Invoicing a company for staff health screenings
How a practice invoices an employer for an on-site screening or wellness day, what the invoice should show, and how to follow the company's payment.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Healthcare businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
An employer's HR manager phones: could the practice run a wellness day at their offices next month? Blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol checks for the staff, a nurse or two for the morning, perhaps flu vaccinations. The clinical side is familiar. The billing side is not like a normal patient account at all, and practices that treat it as one end up chasing a large company through a switchboard for months.
This article covers who the customer is, what the invoice should show, how to get it to the person who approves payment, and how to follow it up. The clinical results themselves are outside its scope: they belong to the employees, not on an invoice.
The company is the customer
For a wellness day, the employer is your customer. The employees are the people you screen, but they do not pay and they should not receive invoices. Create the company as a customer, with its registered name, address and tax number, and invoice the company once for the event.
That also keeps health information where it belongs. The invoice should describe the service ("On-site wellness screening, staff of head office, 14 March") and the quantity charged, not list the employees screened or anything about their results. If the employer wants a headcount, give a number, not names.
What the invoice should show for a business customer
A company's accounts payable team will reject an invoice that does not match its own records, so get the details right the first time.
- The company's registered name and tax number. A customer's tax number prints on documents as a VAT number only when it looks like a South African VAT number, and otherwise as a tax number. A Nigerian or Kenyan company's number will therefore print as a tax number.
- Your own VAT number, if you are registered. Enter it in Settings under Firm Profile. Documents made by the server print it and are titled Tax Invoice only when a VAT number is set.
- The company's purchase order number, if they use one, in the line description. Some finance departments will not pay without it.
- Clear lines. One line per kind of service (screenings, vaccinations, call-out or travel), so the company can see what it is paying for.
VAT on each line
- South Africa. Each line is set to 15% or 0%. The invoice screen does not tell zero-rated and exempt apart, so agree the treatment of each service with your accountant.
- Nigeria. Nigeria zero-rates medical services, and medical and pharmaceutical products, among other items. Use the right tax code on each line.
- Nigeria and Kenya. Each line takes a tax code (standard, zero-rated, exempt, out of scope or reverse charge), and only standard lines carry VAT. Use the invoice form under Accounting; the New invoice form under Billing & Finance offers only 15% or 0% and shows rand.
Getting the PDF to the person who approves payment
An invoice starts as a draft that can be changed or deleted. Issuing it gives it the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Default terms are 30 days.
An issued invoice can be downloaded as a PDF on your letterhead and e-mailed from the invoice, with or without a pay link. If the send fails, the invoice says so. For a company, send it to the accounts payable address as well as to the HR contact who booked the day; HR arranged the event, but accounts payable releases the money.
A pay link is less useful for a large company, which usually pays by transfer in its own payment run, but it suits a small employer that pays by card. A link lasts 14 days by default.
Statements and ageing for company accounts
Companies pay on their own cycle, and invoices get lost between departments. Two tools keep the account moving:
- Statements. A customer statement of account is produced as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen says whether it was sent. Send one at the end of each month to accounts payable.
- Ageing. Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. A company invoice moving past the first group needs a phone call to accounts payable, not just another e-mail.
Credit control is on for new workspaces and runs alongside: once a day it e-mails overdue reminders, by default at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue with the invoice attached, plus a monthly statement to customers with a balance. It never charges anyone and records whether each e-mail went out.
When a Nigerian or Kenyan company withholds tax
Some companies in Nigeria and Kenya pay net of withholding tax. When a customer pays net of withholding tax, the receipt screens cannot settle the withheld part of the invoice, so the invoice stays part-paid for that amount. Ask the company for its withholding certificate, and agree with your accountant how the withheld part is cleared in the books.
Terms to agree before the day
Most billing problems with wellness days are settled, or created, before anyone arrives on site. Agree in writing:
- The price basis: per person screened, per session or a day rate.
- Any minimum charge if fewer staff turn up than booked.
- What is included, such as consumables, vaccines and travel.
- The company's purchase order number and invoicing address.
- Payment terms, and the name of someone in accounts payable.
- Cancellation terms if the company postpones at short notice.
A worked example in words: a practice agrees a per-person price and a minimum with a company, receives a purchase order, and runs the day. That afternoon it issues one invoice to the company, quoting the purchase order and the headcount, and e-mails it to accounts payable and HR. At month-end a statement goes to accounts payable; when the invoice passes the first ageing group, the practice manager phones to confirm it is in the next payment run.
Patient accounts work differently, and statements and reminders for patient accounts covers them. Where a scheme pays part of an individual's account, see collecting the balance after medical aid pays part. AccountingTools explains the aging schedule, the report that sorts receivables into date buckets to show which items are overdue, which is the report to watch for company accounts.
A wellness day is good business when the paperwork is as tidy as the clinical work. Invoice the company, not the staff, match their purchase order, and follow the account through its ageing until it is paid.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
