OTC - Over The Counter

Over The Counter (OTC) transactions are used to perform sales where no customer and no patient is to be recorded. There is an OTC button on both the Workflow|Scheduling and Workflow|Work Lists screens.  This allows reception staff to quickly make OTC sales.

There is normally one OTC account per Practice Location - though it is possible for multiple locations to share the same OTC account. They are set up using the Administration|Organisation|OTC facility.

The OTC account is effectively a special customer account where the customer is anonymous.

Note that there is also a concept of a 'Counter Sale' to a given customer (accessed via Customer|Charges|New|Counter Sale) where the customer is recorded but there is no patient recorded. If you need the patient recorded, then you use Customer|Charges|New|Invoice.

As indicated above, the OTC account is a special customer account. If you call up the Customers|Charges or Customers|Account screen and then press the Select button, you will find that there is a Type pull-down - see below. Choosing OTC will allow you to access the account.

The Customer|Account screen - see below - is the most useful. Most of the time, the only OTC transaction you need is the sale - accessed using the OTC button of the Scheduling and Work List screens. However, if you need to reverse the transaction or print the payment receipt again, this is where you come.  It works in exactly the same way as the Customers|Account screen for a normal customer.