Inward Payments and Reports Update September 2026 - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Inward Payments and Reports: September 2026 Update

This page explains the changes to inpatient (inward) payments, receipts and payment reports released on 24 September 2026. It is written for cashiers, inpatient billing staff and finance staff.

In this update

Make a Payment needs a started shift
A clear message when you must start your shift
Payments cannot exceed the due amount
Correct headings on payment and deposit receipts
Credit Company Debtor Report improvements
New Credit Company Commitment Report
New Combined Inward Payments Report
Inpatient Analytics report buttons
Add Service page: Item column

1. Make a Payment needs a started shift

Money can only be taken during a started shift. Make a Deposit and Post Final Payment already worked this way, and Make a Payment now does too.

Where: Inpatient Dashboard → Billing → Make a Payment, and the Collect Payment step after a final bill is settled.

What you see:

With a started shift: the payment page opens as usual.
Without a started shift: you are taken to the Cashier page. Start your shift there, then go back to the patient and click Make a Payment again.

See Starting and Ending a Shift for how to start a shift.

2. A clear message when you must start your shift

When the system sends you to the Cashier page because no shift is started, it now shows this message at the top of the page:

Please start your shift before making payments or billing. Use Start Shift on this page.

This applies everywhere a started shift is required: inpatient payments and deposits, OPD billing, pharmacy sales and other cashier transactions.

3. Payments cannot exceed the due amount

Once the patient's final bill is confirmed, Make a Payment only accepts an amount equal to or less than the amount due.

How the due amount is worked out (at the moment you click Settle):

The patient's share of the final bill (final bill total minus the amount committed by credit companies),
minus all deposits and payments already made (after cancellations and refunds),
minus any post-final-bill payments.

What you see:

The Due amount is shown under the payment amount once the payment details are finalized.
If you enter more than the due, the payment is not saved and you see:

Paying amount (X) cannot exceed the due amount (Y).

Correct the amount and settle again. This applies to every payment method, including multiple payment methods.

Before the final bill: there is no limit. Money taken before discharge should be collected with Make a Deposit. Any excess is refunded when the final bill is settled.

4. Correct headings on payment and deposit receipts

Printed receipts now show the correct heading for the type of transaction. Previously, an inpatient payment receipt printed with a deposit heading.

Transaction	Receipt heading
Deposit	Inward Deposit Receipt
Deposit cancellation	Inward Deposit Cancellation Receipt
Deposit refund	Inward Deposit Refund Receipt
Deposit refund cancellation	Inward Deposit Refund Cancellation Receipt
Payment	Inward Payment Receipt
Payment cancellation	Inward Payment Cancellation Receipt
Payment refund	Inward Payment Refund Receipt
Payment refund cancellation	Inward Payment Refund Cancellation Receipt
Post final bill payment	Post Final Bill Payment Receipt
Post final bill payment cancellation	Post Final Bill Payment Cancellation Receipt
Post final bill payment refund	Post Final Bill Payment Refund Receipt

This applies to the 5.5", 5.5" Custom 3 and POS paper receipt formats, both when the bill is settled and when it is reprinted. The dot-matrix receipt already printed the right heading. See Dot-Matrix Printing for Inward Deposit and Payment Receipts.

5. Credit Company Debtor Report improvements

Where: Inward → Admissions → Inpatient Analytics → Payment Reports → Credit Company Debtor Report

This report lists what each credit company owes for inpatient admissions.

Columns

Column	Meaning
Commitment Bill No	The credit company's commitment bill created when the final bill was settled (previously labelled Bill No)
Final Bill No	(new) The patient's final bill number
Final Bill Value	(new) The total of the patient's final bill. Shown for reference only and not added to the footer total, because one final bill can be shared by several companies.
Company Commitment	The amount this credit company agreed to cover (previously labelled Bill Total). Hover over the heading for an explanation.

For (Active) rows, meaning patients still admitted, the final bill columns are blank and Company Commitment shows the running charges so far. A legend under the table explains this.

New filters

Admission Status:
- Discharged and final bill completed (default)
- Admitted but not discharged
- Discharged but final bill not completed
- Any status
Admissions that are discharged but whose final bill is not yet done appear as (Discharged - Bill Pending) rows.
Report Type:
- Aggregate (default): one row per company commitment.
- Individual: one row per settlement received from the company, showing the commitment bill, the settlement bill, the settlement date and the amount.
Date Basis: a new option, Final Bill Created Date, filters by the date the final bill was created.

Order

Rows are listed in the order the final bills were created, then by credit company. Rows without a final bill and (Active) rows come last.

Excel and PDF

The downloads now include:

the institution name, report title, who printed it and every filter used;
amounts as real numbers in Excel, so they can be added up;
the footer totals;
a landscape PDF with room for full bill numbers.

The download always matches the rows on screen as of the last Process. If you change a filter, click Process again before downloading.

6. New Credit Company Commitment Report

Where: Inward → Admissions → Inpatient Analytics → Payment Reports → Credit Company Commitment Report. It can also be pinned to your ⭐ Favorites tab.

A simple list of what each credit company committed to pay on finalized inpatient bills.

No.	Final Bill No	BHT No	Patient Name	Date of Discharge	Credit Company	Commitment Value

The footer shows the total commitment value.
It has the same filters as the Credit Company Debtor Report, except Outstanding Only.
Print, Excel and PDF are available.

7. New Combined Inward Payments Report

Where: Inward → Admissions → Inpatient Analytics → Payment Reports → Combined Inward Payments

One report for all inpatient deposits, payments and post-final-bill payments, together with their refunds. Refunds show as negative amounts, so the totals give the net amount for the period. See Combined Inward Payments Report for full details.

8. Inpatient Analytics report buttons

On the Inpatient Analytics pages, every report button in the left-hand menu now opens its report from any report page. Previously, some buttons did nothing when clicked from a report in a different section (for example, opening BHT Deposit Detail while viewing the Credit Company Debtor Report), or needed a second click.

9. Add Service page: Item column

On Inpatient Dashboard → Services → Add Services & Investigations, the Item column of the Added Items table keeps its width when the browser is zoomed out, so item names stay visible.