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A bank deposit is not a closed payment until it has a source claim. Money in the account is visible; what it pays for is not — at least not in a spreadsheet. Sigma’s Payments module connects every amount received to the specific claims and visits it settles, so your finance team is reconciling in real time rather than reconstructing the month at month-end.

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Types of Payments

Sigma handles the three categories of income that flow through a typical clinic’s revenue cycle. Each type is recorded, sourced, and matched differently.
  • Insurer Remittances — Bulk payments from medical aid schemes that cover multiple claims in a single transfer. A remittance advice lists each claim settled and the amount paid. Sigma matches each line of the remittance to the corresponding claim automatically where the claim reference is present.
  • Patient Payments — Direct payments from patients for the patient portion of their bill. These are recorded against the patient’s outstanding invoice balance and can be taken at the front desk or at any point in the billing cycle.
  • Co-payments — The patient share collected at the point of visit, typically before or immediately after the consultation. Co-payments are applied to the invoice at the time of collection and reduce the patient portion outstanding.

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Matching Remittances

Remittance matching is the step that closes the loop between a submitted claim and a confirmed payment. Work through the following process each time you receive a remittance from an insurer.
1

Receive the Remittance Advice

Obtain the remittance advice from the insurer — either as an electronic file sent to your registered email or a paper statement. The remittance lists each claim reference, the approved amount, and any deductions or adjustments made by the scheme.
2

Navigate to Payments → New Remittance

In Sigma, open the Payments module and select New Remittance. Choose the insurer scheme from the list to scope the matching to claims belonging to that scheme.
3

Enter the Remittance Details

Record the insurer name, remittance date, and the total amount of the payment. These details anchor the remittance as a single financial event in Sigma’s payment trail.
4

Match Each Line Item to a Claim

For each line on the remittance advice, locate the corresponding claim in Sigma and link it. Where the insurer’s claim reference matches Sigma’s claim number, the system will suggest the match automatically. Confirm each match or assign it manually where references differ.
5

Confirm and Close

Once all line items are matched, confirm the remittance. Each matched claim is marked Paid, the scheme portion on the originating invoice is closed, and the insurer’s outstanding balance updates immediately. No manual ledger entry is required.

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Outstanding Balances

Sigma maintains three views of what your clinic is still owed. Use each one for a different purpose.
  • Outstanding by patient — A list of every patient with an unpaid or partially paid invoice balance. Use this view when following up on patient payments or preparing statements for overdue accounts. The balance shown is the patient portion only — what the scheme owes is tracked separately.
  • Outstanding by scheme — A list of every insurer scheme with approved but unpaid claims. Use this view when preparing for follow-up calls with scheme representatives or when reviewing aging receivables from a specific insurer.
  • Aging view — Both patient and scheme balances broken down by how long they have been open: current (0–30 days), 31–60 days, 61–90 days, and over 90 days. The aging view tells you not just what is owed but how urgent each balance is. Amounts in the 61–90 and over-90 brackets warrant direct follow-up.

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Payment Trail

Finance and front desk share the same payment view from the moment a service is delivered to the moment the last balance is cleared. Every payment — whether a co-payment collected at the front desk, a patient balance settled online, or a bulk remittance from a scheme — is recorded with a source, a date, and a link to the claim or invoice it settles. There are no separate spreadsheets to reconcile at month-end and no need to ask another department what a deposit covers. The payment trail in Sigma is the single record of your clinic’s revenue from visit to settlement.
Do not mark a claim as paid without recording the remittance source. Unmatched payments will not update insurer outstanding balances correctly, and your scheme receivables report will show amounts as still owed even after the money has arrived. Always complete the remittance matching process before confirming payment on any insurer claim.

Claims

Review claim statuses and follow up on approved claims awaiting payment.

Payment Reconciliation

Step-by-step guide to reconciling a full insurer remittance in Sigma.

Revenue Tracking

Monitor outstanding balances and payment trends across schemes and patients.