Payment Note

One row per note per payment - the notes recorded against an Elation Billing payment, carrying the note text, who wrote it, and when. Notes arrive by two paths: a billing user working the payment in Elation Billing, or the EHR patient-payment integration posting a payment taken in the EHR. Only the first carries an elation_billing_user_id. Filter on is_deleted = false to exclude notes that have since been removed. This table’s columns and relationships are shown in the Hosted Database schema.

payment_note.payment_id joins to payment.id. payment_note.elation_billing_user_id joins to elation_billing_user.id and is an Elation Billing user identifier, not an Elation EHR user id.A null elation_billing_user_id means the note was created by the EHR patient-payment integration rather than by a person, which is the majority of notes today. Null here means system-created, not unknown.author_login is a point-in-time snapshot of the author’s login taken when the note was written, so it will not always match the current elation_billing_user.email - a user who was later deactivated or renamed keeps their old login on historical notes. Treat it as display text and do not join on it.

For reporting on but not limited to:

The full note history on a single payment, in the order it was written
Separating notes a biller wrote from notes the EHR patient-payment integration posted
Note volume per biller over a date range
Adding narrative context to a payment reconciliation report
Auditing what was said about a payment that was later adjusted or reversed

Note history for a payment

Returns every note on a single payment, oldest first. author_login is the fallback for notes with no billing user, which is where the EHR patient-payment integration notes show up.

select
    n.id as payment_note_id
  , n.created_timestamp
  , coalesce(concat(u.first_name, ' ', u.last_name), n.author_login) as author
  , n.author_login
  , n.note
from payment_note n
  left join elation_billing_user u on u.id = n.elation_billing_user_id
where n.is_deleted = false
  and n.payment_id = 1234567890  -- Replace with actual payment ID
order by n.created_timestamp;

Biller notes versus integration notes

Splits notes by where they came from. Notes posted by the EHR patient-payment integration have no billing user and their text is prefixed INTERNAL MEMO - .

select
    case
      when n.elation_billing_user_id is null then 'EHR patient payment integration'
      else 'Billing user'
    end as note_source
  , count(*) as notes
  , count(distinct n.payment_id) as distinct_payments
  , min(n.created_timestamp) as earliest_note
  , max(n.created_timestamp) as most_recent_note
from payment_note n
where n.is_deleted = false
group by 1
order by notes desc;

Note volume per biller

Ranks billers by how many payment notes they wrote over the last 90 days. Integration notes are excluded because they have no billing user.

select
    concat(u.first_name, ' ', u.last_name) as author_name
  , u.email as author_email
  , count(*) as notes_written
  , count(distinct n.payment_id) as distinct_payments
  , max(n.created_timestamp) as most_recent_note
from payment_note n
  inner join elation_billing_user u on u.id = n.elation_billing_user_id
where n.is_deleted = false
  and n.created_timestamp >= dateadd(day, -90, current_date)
group by u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email
order by notes_written desc;

Recent payments with their notes

Pairs each payment from the last 30 days with its notes, plus the patient and practice the payment belongs to.

select
    p.id as payment_id
  , p.local_id
  , p.payment_date
  , p.amount
  , p.pay_type
  , concat(pat.first_name, ' ', pat.last_name) as patient_name
  , pr.name as practice_name
  , n.created_timestamp as note_timestamp
  , coalesce(concat(u.first_name, ' ', u.last_name), n.author_login) as author
  , n.note
from payment_note n
  inner join payment p on p.id = n.payment_id
  left join patient pat on pat.id = p.patient_id
  left join practice pr on pr.id = p.practice_id
  left join elation_billing_user u on u.id = n.elation_billing_user_id
where n.is_deleted = false
  and p.is_deleted = false
  and p.payment_date >= dateadd(day, -30, current_date)
order by p.payment_date desc, n.created_timestamp;

If you have any questions about this topic please reach out to Elation Support Portal with the subject line HDB - <your_question>

Hosted Database

Overview

How Tos

Common Queries

Elation Billing

Frequently Asked Questions

Early Release

Changelog

Note history for a payment

Biller notes versus integration notes

Note volume per biller

Recent payments with their notes

​Note history for a payment

​Biller notes versus integration notes

​Note volume per biller

​Recent payments with their notes

Note history for a payment

Biller notes versus integration notes

Note volume per biller

Recent payments with their notes