Balancing and Closing
Procedures Fall CHUG 2015
Presented by Kelly Gentry
Director, Practice Management Support Services
Overview of Presentation • Daily Procedures
1. Opening a batch
2. Balancing Batches
3. Daily Reports/Transaction & Charge Management
4. Batch “Soft” Closing
• Monthly Procedures 1. Monthly Reports
2. Setting Closing Date/“Hard” Close
• Repercussions of not Closing
• Workflow for Closed Batches
• Frequently Asked Questions/General Information
Daily Procedures Opening a Daily Batch
All charges, payments, adjustments, and/or transfers entered into the system are associated with a
batch. A batch provides a mechanism by which you can group specific transactions for balancing, reviewing, and/or closing procedures.
Recommendations: 1. Each user works in their own daily batch
2. All charges/transactions being posted for the day are posted in a current batch with a DOE of that day regardless of the Dates of Service.
Steps: 1. Edit > Default Batch (from anywhere within the application)
2. Click onto the Binoculars on the Default Batch field
3. Click New
4. Ensure that the Date of Entry and Batch name are what they should be. Batch name defaults to login date
5. Click OK and Check ‘Set as Default’
6. OK and OK again
1 2
3 4
5
Setting Default Batch
Batch Management
At least one batch for each user that posts
any financial transactions
Creative Batches:
• A morning and afternoon batch for each user
• A specific batch for a large insurance check
• Batches for ERA files
Balancing Batches
• Every employee should be responsible
for balancing their own batches.
• There are 2 options for balancing a batch
Balancing: Daily Balance Report Reports> Financial> Daily Balance Report
Balancing: Daily Balance Report
Balancing: Charge and Transaction Management
These 2 components allow you to
select your Batch and view a list of
all Charges and Transactions
posted. The list does provide a total
at the end to use for Balancing.
Charge Management Transaction Management
Balancing: Charge Management
Add up your CPT codes from Superbills to get a
quick and accurate total, it should match the
sum of the CPT codes in here.
Balancing: Transaction
Management
By default transactions are listed in
order entry, but you can use the column
headings change the sort order.
Unapplied Funds
Batches can NOT be closed
with Unapplied Funds
Finding Unapplied Funds
Use Transaction Management to find Unapplied Funds
Batch Closing
• Batch Closing is often referred to as a “soft”
close
• It’s recommended that each user close their
individual batch after confirming they have
balanced for the day
• Performing a “soft” close changes the status on
the batch from Open to Batch Closed
• Batch Closing is not permanent. You can
reopen the Batch or set Batch Closing Override
to make changes in the Batch.
Batch Closing
• Steps to perform Batch Closing 1. Administration > Batches > Batch Closing
2. Search for the Batch by name or date of entry
3. Place a check mark on the batch
4. Select Close Batch
NOTE: To reopen a “soft”
closed batch, perform the
Steps 1-3 above then for
Step 4, you will select
Open Batch
Batch Closing Override Batch Closing Override can be turned on to allow a user to make
changes to items posted
into any “soft” closed batch.
Steps: Administration > Batches > Click onto Batch Closing Override
This will flash in the bottom right corner of Centricity
SPR 60778: There is an issue in CPS 12 that allows users into Batch Closing Override even
without security permissions. This is fixed in CPS 12.0.11 that is coming soon!
Daily Reports • Daily Balance - you may want to print
a “full” daily balance by Date Range for all batches
• Daily Transaction Summary
• Daily Financial Summary
• Deposit Slip – this report does not include EFT’s
Report Criteria:
First Page
Daily Reports Made Easy
On the saved report criteria enter the word “Today” in the Date range to get today’s data
You can create a Daily Balance folder in Reports and save a
copy of each report for easy printing.
Daily Reports Made Easy Once you have entered all of your criteria, choose File > Save
As and name give the selection a unique name.
Daily Reports Made Easy Create a new Folder for your Saved Criteria
Steps: Right click the folder where you want your new
folder to be listed under.
To run all reports in this folder at once just select the
folder then choose Preview or Print.
Monthly Procedures • Monthly Reports
Common Reports: Monthly Financial Summary, Monthly Transaction Summary, Monthly Revenue Analysis & Monthly Production Analysis – It’s recommended to print & review Monthly reports prior to setting Closing Date
– Setting up a Monthly reports folder with a copy of each report saved in it will save time. To print current month use Month in the date fields. To print previous month use Month-1
Report Criteria:
First Page
Monthly Reports
Helpful Hints: • Run reports by DOE and use DOS only when
looking to obtain specific information about
services performed during a time period
• The blue ? on the toolbar provides a description of
the report
• Visit http://www.quatris.com/ge-centricity/standard-
reports/ for more information on Standard reports.
Setting a Closing Date • Setting a Closing Date is often referred to as a “hard”
close
• Once you set a Closing Date, all batches with a Date of Entry on that date and prior change to Closed Status
• You will no longer be able to set Batch Closing Override to make changes to items in a Closed Batch or re-open a Closed batch.
• After a date of entry has been closed, financial history cannot be deleted/changed. This action is permanent.
• Ensure all charges and payments have been entered prior to setting a Closing Date
Steps to setting a Closing Date • Administration > Batches > Closing Date
• Enter the date in which you would like Centricity to lock down and
hard close in the New Closing Date field and click the OK button.
Steps to setting a Closing Date • If there are any unapplied funds or any
batches that have not been Batch Closed (soft-closed) you will get a prompt notifying you of this.
• You will need to resolve any unapplied funds in the Transaction Management module first, before you can finalize the hard-close process.
• You will then be prompted to confirm that you would like to set a new closing date and that once this date is set it cannot be reversed.
– Click the OK button to confirm.
Repercussions of not Closing • Charges and transactions are not secure. They
can be deleted, changed, etc with no tracking trail.
• Monthly report data can change from what was previously generated.
• Since there is no tracking trail, it’s very difficult to determine what caused the report data to change
• If you pay providers based on revenue or production and you change something in a past batch, those providers can either be over or under paid.
Workflow for Closed Batches When a batch is Closed you cannot delete/change charges or
transactions. Instead, you must make counter-balancing transactions to correct mistakes.
Charges 1. Void – if a charge was posted incorrectly, you can void the entire visit or void just one procedure on a visit.
2. If a charge was missed and not entered, you need to enter it into a current batch.
Transactions – Payments/adjustments 1. Conveyance – post what is referred to as a Conveyance if a payment was posted to the incorrect ticket and/or
patient.
2. Removing a Payment – if a payment was posted that should not have been, you must post a “reverse” payment (same concept as posting a Refund)
3. Adjustments- if an adjustment was posted in error, you would post a “reverse” adjustment to undo the original one.
4. If a payment was missed and not posted, post into a current batch.
FAQ and Helpful Hints/Recommendations
• It’s recommended that you set a Closing Date at least
quarterly although some do it monthly or yearly. Best
practice would be to close monthly.
• If you have not hard closed and data in those “open”
months changes, it’s difficult to find the cause. Your
option would be to compare Daily Balance reports
previously printed to newly printed ones to find
differences.
• If you do not include report criteria on the first page of
your reports it is very difficult to troubleshoot any kind of
balancing issue you may have.
FAQ and Helpful Hints/Recommendations
• The Reimbursement Analysis reports are dependent
upon Closing Date. If you print these reports for a time
frame that is not “hard” closed, the payment data will be
blank or not accurate.
• You must have Security authorization to set Batch
Closing Override. When it is set, it’s only set on that one
workstation.
• Batch Closing Override allows for changes to all “soft”
closed batches while Reopening a batch will only permit
changes to that one batch that was reopened.
Thank you for your time