The system provides functionality to allow patients to maintain a Credit Account on the system so that they can pay off outstanding balances for items dispensed to them at their leisure.
This can also be used to group patients together if they are part of a corporate or group account and it is necessary to generate a regular statement for all charges to the account e.g. local businesses, Nursing Homes etc...
Account Types
The following are the types of Account available in TouchStore:
PrivateXX
- This type of account is best used for an individual credit account
- This account type cannot be used when the patient is part of a linked Family
Family
- This type of account is best used when a family of patients maintain a credit account with the store
- It is necessary for the patients to be linked as a Family within the system for this purpose
- A single Statement can be generated for all patients if needed
Company
- A company account is used when you have something like a local business or a Nursing Home who wish to receive a single invoice/statement for monies owed to the credit account
- It is necessary to set up an Organisation in order to use this type of account
- A single Statement can be generated for all patients if needed
Private Accounts
- Create a Private Account
In order to use Accounts, you will first need to assign an existing account to a patient or create a new one.
To create a new Private account:
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient you wish to set up an Account for
- Click Edit F3 or press (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Account tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + A)
- In the 'Account Type' group, None will be selected by default
- To create a Private Account:
- Click Private (KEYBOARD: Arrow Key Left/Right)
- You may be prompted to enter you PIN
- The "Account Details" section will now be displayed on the Account tab
N.B. New Private Accounts default to have the patient name as the name of the Account and a Credit Limit of €500.00
- Click Ok or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to save your changes and close the Edit Account window
You have now created a Private account for the selected patient.
N.B. Even if a patient is part of a Family and is linked to the Family Account you can still move them to a Private Account while keeping them linked to the Family by following the same steps above.
The only difference will be the patient will be starting from a Family account and moving to a Private account instead of starting at None and moving to Private.
Family Accounts
- Create a Family Account
In order to use Accounts, you will first need to assign an existing account to a patient or create a new one.
Family Accounts are automatically created by the system when you first create a Family by marking a patient as "Head of the Family".
For more information please see our Patient Maintenance section on setting up family links LOREM IPSUM.
N.B. New Family Accounts default to have the name of the patient who is marked as "Head of the Family" as the name of the Account and a Credit Limit of €500.00.
- Assign a Patient to a Family Account
In order to make a patient part of a Family Account, it is necessary to link the patient to the Family.
Once this is complete, the patient will automatically become part of the Family Account.
For more information please see our Patient Maintenance section on setting up family links LOREM IPSUM.
N.B. please note that if the patient was already set up with a Private Account their Balance and any previous Transactions will NOT be carried over to the new account.
company Accounts
Company Accounts allow you to create an account for an organisation.
This is useful when there will be multiple, unrelated patients, being dispensed to that are all being charged under one Account.
In order to use Company Accounts you need to first create an Organisation.
Once this is done, you can then Link Patients to the Company and also the Company Account.
- Create an Organisation
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient you wish to set up an Account for
- Click Edit F3 at the top of the PMR Screen (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Company tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + P)
- (OPTIONAL) Select the patient occupation in the Company from the Occupation drop-down box or typing in a new occupation.
- Click into Company dropdown box and then double-click (KEYBOARD: F8) to open the Maintain Companies window
- Click the Insert button (KEYBOARD: ALT + I) at the bottom of the window and the Insert Company window will open
Now we need to fill out the details of the new Company:
- Company Name: REQUIRED FIELD - this is the name of the Company that will be displayed throughout the system
- Address: the postal address of the Company
N.B. There are multiple fields here to allow you to enter a detailed address e.g. "123 Acme St., Unit H, Johnstown Road"
- Town: the relevant Town for the Company's postal address
- County: the relevany County for the Company's postal address
- Country: the relevany Country for the Company's postal address
- Tel No.: the Telephone number to reach the company on
- Fax No.: the Fax number to reach the company on
- Contact - Contact Name: the name of the main Contact Person for the Company
- Contact - Contact Mobile: the mobile number of the main Contact Person for the Company
- Contact - Contact E-Mail: the Email Address of the main Contact Person for the Company
- Billing - Billing Approved: use this check box if this company is approved to have a Credit Account in your Practice
- Billing - Contact Name: the name of the main Billing Contact Person for the Company
- Billing - Contact Mobile: the mobile number of the main Billing Contact Person for the Company
- Billing - Contact E-Mail: the Email Address of the main Billing Contact Person for the Company
- Notes: here you can enter any relevant notes on the Company you wish to keep track of
Once you are happy with all of the information you have entered,
- Click OK or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to save the newly created Company.
Your Company is now ready to be linked to any relevant patients.
- Link a Company to a Patient's File
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient you wish to set up an Account for
- Click Edit F3 at the top of the PMR Screen (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Company tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + P)
- Select the patient occupation from the Occupation drop-down box or typing in a new occupation.
- Select the patient’s company from the Company dropdown box.
- Once selected, the Company text box will be populated with the name of the selected company
- The selected Company address and contact details, if any, will be displayed
- Link a Patient to a Company Account
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient you wish to set up an Account for
- Click Edit F3 at the top of the PMR Screen (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click the Accounts Tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + A)
- In the 'Account Type' group, None will be selected by default
- Click Other, a PIN Number window will appear
- Enter your PIN Number
- The Company details of the patient company will appear, if the patient has been linked to his or her company, see How Do I Link a Company to a Patients File for more information
The patient is now linked to their company's account.
Moving Account Balances
Please note that it is NOT possible to move balances from one account to another.
If you need to move a patient from one account type to another e.g. from Family to Private, you will have to clear the first account before moving to the second as no Transactions and no Payments are carried over in the move.
Account Functions
For all of the above Account Types, it is possible to:
- Apply a Credit Limit that will prevent outstanding balances from exceeding a specific value
- Print a Statement for patients linked to the Account
- Configure the system to automatically charge dispenses to the Account to avoid manual entry
- Manually add a Payment to the Account
- Deactivate an Account
For customers using TouchStore Rx POS or Retail 365 POS it is also possible to charge sales and / make payments against the account at the till.
- Set a Credit Limit
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient attached to the Account you wish to set the Credit Limit for
- Click Edit F3 at the top of the PMR Screen (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Account tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + A)
- Click on the Account button or press (KEYBOARD: TAB, then SPACE)
- The Edit Account window will open
- Enter a Credit Limit, e.g. 500.00
- Click Ok or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to save your changes and close the Edit Account window
- Print Account Statements
To print a Statement for an Account we need to view the Account in the Accounts Module.
You can do this two ways:
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient linked to the Account and then open Modules -> Accounts
- This will immediately open the Accounts Module to the correct Account
- Open Modules -> Accounts and use the Search button to search for the account in question
Once we have the Account selected in the Accounts Module:
- Press the Statement button to open the Statement Print screen
Select the Accounts to Print statements for:
- All - this will allow you to print a Statement for every active Account you have
- Selected accounts - this is the default option and will print a Statement for the patient shown in the bottom of the window. You can press the Select button (KEYBOARD: ALT + S) to add another account.
Select the level of detail required:
- None - transactions will only show one line and only show the total value of the transaction
- A/C - transactions will show a breakdown of each line e.g. each item within a dispensed script and their individual along with the total value
- All - this setting is the same as A/C
Select your date:
- FROM and TO will default to the First and Last dates of the current month
Select your other options:
- Exclude Zero Balances (Recommended) - if you are printing for ALL Accounts this will exclude any Accounts with a Balance of 0.00
- Exclude Inactive Accounts (Recommended) - if you are printing for ALL Accounts this will exclude any Accounts that are inactive
- Group patient (Not Recommended) -
- Auto-Allocate (Recommended) - This option allocates received payments against any outstanding invoices before printing the current statements for the selected accounts
Once you are happy with the settings you have chosen for the select Account(s), click Print to start Printing Statements or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + P).
If you wish to first preview the statement or view the statements on screen click Preview
- Automatically Charge an Account
If you wish to automatically charge dispenses to a patient's account, there is an Account Setting that you can enable that will automatically charge every dispense made on that patient's PMR to the account they are linked to.
This setting is called "Charge By Default".
To turn on "Charge By Default":
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient attached to the Account you wish to enable "Charge By Default" for
- Click Edit F3 at the top of the PMR Screen (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Account tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + A)
- Click on the Account button or press (KEYBOARD: TAB, then SPACE)
- The Edit Account window will open
- Tick the check box labelled "Charge By Default"
- Click OK or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to save your changes and close the Edit Account window
Now any dispenses made under that patient's PMR will be charged to the account they are linked to at the time of the dispensing.
You can enable and disable this setting at any time.
Dispense charged to an account under either the Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) or the General Medical Services Scheme (GMS) will show up in the Analysis window (KEYBOARD: F5) as a Payment with a Tender Type of "Account" and a note of "DPS/GMS script added to account"
- Process an Account Payment
In order to make a payment against an Account, you can:
- Add an Account Payment Manually
- Pay at a TouchStore Rx POS Till
- Pay at a Retail 365 Till
For customers using Retail 365 please see our Retail 365 Help File for further details.
- Add an Account Payment Manually
To make a payment against an Account manually, we need to first locate the Account.
You can do this two ways:
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient linked to the Account and then open Modules -> Accounts
- This will immediately open the Accounts Module to the correct Account
- Open Modules -> Accounts and use the Search button to search for the account in question
Using one of the above methods to locate an Account, you will then see the Accounts Module screen:
- At the top of this screen you can press the Credit button
If you do not see this button and you DO NOT use TouchStore Rx POS or Retail 365 then please contact us for further assistance.
The Credit Account screen will open:
Fill out the various fields as below:
- Date: enter the date the payment was made
- Amount: enter the amount of the payment e.g. 15.50
- Auto Allocate: NOT USED. PLEASE IGNORE.
- Type: select the relevant Tender Type for the payment e.g. Cash, Credit Card etc...
- Reference: enter any referencing information you have to refer to this payment elsewhere
- Notes: enter any notes you have about the payment e.g. "John advised this is to cover September's dispenings"
Once you are happy with the information,
- Click OK or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to complete the payment.
- Pay at a TouchStore Rx POS Till
To make an Account payment when using TouchStore Rx POS
- Enter your PIN Number and press Enter
- Press the Patient button
- Select the patient wishing to make a payment on their account
- Press the 4. Account button or press (KEYBOARD: 4)
- Press the 0. Payment button or press (KEYBOARD: 0)
- Enter the amount the patient wishes to pay and press Enter. Remember to enter the exact payment amount, not the amount being tendered
- E.g. if the patient is paying €25 against their account, but has tendered €30 to you, enter the €25 of the payment
- Press the 3. End Trans button or press (KEYBOARD: 3)
- Select the Tender Type e.g. paying with Cash, Cheque, laser etc.
- Complete the sale as normal
- Deactivate an Account
To deactivate an Account:
- Navigate to the PMR of a patient attached to the Account you wish to set the Credit Limit for
- Click Edit F3 or press (KEYBOARD: F3)
- The Patient Maintenance screen will appear
- Click on the Account tab or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + A)
- Click on the Account button or press (KEYBOARD: TAB, then SPACE)
- The Edit Account window will open
- Tick the checkbox labelled "Account Inactive"
- Click OK or press (KEYBOARD: ALT + O) to save your changes and close the Edit Account window