Third-party billing
When someone other than the owner pays — a rescue or foster carer, or a company you subcontract to. Set up a paying account, point a pet's bills at it, and invoice the lot at period's end.
Sometimes the person who owns an animal isn't the one who pays for it. A rescue group covers a foster carer's pet. A company hires you to do in-home euthanasia and wants one bill, not a bill per pet. Wattle handles both the same way: you mark an account as a payer, point each relevant patient's bills at it, and at the end of the period generate one invoice for everything that payer owes.
The pet's charges always stay visible on the patient's own record — only the balance moves to the payer.
New to billing? Read Charges vs invoices (the money model) first. The one idea — charges build up, an invoice bundles them later — is what makes this page click.
When you'd use this
There are two everyday shapes:
- A rescue or foster carer pays for someone else's pet. The pet has an owner (the foster carer, say), but the rescue organisation settles the bills.
- You subcontract to a company. A mobile-vet or in-home-euthanasia company sends you the work; you bill the company, not each pet's owner. The company gets one tidy invoice covering all the patients you saw for them over the fortnight.
In both cases the work is itemised per patient, but the money lands in one place.
Step 1 — Mark the account as a payer
Usually: admin or front desk.
First, the paying account needs to exist as a client, and it needs to be flagged as one that pays for others.
Quick version — Create (or open) the rescue/company as a client → set Client type if it's a business → tick Third-party payer → Save.
Step by step
- Create the payer as a client if they're not already in Wattle. For a business, set Client type to Organisation.
- On the client's Details tab (or right on the new-client form), tick Third-party payer.
- Click Save.
That's all the setup the payer needs. Ticking the box does one thing: it makes this account selectable as a Default payer on patient records (Step 2).
Step 2 — Point a patient's bills at the payer
Usually: admin or reception, when a pet joins the arrangement.
Each patient that the payer covers needs its Default payer set. This is on the patient's Details tab — not the client's.
Quick version — Open the patient → Details tab → Billing & insurance → Default payer → choose the payer → Save.
Step by step
- Open the patient (Patients → click the animal).
- Click the Details tab.
- In the Billing & insurance column, find Default payer. It starts on The owner (default).
- Choose the payer account from the list. (Only accounts you ticked in Step 1 appear here. If the list is empty it says so, and links you back to the client file.)
- Click Save at the bottom of the tab.
From now on, new charges for this pet accrue to the payer's account instead of the owner's. Repeat for each patient the payer covers.
The charges don't leave the patient. Everything you charge still shows on the patient's record (and on the owner's clinical history) exactly as before. Only the balance — the money owed — sits with the payer. Nothing about the animal's care record changes.
The default payer only affects charges added after you set it. Like transferring a pet to a new owner, this isn't retrospective — charges already on the owner's account stay there. Set the Default payer before the work starts, and everything from that point flows to the payer.
Step 3 — Invoice the payer at period's end
Usually: admin or front desk — typically once a fortnight or month.
When it's time to bill the payer for everything they cover, you don't invoice each pet one by one. Instead you generate a single invoice across all their patients.
Quick version — Open the payer's client file → Financials tab → Invoice contracted work → pick a date range → generate.
Step by step
- Open the payer's client file (the rescue or company — not a pet owner).
- Click the Financials tab.
- Click Invoice contracted work.
- Pick the date range you want to bill — say, the past fortnight.
- Generate. Wattle builds one invoice covering every patient billed to this payer in that range. Each line is itemised with the patient's name and the date, so the payer can see exactly what they're paying for.
From there it's a normal invoice — finalise it, then print, download or email it. See Invoices and Printing & PDFs.
Charging GST when you subcontract? Your invoice to the payer follows your own clinic's GST setting (Settings → Clinic → Tax & GST), not the payer's. If you're registered for GST, set that so your invoice to the company shows GST correctly; if you're not registered, leave it off and no GST line appears. This is separate from whatever the company charges the pet's owner.
If something looks wrong
- The invoice is empty / a pet I expected isn't on it → Check that pet's Default payer on its Details tab actually points at this payer, and that the charges fall inside your date range. Charges added before the Default payer was set stay with the owner.
- I'm on a pet owner's file and there's no "Invoice contracted work" → That button is on the payer's file (the account with Third-party payer ticked), not on an ordinary owner's.
Quick recap
- A payer is a client (often an Organisation) with Third-party payer ticked.
- On each covered patient, set Default payer (Details tab) to that payer — only future charges move.
- Charges stay on the patient's record; only the balance goes to the payer.
- At period's end, on the payer's Financials tab, use Invoice contracted work with a date range to produce one itemised invoice across all their patients.
See also: Clients · Patients & Records · Charges vs invoices · Invoices