Why you should stop printing a Dentrix ledger for tax statement requests

Former Dentrix National Trainer of the Year Dayna Johnson has a simple message for dental practices this time of year: Make sure you're sending your patients what they need rather than what they think they need for tax purposes.

Dayna Johnson.

In the YouTube video below, Johnson explains why printing the Dentrix ledger can be the wrong move, as it gives patients a behind-the-scenes look at adjustments and transfer balance charges.

So what's a better option? She suggests the full-year billing statement option. Why? Watch the quick video below that lasts less than two minutes.

Video transcript 

"OK, stop sending a ledger history when patients are requesting a payment history for tax purposes.

"So this time of year, you are getting a lot of patients that are requesting a ledger history for tax, for their taxes, because their accountants are now requesting, 'How much did you pay in healthcare?' or they have to submit something for their HSA. And the easiest thing that you do is you go to the ledger and then you print them a ledger. However, your ledgers are messy, and if you're doing payment allocations, your patients are going to see all of those transfer balance credits, transfer balance charges, all of those messy adjustments.

"What I recommend that you do instead is do a full-year billing statement. A billing statement is much cleaner, easier for the patient to read. It won't have all those payment allocation separations. It won't have all of those allocation adjustments on it either, so it's a lot easier for your patients to read. It's cleaner. It's more user-friendly.

"What I recommend is you send a billing statement to your patients when they request a printout for tax purposes. Now, if you want to learn exactly step by step how to do it, jump over to my YouTube channel. I did a video, and you can watch the step-by-step instructions on how to print the patient a billing statement for year-end tax purposes instead of a ledger history.

"I hope this helps, and good luck. If you have any questions, please reach out to me at [email protected]. You can send me an instant message, or you can make a comment on my YouTube account if you want to, and I'll reach back out to you. If you have any questions, please let me know. I'm here to help."