Open Dental Payment Reconciliation: Tips for Accurate Posting

Open Dental gives you flexibility and control. With that flexibility comes responsibility for setting up reconciliation processes that actually work.

Why Open Dental Reconciliation Is Different

Open Dental is the leading open-source dental practice management software. Its flexibility and customization options make it popular with practices that want control over their systems.

That same flexibility means Open Dental does not force you into a specific reconciliation workflow. You have options for how to set up payment types, deposits, and reports. This guide covers best practices for configuring and using Open Dental for effective reconciliation.

Understanding Open Dental Payment Structure

Payment Types

Open Dental uses configurable payment types.

Default types include:

• Cash
• Check
• Credit Card
• Insurance Check
• EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer)

Customization: You can add, modify, or disable payment types to match your practice needs.

Best practice: Configure payment types that align with how you receive and deposit funds. This makes reconciliation straightforward.

Payment Splits

Open Dental uses payment splits to allocate payments to specific procedures.

How it works:

• A single payment can be split across multiple procedures
• Splits track what each portion of payment covers
• Total splits equal total payment amount

Reconciliation impact: For reconciliation purposes, you care about total payment amounts matching deposits, not individual splits.

Deposits in Open Dental

Open Dental has a deposit management feature.

Deposit function:

• Groups payments into deposits
• Tracks which payments are in each deposit
• Generates deposit slips

Location: Manage → Deposits

Best practice: Use the deposit feature to group payments and match to bank deposits.

Essential Open Dental Reports

Daily Payments Report

Your primary daily reconciliation report.

Location: Reports → Standard → Daily Payments

What it shows:

• All payments for selected date range
• Broken down by payment type
• Provider and patient detail
• Totals by category

Settings to use:

• Date: Select the day you are reconciling
• All clinics (if multi-location)
• All payment types

Deposits Report

Shows deposit summary and detail.

Location: Reports → Standard → Deposits

What it shows:

• Deposits created
• Payments in each deposit
• Deposit totals

Use for: Matching your created deposits to bank deposits.

Insurance Payment Report

Insurance payment detail for ERA reconciliation.

Location: Reports → Standard → Insurance Payments

What it shows:

• Insurance payments by carrier
• Claim details
• Payment amounts and dates

Use for: Reconciling insurance EFTs to posted payments.

Unearned Income Report

Shows patient credit balances.

Location: Reports → Standard → Unearned Income

What it shows:

• Patients with credit balances
• Amounts by patient
• Sources of credits

Use for: Monitoring credit balances that may indicate posting errors or refund needs.

Production and Income Report

Overview of practice financial activity.

Location: Reports → Standard → Production and Income

What it shows:

• Production by provider
• Collections by type
• Adjustments
• Write-offs

Use for: High-level verification that collections are reasonable.

Daily Reconciliation in Open Dental

Step 1: Verify Day is Complete

Before reconciling, ensure all activity is entered.

Checklist:

• All patients checked out
• All patient payments entered
• Insurance payments for the day posted
• Any adjustments entered

Step 2: Run Daily Payments Report

Generate the report for the day.

Process:

1. Go to Reports → Standard → Daily Payments
2. Set date to today
3. Run report
4. Review totals by payment type

Step 3: Reconcile Cash

Match cash payments to cash drawer.

Process:

1. Note cash total from Daily Payments report
2. Count physical cash in drawer
3. Compare totals
4. Document any variance with explanation

Variance investigation:

• Check for payments entered as wrong type
• Verify all cash payments are in system
• Look for entry errors

Step 4: Reconcile Credit Cards

Match credit card payments to merchant batch.

Process:

1. Note credit card total from Daily Payments report
2. Run settlement on credit card terminal
3. Compare batch total to Open Dental total
4. Investigate any variance

Common issues:

• Declined transactions showing in Open Dental
• Refunds not matching
• Timing differences between systems

Step 5: Reconcile Checks

Match check payments to physical checks.

Process:

1. Note check total from Daily Payments report
2. List all physical checks received
3. Compare totals
4. Verify check numbers match entries

Step 6: Create Deposit

Group payments into a deposit.

Process in Open Dental:

1. Go to Manage → Deposits
2. Click "Add" to create new deposit
3. Select payments to include
4. Verify deposit total
5. Print or save deposit slip

Best practice: Create one deposit per bank deposit to maintain clear matching.

Step 7: Complete Documentation

Finalize daily records.

Documentation:

• Daily Payments report (saved)
• Deposit slip
• Cash count sheet
• Credit card batch report
• Variance explanations if any

Insurance Payment Reconciliation

Auto-Posting ERAs

If using ERA auto-posting:

Setup: Configure clearinghouse connection in Open Dental (Setup → Family/Insurance → Clearinghouses)

Process:

1. Download/import ERAs
2. Let Open Dental auto-post
3. Review posting accuracy
4. Verify totals match ERA

Verification:

• Run Insurance Payment report
• Compare to ERA totals
• Investigate any discrepancies

Manual EOB Posting

If posting insurance payments manually:

Process:

1. Open the claim in Open Dental
2. Enter payment and adjustment amounts
3. Verify amounts match EOB
4. Save the payment

Batch posting: When posting multiple claims from one check:

1. Note the total check amount
2. Post each claim
3. Verify total posted matches check
4. Create deposit for the check

Matching to Bank EFTs

Insurance EFTs need reconciliation to ERAs.

Process:

1. Identify insurance EFT in bank statement
2. Find matching ERA(s)
3. Verify Open Dental shows payments posted
4. Confirm totals match

Use Insurance Payment report filtered by date and carrier to find posted payments.

Monthly Reconciliation Process

Monthly Bank Reconciliation

Verify month's collections match deposits.

Process:

1. Run Daily Payments report for entire month
2. Sum all bank deposits for month
3. Compare totals
4. Investigate and document variance

Common variance sources:

• Deposits in transit at month-end
• Credit card fees (if bank shows net)
• Non-revenue deposits

AR Verification

Ensure AR balance is accurate.

Reports:

• Aging of AR: Shows AR by age
• Insurance Aging: Insurance-specific AR

Review:

• Total AR reasonable for practice size
• Aging distribution appropriate
• No unexpected large balances

Adjustment Review

Analyze adjustment activity.

Process:

1. Run Adjustment report for month
2. Review by adjustment type
3. Verify large adjustments are documented
4. Calculate adjustment percentage

Common Open Dental Issues

Payment Type Confusion

Payments entered with wrong payment type.

Symptoms:

• Cash does not balance
• Credit card does not match batch
• Check count does not match

Fix:

1. Find the incorrect payment
2. Edit to correct payment type
3. Rerun reports to verify

Deposit Matching Problems

Deposits in Open Dental do not match bank.

Causes:

• Payments not included in deposit
• Wrong payments grouped together
• Deposit created with wrong date

Fix:

1. Review deposit contents
2. Add or remove payments as needed
3. Verify total matches bank

ERA Posting Errors

Auto-posted ERAs have errors.

Common issues:

• Wrong patient matched
• Amounts incorrect
• Adjustments not applied properly

Fix:

1. Review ERA against posting
2. Correct individual claim postings
3. Adjust patient balances as needed

Credit Balance Accumulation

Patient credits growing unexpectedly.

Causes:

• Overpayments not refunded
• Insurance paid more than expected
• Posting errors creating false credits

Investigation:

1. Run Unearned Income report
2. Review large or old credits
3. Determine if refund or correction needed

Open Dental Configuration Tips

Payment Type Setup

Configure payment types for clear reconciliation.

Recommendations:

• Disable payment types you don't use
• Create specific types for different card types if needed
• Use clear, descriptive names

Location: Setup → Definitions → Payment Types

Deposit Settings

Configure deposit functionality.

Location: Setup → Manage → Deposits

Recommendations:

• Enable deposit feature
• Set up default deposit slip format
• Configure for your bank's requirements

User Permissions

Control access to payment functions.

Location: Setup → Security

Recommendations:

• Limit who can enter payments
• Restrict payment deletion/modification
• Enable audit trail logging

Report Favorites

Save commonly used report configurations.

How:

• Run report with desired settings
• Save as favorite
• Access quickly for daily use

Multi-Location Considerations

Clinic-Specific Reports

If using Open Dental's clinic feature:

Reporting:

• Run reports filtered by clinic
• Each clinic reconciles separately
• Corporate can run combined reports

Deposits:

• Create deposits per clinic
• Match to clinic-specific bank accounts

Centralized Oversight

For multi-location practices:

Options:

• Central reports combining all clinics
• Dashboard for clinic comparison
• Exception reporting for problem locations

Integrating Automated Reconciliation

Data Access

Automated tools need Open Dental data.

Options:

• Direct database connection (MySQL)
• Report exports
• API integration (Open Dental has an API)

Bank Integration

Connect bank data for matching.

Requirements:

• Secure bank feed
• Daily refresh
• Account mapping to clinics

Automated Matching Benefits

What automation provides:

• Daily matching without manual effort
• Exception flagging for investigation
• Historical tracking and trending
• Multi-location visibility

Using Open Dental and want to automate reconciliation? Zeldent connects to Open Dental to automatically match payments to bank deposits across all your locations. Stop the manual comparison work and focus on exceptions that matter. Schedule a demo to see Open Dental reconciliation automated.