OpenPiMS V9.2.1 Release Notes

OpenPiMS v9.2.1 - Clearer finances, smoother appointments and easier practice administration

OpenPiMS v9.2.1 brings together clearer patient accounts, more flexible billing and smoother appointment management. It also adds examination rooms and inventory storage places, easier patient file uploads and video call backgrounds.

1. One financial account for each patient

A single patient account brings together charges, payments, refunds and available credit across appointments. Recording a payment and issuing a receipt remain separate actions, with the option to issue a receipt automatically when recording an appointment payment.

Money can remain on the account as available credit and be applied to an appointment or invoice when needed.

View the account

1. Open Patients and select the patient.
2. Select Account statement.
3. Review the transaction history, including dates, charges, payments, notes and appointment references where applicable.

The balance is labelled Amount owed when the patient has an outstanding balance, Credit on account when money is available to use, or Account balance when the balance is zero. The Prepaid credit on account notice on the patient record also provides access to the statement.

Record money on the account

1. In Account statement, select Add Payment to open the payment form.
2. Check the date, choose the payment method and enter the amount.
3. Complete Notes, which is mandatory for an account payment.
4. Select Record payment.

The payment is recorded on the patient’s account without being tied to one appointment, with Allow overpayment selected automatically. Services & charges and the automatic receipt/completion tick boxes are not shown in this account-level flow.

Issue a receipt for an eligible account payment

1. Open the payment row’s actions in Account statement and select Create receipt.
2. Check the amount and select an eligible billing profile.
3. Select Issue receipt, then use Print or Email to provide a copy.

A suitable billing profile must be configured before a receipt can be issued.

Use or return account credit

1. Open Payments for the appointment or invoice.
2. Under Account credit, select Apply to this appointment or Apply to this invoice.
3. Enter the amount and confirm. It cannot exceed the available credit or the outstanding balance.

To remove an allocation, find it in Account statement and select Return to account credit. The money becomes available on the account again, and the appointment’s unpaid balance is restored.

Reversals and refunds

Reverse charge reverses the charge. Any payment allocated to it returns to account credit. It does not refund money to the patient or cancel the related invoice; those are separate actions.

To refund money, use Refund against the payment in Account statement, or Refund payment in Payment history, and follow the confirmation process. Where the action returns money to the patient’s account instead, it is labelled Return to account credit. The account-statement refund flow updates the related paid invoice to Refunded.

2. Manage appointment charges and payments separately

The Payments window shows Appointment charges, Paid, Balance and available Account credit. Open it from the appointment’s Payments action or select Add Payment on the worklist beside the calendar.

Update services and charges

1. Open Services & charges.
2. Use + Add Service / investigation or Add inventory item. For surgical appointments, use Add procedure or Add extra item.
3. Make the required changes and select Save appointment charges.
4. Check the updated totals and confirmation message.

Saving charges does not record a payment, issue a document or complete the appointment. Editing requires appointment-update permission and is available only while the appointment is editable.

Record an appointment payment

1. Under Record payment, check Date, Payment method and Payment amount. The amount initially matches the balance due. A payment amount is required; zero-value payments are not accepted.
2. Where shown, choose the Billing profile used for document numbering, document details and fiscal configuration.
3. Check Apply to to allocate the payment to the current appointment, another eligible appointment, a document or the patient’s account.
4. For an insured visit, enter Appointment authorisation where required.
5. Review Issue receipt after payment and Complete appointment after payment.
6. Select Record payment.

Payment history shows the date, method, amount, allocation and associated document. An issued receipt can be printed from its row. If appointment completion cannot be carried out, the payment is still saved.

The current appointment remains available under Apply to even if it was settled more than 24 hours ago. Other settled appointments remain selectable only within 24 hours of settlement. Issued standalone invoices are available; draft standalone invoices are not.

3. Automatic receipts and appointment completion

Administrators can configure the system to issue a receipt and complete an appointment automatically when staff record a payment. The two actions have separate settings, so either or both can be selected by default.

Set the default for receipt generation

1. Open Admin > Payment Settings.
2. Enable Issue receipt automatically when recording an appointment payment.
3. Select Save.

This preselects Issue receipt after payment. If the setting has not previously been saved, it starts enabled. A second receipt is not issued if one already exists for that payment.

Set the default for appointment completion

1. Open Admin > Site Settings > System.
2. Leave Manually Complete Appointment switched off to preselect Complete appointment after payment.
3. Switch it on if staff should choose completion manually for each payment.
4. Save the setting.

Staff can review or change the available tick boxes before recording the payment. Creating an invoice on its own no longer completes the appointment. Automatic receipt generation does not mean that an invoice is automatically created.

When these options are unavailable

• Appointment completion is unavailable for reserved slots, appointments without a clinician and standalone invoices. A manual invoice linked to a visit can still complete that visit.
• If the appointment is already complete, its completion option is cleared and disabled.
• Neither tick box is shown when recording money directly on the patient’s account or creating a payment link.

4. Invoices, credit notes and appointment documents

Document actions are grouped under Documents at the top of Payments. Saving charges, recording a payment and issuing a document are separate steps.

Document a change after invoicing

Later changes to services or inventory do not overwrite an existing invoice. Payments shows the increase or decrease that has not yet been documented.

1. Amend the items under Services & charges and select Save appointment charges.
2. Review the message showing the uninvoiced increase, decrease or both.
3. Select Issue invoice, Issue credit note or Issue invoice and credit note, as offered.
4. After confirmation, find the new document under Print invoice or Email invoice.

The original document is retained. If there is no difference to issue, no further document action is offered. The appointment’s billing profile is used; an unsuitable profile cannot issue an invoice. Where a profile has a threshold, an increase above it requires confirmation before proceeding.

Find and send documents

• Use Create Invoice when the appointment is eligible.
• Use Print invoice or Email invoice for existing documents. Where several exist, select by document type, billing number and amount.
• Use Print Appointment Statement, Email Appointment Statement or Download Appointment Statement for a summary of the visit and balance.

Printed, downloaded and emailed statement copies are retained under Previously sent statements. New statements do not overwrite earlier copies. Emailed statements use the patient’s appointment statement message.

Insurance billing

1. Record the patient’s insurance and insurance contact on their profile, and enter the insured amounts in the booking’s services table.
2. Open Payments > Documents and select Bill insurance.
3. Complete the insurer details and issue the document.
4. Use Print Insurance invoice or Email Insurance invoice. Where Healthcode is enabled, use Send to Healthcode for an invoice that has not already been submitted.

Bill insurance is available when insured amounts exist and an insurance invoice has not already been issued. A second insurance invoice cannot be created for the same appointment.

Link a manually created invoice to a visit

1. Open Billing > Create invoice and choose the patient. For another recipient, use Re Patient to link the patient.
2. Under Appointment, select the visit by date, appointment reference and service. Leave the selection unchanged if no visit link is needed.
3. Complete the invoice and select Issue Invoice or Save as draft.

The selected appointment is linked to the invoice and its reference is included in the notes. The appointment list is also available when the patient has been opened from a link.

Finalise a draft

1. Open Billing > Overview and find the draft.
2. Open Actions > Finalise.
3. Check the resulting status. Most payment methods produce an Active invoice; online-payment and credit methods produce an Outstanding invoice.

Choosing a payment method no longer generally changes the invoice status automatically, with exceptions for outstanding and online-payment handling and the finalisation rules above. The Decouple invoice status from payment method control has been removed.

Clearer receipts and payment methods

• Part-payment receipts show Invoice Total, Amount Paid, Total Paid to Date where available, and Balance at issue.
• The insurance name is printed only when the insurance amount is greater than zero. A payments list is shown only for a part-payment receipt with more than one payment.
• Invoice-linked receipts display the latest recorded payment method. Receipts for account-credit use show a normal dash (-).
• Appointment on credit, Finance, Included in Care Package and Paid at Other Location are no longer offered for new payments. Historical entries retain their original methods.

5. Smoother calendar and booking workflows

Return to the day you were viewing

When you open a booking from the calendar, choosing Reserve slot, Confirm booking, Save or Cancel returns you to the calendar day you were viewing. This applies to Normal, Timeline and Resource views. Bookings opened elsewhere do not redirect you to the calendar.

Assign referrers per service or procedure

1. Start or edit a booking.
2. Use the Secondary Clinician and Referrer columns on each service or procedure row.
3. Reserve, confirm or save the appointment.

The columns appear when Enable Appointment Referrer is enabled. Different rows can have different people, and existing assignments are retained when saved. On surgical bookings, the former appointment-level Referrer field has been removed; use the procedure rows instead.

A calendar worklist that stays up to date

The worklist beside the calendar follows the displayed day and active filters, including the completed-appointments control. Cancelled appointments and appointments moved off the day leave the list; eligible appointments booked or moved onto it appear. This change does not alter the separate Appointments > Worklist page.

Moving an invoiced appointment, or saving it without charge lines, no longer clears or replaces its charges.

6. Examination rooms and location short names

Each location can have its own examination rooms and an optional short name of up to 16 characters.

Set up rooms

1. Open Admin > Organisation > Locations and add or edit a location.
2. Enter a Short name if required. Save a new location before adding rooms.
3. Under Examination rooms, select the add button, enter the room name and select Save.
4. Repeat as needed. Use Deactivate to stop offering a room, or Activate to make it available again.

Choose a room when booking

1. Start a booking from Appointments or Add > Appointment on the patient record.
2. Choose the clinician and location.
3. Select an active Examination room or leave it Unassigned.
4. Reserve or confirm the booking.

If the room is already booked, a warning displays the conflicting times. You can choose another room or time, or continue where appropriate. Room clashes generate a warning rather than blocking the booking. Locations without rooms can still be used for appointments.

7. Inventory storage places

Named storage places help staff identify where products are kept within each location.

1. Open a saved location under Admin > Organisation > Locations.
2. Under Assign places for Inventory Storage, select the add button, enter a Storage place name and save.
3. Open the product under Inventory > Overview.
4. Choose its Location, then select a Storage Location and save the product.

The storage-place field becomes available once a location is selected. The chosen place also appears in the product list.

8. Patient files from a computer or phone

Staff can upload files directly or invite a patient to upload from their phone. Multiple files can be classified individually or saved together as one document.

Upload from your computer

1. Open the patient record, open the lightning menu beside Add and select Upload File.
2. Select Choose Files or drag files into the upload area. Supported formats include PDFs, Word documents and images, up to 20 MB per file.
3. For multiple files, choose Classify individually or Save together.
4. Enter the required details, including document type and date, before marking a file as reviewed. Confirm image orientation when prompted.
5. Select Save documents separately or Save as one document.

Receive files from a patient’s phone

1. On the upload page, find Using a linked device.
2. Ask the patient to scan the QR code, or share the link using Send email or Send SMS.
3. Check Time remaining. Use New QR, Refresh QR, Copy link or Send again as needed.
4. When files arrive, select Review files.
5. Review, classify and save the files that belong on the record. Remove any that should not be retained.

Phone uploads are not added to the patient record until staff review and save them. Selecting Dismiss for now closes the reminder without saving the files.

9. Video call backgrounds

Where telemedicine is enabled on the service, you can blur your surroundings or use an image during a video call.

1. Join the consultation and open Background.
2. Choose Blur, a clinic image or My image… to upload your own image under 10 MB.
3. Select None to return to your normal camera view.

The selected background applies for the remainder of the call. If the device or browser cannot start the effect, a message explains this and the consultation continues without it.

10. Reporting, audit and reliability improvements

Filter Clinician Billing by clinician

1. Open Analytics > Reports > Clinician Billing.
2. Set Start and End.
3. Leave Clinician as All, or select one clinician, then run the report.

The results include a Clinician column. Provider and referrer filters remain available when Enable Appointment Referrer is on.

• Billing reports: income figures use issued invoices less credit notes. A receipt is counted once even when it has several service lines.
• Service Billing: the total discount correctly adds the discounts shown on the individual report rows.
• Role audit: adding or removing a user’s role is recorded in Analytics > Audit.
• Payment totals: calendar totals include every invoice on the appointment, and Payments shows the balance after credit notes.
• GP details: saving a patient or appointment no longer overwrites a GP record belonging to another site or clears an existing GP when name fields are left blank. With Require GP enabled, new patients still require a GP; existing patients are not blocked by that check.
• Worklist products: opening products from a worklist row loads the saved appointment first, so the displayed products are up to date.
• Unrecognised page addresses: an invalid address opens the not-found page instead of a broken screen.

11. Settings to review

• Receipts and completion: review the defaults under Admin > Payment Settings and Admin > Site Settings > System. Remind staff that invoicing alone no longer completes a visit.
• Referrers: if appointment referrers are enabled, tell booking teams to enter the Referrer and Secondary Clinician on each service or procedure row.
• Rooms and storage: configure the locations, examination rooms and inventory storage places you want staff to use.

Need help?

If you have a question or notice a problem, contact our support team with a description of what happened and where in the application it occurred.

Email: Support@mdit.uk
Help Desk: support.mdit.uk

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