Non-NDIS Client Funding
SupportAbility understands the complexities of NDIS funding and caters to this, allowing invoicing for the NDIA, Self Managed Clients and Plan Managed Clients or a combination of all three where required. Managing NDIS funding is what SupportAbility does well and we recommend all subscribers utilise this inbuilt functionality for efficiencies in this area.
SupportAbility does not, however, understand the pricing for any other funding models, including any private or fee-for-service invoicing a provider may offer.
There is however some functionality available for managing Non-NDIS Billing in SupportAbility, such as using Activity Costs to generate Client Invoices for an individual fixed dollar amount.
This article outlines how to configure Non-NDIS Client Funding, create a Non-NDIS Direct Client Funding record, and create Shared Contact records for Financial Plan Management organisations which can be set as the 'Debtor for Invoices' in the Funding record.
Information is also provided about monitoring and tracking Non-NDIS funding expenditure and utilisation via the Utilisation tab of the Client's Funding record when a Budget has been entered to track against. The printable Client Funding Statement summarises expenditure for the purpose of providing clear documentation of this to Clients as required.
Audience: Finance Team
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Prior Configuration
- Creating a Non-NDIS Client Funding record
- Activity Costs
- Client Funding Statement
- Utilisation tab
- Migrated records (pre v6.0)
- Future plans
Prior Configuration
Prior to creating Non-NDIS Funding records, there is some required configuration to be completed first:
- Adding the relevant Non-NDIS Funding Types, including configuring the Services they will be applicable for
- Creating Shared Contact records for the organisations who will be responsible for paying Non-NDIS Invoices
- Adding a Provider number for Staff delivering Clinical Services
Information on completing these steps is outlined in detail below.
Configuring Non-NDIS Funding
To add a new Funding Type, navigate to the 'Funding Types' section of the Funding tab in System Preferences and select the '+' icon 'Add a new Funding Type':
Enter the name of the new Funding Type e.g. TAC:
Active Status
By default new Funding Types are set to be Active, however, they can also be de-activated by deselecting the Active checkbox next to the name, when no longer in use.
Next the Funding Type Settings need to be updated as outlined below.
Funding overrides rate card
When Rate Cards have been configured in System Preferences the 'Funding overrides rate card' setting allows customised Non-NDIS Rates to be entered for each Client, thereby overriding the standard Non-NDIS Rates configured in an active Rate Card:
If this setting is configured, when a Non-NDIS Client Funding record is added for this Funding Type, Custom Rates can be configured for this Client which will be used instead of the Rates configured in the Rate Card:
As Rate Cards are used for Non-NDIS billing purposes only and are subject to Cost Amortisation, due to these limitations, this functionality has been scheduled to be decommissioned in future. Please refer to the Decommissioned Feature Notices section of the SupportAbility Roadmap article for more information regarding this.
Therefore, we recommend using a Non-NDIS Funding record in combination with Activity Costs to manage non-NDIS billing instead of the Rate Card or this 'Funding overrides rate card' setting. However, if your organisation would like to understand more about the Rate Card functionality, please see the Setting up the Rate Card (Non-NDIS funding ONLY) article linked below for reference.
Funding is used in QDC & QDC Code
Enabling this setting activates the Funding Type by default when generating a QDC Report. QDC stands for Quarterly Data Collection. The QDC Report was one of the initial Reports built in SupportAbility to assist Providers pre-NDIS in managing their reporting requirements. This Report provided information regarding Client participation via Activity Duration for Activities funded by Non-NDIS Funding Types.
The corresponding QDC Code may also be set as the default for this Funding Type when it is utilised to pay for an instance of service delivery in an Activity.
More detailed information about the Report is available in the Quarterly Data Collection (QDC) Report article linked below for reference.
Clinical
Non-NDIS Funding Types set to 'Clinical' allow providers to track a Claim Number and Injury Date against Client Funding records of this type:
Invoice Format
When the 'Invoice Format' is set to Clinical:
The Staff Member's name and their Provider Number e.g. Dave Lucas (#AFX39841) will be included in the 'Reference' and 'Description' fields:
Please see the Managing Clinical Non-NDIS Funding article linked below for more information regarding this.
Usable by Services
Each of the Active Services your organisation delivers is listed here to select from:
The Services that are able to be paid for using this Funding Type must be selected:
Configuring the usable Services ensures that the relevant Client Funding records for this Funding Type can be selected as the Funding Source in Activities for those Services:
If the relevant Services have not been selected as usable for a Funding Type, a warning message will display in the Activity advising the Client Funding is not available for this Activity:
Creating a 'Financial Plan Management' Shared Contact Record
Any Staff Member can create a Shared Contact record and no special privileges are required in order to create one.
To create a Shared Contact record for organisations managing non-NDIS funding, select the '+' icon next to Shared Contacts on the Dashboard menu:
A notification message will display advising 'You are about to add a new Shared Contact record'. Select the '+ Add a new Shared Contact' button to proceed:
Once selected, you will be navigated directly to the new record.
The Shared Contact record has multiple tabs as shown below:
Some of these tabs require specific privileges in order to see and access them as follows:
- The 'Funding' tab is only visible and accessible to Staff who have been granted the 'View Financial Information' privilege.
- The 'NDIS FPM' tab is only visible and accessible to Staff who have been granted the 'View Financial Information' privilege as well as having access to the Financial Plan Management Service
The organisation's details are entered on the 'Shared Contact Details' tab, including all of the relevant information required to be populated in the Invoices generated for your organisation's Finance system from SupportAbility.
Select the 'Debtor for Non-NDIS Invoices' checkbox in the Financials section to ensure this Shared Contact is available for selection as the 'Debtor for Invoices' in the relevant Client Funding records:
Once set in the Client's Funding, when the Client is paying for the Services delivered using this Funding Type, the Invoices will be issued to the correct party.
Adding a Provider Number for Staff delivering Clinical Services
The Provider Number for Staff who provide Clinical Services can be entered in the 'Clinical Details' section on the 'Human Resources' tab of the relevant Staff Account:
N.B. To access and update this information, the 'Human Resources' Staff Account Privilege is required for the Sites and Services the Staff member works in.
When the Provicer Number has been entered, it will appear in the Invoices generated for Funding Types set to 'Clinical' and the 'Invoice Format' set to Clinical.
Creating a Non-NDIS Client Funding record
Only Staff with the 'View Financial Information' privilege will be able to add or edit Client Funding.
To create a Non-NDIS Funding Type, navigate to the Funding tab of the Client record and select the '+ Add' button under the Direct Client Funding section:
The default Funding Type is set to NDIS:
Select the relevant Non-NDIS Funding Type e.g. Clinical, from the list of options which will automatically update the remaining fields relevant for non-NDIS Funding:
Detailed information on completing these fields is outlined in the How to create a Direct Funding record article, linked below for reference.
Debtor for Invoices
The 'Debtor for Invoices' is the entity responsible for paying for the services your organisation delivers when this Funding record is used as the Funding Source in the Activities the Client participates in.
The options available for selection include:
- Client or their nominated Billing Contact - applicable when the Client needs to be Invoiced directly
- Please review the How to update the Client Billing Contact for Clients who need to be Invoiced article linked below for more information.
- Debtor Contacts
- The options available to select from will depend on the Shared Contact records that your organisation has created and configured with 'Debtor for Non-NDIS Invoices' (previously 'Financial Plan Manager'), e.g. Local Financial Intermediary Services
- The options available to select from will depend on the Shared Contact records that your organisation has created and configured with 'Debtor for Non-NDIS Invoices' (previously 'Financial Plan Manager'), e.g. Local Financial Intermediary Services
Start and End Date
Using the calendar icons, enter the 'Start Date' to reflect the commencement date of the Funding period and the 'End Date' to reflect the end date of the Funding period:
Once entered, this essentially becomes the validity period in which this Funding can be used.
Total Budget
Once the Non-NDIS Direct Client Funding record has been added, additional information can be added, including the Total Budget that you have an arrangement in place to deliver to the Client and their associated Budget value to track Utilisation:
N.B. A value is only required if your organisation wishes to track Utilisation against this. Expenditure will always be tracked for this Non-NDIS Funding record and can be viewed in the Utilisation tab and Client Funding Statement. Please review the How to Generate a Client Funding Statement article for more information.
Activity Costs
Activity Costs can be used to charge for service delivery for Clients who are paying your organisation using a Non-NDIS Funding Source e.g. TAC or Clinical Funding.
Individual Activity Costs are added in the 'Activity Cost' field for the relevant Client/s in the Activity record:
Following the Activity Cost being entered, the corresponding 'Activity Costs Funded By' section may need to be updated to reflect how the Client is paying for this charge.
When 'Funding Source' is selected in the 'Activity Costs Funded By' field:
The Activity Cost e.g. $35.00 will be related to the selected 'Funding Source' e.g. Tommy's Non-NDIS Funding record; Clinical: 29/09/2021 - 28/09/2023 (#93):
When a Non-NDIS Funding record is used as the Client's 'Funding Source', expenditure is accrued against this in the Utilisation tab of the Client's Non-NDIS Funding record, as outlined in the Utilisation Tab section below.
Detailed information about Activity Costs is outlined in the related article, linked below for reference.
Client Funding Statement
A Client Funding Statement is available for Billable and Non-NDIS Funding and can be printed from the Client's record or the Client's Funding record for Staff with access to the Client record and the View Financial Information privilege:
Select the relevant Non-NDIS Client Funding record from the options displayed, and enter the Report Start/End Dates, then select the Generate Report button:
Both a Summary and Detailed List of expenditure for the selected reporting period is outlined for the purpose of providing clear documentation to Clients as required:
Utilisation tab
The Utilisation tab of the Client's Funding record provides an 'Overall Utilisation Summary', 'Utilisation Summary to Date', and Utilisation per month:
When no Budget has been entered, this may still be used to monitor expenditure as required.
Overall Utilisation Summary
The purpose of this section is to provide a holistic summary of the total Overall Funding Utilisation, summarised in dollar value and percentage form:
- Total Budget - the 'Total Budget' entered in the Non-NDIS Direct Client Funding record
- Used - the total value of all Expenditure e.g. Activity Costs, for services that have had the Activity Sign Off performed, whether billing has been processed yet or not.
- Allocated - the total value of all Expenditure e.g. Activity Costs for services that have had the Activity Sign Off performed and those yet to be finalised or delivered.
Utilisation - Variance
Utilisation analysis relies on the base assumption that the Client will utilise these funds at a consistent rate throughout the Funding Period, which may not always be the case. However, the Variance from Target indicators can help with performing a periodic status check regarding the Client's Funding Utilisation in order to identify over or under-spending patterns as early as possible and make the appropriate interventions as required.
Migrated records (pre v6.0)
Each migrated non-NDIS Client Funding record will store and display 'Legacy Information', which summarises how the Total Value of the Client Funding was originally calculated, along any other information and settings relevant to the Client Funding record that will no longer be included in Non-NDIS Funding records e.g. Total Value calculations and Support Level:
Future plans
Our long term goal is to improve the Non-NDIS Funding capabilities of SupportAbility and allow providers to create and manage an editable price list for Service costs akin to the NDIS Price Guide, providing full control over configuring the costs associated with Service delivery outside of the NDIS. However, in the spirit of transparency, it is important to set the expectation that these updates have not yet been scheduled into our development roadmap and will realistically be some time away.
This is due to the added efficiency and adhering to compliance requirements under the NDIS being the primary focus for the evolution of the SupportAbility product. Future Non-NDIS Client Funding enhancements will be prioritised in our product roadmap if and when this functionality becomes a priority for our collective subscriber base. Therefore it is up to an organisation to decide if SupportAbility is the best tool to manage its Non-NDIS billing at this point in time.