Understanding the Finances page
Last updated: August 25, 2026
The Finances page is where your practice sees the money Alpaca pays you — as distinct from the Payroll page, which is about the money you pay your staff. This article is the overview: what the page contains, what the numbers mean, and which article to read next.
The idea behind Alpaca payouts
Insurance is slow and unpredictable. Claims get denied, delayed, or lost, but your staff still need paying every two weeks. So Alpaca pays you the insurance-reimbursable portion of your work on a fixed biweekly cycle, whether or not insurance has actually paid yet, and takes on the timing risk itself.
That guarantee is why your payout for a period is not simply "what insurance sent". It is built from up to four components.
The four components of a payout
Component | What it is | When it appears |
|---|---|---|
Signed-notes payout | The insurance-reimbursable share of your contracted rate for the notes signed in this period. | In the period the note was signed. |
Reconciliation adjustment | The correction once insurance actually adjudicates the claim and the real patient share is known. Can be positive or negative. | In the period after adjudication is final. |
Patient responsibility payout | The remainder of your contracted amount, released once the family pays their share. | In the period after the patient pays. |
Manual adjustments | One-off corrections Alpaca books against a specific claim. | As needed. See Manual adjustments and when they happen. |
Added together these are your Total payout this period.
Payout overview at the top of the Finances page.
At the top is Payout overview — a panel showing the four components, the total, the date the money lands, the bank account it lands in, and the key dates for the period (Confirm by and Pay date). A Why you’re seeing these numbers box next to it explains the period in plain English — how many notes your team signed, and what drove the reconciliation and patient responsibility figures. Below it are collapsible sections that break the total down:
Payout by client — insurance payout, reconciliation and patient responsibility rolled up per client
Reconciliation — the per-claim adjustments in this period
Patient Responsibility — patient payments released to you
Manual Adjustments — one-off corrections
A Filter by client selector at the top narrows every section to one family at a time, which is usually the fastest way to answer "what did we get paid for this client?"
Two things the page is not
It is not payroll. Payout finalization (Alpaca paying your practice) and payroll finalization (your practice paying staff) are separate processes that happen to share the same two-week calendar. A finalized payout says nothing about your payroll.
It is not editable by your practice. The Payout overview carries a Read-Only badge for clinics — finalizing a period, booking adjustments and marking payments sent are Alpaca actions. You see everything; you do not change it.
Who can see it
Clinic admins and accountants. Assistant admins deliberately do not have access. If you cannot open the page and think you should be able to, ask an admin at your practice.
Related articles
The Finances page tabs — what each tab does
When do I get paid? — the payout timeline
How do I see past payments from Alpaca?
Manual adjustments and when they happen
Why is my payout $0?
Why is my session note not there?
Still stuck? Email support@alpacahealth.io and we will take a look.