NDIS Budget Utilisation Report

The NDIS Budget Utilisation Report, generated from the 'Client Funding Reports' section of the Reports menu, allows providers to search for the NDIS Client Funding Support Budgets as configured in NDIS Client Funding records via a range of search criteria. It is a useful report to track the Utilisation of NDIS Support Budgets holistically, for multiple Clients, simultaneously. 

The Overall Utilisation analysis figures can be used to identify any NDIS Support Budgets that are near to being fully utilised. Monitoring the Remaining $ compared to the Remaining Days in the Funding Period helps to identify this (example outlined below). 
The Utilisation To Date Variance is also helpful when checked periodically to identify expenditure trends, including potential issues such as overspending too early into the Funding Period. Issues such as this could potentially result in a Client exhausting their Support Budgets, or underutilising their funding significantly before the end of the Funding Period.   
This data can be narrowed down to specific Clients, or those who participate in specific Sites and/or Services,  or by various NDIS Funding parameters such as a Funding Start or End Date range. NDIS Support Item Budgets or Flexible Category Budgets can be searched for specifically, as well as searching for NDIS Support Budgets by the minimum or maximum Remaining Budget % or $ value.  

A comprehensive export is available to download when more detailed information is required, allowing providers to analyse this information outside of SupportAbility. 

This article steps through the purpose of this report, how to generate this report, the available search criteria, viewing the list results and exporting this report. 

Privileges: In order to generate the NDIS Budget Utilisation Report, the 'View Financial Information' Staff Account privilege is required. The results returned are based on the Client records that the individual has access to. 

Audience: Authorised Representatives, Finance Team, Team Leaders, Operations Management

Summary

The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:

Prerequisites

It is recommended to have an understanding of how Funding Utilisation is tracked in SupportAbility at an individual level ahead of using this report. Please review the following articles linked below for reference: 

  • NDIS Direct Client Funding Utilisation
  • NDIS Plan Managed Client Funding Utilisation (for providers of Plan Management Services only)

Report Purpose

The NDIS Budget Utilisation Report has been developed to give providers visibility over Client Funding NDIS Support Budgets holistically. A large range of search criteria is available to select from, allowing the data to be queried from many angles based on the various business requirements associated with NDIS Support Budgets. 

This report can be used to identify Budgets at the end of the Funding Period and review the balance Remaining, as well as the Remaining Budget % in order to determine if there are sufficient funds available. It is also useful to monitor throughout the Funding Period periodically as an indication of the spending pattern associated with each NDIS Support Budget as at the current date is available via the Variance %, which may assist in identifying any issues early on. 

Let's explore how this report can be used to achieve this. 

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Reviewing the NDIS Support Budgets Remaining balance 

We can search for NDIS Support Budgets that are near the end of the Funding Period, to review the Remaining balance to ensure there is enough remaining to cover the services they're set to participate in. 

If we wish to search for all NDIS Support Budgets that have been included in NDIS Direct Client Funding records ending within the next three months, the Funding End Date range search criteria allows us to do so: 

From the results returned, we can see that we have two NDIS Direct Client Funding records ending within this date range, comprised of five NDIS Support Budgets. Reviewing the 'Remaining $' column vs. 'Remaining Days' gives us an indication of the available funds in each Budget for the remainder of the Funding Period:

We can see that Ted's Flexible Cat 004  Budget has 23.52% ($235.23) of the funds remaining with only 10.63% (39 days) of the Funding Period left:

There is $159.68 worth of 'Planned' Allocations, so it appears that Ted is on track and has enough remaining funds for the period. 

Whereas Ted's Cat 0015 Flexible Budget has been fully utilised, however, this has been made 'unavailable' in the Funding record so it can longer be used in the Activities he participates in. 

In the case of a large number of search results, these can be refined further by choosing the additional search criterion to only show Budgets where the Support is available: 

In addition, a search can be performed for NDIS Support Budgets with a maximum of 10% of the Budget remaining: 

Similar to the above example, reviewing the 'Remaining $' column vs. 'Remaining Days' gives us an indication of the available funds for these NDIS Support Budgets for the remainder of the Funding Period. N.B. Any values entered from within the Min and Max field can be deleted to clear this Search Criterion. 

This search reveals that the NDIS Support Budget for Caileigh for PPE has been completely utilised: 

To ensure that this is no longer allocated, we can navigate to Caileigh's Funding record and make this Support unavailable: 

We can also see that Jessie's Flexible Cat 0001 Budget only has 22 cents remaining as at the current date of the 30th of November, 2020, yet the Funding Period End Date is not until the 7th of August, 2021: 

This is an indication that we will need to discuss this with Jessie to determine if she needs continued support in this area, to ensure the Budget can be increased. If this is not possible, we will need to discuss alternative options now that this funding is almost exhausted.

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Reviewing the Variance % to assess the Funding Utilisation status periodically

To assess the Funding Utilisation status periodically, a search can be generated based on any of the required parameters, then the Variance % indicator in the Utilisation To Date section of the search results can be reviewed. 

For example, if we wish to search for Support Coordination Support Item Budgets specifically, the 'Support Item Budgets' search criterion can be used to achieve this: 

The 'Variance %' column of the Utilisation To Date section provides a status check based on how far into the Funding Period it is to date, and thus, ideally how much Funding should be allocated by this point in time for each NDIS Support Budget based on an even spending pattern: 

We can see that as at the current date (30th of November, 2020 at time of writing), the Actual Allocations associated with Tim's Funding record is 54.85% over what is expected to be allocated for this Budget. 

This indicates that if Tim continues to utilise Support Coordination Allocations at this rate consistently over the Funding Period, he will run out of funds for this NDIS Support Budget before the Funding End Date. 

The NDIS Budget Utilisation Report export provides additional Utilisation information to help inform you regarding how the Variance % is determined. With our example case here for Tim, we can see that the 'Target Allocated' value (i.e. the expected value of all Supports Allocated in Activities that commenced on or before today) is $1422.75 for 07_002_0106_8_3. The 'Actual Allocated' value (i.e. of all Supports Allocated in Activities that commenced on or before today) is $2203.08:

The 'Variance $', +$780.33 and 'Variance %', +$54.85% is calculated based on how far the Actual Allocated value is from the Target Allocated. 

The Utilisation To Date information is designed to provide a snapshot in time regarding how the Client's Funding is tracking. This is most beneficial in the early to mid-stages of the Funding Period to monitor spending patterns and intervene where required. However, the closer it gets to the Funding End Date, the more relevant the Overall Utilisation becomes with the Remaining column displaying the balance left. 

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How to generate an NDIS Budget Utilisation Report

Select 'Reports' from the Dashboard:

Navigate to the 'Funding' subsection of the 'Clients' section in the Reports menu and select 'NDIS Budget Utilisation Report':

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Search Criteria 

A range of search criteria is available to select from in three key sections that can be used independently, or in conjunction, to search across NDIS Client Funding Support Budgets in SupportAbility:

  • Clients
  • NDIS Funding
  • Budget

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Clients

The Clients section allows you to choose search criteria related to the Client that the NDIS Support Budgets are associated with, including: 

  • Clients
  • Client Status
  • Sites
  • Services
Clients

If you wish to search for NDIS Support Budgets 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 report on by typing in the individual's name: 

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Client Status

Client Status is now separate from the Clients search criterion and is Active by default, however, Budgets for Inactive Clients can be searched for as required: 

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Sites

The Sites and Services search criteria are related to the Sites and Services as listed in the Client Service Participation. So selecting Sites and Services here will return NDIS Support Budgets for Clients who participate in these Sites and Services.

All Active  Sites are selected by default: 

Select the Sites you wish to report on if a specific Site is required or type in what you are after e.g. Gold Coast, to narrow down the list of NDIS Support Budgets to those for Client's who participate at this Site. 

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Services

Similarly, all Active  Services are selected by default: 

Select the Services you wish to report on if a specific Service is required or type in what you are after e.g. Support Coordination, to narrow down the list of NDIS Support Budgets to those for Client's who participate in at this Service. 

N.B. When Site and/or Service search criteria is selected, the results returned are limited to Clients who are actively participating in these Sites and/or Services.

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NDIS Funding

The NDIS Funding section allows you to choose search criteria related to the NDIS Funding that the NDIS Support Budgets are associated with, including: 

  • Type
  • Funding Start Date
  • Funding End Date
  • Client Funding Tags
Type

By default, the NDIS Funding Type 'Direct' is used to search for NDIS Support Budgets included in NDIS Direct Client Funding records. However, for providers who deliver Plan Management Services, Budgets for NDIS Plan Managed Funds can also be searched for using this report also: 

N.B. When 'Plan Managed' is selected, given the Budgets for Plan Managed Funds are being searched for, any search criteria that is not applicable is hidden. 

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Funding Start Date

The Funding Start Date range allows you to search for Funding records that start within a specific period: 

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Funding End Date

Similarly, the Funding End Date range allows you to search for Funding records that end within a specific period: 

The Funding End Date range has a default 'From' date of the current date. This is to ensure that if a search is performed, it will return NDIS Support Budgets associated with active Client Funding records.  

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Client Funding Tags

From the upgrade to SupportAbility v7.10 (June, 2021) the  Client Funding Tags search criterion is available, designed to assist providers to review NDIS Support Budgets associated with NDIS Direct Client Funding records with specific Tags: 

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Client Funding On Billing Hold

From the upgrade to SupportAbility v7.17 (October, 2021) the Client Funding On Billing Hold search criterion is available, designed to assist providers to find or omit NDIS Support Budgets associated with NDIS Direct Client Funding records that are On Billing Hold: 

When a Client Funding record is placed 'On Billing Hold', the 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.

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Budget

The Budget section allows you to choose search criteria related to the associated configuration of NDIS Support Budgets as well as the Remaining Budget % or $ value, including:

  • Financial Plan Manager (FPM)
  • Support Available
  • Support Item Budgets
  • Flexible Category Budgets
  • Remaining Budget %
  • Remaining Budget $
Financial Plan Manager (FPM)

To search for NDIS Support Budgets by a specific  Financial Plan Manager (FPM) or group of FPM's as configured for the associated Support in the Client's NDIS Direct Funding record, this may be selected here: 

This allows you to search for NDIS Support Budgets by: 

  • the broader category of Financial Plan Manager as configured for the associated NDIS Supports: FPM (Plan Managed), Clients (Self Managed), or Client Personal Contacts (Self Managed),   
    • For example, selecting 'Clients' will yield results of all NDIS Support Budgets where the Client is configured as the FPM in their NDIS Direct Funding record, or 
  • the results can be narrowed down to a specific Financial Plan Manager 
    • either by selecting the relevant Plan Management organisation e.g. 'Plans R Us' from the list or entering part of the name in the 'Select FPMs' field to display the options which match the information entered.  Once selected, this will yield results of NDIS Support Budgets where the organisation 'Plans R Us' is configured as the FPM in NDIS Direct Client Funding records

N.B. The available options to select from are based on the Financial Plan Manager configuration in your organisation's NDIS Direct Client Funding records. For example, if there are no Client Personal Contacts that have been configured as an FPM, there will be no specific Client Personal Contacts to select from and filtering the list by this search criterion will yield no results. 

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Support Available

The Support Available search criterion is most useful as it allows you to limit the results to only Budgets for NDIS Supports that are available: 

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Support Items

NDIS Support Budgets for specific  Support Items can be searched for: 

With the ability to 'select all' Support Item Budgets which have a 'Notional Unit Price', are associated with the 'Transitional' or 'New' Approach to Community and Centre Based Group Supports (designed to assist with this transition), or all Support Item Budgets belonging to a specific Category e.g. Category 0001: Assistance with daily life.

Scrolling down further, the full list of Support Items are available to select from, noting that the Support Items available are those from NDIS Price Guides for the two last calendar years: 

You can also simply start typing the Support Item that you are looking for in the search bar to locate this too e.g. Support Coordination: 

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Flexible Category Budgets

Similarly, the Flexible Category Budgets you wish to search for may be selected: 

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Remaining Budget %

NDIS Support Budgets can be located by the minimum-maximum Remaining Budget % e.g. to search for all Budgets with a maximum of 10% left: 

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Remaining Budget $

As well as by Remaining Budget $ value e.g. to search for all Budgets with a maximum of $100 left: 

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List results

Once the report has been generated, the results will be listed below along with a summary of the number of search results:

N.B. This Report returns a maximum of 40,000 list results. 

The list results are sorted by Funding End date by default and include information regarding Client Funding, followed by Overall Utilisation and Utilisation To Date. Each of the columns with a double icon arrow can be sorted in ascending or descending order depending on how you wish to review the results. 

Client Funding 
  • Client - the Client and NDIS Number the NDIS Support Budget is associated with linking directly to the Client record
  • Funding - the Funding record the NDIS Support Budget is included in, as well as the associated Financial Plan Manager (FPM)
  • Funding Start - the Start Date of the Funding Period
  • Funding End - the End Date of the Funding Period
  • Support - the NDIS Support the Budget has been created for at either the Flexible Category level or NDIS Support Item level
Overall Utilisation
  • Budget - the Total Budget for the NDIS Support
  • Planned - the total value of all NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have not yet had the Activity Sign Off performed. This usually represents services yet to be delivered or those that are yet to be finalised. 
  • Claiming - the total value of all NDIA Managed NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have had the Activity Sign Off performed and are awaiting inclusion in a Direct BPR or have been included in this process but are not yet Accepted. 
  • Used - the total value of all Self and Plan Managed NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have had the Activity Sign Off performed, and NDIA Managed NDIS Support Allocations that are Accepted. 
  • Remaining $ - the remaining value of the Total Budget minus Allocated (i.e. Planned, Claiming and Used)
  • Remaining Days - the remaining days in the Funding Period

N.B. From the upgrade to SupportAbility v7.20 (February 2022) the order of the 'Overall Utilisation' columns has been updated in the Utilisation tab of Client NDIS Funding records and the NDIS Budget Utilisation Report. These columns are now ordered as follows: 

  • Budget 
  • Claiming 
  • Used 
  • Planned 
  • Total Allocated

This change has been made so that Planned expenditure is listed after Used, as Planned expenditure reflects Allocations in Activities that are not yet Signed Off which is generally related to future-dated Activities.

Utilisation To Date

  • Variance % - calculated based on how far the Actual Allocated value is from the Target Allocated
    • Threshold Warnings 
      • Underspend: If the 'Variance from Target' % is less than the 'Underspend Warning' % threshold (configured in System Preferences, 10% by default), these values are displayed in amber to indicate an underspend warning.
      • Overspend: If the 'Variance from Target' % is greater than the 'Overspend Warning' % threshold (configured in System Preferences, 5% by default), these values are displayed in red to indicate an overspend warning.

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Report export

Once the report has been generated, there is the option to download a CSV export of this report by selecting the Actions menu on the top right-hand side of the window:

Once opened in a program like Microsoft Excel, the following columns are listed in the Allocations Report export: 

  • Client First Name
  • Client Last Name
  • Active Client - Yes/No
  • NDIS Number - Client NDIS Number
  • SupportAbility Client ID 
  • Funding Start Date
  • Funding End Date
  • NDIS Funding Type - Direct/Plan Managed

  • Support - NDIS Support the Budget has been created for i.e. the NDIS Support Item or Flexible Category
  • Support Name
  • FPM - Financial Plan Manager for the NDIS Support Budget as configured in the NDIS Direct Funding record
  • Support Available - Yes/No

The next columns are all associated with the ' Overall Utilisation' of the NDIS Support Budget: 

  • Budget - the Total Budget for the NDIS Support
  • Planned - the total value of all NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have not yet had the Activity Sign Off performed. This usually represents services yet to be delivered or those that are yet to be finalised. 
  • Claiming - the total value of all NDIA Managed NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have had the Activity Sign Off performed and are awaiting inclusion in a Direct BPR or have been included in this process but are not yet Accepted.
  • Used - the total value of all Self and Plan Managed NDIS Support Allocations associated with the Budget that have had the Activity Sign Off performed, and NDIA Managed NDIS Support Allocations that are Accepted. 
  • Total Allocated - the total value of the Planned, Claiming and Used
  • Remaining Budget $ - the remaining dollar value of the Total Budget minus Allocated (i.e. Planned, Claiming and Used)
  • Remaining Budget % - the remaining percentage value of the Total Budget minus Allocated (i.e. Planned, Claiming and Used)
  • Remaining Days - the remaining days in the Funding Period
  • Remaining Days % - the remaining percentage of days in the Funding Period

  • Target Allocated - the expected value of all Supports Allocated in Activities that commenced on or before today
  • Actual Allocated To Date - all Supports Allocated in Activities that commenced on or before today
  • Variance $ - the variance from target represented in dollar value (calculated based on how far the Actual Allocated value is from the Target Allocated)
  • Variance % - the variance from target represented in percentage (calculated based on how far the Actual Allocated value is from the Target Allocated)

  • Support Notes - notes as entered for each NDIS Support in the Funding record
  • Funding Notes - notes as entered at the top of the NDIS Funding record

  • Funding Name - as per the associated Funding record
  • Client Funding Tags - pipe separated e.g. NDIA Managed | Service Booking - required, as saved in the associated NDIS Direct Client Funding record
  • Client Funding On Billing Hold - Yes/No, when No, the next fields are empty as they are not applicable
  • Client Funding On Billing Hold Since - Date of last change of On Billing Hold to Yes
  • Client Funding On Billing Hold By - Staff Member Name who changed On Billing Hold to Yes
  • Total Value On Billing Hold for Budget - Displays the total value of all Activity expenditure that is currently on hold relative to each Budget
  • Funding Record Creation Date - is the date the Funding record was created which may fall within or outside the Funding period

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