A client's ledger tracks their money with your practice: funds available to spend, funds set aside for orders, and funds already used. Use it to understand balances, review transactions, record practice-granted adjustments, and request refunds.
Open a client's ledger
Open Clients and select the client.
Open Orders, then the Ledger subsection.
Review the client's standing, balance cards, and transaction history.
Ledger functionality must be enabled for your practice. If you don't see it, contact Theia support.
Understand the balances
Available: funds not yet assigned to an order. This includes separate Client-paid and Granted amounts. The refundable amount is shown separately.
Allocated: funds set aside for open orders, such as visits not yet completed or goods not yet delivered.
Used: funds spent on services or goods already delivered.
Processing Refund: funds reserved while a refund request is being completed.
External means outside the ledger. You'll see it in transactions when funds enter or leave the client's account.
Client-paid vs. granted funds
Client-paid funds come from the client's payments. Granted funds are value supplied by the practice, such as a gift or discount. Orders draw granted funds first.
Only eligible client-paid Available funds are refundable through the ledger refund flow. A granted balance is not the same as a cash payment from the client.
Example: funds moving through the ledger
Suppose a client purchases $1,000 of prepaid funds and uses $200 for a visit order:
Their successful funds payment adds $1,000 to Available.
Drawing $200 for the visit order moves that amount to Allocated, leaving $800 Available.
Completing the visit moves the $200 from Allocated to Used.
These are movements of the same funds, not three separate charges.
Read transaction history
The transaction list shows:
Date and Event: when and why the movement happened.
From → To: which balances the funds moved between.
Amount and Funding: the amount and whether it was client-paid or practice-granted.
Reference: the related invoice or order, where applicable.
Posted By: who posted the entry.
Payments, order allocations, completed visits, and other supported billing events post automatically. A funds product adds prepaid value rather than creating a fulfillment order. Payment-plan installments add to Available as each payment succeeds, not all at once when the plan is created.
Understand financial standing
The standing badge gives your team a quick signal about the client's funding:
Green / In good standing: what the client has received is paid for.
Orange: open orders exceed what has been funded, or a payment-plan installment has failed.
Red: the client has received more than has been funded. Red takes priority over orange.
A negative client-paid Available balance can occur when staff draw funds before a payment plan has finished funding them. This is an overdraft at the practice's risk, not an additional payment collected from the client. Review the orders, payments, and plan history before making a correction.
Record a manual adjustment
Use + Manual entry for a practice-granted adjustment, including recording outside financing where appropriate.
Manual entries are always provider granted, not client-paid.
A note explaining the adjustment is required.
Manual movements are limited to External → Available or Available → External.
Manual entries cannot move funds directly into or out of Allocated, Used, or Processing Refund.
Removing funds with a manual entry does not send money back to the client. Use the refund request flow for an actual refund. Avoid adding a manual entry for a payment already recorded automatically, which would double-count the value.
Request a refund
Check the refundable amount on the Available balance card.
Choose Request refund.
Request all or part of the eligible refundable amount.
Review Refund requests to track progress.
The requested amount moves from client-paid Available to Processing Refund. Theia support coordinates completion, which can involve a Stripe refund, the practice paying the client back directly, or both. Once completed, the funds move out to External.
Granted funds are not refundable through this flow. An overdrawn client has no refundable Available balance.
A refund does not stop an active payment plan's future charges. If charges must stop too, manage the plan separately.
Common questions
Why isn't the full payment-plan amount available?
Only successful payments add client-paid funds to the ledger. Future installments are not cash already received. Any discount-related funds grant posts when the funds invoice is fully paid.
Is cancelling an invoice the same as refunding it?
No. Cancellation and refunding are separate actions. Use the ledger refund flow when money needs to be returned.
Why can't I move Allocated or Used funds manually?
Those balances are tied to the underlying order and delivery history. Manual adjustments are restricted to External and Available so they don't bypass those records.
Payment Plans
Payment plans let clients purchase prepaid funds over time. The client pays a deposit at checkout, authorizes future charges, and pays the remaining amount in monthly installments. Each successful payment adds funds to the client's ledger.
Before you start
Payment plans and the client ledger must be enabled for your practice. A payment plan is available only when:
The client is the payer.
Every invoice line is a funds product, which adds prepaid value to the client's ledger.
There are no subscription or other product lines.
No payment has been made on the invoice yet.
Each plan belongs to one invoice. Once the plan exists, the invoice's product lines and total are locked.
Create a payment plan
Open an eligible invoice in the invoice editor.
Choose the payment-plan option.
Set 2 to 12 total payments, including the deposit.
Leave the deposit blank for an equal share of the total, or enter a custom deposit greater than zero and less than the invoice total.
Choose a future next payment date. This is the first payment after the deposit and defaults to one month from today.
Review the full schedule, including every payment's date and amount.
Save or send the invoice through the invoice editor. Send the invoice when you're ready for the client to pay: draft invoices cannot be paid through public checkout.
The remaining amount is divided across the remaining payments. Any leftover cents are added to the first monthly installment.
Example: collect a deposit now, start installments later
For a $3,000 funds invoice with six total payments:
Set a $500 deposit.
Set the next payment date to the client's first appointment, even if it's two months away.
The client pays $500 at checkout and authorizes five additional $500 payments.
After the deposit, the plan is active and $500 has been added to Available. The invoice stays pending.
Each later successful payment adds another $500 to Available.
The final payment completes the plan and marks the invoice paid.
The payment dates do not need to start one month after the deposit. You choose the first post-deposit date; later payments follow the monthly cadence.
What the client sees at checkout
Checkout shows the deposit, the remaining payment schedule, and authorization for future charges. The payment method is saved for automatic installments. The plan becomes active after the deposit succeeds.
Clients choose from the eligible payment methods shown at checkout. Don't assume every payment method is available for every checkout.
Find and review plans
Open Billing → Payment Plans for a practice-wide overview.
Filter by All, Pending, Active, Past due, Completed, or Cancelled. The list shows the client, invoice, amount paid, total, payment progress, next payment, and status.
Select a plan to open its details in the client's Billing area. Plan details include payment progress, the next payment, payment history, and failure information where applicable.
Plans are created from eligible invoices, not from a create button on the Payment Plans list.
What the statuses mean
Pending: the plan is set up, but the deposit has not succeeded yet.
Active: the deposit succeeded and installments remain. The invoice stays pending until the plan is fully paid.
Past due: a payment needs attention after failed retries or a bank authentication request. The invoice shows a payment failure.
Completed: the final payment succeeded and the invoice is paid.
Cancelled: future plan charges have stopped. Cancelling the plan alone does not change its invoice status or refund earlier payments.
Change the next payment date
Open the client's plan details and set a future next payment date to reschedule the next charge.
After a successful payment, the next date defaults to one month after the payment date. In a shorter month, a date such as the 31st falls on the month's last day.
Scheduled charges use 15:00 UTC on the payment date, not a practice-specific local charging time.
To delay a charge, change the next payment date. There is no separate pause/resume control in this version.
Rescheduling a past-due plan resets its payment failures and returns it to active. This schedules another attempt; it does not collect a payment immediately or erase the unpaid obligation.
An open recovery checkout for that installment expires when staff reschedule it, helping prevent duplicate payments.
Handle a failed payment
For a declined charge, Theia retries after 1 day, then 3 days, then 5 days. After the third retry fails, the plan becomes past due. If the bank requires authentication, it becomes past due immediately.
To recover the installment:
Review the failure reason in the plan details.
Use the plan's pay-now link, copying or resending it to the client as needed.
Ask the client to complete the installment payment through that link.
The recovery link collects the current installment, not the whole remaining plan balance. The payment method used becomes the plan's saved method.
After successful recovery, the plan returns to active and the invoice returns to pending, unless it was the final payment. The next payment moves to one month after the recovery payment; the total number of payments does not change.
Failed plan payments also affect the client's financial standing, so check the ledger when reviewing their account.
Cancel a plan or complete it
Owners and managers can cancel a plan to stop future charges.
Cancelling a plan does not refund past payments or reverse ledger entries. The linked invoice is otherwise left as it is. Cancelling the invoice also cancels its plan.
A refund is a separate process and does not automatically stop an active plan. If the intent is both to return money and stop future charges, handle both actions.
When the final installment succeeds:
The plan becomes completed.
The invoice becomes paid.
Any discounted-funds grant posts to the ledger.
Client email notifications
Clients receive:
An upcoming-payment reminder three days before a scheduled charge, with the amount, date, and payment-method details.
A payment-failed email when the plan becomes past due, with a short reason and pay-now link.
A plan-completed email after the final payment.
Common questions
Can I use a plan for subscriptions, visits, or a mixed-product invoice?
Not directly. This version supports eligible funds-only invoices with the client as payer. The prepaid funds can then support the practice's ledger-based billing workflows.
Can I create a quarterly or custom-cadence plan?
No. Installments use a monthly cadence. You can change the next payment date, but there is no custom-cadence setting.
Does setting up a plan add its full value to the ledger?
No. Each successful payment adds its amount as client-paid Available funds. Any discount-related grant waits until the invoice is fully paid.
Can I automate plan changes through workflows?
Payment-plan-specific workflow triggers and agent actions are not included in the shipped version. Manage plans through the billing interface.