If you’re on a medical billing team, you know the drill: the doctors want numbers, the admins want answers, and you just want a report that isn’t a mess. Detailed financial reporting in Eclinicalworks can be a pain, but if you know where to look, you can pull out what you need without losing an afternoon (or your mind). This guide is for billers, billing managers, and anyone who actually uses this software—not the folks in the sales videos.
Let’s walk through how to pull financial reports in Eclinicalworks that actually help you do your job. I’ll point out what works, what’s a waste of time, and where you can save yourself some headaches.
1. Know What You Actually Need
Before you get lost in the reporting menus, get clear on what you’re after. Eclinicalworks is packed with options, but most billing teams need a few basics:
- Aging Reports (for AR follow-up)
- Payment/Adjustment Reports (to see who paid what)
- Charge/Encounter Reports (to track provider productivity and billing volume)
- Rejection/Denial Reports (so you know what’s getting kicked back)
Be honest: most “custom reporting” requests are just someone trying to look busy. Start with the built-ins. If you need something fancy, you’ll know soon enough.
2. Get Your Access and Permissions Straight
This is boring but necessary. If you don’t have rights to the right modules, you’ll waste time. Make sure you have:
- Access to the “Financial” and “Billing” reporting sections
- Permission to export or print reports (if you need offline copies)
- The ability to filter by provider, location, or date (most reports support this)
If you’re stuck, ask your system admin. Don’t spend an hour clicking around if you’re locked out.
3. Step-by-Step: Running the Must-Have Reports
3.1 Patient Aging Report (AR)
This is your bread and butter. Here’s how to get it:
- Go to Reports > Financial > Patient AR Aging.
- Choose your filters: location, provider, and date range.
- Run the report.
Pro Tips: - Stick to monthly or biweekly reports. Daily is overkill, and yearly is useless. - The “Aging by Encounter” option is more granular but can be overwhelming. Use it when you’re chasing specific claims.
What’s good: The default grouping by insurance buckets (0-30, 31-60, etc.) is clear and actionable.
What’s annoying: If you export to Excel, expect some weird formatting. Clean it up before you send to leadership.
3.2 Payment and Adjustment Detail
To see where your money’s coming from—and what’s being written off—do this:
- Go to Reports > Financial > Payment/Adjustment Analysis.
- Filter by date, payer, and provider.
- Specify “Detail” if you want line-by-line, or “Summary” for totals.
Pro Tips: - Use the “Adjustment Reason” filter to find patterns in write-offs and denials. - If your team does payment posting, check this report against bank deposits. Don’t just trust the software—mistakes happen.
What’s good: You can drill down to individual claims if needed.
What’s lacking: There’s no built-in visualization. Export to Excel if you need charts.
3.3 Charge and Encounter Reports
These help you track how much is being billed out, and by whom.
- Go to Reports > Financial > Charges/Encounters.
- Filter by provider, location, and date range.
- Run the report.
Pro Tips: - Useful for provider performance reviews—just don’t weaponize the data. Context matters. - If you’re trying to spot missed billing, compare this to your scheduling logs.
What’s good: Easy to break down by CPT code or provider.
What’s not: Sometimes, encounters and charges don’t match up due to workflow issues. Don’t assume it’s always a billing error.
3.4 Denials and Rejections
To get ahead of revenue leaks, you need to know why claims are failing.
- Go to Reports > Billing > Claim Rejection/Denial Analysis.
- Choose dates, payers, and providers.
- Focus on high-volume rejection reasons.
Pro Tips: - Set up a routine (weekly or monthly) review. Don’t wait until quarter-end. - If the same denial reason keeps popping up, it’s usually a workflow issue—not just a payer being picky.
What’s good: The report is clear about payer and rejection code.
What’s not: If you want explanations in plain English, you’ll be disappointed. Cross-reference with payer manuals.
4. Exporting and Sharing Reports
Let’s be real: you’ll probably need to send these to someone who doesn’t use Eclinicalworks. Here’s how to make that less painful:
- Use the built-in export (CSV or Excel) for all major reports.
- Before sharing, clean up columns and headers. The default exports are ugly.
- For sensitive data, double-check PHI is redacted if it’s going outside your team.
Pro Tip: If you’re exporting to PDF, check the formatting—Eclinicalworks sometimes cuts off columns or pages weirdly.
5. When to Use Custom Reports (And When Not To)
Eclinicalworks has a “Custom Reports” or “Report Designer” feature. It can do a lot, but here’s the honest truth:
- Use it if: The built-in reports simply won’t give you what you need, and you’re comfortable with basic SQL or have access to someone who is.
- Don’t bother if: You just want totals, trends, or standard billing numbers. It’s overkill.
Watch out: Custom reports can break when the system updates, and support won’t always help you fix them. Keep it simple unless you have a real need.
6. Common Gotchas (And How to Avoid Them)
- Filters Reset: Eclinicalworks sometimes resets filters if you click around. Always double-check before running.
- Data Lag: Financial reports can lag behind real-time activity, especially after batch postings. If numbers look off, wait an hour and try again.
- User Error: The system won’t stop you from pulling the wrong date range, so always sanity-check your inputs.
- Export Woes: If your Excel export looks like alphabet soup, try CSV instead.
7. Quick Troubleshooting
- Report won’t run? Log out and back in. Yes, really.
- Missing data? Check your filters and permissions.
- Numbers don’t match? Cross-check with other reports—sometimes the issue is with how Eclinicalworks slices the data.
If you hit a wall, talk to someone who’s done this before. Don’t waste two hours troubleshooting a glitch that’s already been solved by your neighbor down the hall.
8. Pro Tips to Save Your Sanity
- Bookmark your most-used reports so you’re not hunting every time.
- Keep a cheat sheet of which reports to use for which questions—share it with your team.
- Automate exports if you find yourself doing the same thing every week. A little setup now saves a lot of clicking later.
- Document your process. Future you (or your replacement) will thank you.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat
You don’t need a degree in analytics to get good financial reports out of Eclinicalworks. Start with the basics, ignore the fluff, and tweak your process as you go. The goal isn’t to wow people with fancy charts—it’s to get answers you can act on. If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to ask for help or try a different approach. Simple, clear, and repeatable wins every time.