A Class is a type of billing account, and is defined by its properties, which include:

The fee level charged

The addressee or debtor for accounts

The multiple procedure scaling that is used with invoices

The batch type (if any) used with invoices

The fee rounding (per item) used with invoices

The account contacts that can be recorded in account details

The number, date and text fields that can be recorded in account details

The class of a given account also influences the information printed on invoices, receipts and labels for that account. Examples of classes include 'Bulk Bill', 'Private' and 'Workers Compensation', among others.

Bluechip comes supplied with a number of default classes you can modify to suit your needs.. You can also create your own customised classes. For example. you may wish to create a new class for the purpose of batching invoices to a particular company, or you may decide that you need a new fee level for a particular class of patient. If you wish to create a new class for the purpose of batching invoices, you should consult the topic Setting up Batch Types.

The key consideration to bear in mind before deciding to create a new class is the number of classes you have in your system already, and the number of classes you will have after creating new ones. This is important, because you should try to avoid having more than twelve classes.

This does not mean that you can't have more than twelve classes, of course, and many existing Bluechip customers successfully use up to sixteen classes. It is simply a recommendation that you limit your system to twelve classes.

Another thing to consider is that because classes are to intrinsically linked to so many facets of the Bluechip program, it is not a quick process to add a new class. You should allow at least half an hour to create a new class, particularly if this is the first time you have followed this procedure.