Generating a Direct Invoice Batch
Once the Activity Sign Off has been performed, Direct Invoice Batches can be generated for NDIS Support Allocations where the Client is Self Managing their NDIS funding or has a Plan Manager managing their NDIS funding.
Direct Invoice Batches can also be created for any 'Billable' charges, such as Activity Costs, or any Non-NDIS Client Invoices (if your organisation is using this functionality). The term 'direct' refers to the fact that these Invoices are being issued for the Activities (Direct Services) that Clients' have participated in with your organisation.
Invoice Batches for the NDIA can also be generated, however, this is completed following a Bulk Payment Request (BPR) being generated from the 'Edit Direct BPR' page. More on this can be found in the Generating a Direct Invoice Batch for NDIA Invoices article linked below.
Once a Direct Invoice Batch has been generated, an export file containing Invoice data is available to download from the Actions menu for a variety of standard financial systems e.g. MYOB and Xero. Custom exports are available for download for specific providers who have engaged with SupportAbility to create a custom export for their chosen finance system.
This Invoice Batch export is designed to be downloaded from SupportAbility and then uploaded to your organisation's finance system. Your finance system is then responsible for distributing these Invoices to the relevant parties where required, as well as managing the accounts receivable process.
This article provides detailed information relating to the process of generating a Direct Invoice Batch.
Privileges:
- 'View Financial Information' in combination with either:
- 'Team Leader for ALL Services'
- 'Edit Client Records Across ALL Services'
Audience: Authorised Representatives, Finance Team
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Prerequisites
- Generating a Direct Invoice Batch
- Edit Invoice Batch
- What happens when more than one person is in the process of generating a Direct Invoice Batch at a time?
- View Direct Invoice Batches
Prerequisites
- All of the required configuration outlined in the Finance & NDIS | Preparation article (linked below) must be completed
- It is important that your organisation has considered how you would like your Invoice Numbers formatted
- Activities must have had the 'Activity Sign Off' performed before the associated Client Invoices will be available to generate in an Invoice Batch
- To generate Invoice Batches, Staff need the 'View Financial Information' Staff Account privilege in combination with either the 'Edit ALL Client Records', or 'Team Leader for ALL Services' privilege
Generating a Direct Invoice Batch
A Direct Invoice Batch is generated from the Finance menu:
Select 'Generate Direct Invoice Batch':
Return to Summary
Search Invoices
The first step in this process is to search for the Invoices you wish to include in the Invoice Batch:
A range of search criteria is available to select from that can be used independently, or in conjunction, to search for Direct Invoices. Alternatively, the search criteria can be left as is, or empty, if you wish to search for all available Invoices.
It is important to note that the selected Search Criteria is retained as long as the Staff Member is logged in.
Debtor
If you wish to search for Invoices for specific Debtors, the relevant Debtor/s may be selected here:
This search criterion can be used to search for 'Client Invoices' only i.e. Invoices for Clients who are set as the Financial Plan Manager (FPM) in their NDIS Direct Funding record, or those who are being billed directly for Billable Activity Costs or Non-NDIS Funding.
This can also be used to search for Invoices for specific Financial Plan Managers i.e. Plan Management organisations that have an FPM Shared Contact record and have been utilised as the Financial Plan Manager (FPM) in the Client's Funding record e.g. 'Local Financial Intermediary Service Provider' as per the above screenshot.
Clients
If you wish to search for Invoices for specific Clients, the relevant Client/s may be selected here:
This may also be narrowed down to the specific Client/s you're wanting to generate Invoices for by typing in the individual's name e.g. Tim:
Activity Date
An Activity Date range can be entered if required, to search for Invoices for Activities for a specific period e.g. for a week, fortnight or month:
Services
If you wish to search for Invoices for Activities delivered by specific Services, the relevant Service/s may be selected here:
'All Active Services' are selected by default, however, this can be updated to include only the relevant Services as required. N.B. This will appear as 'All Services' if your organisation has no Inactive Services.
Inactive Services can be selected individually if required, or all 'Inactive' Services only.
'Select All' includes both Active and Inactive. Selecting the cross in the Services search criterion will clear all selected options and effectively include Invoices for Activities facilitated by Active and Inactive Services.
Sites
Similarly, if you wish to search for Invoices for Activities delivered by specific Sites, the relevant Site/s may be selected here:
'All Active Sites' are selected by default, however, this can be updated to include only the relevant Sites as required. N.B. This will appear as 'All Sites' if your organisation has no Inactive Sites.
Inactive Sites can be selected individually if required, or all 'Inactive' Sites only.
'Select All' includes both Active and Inactive. Selecting the cross in the Sites search criterion will clear all selected options and effectively include Invoices for Activities facilitated by Active and Inactive Sites.
Funding Types
Many providers choose to create separate Invoice Batches by Funding Type, for example, Billable Activity Costs in a separate Batch to NDIS Invoices.
If you wish to search for Invoices by Funding Types, the relevant Funding Type/s may be selected here:
Group Support Approach
From the upgrade to SupportAbility v7.6 (March, 2021), when Generating Direct Invoice Batches, an additional search criterion is now available to allow providers to limit the search results by Group Support Approach as required:
Providers who deliver Community and Centre Based Group Supports can use this search criterion to exclude New Approach Supports when generating Direct Invoice Batches once transitioned to the New Approach, until all Transitional Support Allocations have been claimed & invoiced, and your organisation is ready to commence claiming & invoicing for Supports associated with the New Approach.
Please see the Transitioning to the New Approach for Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Supports article linked below for more information.
Select the Invoices to include
Once the search has been performed, the list of available Invoices are displayed, ready for inclusion in a Direct Invoice Batch:
Validation Notification
If another user is currently in the process of generating a Direct Invoice Batch, a Validation message will display at the top of the screen and it will not be possible to generate the Invoice Batch at that time.
The purpose of this functionality is to avoid creating duplicate Invoice Numbers.
The Notification message which displays is as follows; 'Unable to Generate Direct Invoice Batch. This process has been blocked temporarily because Staff Name commenced Generating a Direct Invoice Batch at DD/MM/YYYYH:MM AM/PM. Please try again shortly':
Generate Invoice Batch and Start Again
The option to 'Generate Invoice Batch', or 'Start Again' appears at the header of the page. This header remains in place when scrolling up & down the list. The Client, Value Excl GST, GST and Value Inc GST columns are sortable and the results may be filtered to locate the relevant Invoices for selection for example, by typing the Client Name:
N.B. Select the cross icon in the Filter Invoices field to clear this.
A link to View the Invoice Preview is available, as is a link to the Client record and the associated Client Funding record to assist in managing this process. The Debtor column displays the Financial Plan Manager (FPM) to whom the Invoices are being issued. In this example, we can see that they are NDIS Invoices being issued to a Client who is Self Managing their Funds i.e. David Bradbroke, as well as to a Plan Management organisation called 'Local Financial Intermediary Service Provider' for our Client Tim:
When Invoices contain Group Supports, blue messages appear including information regarding which Approach the included Allocations are associated with i.e. the New Approach or Transitional Approach.
N.B. This is only relevant for providers who deliver these Supports and once you have transitioned to the New Approach and is designed to assist to ensure that New Approach Supports are not claimed/invoiced until your organisation is ready to. Please see the Transitioning to the New Approach for Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Supports article linked below for more information.
When the 'View' is selected, this opens the View Direct Invoice screen which displays the included Invoice Items for reference:
Please see the View/Edit Direct Invoices article linked below for more information.
When viewing this information, if any changes are required, these can be made by Staff with Finance Admin privileges from the Activity record. Please see the How to correct NDIS Support Allocations after Activity Sign Off in Finance Edit Mode (edit, delete and/or add) article for more information.
How are Invoices batched?
Any Activities that the Client has participated in, where the same Funding Source has been used e.g. NDIS Funding, will be grouped into a single Invoice; provided the Supports are directed to the same Financial Plan Manager (FPM) e.g. Local Financial Intermediary Service Provider.
This means that one Invoice often contains multiple Invoice Items for the various Activities the Client has participated in during the reporting period.
If the Client has a different Financial Plan Manager (FPM) for different Supports; provided their NDIS Direct Client Funding record has been configured to reflect this in the Client's Funding tab, SupportAbility will create separate Invoices for the applicable Supports based on this.
Why aren't all Invoices I'm expecting appearing?
This could be due to the Activity Sign Off not having been performed yet in the related Activities:
Please see the Performing the Activity Sign Off article for more information, linked below for reference.
Alternatively, it may be due to the Client's Funding record being On Billing Hold:
When a Client Funding record is placed 'On Billing Hold', this Funding record can continue to be utilised in Activities, however, all NDIS Support Allocations or other related Activity Charges utilising this are blocked from inclusion when generating BPRs and/or Invoice Batches.
Please see the How to place a Client Funding record ‘On Billing Hold’ and remove this when ready to generate billing assets article for more information, linked below for reference.
Generate Invoice Batch
Select the applicable Invoice/s to include in an Invoice Batch, then select the 'Generate Invoice Batch' button:
Once 'Generate Invoice Batch' is selected, a summary of the number of Invoices and their value is displayed, ready to generate:
Edit Invoice Batch
Once Confirm is selected, you are redirected to the 'Edit Invoice Batch' page, as the Direct Invoice Batch has been generated. The Edit Invoice Batch page lists the Invoice Batch Details and provides a summary of the Invoices included:
The applicable Invoice Batch export is available to download from the Actions menu to export for your organisation's finance system. More on this further below.
N.B. The 'Return to Invoice Batch List' button has been re-introduced on the Edit Direct Invoice Batch List page since the time these examples were utilised.
Invoice Batch Details - change Invoice Date
The Invoice Batch ID is displayed here and the Invoice Date may be changed as required:
By default, the Invoice Date is set to the date the Invoice Batch was generated. If a different Invoice Date is required, this may be updated by selecting the 'Change' button.
The Change Invoice Date modal is displayed advising that the date for all Invoices in the Invoice Batch will be updated. Select the relevant date and select 'Confirm':
Invoices
Each Invoice included in the Direct Invoice Batch is listed in this section. The ability to Filter these Invoices is also available here and is useful to locate any Invoices specifically as required:
- Invoice - the Invoice Number is displayed here e.g. SA000090, along with a target icon link to navigate to the Edit Direct Invoice screen as required. The Debtor for the Invoice can be changed from this screen, along with the ability to remove Invoice Items or Cancel Invoice Items as required. Please see the View/Edit Direct Invoice screen article linked below for more information.
- N.B. the Invoice Number can be customised for your organisation as required, as outlined in the Invoice Number Formatting article linked below.
- Debtor - Displays the debtor that the Invoice has been issued for.
- This may be a Financial Plan Management Contact e.g. Local Financial Intermediary Service Provider, the Client, or the Client's Billing Contact depending on how the relevant Funding record has been configured
- Client - a link to the Client record is available here
- Funding - a link to the Client's Funding record is available here
- If the Invoice is associated with Billable (No Funding) in the Activity, no link is provided here as this is not a Funding record
- Value Excl GST - total value of the Invoice excluding GST
- GST - total value of the GST component of the Invoice where applicable
- Value Inc GST - total value of the Invoice including GST
Invoice Batches are designed to be exported from SupportAbility and then imported into your organisation's finance system, as outlined below.
Bulk Actions Menu - Remove [Invoice] from Invoice Batch
Invoices can be removed from the Direct Invoice Batch as required.
To remove Invoices from the Direct Invoice Batch, select the relevant Invoice/s, and then select 'Remove from Invoice Batch':
You will be asked to confirm this, and to do so select 'Remove':
This Invoice will no longer be included in the Direct Invoice Batch and will be available for inclusion again in a subsequent Direct Invoice Batch. If you don't want this to be processed again, you may wish to review the options to Cancel this, as outlined in the related articles linked below.
Download the relevant Direct Invoice Batch export
Now that the Direct Invoice Batch has been generated, it is ready to be exported for your organisation's finance system. To do so, navigate to the Actions menu found in the top right corner of the screen:
Select the applicable Invoice Batch for your organisation.
N.B. If your organisation has had a custom Invoice Batch created, only your organisation will see this as an option available for selection in the Actions menu. The available options listed above are those that all providers can see and utilise.
If your organisation uses a finance system that an Invoice Batch export is not currently available for, please review the Custom Finance Integration article linked below.
Invoices for the Client, or their Billing Contact, for Self Managed Clients; or the Plan Management organisation who is managing a Client's NDIS Funding, will need to be issued to the relevant party from your organisation's finance system. It is the responsibility of your finance system to format & distribute these Invoices and to manage the accounts receivable process.
What happens when more than one person is in the process of generating a Direct Invoice Batch at a time?
When a Direct Invoice Batch is in the process of being generated, an amber warning message appears to alert you to this:
Any Invoice Items that have been included in the Direct Invoice Batch that is in the process of being generated, will not be available when a Search has been performed.
This message also includes information about who in your organisation is generating the Invoice Batch, along with the Date and Time this was commenced for reference.
View Direct Invoice Batches
Any Direct Invoice Batches that have been generated can be viewed at any time from the List Direct Invoice Batches section of the Finance menu:
A list of the Direct Invoice Batches that have been generated is displayed, including:
- a link to each Invoice Batch
- a badge to indicate if the format for NDIA Invoices is Combined
- the Created Date
- who it was Created By
- the Number of Invoices included
- the Invoice Date
- a link to the Bulk Payment Request (BPR) if applicable
- the Value Excl GST
- the value of the GST component
- the Value Inc GST
