You can use Stripe Payments for any clients that have a credit card or bank account saved to their Client Profile. Transactions processed using credit cards will be processed in real-time, meaning that the client will see a charge to their card immediately because we get instantaneous approval or rejection of the card balance from the card networks at the time of processing. It is important to know that ACH transactions are not completed in real time. Banking networks do not provide instantaneous approval because they need to verify that the requested funds are available in the client's account and then debit accordingly, which takes a few business days to do. The standard funding time on ACH transactions is 5 business days, meaning that you can expect the funds you've debited from a client to be settled into your merchant account within 5 business days of initiating the transaction.
Click here to learn more about the general billing process in Owl. You can Record Payment from several different places in Owl (Calendar, Client Profile, Workflow), but the process will always be the same:
- Click Record Payment
- In the Payment Method dropdown list, select the payment method to charge
- If the client has a valid Owl Payments method on file, it will appear at the top of the Payment Method drop down menu distinct from the other external payment methods accepted
- When you choose to bill using an Stripe Payments method of payment (credit card or bank account), the client's fund source will be charged directly through Stripe Payments in real time
- A receipt will be generated, outlining the amount paid and the method of payment, and the client will see this charge on their fund source statement for the amount charged
All of the transactions that you process will be displayed in the client profiles in their individual Finance sections. Each payment will be displayed with a status of Success, Pending, or Failed.
The Success status will be displayed on any transactions that have been processed using Stripe Payments that have gone through the network successfully, or any payments that have been recorded in Owl but processed externally (e.g. e-transfers or checks).
The Pending status will be displayed on any ACH transactions that have been processed through Stripe Payments where the funds have not yet fully settled.
The Failed status will be displayed on any ACH transactions that have been processed through Stripe Payments where the funds could not be routed successfully from end-to-end (e.g. when transactions come back as NSF, or when a chargeback is initiated).
Please Note: ACH transactions do not complete automatically; it takes 3-5 business days to receive a response from the processing partner that the transaction is successful. When that response is received, the transaction status will be updated to Success.
The Client Profile will always display the current balance on file for the client. If there are outstanding payables, the amount will be tabulated and displayed in the Balance section. If there are ACH transactions on file that have not yet fully settled, the amount of those will be tabulated and displayed in the Pending section. If a client has any credit on file, it will be tabulated and displayed in the Credit section.
These fields are updated and displayed automatically in the client profile based on the financial standing with your clinic. A brand new client will appear without a balance on file, so their profile will be displayed simply with a $0.00 balance.
The Balance field will be displayed as $0.00 if there is no balance on file. The Pending and Credit fields will only be displayed with values if the client has financial data on file that matches those criteria.
If a client has a balance owing and you've processed a payment using ACH, the balance on file will not be reduced until the ACH payment has fully settled. In cases like this, you'll see the pending amount of ACH transactions processed and the balance still outstanding. Once the ACH transactions have fully settled the balance owing will be reduced accordingly.