Overview
When payers process your claims, they send Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA/835) files that detail exactly what was paid, adjusted, or denied at the claim and service-line level. Onvelas automatically pulls these from your clearinghouse and posts them.
Syncing ERAs
- Go to Billing → Deposits.
- Click the ERA Sync tab.
- Click Sync from ClaimMD to pull new ERA files.
- New ERAs appear in the pending list. Review and click Post to process each batch.
Posted ERAs create a Deposit record and update the status of each affected claim to Paid or Adjusted.
Reviewing ERA Line Items
Each deposit shows a breakdown by claim, and each claim shows individual procedure-line payments. For each service line you can see:
- Billed amount — what you charged
- Allowed amount — payer's allowed amount per contract
- Paid amount — actual payment issued
- Adjustments — reason codes (CARC) explaining any reduction
- Patient responsibility — deductible, copay, or coinsurance owed by the patient
Manual Payment Posting
For payments received by check (without an ERA), go to Billing → Deposits → New Deposit. Enter the check number, amount, payer, and deposit date. Then allocate the payment to specific claims using the manual posting screen.
Bank Reconciliation
To confirm that ERA deposits match actual bank credits, use Billing → Bank Reconciliation:
- Add your bank account under Settings → Bank Accounts.
- Upload a CSV bank statement export.
- The matching engine automatically links bank credits to Onvelas deposit records by amount and date.
- Review unmatched transactions and match them manually if needed.
- Export the reconciliation report for your accounting team.
Common Issues
- ERA not matching a claim — verify the claim number matches what was submitted; check for claim number format differences.
- Partial payment — review CARC codes for the denial reason; common causes are contractual adjustments (CO-45) or bundling (CO-97).
- Deposit amount vs. check amount mismatch — payer may have combined multiple ERAs into one check; match by check number across deposits.