Payroll

NeatPractice works out what each provider earned from their finalized visits and their pay rates, period by period. It does not run payroll: your payroll provider pays people, withholds taxes and issues pay stubs from the totals.

Open Payroll from the main menu. Its panel lists Pay periods, Timesheets, Time off and Workers, for people who can see all pay, and My pay and My timesheet, where providers see their own pay and log time worked outside appointments (see My pay, Timesheets, Time off balances and Workers). A provider who sees only their own pay lands on My pay. Before the first period appears, set the pay schedule in Setup under Payroll settings. Click Filter above the periods to show one status, such as only open periods.

Payroll is an add-on#

Payroll is an add-on to your subscription, not part of the base plan. Without it, Payroll and Payroll settings do not appear in the menu, payroll reports are not listed in Reports, and visits are finalized as usual without creating pay.

If your clinic removes the add-on, every payroll screen disappears: periods, pay items, statements, timesheets, pay rates and payroll files. Nothing is deleted, and pay is no longer calculated for later visits. Adding the add-on back brings everything back and picks up where you left off.

How pay is calculated#

Visit pay comes only from finalized visits: the note is signed, and co-signed when the provider works under supervision. Cancellations, late cancellations and no-shows are not paid unless the rate pays a missed visit (see below). Each visit is placed in the period it became payable, so a closed period never changes.

The rate in effect on the visit's date of service decides the amount:

• Hourly pays the visit's documented minutes.
• Per visit pays a flat amount for the visit.
• Per unit pays the billed units of a treatment line. A per-unit rate for one code pays that code's lines, and the rest of the visit is paid by the provider's other rate.

When several rates could apply, the most specific one wins: a rate for the code at the location, then for the code, then for the appointment type, then for the location, then the default. Set rates on the provider's Pay rates tab (see Providers).

When one provider's hourly visits overlap, the shared minutes are paid once, to the visit finalized first. A group session is paid once for its time, and a per-visit rate pays a group session once unless the rate pays each patient. Co-treating providers are each paid for their own visit.

Pay beyond visits#

• Paid time. Blocks of an appointment type marked Paid time (meetings, admin time, training) are paid hourly once the block ends, at the provider's hourly rate or at an hourly rate set for that appointment type. Minutes the provider also spent in a payable visit are paid once, on the visit. An all-day block pays 8 hours. Mark a block type in Appointment types.
• Documentation allowance. When turned on in Payroll settings, every payable visit adds a fixed number of minutes at the provider's hourly rate. Providers without an hourly rate get no allowance.
• Missed visits. A pay rate can pay a fixed amount when every patient on an appointment it matches late cancels or does not show, and a rate for a code pays its own amount for each booked code (see Providers).
• Overtime. With an overtime rule in Payroll settings, each provider's workweek adds an Overtime item for the premium above straight time, and a Double time item when the rule has double time. Work in a state with a state rule follows that state's overtime instead.
• Meal and rest premiums. A state rule with meal or rest periods adds a Break premium item for a week with a missed break: it pays a premium, or only flags the days, as the rule says.
• Paid time off. Booked time off on a paid policy pays its hours at the provider's hourly rate (see Time off balances).
• Assessments. A Per completed assessment rate pays a flat amount for each final assessment report.
• Timesheets. Approved time staff log outside appointments is paid hourly, less breaks and any minutes already paid on a visit or paid time block (see Timesheets).
• Mileage. For a visit at the patient's home or school, the provider enters the miles driven on the visit (see Visits). Payroll pays them at the clinic's mileage rate as a reimbursement, kept apart from gross pay on totals, statements and payroll files.

Click the information icon next to any amount to see how it was calculated: why it is payable, which rate matched and the math.

Work a pay period#

Click a period to open it. The header shows the period's pay date, gross pay, hours, visits and units. Contractors and exempt employees carry a badge next to their name.

• Providers lists each provider's hours, visits, units, earnings by type and gross pay, and flags items without a rate or on hold.
• Items lists every pay item with the patient, date of service and amount. Click Filter to narrow it by provider, earning or status; View Items on a provider opens it filtered to that provider. Click a visit's date of service to open the visit; Back returns to the period.
• Not payable yet lists visits through the end of the period that still wait for a signature or a co-sign, so you can follow up before closing. Click a date of service to open the visit that needs attention.
• History shows each status change, who made it and why.

While a period is open, new visits keep arriving and amounts update when a visit or a rate changes.

Hold, exclude and adjust#

From an item's actions menu (each dialog names the provider, item, amount and period it acts on):

• Hold for Next Period keeps the item out of this period. The reason is optional. When the period closes, the item moves to the next open period. Release Hold brings it back.
• Exclude from Pay means the item is never paid. A reason is required. Restore undoes it.

You never edit a calculated amount. To correct pay, pay a bonus or add something late, click New Adjustment, choose the provider and an earning type, and enter the amount and a reason. A negative amount reduces pay. You can remove an adjustment added by mistake until the period closes.

These changes are allowed until the period closes, and every one is kept in the audit trail.

Moving a pay date#

Each period gets its pay date from the rule in Payroll settings. To pay one period on another day, for example ahead of a holiday, open it and choose Move Pay Date from the header menu. The date can be from the period's first day to 60 days after its last. A closed period keeps its pay date.

Review and close#

1. Click Move to Review when the period is ready to check. It stops taking new visits; anything finalized later goes to the next open period. Return to Open undoes this.
2. After the period's last day, click Close Period. Every item needs a pay rate first: add the missing rate, or hold or exclude the item. When an export profile checks employee ids at close, every provider paid in the period needs one (see Payroll files).
3. Held items move to the next open period and everything else shows Locked. NeatPractice calculates and exports pay but does not record payouts, so a locked item is not a confirmation that the provider was paid.
4. Time off accrues from the hours worked in the period (see Time off balances).

If a visit changes after its period moved to review or closed, for example an addendum corrects the session length, the difference is paid as a Correction in the next open period. A paid block or missed visit that changes later is corrected the same way, and a mileage change is corrected as mileage. A pay rate saved with an earlier effective date, for example a raise backdated to the start of the month, works the same way: visits already paid at the old rate get a Correction for the difference in the next open period.

Reopen a closed period#

Only a clinic owner can reopen a closed period. Click Reopen and give a reason. Items unlock so you can hold, exclude or adjust them; the period does not take new visits. Close it again when you are done.

Statements and the detail report#

Once a period closes, open Providers, then choose Download Statement for a provider. The earnings statement shows the pay date, the totals by earning type, hours, visits, units, adjustments, corrections and reimbursements, and the provider's time off balances. It lists no patients.

For a contractor, choose Download Invoice instead: the period prints as an invoice from the contractor's company to your clinic, with the company's EIN and address, an invoice number, the pay date as the due date and the services by earning type (see Workers).

To send the period to your payroll provider, open the Files tab (see Payroll files).

To print a message on a provider's statement, choose Statement Message before the period closes.

Download Detail PDF at the bottom of an open period, or in a period's row menu on the Pay periods list, downloads that one period's items with the patient, date of service, code, units, minutes, rate, amount and notes. Because it lists patients, each download is recorded in the access log.