a cost at which you charge for these appointments: 

 

6. How to collect a payment for a patients appointment

If you sent a card detail request and the patient has provided their payment method, after the appointment start time, you can collect payment via the HotDoc Dashboard. 

In the Payments > Booking Activity section, there is a "Collect" tab that allows you to view which payments are ready to be collected. 

To see how to collect a payment, please see How to collect a payment for a patient's appointment

 

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 processing fee.
We do not recommend adding a seperate line item in your invoice for the processing fee.

ⓘ Recommendation

 

 

7. Managing your Payments

Now that Payments is activated, you can keep a track of your payments in the Payments section of the HotDoc Dashboard. You can see an audit of the following:
  • Booking Activity - History of online or practice booked appointments. Ability to collect, refund, cancel payments and send manual request card details for upcoming appointments. Navigate through each of the tabs and complete actions associated with each. 
  • Payment Requests - History of and ability to create, cancel or refund adhoc payment requests for immediate charge
  • Reporting - Payment Activity details (subtotal figures, completed and refunded payments) as well as Payout details (funds processed from payment provider to your bank account) - Use this information to assist in reconciling your payments.  
  • Payments Setup - Account setup (practice and individual practitioner accounts) and access to setting up both online and practice booked appointment types for payments 

 

Screen_Shot_2023-02-16_at_12.15.29_pm.png

Example of Payments Section in the HotDoc Dashboard 

 

The following articles will assist you in understanding how to use and best manage your payments. You can view all of our payments support resources here. 

 

8. Reporting and Reconciling

The Payments 'Reporting' section of the Dashboard 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 Payouts section (funds processed from payment provider to your bank account).
Screen_Shot_2022-11-15_at_3.53.22_pm.png

We've created plenty of resources and recommendations below on how you can use the reporting features to reconcile:



9. Educate and train your team

As with anything new, education is key to ensuring a higher patient engagement rate. The more you promote the system to your team, the more comfortable they will feel with managing payments.


Congratulations! You have now fully setup and learnt how to manage HotDoc Payments. 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.

To educate your Team:

To educate your patients:

 

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