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How Does Dental Intelligence Calculate AR Aging Totals?
AR Aging on the Collections board displays a snapshot of your accounts receivable aging as of the last day in your selected time period. This means the AR Aging numbers you see will change depending on which time period you're viewing. Unlike your practice management software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, OpenDental), Dental Intelligence applies different parameters—for example, it deducts outstanding insurance claims to show the true patient responsibility. Because of these differences, your AR totals in Dental Intelligence will not match the totals in your PMS, but each patient’s balance will always match on a patient-by-patient basis.
Examples:
Viewing a specific month (e.g., November) → AR Aging shows data synced as of November 30th
Viewing a specific week (e.g., the week of November 9th) → AR Aging shows data synced as of November 15th (the last day of that week)
Viewing a year (e.g., 2024) → AR Aging shows data synced as of December 31st
Why does this matter?
This snapshot approach allows you to see historical AR Aging data for any time period. When you switch between different time periods, the AR Aging numbers will update to reflect what your aging looked like at the end of each specific period.
For example: If you're comparing November to December, you'll see November's AR Aging as it stood on November 30th, while December will show the most recent sync (typically last night's data if you're viewing the current month).
To learn more about the AR Aging metric in Dental Intelligence, click here.
What Causes Discrepancies?
One of the main factors is actually due to patient credits. Your Practice Management Software will subtract all outstanding patient credits from your AR total, giving you a total that reflects your total AR balance minus your patient credit balances.
For example, if your practice had $100k in AR and $50k in patient credits, your PMS would report an AR total of around $50k, whereas Dental Intelligence would report a total closer to $100k. There are other parameters that Dental Intelligence will include that your Practice Management Software will not and vice versa.
Another contributing factor is the Dental Intelligence sync with your Practice Management Software. If changes have been made in your Practice Management Software since your last sync, this can cause a difference in AR totals as they will not yet reflect in Dental Intelligence.
To learn more about how to run the Dental Intelligence Sync, click here.
Although Dental Intelligence will never match the AR totals that you see in your Practice Management Software, we will always match on a patient to patient basis. Every patient’s family balance from your Practice Management Software will be the same balance you see in Dental Intelligence. If you suspect that a patient’s balance is different in Dental Intelligence, refer to the following information according to your Practice Management Software:
Dentrix
If you use Dentrix and notice discrepancies, check to see if the Day/Week in Dentrix AR Aging has been closed. If your practice does not close the AR Aging Day/Week in Dentrix, it does not increase (this can be checked by looking at the patient ledger and checking if the Aging is stuck at 30 days). This causes DI to show the aging incorrectly to what it should be.
To resolve this discrepancy, close your Days/Weeks and then the aging will update in Dentrix. Your data will update after the nightly Dental Intelligence sync.
If discrepancies persist, you will need to have Dentrix support do a database cleanup, this acts as a refresh. Once this is completed and Dental Intelligence processes the sync, any differences should be corrected.
A note about how insurance claims are factored in AR balances
In Analytics, outstanding insurance claims are deducted from the total balance in order to calculate the estimated patient AR balance. The estimated patient balance shown in the AR Report reflects dollars that you can collect directly from patients today, not dollars that will be paid out by insurance carriers down the road.
For example: In Analytics, Sally has a total AR balance of $1,641. $1,433 of that balance is due from her insurance. Sally's estimated patient balance is $208.
In the Dentrix AR Report, outstanding insurance claims are not deducted from the total patient balance. The Dentrix AR Report shows the cumulative patient balance (outstanding insurance and non-insurance).
OpenDental
If you use OpenDental and notice discrepancies for multiple patients, run this report in Open Dental to correct the discrepancy.
Eaglesoft
If you use Eaglesoft and notice discrepancies for multiple patients, reach out to our support team.
Discrepancies for a Single Patient
If you notice discrepancies for a Single patient's AR total, open and close the ledger in your Practice Management Software. Once you've done this and the Dental Intelligence sync is able to process, it will update!