What Is It:
Scheduled Contract Payments is a new functionality within Cloud 9’s new Automation Suite.
Scheduled Contract Payments (SCP) enables true automation of posting scheduled contract auto pays. Once set up, these routines will handle the processing of primary and backup payments and applying Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees. The SCP runs off of the autopayment date selected in the contract and you can set the time of day you want the payments to submit. For offices with C9 Connect, Scheduled Contract Payments can also facilitate patient communication by sending customizable receipts, declines, and expiring card email and text notifications.
Employee Permissions:
The following steps must be completed to allow an employee permission to edit and use Scheduled Contract Payments.
Step 1: Go to Edit > Setup, then select Employees from the setup library.
Step 2: Select “Edit Scheduled Contract Payments” from the Permissions multi-select area.
How Do I Use It?
Go to Edit > Automation Suite.
The first time you set up, you will see the screen below. Select “New Automation” to begin the setup.
Step 1: Name the payment schedule (e.g. All Locations, Dr. Smith’s Offices, etc.)
Step 2: Select at least one location to apply the automation.
If you want to select all of your locations, you can choose “Select All” or the
location “Practice”.
If you want to select multiple locations, click the location name, and that
location will be highlighted (and selected).
Step 3: Click the “Create” button.
Step 4: Before continuing onto the 'Add Event', you will need to select the Status. It defaults to inactive, so to make sure the SCP goes live and runs payments, you will need to switch this to Active status. If you do not make it Active during creation process, you will want to be sure to go back into the schedule details later and switch it to Active. It will not process payments if this is set to inactive. (Screenshot below.)
Step 5: Continue the setup process by selecting “Add Event”.
Step 6: Select the Event Type (Primary, Backup, or NSF.)
NOTE: All customers have the option to set up the automation of THREE charge types: Primary, Backup, or NSF.
NOTE: Customers who have purchased Cloud 9 Connect will ALSO have the option to select from the three patient communication options
Send Receipt
Declined Message
Expiring Cards
If C9 Connect is not active, this screen will appear:
Step 7: Configure when and what automations to schedule.
For the three payment charge types (Primary, Backup, NSF), set the following:
Event Type Field: Primary, Backup, or NSF.
Event Occurs: What time of day do you want this to run?
Backup and NSF: Run the day of payment or the day after payment?
Step 8: Select “Save”
NOTE: When adding automation for NSF, there must be a corresponding Insufficient Funds Charge transaction type set up in the Setup > Transaction Types library section.
NSF Charges only apply to ACH transactions.
If Cloud 9 Connect is Active, Continue …if not, skip to Step 12.
Step 9: Continue setting up the automation of the patient communications
Note: There is a standard email and text message template already configured for each communication type. These may be edited, or new emails and/or text messages can be created as desired.
Step 10: Select to send a text, email, or both
Step 11: Select the appropriate document template for each type of communication
Step 12: Click “Save”
Step 13: Set up for additional locations as needed
Create Custom or Edit Standard SCP Email and Text Messages
Step 1: Click Edit >Automation Suite > Recurring Campaigns.
Step 2: Click the Templates tab inside of the Recurring Campaigns Menu.
Step 3: On the left in the orange buttons, select Text or Email Template and follow the prompts to create a new template.
For an Email Template, you can select a blank template and a brand new one, or pick a default to edit. For an in-depth article on how to create an Email Template, please see this link here.
For a text template, please see this link here: Creating Text Templates for Scheduled Contract Payment Communications.
Once created and saved the new email or text template is now available for use within the Automation Suite.
**Note: If you cannot access Recurring Campaigns you may need the correct Employee Permissions added. Please see this article for instructions: Recurring Campaigns Employee Permissions.
As always, if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out to Cloud 9 Support by emailing us at cloud9support@planetdds.com, or chatting us online using the chat bubble on the lower right at https://cloud9support.planetdds.com/hc/en-us, or giving us a call during our business hours of 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST at the 1.800.394.6050 option 2.