Email a Quote, Invoice, or Receipt

Overview

This article explains how to email a copy of a quote, invoice, or receipt directly to patients. To set up Gentu for emailing, please see the Configuring Gentu for Email page.

• Patients will receive their document as an encrypted, password-protected email attachment.
• Patients can use their date of birth as a password to view the document.
• Patients can optionally nominate a new password (please see below for more information).
• The balance of the account will be display in the email for the patient's convenience. 
• For practices using Online Payments - Patient Payments powered by Ezidebit, a PAY INVOICE or PAY QUOTE button will be available in the email.

It is also possible to email patients and address book contacts in Gentu from their record, using the EMAIL button. For more information on this process please see the Email a patient or address book contact article.

Please note: it is not possible to email letters within Gentu. If you would like to email a letter, you will need to print the letter to PDF and email using an external email program on your computer e.g. Outlook.

Email a Document to the Patient

Before emailing a document to a patient, you must ensure that their email address is entered in their Patient Details tab. If no email address is recorded, or the patient is marked as Do not email, you will receive a red error warning letting you know. 

Email is available in the following areas:

• In the Account screen, Invoices and Quotes can be emailed using the EMAIL button in the top right of the screen.
• On an open Invoice or Quotes, the option to EMAIL is available in the bottom right. 
• When receipting an invoice, selecting the RECEIPT button will provide an option for Email. 

Upon selecting the option to email, a Send email window will open. In this window, you can adjust the Subject line, and customise the message to be sent to the patient. If you are utilising Online Payments - Patient Payments powered by Ezidebit, you will also be able to specify if the patient is to pay only the gap amount or the total charge for Quotes.

After customising your email, you can select the SEND button to send the invoice, quote, or receipt to the patient. 

What does the received email look like?

This can differ slightly, depending on how the patient views the email, such as using their phone, web browser, or a desktop email client. Generally, the email should like something like the example below: 

At the top of the email, the practice name is listed, along with the balance due. In this example, Online Payments - Patient Payments powered by Ezidebit is enabled, which provides the patient an option to select the PAY QUOTE button and pay the balance online.

Beneath this is the contents of the email, which was customised at the time of sending. 

Finally, all emails include a footer with information about the default password for attachments. 

Patient email opt-out

Patients who do not wish to receive email can be opted out.

1. Open Patient Details for that patient.
2. Tick the Do not email checkbox next to the email field.
3. Press SAVE to save the changes.

If you attempt to email a document to a patient who has opted out, you will receive an error and the email will not send.

Patient password

When patients receive their document via email, it is sent as a password-protected attachment.

When opening the attachment, patients will be prompted to input their password.

The patient's default password is their date of birth, in the format ddMmmyyyy. 

For instance, a patient with a birthday of January 1st, 1970, would have a password of 01Jan1970.

Patients may nominate a different password, which you can record in Patient Details. 

To change a patient's password:

1. Open Patient Details.
2. Click the ATTACHMENT PASSWORD button below the email field.
3. The Password window will open.
4. Select Custom.
5. Enter the new password.
   • Note that you can click the eye icon to toggle password visibility.
     
6. Press SAVE to save the changes.

When the patient next receives a document via email, they can use this new password to unlock and view the attachment. Any previously received documents will retain the old password.

Frequently Asked Questions

> Can I email a quote or invoice to another account holder, health fund, or third party organisation?

At the moment it is only possible to send an invoice, quote, or receipt via email to the patient themselves.

If you need to send the document to an alternative account holder, for example a parent or guardian, you should instead enter the parent or guardian's email address in Patient Details for that patient.

> Can I email a patient for general correspondence?

The EMAIL button within Patient Details can be used for this purpose; it launches your computer's default email application and composes a new email to the patient. Please see the Email a patient or address book contact article for more information.

> Can I resend a patient's receipt via email? 

At the moment, receipts cannot be re-emailed. You can may wish to re-print the receipt as a PDF from the Payment Summary, which can be emailed external to Gentu. 

> Can I send receipts for Deposits via Email? 

Deposit receipts cannot be sent via email at this time. 

> A patient has reported being unable to view any attachments. What can I suggest to fix this? 

If the patient is trying to view an attachment in a desktop email client, such as Mail or Outlook, it may not be able to open because a password is required. The patient should make sure they open or save the file in a way that can be viewed outside of their desktop email client.