How to correct NDIS Support Allocations after Activity Sign Off in Finance Edit Mode (edit, delete and/or add)
Traditionally, once the Activity Sign Off had been performed, Client NDIS Support Allocations were locked due to this. This meant that any required changes after Sign Off could not be made unless the Activity Sign Off was removed. However, this was not always possible in all situations, particularly Group Activities if billing assets (Direct BPRs and/or Invoices) had been generated for any of the participants.
The upgrade to SupportAbility v7.18 (Nov, 2021) aims to address this and ensures the Activity Sign Off is no longer a barrier to performing corrections. Staff Members with Finance Admin privileges now have the ability to make changes to NDIS Support Allocations after the Activity Sign Off has been performed as required.
This allows NDIS Support Allocations to be corrected in situations where Supports were billed incorrectly or encountered an error. For example, where an incorrect Quantity or Support Item was used, or when insufficient funds remain in the service booking.
This article outlines how to correct NDIS Support Allocation errors in Signed Off Activities in Finance Edit Mode by editing, deleting and/or adding NDIS Support Allocations based on the changes required.
Privileges: Finance Admin (those with the 'View Financial Information' privilege in combination with either the 'Edit ALL Client Records', or 'Team Leader for ALL Services' privilege)
Audience: Finance Team, Team Leaders
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Where are changes to NDIS Support Allocations in Signed Off Activities made?
- How to correct NDIS Support Allocations - before financial processing
- How to correct NDIS Support Allocations - following financial processing
- How can other errors from the portal be addressed?
- How to correct an error due to NDIS Support Allocations being claimed for the wrong date
Where are changes to NDIS Support Allocations in Signed Off Activities made?
Changes to NDIS Support Allocations are made in the Activity record itself and are limited to Staff with Finance Admin privileges.
A blue notification appears at the top of the Activity record for Staff Members with these privileges, advising any saved changes to NDIS Support Allocations will be available to include in BPRs and/or Direct Invoice Batches immediately.
Corrections to NDIS Support Allocations are made by selecting the blue NDIS Support Allocations button for the relevant Client in the Activity record:
NDIS Support Allocations - Finance Edit Mode
Finance Edit Mode allows Support Allocations to be edited (e.g. an incorrect Quantity fixed) or deleted (e.g. if the wrong Support Item was selected) prior to financial processing, i.e. up until billing assets (Direct Invoices or BPRs) have been created for these Allocations.
Any required changes can be made to the Quantity, Claim Type, Portion, (Travel/Transport) Cost Type or Custom Price (where relevant).
New NDIS Support Allocations can be added at any time in Finance Edit Mode as required (e.g. as a replacement for a deleted Support) via the Add Support Item lookup or the Duplicate function in the Actions menu:
It is important to note that once any required changes are saved in Finance Edit Mode, these will be available for inclusion in BPRs and Direct Invoice Batches immediately following this.
Staff Members without Finance Admin privileges can continue to access the NDIS Support Allocation window in Signed Off Activities to see the Finance Status of Allocations, however, they are unable to make any changes:
Are changes made in Finance Edit Mode replicated to future Activities in the Set?
Any changes made in Finance Edit Mode are limited to the individual Activity and are not replicated to future Activities in the set, regardless of whether or not the Client Replication Management Settings are active.
If a change needs to be made to NDIS Support Allocations and replicated to future Activities in the Set, these must be updated in an Activity that has not had the Sign Off completed yet and replicated from here.
Please see the Replicating changes to an Activity Set article linked below for more information.
What can't be updated in Finance Edit Mode?
It is important to note that the 'No Charge' setting cannot be updated in Finance Edit Mode, therefore if the participant should no longer be charged for the NDIS Support Allocations that have been added, you may wish to delete these instead of this.
Similarly, the Client's participation can not be updated to being part of a 'Program of Support' in Finance Edit Mode, this must have been completed before the Activity Sign Off was performed.
How to correct NDIS Support Allocation errors - before financial processing
The Activity Sign Off essentially approves NDIS Support Allocations for inclusion in Direct Bulk Payment Requests (BPRs) or Direct Invoice Batches, based on how the Client's NDIS Funding is managed.
However, there are often occasions where mistakes are noticed and changes to NDIS Support Allocations are required, in order to successfully complete financial processing.
This may be noticed when reviewing the Activity record itself, or when using various searches or reports. For example, errors may be noticed when generating a BPR or Direct Invoice Batch, which can now be corrected for the relevant Client/s in the NDIS Support Allocations window of the Activity record by those with Finance Admin privileges. These processes are slightly different, therefore, an example of noticing errors as part of each of these processes has been outlined below.
How to make corrections when generating a Direct BPR
To correct any errors noticed during the process of generating a Direct BPR (prior to the BPR being created), navigate to the relevant Activity by selecting the Activity Name link:
Open the NDIS Support Allocations for the relevant Client e.g. Petra:
For example, if we notice that the incorrect Quantity e.g. 11 was entered by mistake instead of 1:
This can now be corrected in Finance Edit Mode:
Or, if a Support Item needs to be updated e.g. a Saturday Support is required instead of a Weekday, the correct ones can be added via the 'Add Support Item' search and the incorrect Support/s can be deleted:
Once the Save NDIS Support Allocations button is selected, any changes made are available immediately in the BPR process.
N.B. If you have multiple tabs open during this process and then navigate back to the BPR in progress following completion of all required changes, these changes will not yet be reflected in the list results or the confirmation window, as this will continue to show the totals that were relevant when this process was first initiated:
When changes to NDIS Support Allocations are required as part of this process, we, recommend generating the BPR again by selecting 'Start Again':
Then generating the BPR again:
This ensures that the list of Allocations includes all changes made before the BPR is created:
How to make corrections when generating a Direct Invoice Batch
When generating a Direct Invoice Batch, the 'View' button can be selected to open the Pending Invoice in order to review each of the included Invoice Items and ensure they are correct:
If any changes are required, these are made from the Activity record, so we recommend opening this in a new tab also:
Open the NDIS Support Allocations for the relevant Client e.g. Rogan and change the required values:
For example, change the Quantity from 15h to 15m for Non-Face-To-Face, as well as the Portion for Activity Based Transport from 1:1 to 1:2:
Once the Save NDIS Support Allocations button is selected, any changes made are available immediately in the Invoice Batch process.
When attempting to Generate an Invoice Batch after changes have been made in Finance Edit Mode, a red warning will appear indicating that the Batch could not be generated due to the values have changed and requesting you ensure that this is correct before clicking 'Generate Invoice Batch' again:
This will successfully create the Invoice Batch with the updated values.
However, if Supports have been added in Finance Edit Mode, these will not be included in the Invoice Batch in progress. Therefore, as best practice, when changes are made, we recommend selecting 'Start Again':
Then generating the Direct Invoice Batch again:
This ensures that the Invoices include all changes to Invoice Items made, before the Direct Invoice Batch is generated:
How to correct NDIS Support Allocations - following financial processing
How to make corrections following a Rejection from the portal
Errors with NDIS Support Allocations may become known at different stages of financial processing. For example, when an error is returned in the Bulk Payment Results File (BPRF) downloaded from the myplace provider portal such as not enough remaining funds in the service booking:
The Rejected Allocation must first be Cancelled in the BPR:
Please see the BPR Rejected Claim Action - Cancel article for a detailed overview of this process.
Then navigate to the Activity to add the correct Allocation in the Client's NDIS Support Allocations:
Once the required changes are saved, this Allocation is available for inclusion immediately in the next BPR for claiming at the correct amount:
The Client's NDIS Support Allocations reflect both the Cancelled Allocation and the corrected Allocation, as well as which BPR each was included in for reference:
The Allocations Report can also be used to report on this.
Correcting NDIS Support Allocations that have been claimed in the portal
There are situations where Supports are successfully claimed as part of a Direct Bulk Payment Request (BPR), and following this, you may become aware of an issue with the claim that needs correction.
You will first need to reverse the transaction in the portal, then Cancel the Accepted Allocation/s in the BPR in SupportAbility to mirror the reversed transaction:
N.B. When an Accepted Allocation is Cancelled and an Invoice exists, the associated Invoice Item is automatically Cancelled in the relevant Invoice also:
Please see the How to Cancel Accepted Allocations in a Direct BPR article for a detailed overview of this process.
Following this, the correct Allocation can be added to the Client's NDIS Support Allocations using the 'Add Support Item' search in the Activity where applicable in Finance Edit Mode:
Once saved, this Allocation is available for inclusion immediately in the next BPR for claiming:
Correcting NDIS Support Allocation errors following an unpaid Invoice from a Plan Manager or Self Managing Client
In the event of an unpaid Invoice from a Plan Manager or Self Managing Client, where the debtor has informed your organisation that there are issues with specific Invoice Items and that these will not be paid due to this, we recommend addressing this in your organisation's finance system to ensure the Invoice reflects the expected accounts receivable value.
N.B. The Direct Invoice Search can be helpful to locate these Invoices as required. Please see the Direct Invoice Search article for more information, linked below for reference.
To mirror this in SupportAbility, the applicable Invoice Item/s can be Cancelled in the Invoice record:
Please see the How to Cancel Invoice Items in a Direct Invoice article for a detailed overview of this process.
Following this, if needed, the correct Allocation/s can be added to the Client's NDIS Support Allocations in the Activity:
Once saved, the corrected Invoice Items will be available for inclusion in a new Invoice in the next Direct Invoice Batch immediately after being saved:
The Client's NDIS Support Allocations reflect both the Cancelled Allocation and the corrected Allocation, as well as which Invoice Batch each was included in for reference:
The Allocations Report can also be used to report on this.
How can other errors from the portal be addressed?
If either of the following errors is received, we recommend addressing this by utilising the following features in SupportAbility.
Service Booking does not exist
Service Booking does not exist.;S Num:XYXY, Item:0001, Service booking not found for the claim .;Support category is a mandatory field' is received
- Mark the Rejected Allocation for Retry
- Create the Service Booking in the portal
- Process the Rejected Allocation for Retry
- Include the Allocation/s in the next BPR for claiming
Please see the BPR Rejected Claim Action - Retry article linked below for a more detailed overview of this process
No Plan Found for Participant
No plan found for participant &1 within the start and end dates &2 - &3.;S Num2, Item:0001, Service booking not found for the claim .;Support category is a mandatory field.
When continuing to deliver services to Clients in such a situation, the dates of the existing Funding record can be extended and put 'On Billing Hold' so that this can continue to be utilised in Activities and NDIS Supports Allocated as per usual.
To ensure billing assets are not generated, the new Funding record can be placed 'On Billing Hold' until the new NDIS Plan or Funding is known.
Following this, the Plan Review feature can be used to create a new Funding record for the Client when the new plan dates are known and the Service Agreement is in place.
Please review the following articles linked below for more information on both of these features:
- NDIS Client Funding - Plan Review
- How to place a Client Funding record 'On Billing Hold' and remove this when ready to generate billing assets
How to fix an error due to NDIS Support Allocations being claimed for the wrong date
If an error is encountered due to NDIS Support Allocations being claimed or Invoice for the wrong date, the NDIS Support Allocations will need to be Cancelled in the relevant BPR or Invoice, then a new Activity would need to be created for the correct date.