Outstanding Balance vs. Outstanding Invoices

myPractice has 2 similar reports that give the user a picture of the money currently owed.

Outstanding Invoices: This is a list of individual Invoices that have all or part of their balance outstanding. That is, full payment has not yet been assigned to that Invoice. 

Outstanding Balance: This shows the overall account status for accounts that are in debit.

Why are there 2 reports?
myPractice tracks the status of both the Overall account balance and Individual Invoice balances.

Why do they sometimes differ?

The usual reasons are ..

• Payments have not been assigned to an Invoice,
• Payments have been incorrectly assigned to the wrong Invoice,
• or a Credit amount has been assigned to the account.

Take the following example… The Client Outstanding Balance is $0, it does not appear in the Outstanding Balance report, yet it appears in the Outstanding Invoice report showing $20 to be paid.

If we look at the Invoice in question we can see that a payment of $100 has been assigned to the Invoice, which leaves that Invoice with a $20 outstanding balance. This is why we see it on the Outstanding Invoice report.

The account also has another payment assigned – for the sake of the example, it is a Credit amount of $20 (it could have been a payment made against another Invoice that was ‘over’ by $20).  Therefore, the overall Account balances and we do not see the Account displayed in the Outstanding Balance report.

To correct this and remove the Invoice from the Outstanding Invoice Report, the Invoice should be assigned to the $20 Payment. This then balances both the Invoice and the Overall Account.

Most Practices either use one report or the other.  Some care to track the details down to the individual Invoice, whereas others are only concerned about the Overall account status.  Some use the 2 to identify discrepancies and where incorrect entries have been made. It’s up to the Individual to decide what suits them best.