ALIS Billing Settings are managed at the community level and are a critical component of your financial setup. These settings are typically configured during onboarding, and we recommend consulting the ALIS team to ensure they match your community's specific operational and accounting practices.
Access Billing Settings
At the top of your ALIS screen, click Settings > Billing. Only users with specific security role permissions can access and manage these settings.
Note that the Billing Center module has its own separate settings page. To learn more about this feature, please read the ALIS Billing Center guide.
This article describes each section of Billing Settings, which are also organized into multiple tabs. The default tabs are General, GL, and Private. If you add other payers types (such as Medicaid or other insurances), each new payer type will have its own tab for adding unique Billing items and GL Accounts configuration.
General tab > Settings
The General tab contains the most common, community-wide settings for invoices, templates, and billing workflows.
General Settings: Left Column
Billing Day of the Month: The day your invoices will automatically generate. If you choose to manually generate invoices, this date will not impact your workflow but could be updated to reflect your current practices.
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Invoice Date: Commonly set to the 1st and determines the date shown on the invoice.
The dropdown menu directly to the right defaults to Month of Billing Day (billing in arrears), however this is typically set to be the Month Following the Billing Day (billing forward for 1st of the month).
Invoice Due Date: This field appears when the Invoice Due Dates setting is set to On in the right column. In the dropdown menus, add a Specific day of month or X days after invoice date. This creates a default due date that appears separate from the Invoice Date.
Starting Invoice Number: Defaults to #1000 and can only be changed prior to creating the first invoice. It is not common for this number to be changed.
Bulk Payments "Apply To" Default: Determines the default logic when applying bulk payments in the Payment Center. While "Oldest to Newest" is the typical setting, you can always customize this for individual payments. For more information about submitting bulk payments, read this article: Payment Center Guide.
Default Invoice Comment: Allows you to set a default comment for all invoices at the community. There is no company-level setting, so this comment must be copied and pasted to each community if a standard is required.
Statement Comment: Sets a default comment for all financial statements.
Payment, Refund, and Credit Receipt Comment: Sets default comments for their respective receipts.
General Settings: Right Column (Yes/No Toggles)
This column contains "Yes/No" options that control billing logic.
Exclude Incidental Charges from Recurring Billing: Generally set to No. Setting it to "Yes" would prevent one-time charges from being automatically pulled onto the monthly invoice.
Prorate monthly amounts based on a fixed 365 day year: Generally set to No. ALIS defaults to a 30-day proration. It is recommended that you consult with your Account Manager about your proration policy prior to changing this.
Automatically Apply Excess Credits to Invoices: Typically set to Yes.
Automatically Apply Pre-Payments to Invoices: Typically set to Yes. This setting applies unapplied payments (prepayments) on the resident profile to newly generated invoices.
Display Previous Outstanding Balances on Unpaid Invoices: Typically set to Yes.
Default Create Bulk Payment as a Deposit: Typically set to Yes.
Default Create Single Payment as a Deposit: Typically set to Yes.
Create Invoice Level Discounts: Set to Yes to allow discounts to be applied to an entire invoice balance, in addition to specific line items.
- Trigger "Add Recurring Charge" Impact Review*: Typically set to Yes, but usually is updated by your onboarding manager once your initial invoices have been generated.
- Trigger "Rate Change" Impact Review*: Typically set to Yes, but usually is updated by your onboarding manager once your initial invoices have been generated.
- Trigger "End Service" Impact Review*: Typically set to Yes, but usually is updated by your onboarding manager once your initial invoices have been generated.
- Invoice Due Dates: When set to On, the Invoice Due Date fields appears in the left column for due date configuration. When this setting is enabled, aging and collections logic automatically shifts to use the Invoice Due Date.
*To learn more about Impact Review, read this article: Impact Review Reference Guide.
Important: If changes are made to the General Settings (Left/Right columns), scroll down past the next "Payment Preference Notes for Invoices/Statements" section and click the blue Save Changes button.
Payment Preference Notes for Invoices/Statements
You can set notes to appear on invoices statements according to the Payer's payment preference. You can set different notes for each payment type if needed. Click Save Changes if you Update any of these notes!
Payer Types
Manage the available Payer Types within the community. For each Payer Type, there is a separate tab at the top of Billing Settings where you can manage Billing Items and GL account details.
Billing Item Groups
Setting up Billing Item Groups is required to generate Tax Statements and Resident Charge Cards. These groups allow you to consolidate various specific billing items into simplified revenue categories for the resident's view. For most communities, organizing Billing Items into two main groups—Rent and Care—is sufficient.
Go to Settings > Billing > Tax Statements tab.
Click +Add Billing Item Group.
In the pane that opens, type the group name (e.g., "Rent").
Multi-select all applicable billing items for this group.
Scroll down and click Add Group to save.
Tip: Setting up groups is required for both Tax Statements and Resident Charge Cards. To save time, if you have already configured groups for Resident Charge Cards, you can copy those settings to Tax Statements (or vice versa) to avoid duplicate work. Simply click Copy Group Configuration and confirm the copy.
Payment Methods
Here you can disable Check, ACH, Credit Card, or Cash payment methods.
Auto-Close Settings
This setting will auto-close a GL period on a specified date. An email for error notifications is required in case an open or pending GL Transaction (any transaction that has not been exported) in the period prevents the auto-close.
General tab > Tax Statement
Here you can set the EIN, the body text of the document, and signature. You also have the option to display Prepayments and Unapplied Credits on the Tax Statements.
You must also ensure Billing Item Groups are set up prior to generating Tax Statements. For more information about Tax Statements including configuring these settings, read this article: Tax Statements.
General tab > Email
In the Email Templates section, you can edit and preview the email templates for Invoices, Statements, Payment Gateway email messages, Credit Receipts, Payment Receipts, and Refund Receipts. All of these templates can be emailed directly from ALIS. Click the Options button to Preview or Edit the templates.
In the Email Copy Recipients section of this page, you can +Add Email Recipient to configure which staff can receive copies of these emails when sent.
GL tab
Your GL Integration will largely be set up by your ALIS Onboarding manager. In this tab our team will make sure all the correct information is mapping over when your integration is enabled.
Other tabs (Private, Medicaid, etc.)
These tabs (i.e., Private, Medicaid, etc.) are where you map your community's financial transactions to your company's General Ledger (GL). The Private tab is the default for all resident-facing billing.
The below settings are critical for ensuring your GL integration (if enabled) works correctly.
GL Setup
In each tab on the left is where the GL account numbers details for AR, Cash, Discounts, and Payables related to items billed to the payer type are configured.
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AR (Accounts Receivable): This maps all money coming into the business.
Unbilled AR: This is a passthrough account for credits. It can be used to compare expected AR against actual concessions to find the expected revenue.
Cash: This maps all cash transactions.
Discounts: This maps where your discounts are recorded.
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Payables: This section maps outgoing funds.
Refund: Maps where refunds are processed.
Chargeback: Maps where chargebacks are recorded.
Surcharge Fees: Maps any fees associated with payment processing.
Security Deposits: Maps up to three different security deposit types.
Revenue (Billing Items)
An important step in configuring Billing Settings is to add Billing Items for which you charge revenue. These are typically imported during your onboarding but can be edited at any time. For more information on how to add and manage Billing Items, refer to this How to add and manage Billing Items guide.
Important: Editing existing GL Account #s on a Billing Item does not automatically sync to existing transactions or charges. If you need to update a GL Account, please contact your Account Manager of the ALIS Customer Success Team to assist you with historically syncing the GL to the proper start date.
For each item, you should add the following details:
Name: The exact text that will appear on resident invoices or statements.
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Item Type: A critical setting that determines proration rules.
Transaction: A one-time fee (i.e., guest meal, beauty shop services, new-resident fee). Cannot be prorated.
Service: Used for the vast majority of items, including Rent and Care. These are billed month-to-month, require a date range (two dates), and can be prorated.
Per Diem Service: A daily rate. This is often used for Medicaid billing or specific rent charges where price is determined by the number of days rather than a monthly percentage.
Item Category: Used to organize the Rent Roll report (e.g., Care, Incidentals, Rent). Setting these correctly ensures your financial reporting is organized. For more information about the ALIS Rent Roll, read this article: Rent Roll Reference Guide
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Bill Service Period:
Forward: The default and most common setting for private pay.
Backward (Arrears): Sometimes used for healthcare billing.
Price: The base rate for the item. Note: This can always be edited for individual resident charges later.
GL Account #: The General Ledger (GL) account to which this item's revenue maps.
Discount GL Account #: The account where discounts for this item are tracked. If left blank, discounts will default to the main GL Account #.
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