Description:
Offices enrolled in PlanetDDS Pay will now have the ability to add a surcharge to their credit card transactions. This feature will allow offices to apply a small, transparent fee to credit card transactions, helping them recover costs associated with payment processing.
Key features:
- The surcharge will be available on all screens from where a Planet DDS pay payment can be posted.
- Transaction Entry
- Smart Assist
- Contract screens (Down payment and Periodic Billing transactions will have surcharges applied)
- Payment portal
- The surcharge will be automatically calculated and applied to credit card transactions.
- The surcharge amount will be visible on patient receipts which are saved to the patient notes.
- When running a Walkout Report users will now have the option to include the surcharge. This option will be added to printed treatment plans in a future update.
Compatibility:
The office must be enrolled in PlanetDDS Pay.
How to Setup:
- The feature must first be activated in the Admin Console. This can be done by submitting a ticket to the Payment Processing team requesting that the feature be activated.
- Next, it will need to be enabled from the “Advanced” tab of the Account Settings in Denticon.
- A “Surcharge Code” and “Surcharge Refund” code will need to be set up so that they can be selected in the account settings screen.
- A new payment/adjustment class called “Surcharge” has been added. Here is an example on how to setup the adjustments. For a surcharge code the sign should be positive. For a surcharge refund code, the sign should be negative.
- A “Surcharge Code” and “Surcharge Refund” code will need to be set up so that they can be selected in the account settings screen.
- Next, the surcharge will need to be setup at the office level by going to Setup>Office Setup>Integrations. The surcharge box should be checked and the office will enter their surcharge percentage. The user will be prompted to confirm and accept the surcharge enablement.
Best Practices:
- Each office is responsible for knowing the laws and regulations around surcharges as there are some states where it is not allowed and some limits to the %amount of the surcharge that can be applied.
- The % amount of a surcharge that is applied should apply to all patients. It cannot be adjusted for individual patients.
- Visa Surcharge FAQ
- Mastercard Surcharge FAQ
Additional information:
- When posting the surcharge code it will post under the office’s billing provider and will be allocated to the office’s billing provider, but the rest of the payment will be allocated based on the existing payment allocation rules.
- When applying a refund on a transaction that has had a surcharge applied only the full amount of the transaction can be refunded. Partial refunds are not supported at this time. When a refund adjustment is applied the surcharge refund will allocate to the billing provider and the rest of the refund adjustment will be applied to the provider (or providers if the payment allocated to multiple) that the payment allocated toward.
Article Version 1.1 2026.6.9