This covers the parts of Dentista that aren't obvious from looking at them — mostly money, because money is where the app makes deliberate choices that need explaining. Everything else is meant to be self-evident; if it isn't, that's worth reporting.
For the other half — what every feature does and where to find it — see the guide.
A patient part-way through braces owes a lot of money, but almost none of it today. Showing one number would be wrong either way — so the app shows two, and they mean different things.
Due now is what you can reasonably ask for today: completed treatments that haven't been paid for, plus any plan instalments that have already fallen due. This is the figure to read out at the desk.
Underneath it, when it applies, is a quieter line — ₱30,000.00 scheduled on a payment plan, not yet due. That money is genuinely owed, but not yet. It is not part of Due now, and nobody should be asked for it.
| A patient with… | Due now | Also shown |
|---|---|---|
| One unpaid filling | ₱2,500.00 | — |
| Braces, up to date | ₱0.00 | ₱30,000.00 scheduled |
| Both | ₱2,500.00 | ₱30,000.00 scheduled |
| Nothing outstanding | Account settled. | — |
A treatment row may say Fully paid while the account still shows money due — that's not a contradiction. The row is about that treatment; the figure at the bottom is about the whole account, including any plan.
A payment is always recorded against the thing it pays for — a treatment, or a payment plan. Find that row, choose Record Payment, and enter the amount and how it was paid. The amount arrives pre-filled with what is still owed on that row; type over it for a part payment. Once a treatment is settled the option disappears from its row, which is the quickest way to see that it is paid.
There is no way to pay off "the account" as a whole, and that is deliberate. Money taken that way would clear the total at the bottom of the screen while every treatment it covered carried on reading as unpaid — the figures would disagree, and the record would no longer show what was paid for what. A patient handing over one amount for two treatments is recorded as two payments.
Every balance in the app is the sum of the payments recorded — there is no "mark as paid" switch anywhere. That's deliberate: it means a balance can never disagree with the payment history that produced it.
Typing the amount. The commas appear as you go — type 1500000 and the field shows ₱1,500,000.00, so you can check a long figure before saving rather than counting zeros. Letters and anything else that can't be part of an amount are simply ignored. On iPad you get the normal keyboard opened on its numbers, not the little floating keypad that used to hover over the sheet.
iPhone / iPad — Patients tab, choose the patient, scroll to Treatments, then press and hold the treatment (or swipe it) and choose Record Payment. Plan instalments work the same way, on the plan's own row.
Mac — Patients column, choose the patient, then the buttons on the treatment's row in the Treatments section.
Payments are never edited or deleted. A wrong one is corrected by reversing it, which adds an opposite entry cancelling it out. Both stay visible: the original struck through, the correction in red with the reason you gave.
This looks fussier than deleting, and it is — on purpose. Deleting money from a patient record leaves no trace that it was ever there. Reversing shows exactly what happened and why, which is what you want if a patient ever queries their account.
To reverse: find the payment in Account History, open it, choose Reverse Payment, and give a reason — the reason is required, and it appears on the record.
A plan is a down payment plus a schedule of instalments — the usual arrangement for braces, where half is paid up front and the rest over several months.
Record the treatment first. A plan finances one treatment, and its fee is the plan's total — so if the work isn't on the record yet with a cost against it, there's nothing to build a plan from and the form will say so. Once it's there, choose the treatment at the top of the plan form and the total fills itself in.
Then enter the down payment — Set down payment to half does the usual orthodontic split in one tap — and the schedule. The schedule works from either end: type how many instalments you want and the monthly amount appears, or type the monthly amount and the number of instalments appears. Whichever you fill in, the other follows, and the last instalment takes up the odd centavos so the parts add up exactly. The most a plan can run to is 60 instalments.
Leave Down payment received today switched on if the patient is paying it now — that records the payment at the same time. If you switch it off, the plan will correctly show the down payment as overdue from the moment you create it.
The plan's total is not typed in. It's the treatment's fee, and it's shown read-only — to change the agreed figure, change the fee on the treatment. (While a plan is financing a treatment its fee is locked, so the two can't be edited apart from each other. Cancel the plan if the fee really has changed.) Underneath, the total is still down payment plus instalments, so the schedule and the figure can't drift apart either.
You can't record the same payment twice by going in the other way. Where a treatment has a plan, Record Payment on the treatment and on the plan reach the same record. This used to be two separate entries and was the easiest way to double-count a patient's money.
Payments go against the plan, not against a particular instalment. So a patient who pays a bit extra, or settles early, or pays two instalments at once just moves ahead — there are no rules about which peso belongs where. Being behind simply means: what should have arrived by today is more than what has arrived.
A patient who pays several months at once is not asked for them again. The next payment the app names is the first one their money hasn't reached — not the next date on the calendar, which for someone paying ahead is an instalment already settled. Their statement says how much is in advance and how many payments are left, and Record Payment pre-fills the amount actually still owed.
From the patient screen, open the ⋯ menu and choose the statement. It lists every charge and payment in date order with a running balance, with the amount outstanding set large at the top so it's the first thing read. If the patient has a plan, the full instalment schedule follows on its own page — each one marked Paid, Unpaid or Overdue.
It's the document to hand a patient who asks "what do I still owe, and when?" The schedule is usually the part they actually want, which is why it gets a page to itself rather than trailing off the bottom of the ledger.
One line under the schedule answers "how many more?" — "3 payments left (₱24,000.00) — next ₱8,000.00 due 4 Oct 2026", or "Final payment of ₱8,000.00 due 3 Nov 2026" when they're on the last one. If they've paid ahead it says how much is in advance. If they're behind it turns red and leads with the arrears.
Paying early doesn't move the dates. The due column is the arrangement the patient agreed to, so it reads the same on every statement you ever print for them — otherwise two copies a month apart would disagree about a plan nobody changed. The date money actually arrived is on the first page, in the ledger, next to the payment itself.
To send it rather than print it: the statement opens as the finished PDF with Share at the top — AirDrop, Mail, Messages, Save to Files and Print are all there. You no longer have to save it first and then go looking for the file in another app.
Reports live in Settings → Reports, under Administration. Three money figures, and they answer different questions:
Below them, Outstanding balances lists who owes money payable now — a patient perfectly up to date on braces does not appear, which is the point. Plan instalments that haven't fallen due are excluded. Payment plans in arrears sits above it and shows the opposite case: agreements where an instalment was missed.
Records live in one shared database, so the iPad at the chair and the Mac at the desk are looking at the same information. The app re-checks for changes about once a minute while it's open, and again whenever you come back to it, so a change made on one device appears on the other shortly without anyone doing anything.
If you need it immediately — someone just booked an appointment and you want to see it now — use the refresh button, or pull down on the list on iPhone and iPad.
Keep working. Everything you record is saved on the device the moment you tap save — a treatment, a payment, a new patient, an appointment — and the app opens to the full patient list whether or not there is a connection. Nothing waits on the network and nothing is lost by closing the app.
What is waiting to be sent is shown on the Updated line at the top of the list — it reads something like Offline · 3 changes saved here. Tap it to see exactly which three. When the connection comes back they go up on their own, in the order you entered them, and the line goes back to saying when the records were last updated.
Two things worth knowing. A payment recorded offline is not taken twice if the app has to retry — each entry carries its own identity, so the database recognises one it has already accepted. And if the database refuses something — a rule, not a bad connection — that entry is never thrown away silently: it stays in that same list with the reason, waiting for a person to look at it.
The copy held on the device is encrypted, and it is erased when you sign out. Sign out only when the list is empty — anything still waiting to be sent goes with it. The app will warn you.
You do not have to remember the address. Tap your photo or initials at the top right of any screen: Guide and FAQ are both in that panel, and both open in a browser so the app stays where you left it.
Which one: the Guide is the long one — what every screen does and where to find it, worth reading once. The FAQ is this page, and it is the one to reach for mid-clinic, because it is mostly about money and the questions actually asked.
On a Mac they are also in the menu bar under Help, where Dentista Guide has the usual ⌘? shortcut.
Dentista