Updated 2026-09-26 · 5 min read
An implant, an orthodontic treatment or a full-mouth rehabilitation is almost never paid in one go. It's quoted as a whole and paid in parts over months, and that's normal: most patients who accept a long treatment accept it because they know they don't have to pay for all of it on day one.
Paying in parts isn't the problem. The problem is that what was agreed is almost never written down anywhere. It was discussed in the surgery, somebody noted it in the record or in a notebook, and six months later nobody is quite sure whether the third instalment was taken, whether the deposit was thirty or forty per cent, or whether the patient paid part of it by card at another site. This article is about avoiding that.
The four payment plans nearly every practice uses
Every practice has its own policy, but the ways of splitting a long treatment are almost always the same four. It's worth giving them names, because a patient decides better between clear options than in front of a «we'll sort it out»:
| Payment plan | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Single payment | Short treatments, or patients who'd rather get it out of the way. |
| Deposit and balance | The most common for implants and prosthetics: part at the start and the rest at the end. |
| One payment per phase | Phased plans: each phase is paid when it's done, and the patient sees the price of each. |
| Monthly instalments | Orthodontics and treatments that last months: the same amount every month, on a fixed date. |
What has to be written down
Whichever plan is chosen, three things must be written down before treatment starts: how many payments there are, how much each one is and when it's due. A payment can have no date — «when the surgical phase is finished» is a perfectly valid date until that phase is booked — but it has to be there, with its amount.
And one rule that saves arguments: the payments must add up to exactly what the patient pays, to the penny. If the total doesn't divide evenly, the difference goes on the last one. A plan that adds up a penny too much or too little is a plan that lies on the last receipt, and a patient who notices stops trusting the earlier ones.
If the patient has insurance, what gets split is their share, not the full cost of the treatment. Mixing the two in the same plan is the quickest way for somebody to end up charging the same thing twice.
Who decides the dates: the practice
When each part is paid is a management decision for each practice, not a rule of the software. Some practices take the deposit at the first appointment and some when the plan is accepted; some take the instalment on the first of each month and some at each check-up. What matters is that the decision is recorded and visible to the team, so the person at reception doesn't have to ask.
For the same reason, payment reminders are the practice's own business, with its own tone and judgement. What does help is the system telling the practice which payment is overdue, so nobody has to find out by going through records.
What's been paid adds itself up
The second classic mistake is ticking off by hand which instalment has been paid. It works until the day a patient pays two instalments together, or half of one, or gets a refund. The robust way is the opposite: every payment is recorded at the till against its treatment plan, and the system spreads what's been paid across the instalments in order, like a payment on account. The deposit fills first, then the first instalment, and so on. A refund subtracts itself.
If part of it was paid outside the till — a bank transfer, a payment in other software — it's noted against that instalment and counts all the same. That way the question «how much does this patient still owe?» has an answer, and the system gives it.
How it works in ClaudIA
In ClaudIA the payment plan is agreed on the same phased treatment plan: you choose single payment, deposit and balance, one payment per phase or monthly instalments, adjust amounts and dates, and it's saved. The split comes out exact to the penny and shows in the plan's PDF and in the private link the patient opens on their phone, in a «Payment plan» section. That says how much and when; the patient is never sent a payment reminder on the software's own initiative.
Each payment is taken from the till with a button that already carries the amount and the description. What's been paid is allocated on its own, the plan shows what's paid, what's left and what's overdue, and the list of treatment plans flags the ones with an overdue payment. If you'd rather see it with an example, it's on the phased treatment plan page.
And if you also work with finance from an outside lender, that's a different route and worth explaining separately: we cover it in explaining treatment finance over WhatsApp.