How to add a Direct Client Funding record

This article outlines how to add a Direct Client Funding record for NDIS and Non-NDIS Funding Types.

Privileges: The 'View Financial Information' privilege is required, along with access to the relevant Client records, to access the Funding tab in the Client record to add and view Funding records.

Audience: Finance Team, and anyone tasked with creating or updating NDIS Direct Client Funding records

Summary

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

Where are Direct Client Funding records created and stored?

Direct Client Funding records for both NDIS and Non-NDIS Funding Types are created and stored on the Funding tab of a Client record:

Staff require the 'View Financial Information' privilege and access to the relevant Client records to access this tab and create a Direct Client Funding record.

Staff who do not have this privilege will not see this tab displayed.

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How to add a Direct Client Funding record

Direct Client Funding records can be created for NDIS or Non-NDIS Funding Types, and the initial process for creating each is similar.

To create a Direct Client Funding record begin by selecting the + Add button:

Once the 'Add' button has been selected the 'Add Direct Client Funding' window will open:

The NDIS Funding Type is selected by default, and this is the only option available if your organisation only delivers NDIS-funded Services.

However, if your organisation has created Non-NDIS Funding Types, these will also be available to select from here. As outlined further in this article, the information fields required when adding a Non-NDIS Funding record are a little different.

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NDIS Funding

The following fields of information require completion to add an NDIS Direct Client Funding record:

Funding Type - NDIS
State - State or Territory relevant to the Client
Default Financial Plan Manager - the entity responsible for paying all or most of the NDIS Supports delivered
Start Date - the commencement date of the Funding period
End Date - the end date of the Funding period

Each of these options has been outlined further below.

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Funding Type

To create an NDIS Direct Client Funding record, the 'Funding Type' can be left as the default displayed i.e. NDIS:

State

Select the applicable State or Territory relating to the Client:

This option defaults to the State as per the Client's Street Address in the Client Details tab.

Selecting the State or Territory determines the NDIS Pricing for NDIS Support Allocations when using this Funding.

It is important to note that when generating NDIS Bulk Payment Requests (BPRs), the Allocations for this Funding record will only appear if the corresponding State (or National - if configured) is selected.

For more information, please see the Generating an NDIS Direct Bulk Payment Request (BPR) article linked below.

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Default Financial Plan Manager

When adding an NDIS Direct Client Funding record, the Default Financial Plan Manager must be selected i.e. the entity responsible for paying all or most of the NDIS Supports delivered.

The options available for selection include:

Client or their nominated Billing Contact - applicable when the Client is Self-Managing their Funding
- In the example below, we can see that our Client Sofia Pretoria's father Ben has been set as the Billing Contact on the Contacts tab of her Client record, hence this appears as 'Client (Ben Pretoria)'.
  
  Please review the How to update the Client Billing Contact for Clients who need to be Invoiced article linked below for more information.
Plan Management Contacts (including the NDIA)
- NDIA - applicable for registered providers and Clients with Agency-Managed funding
- Plan Managers - applicable for Clients with Plan-Managed funding
  - The options available to select from will depend on the Shared Contact records that have been created by your organisation and configured with 'NDIS Financial Plan Management' selected e.g. All Star Provider
    
    Please review the How to create a Shared Contact record article linked below for more information.

Once the Funding record has been created, if the Financial Plan Manager for any of the Client's NDIS Supports is different to the 'Default Financial Plan Manager' this can be customised accordingly as required.

Please see the Adding an NDIS Direct Client Funding record for more information.

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Start and End Date

Enter the 'Start Date' to reflect the commencement date of the Funding period and the 'End Date' to reflect when this is valid to:

Once entered, this essentially becomes the validity period in which the NDIS Funding can be used in the Activities the Client participates in.

N.B. When creating the very first Funding record for a Client in SupportAbility, the point in time that this is being created may be part way through the Funding period, therefore, your organisation may choose to enter the current date as the Start Date, rather than the commencement date of the Funding period.

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Add the Funding record

All fields of information in the 'Add Direct Client Funding' window are required to create the Funding record.

If the required information has not been entered in any of these fields and the 'Add' button is selected, a 'Validation Error' message will display advising the incomplete fields that are required, and it will not be possible to create the record until all fields have been completed:

Once all fields of information have been completed, select the 'Add' button to create the Funding record:

Once the NDIS Direct Client Funding record has been created, additional information can be added, most importantly including the NDIS Supports that you have an arrangement in place to deliver to the Client and their associated Budget value to track Utilisation:

Detailed information regarding this and each of these areas of the NDIS Direct Client Funding record is outlined in the Adding an NDIS Direct Client Funding record article linked below for reference.

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Creating subsequent NDIS Direct Client Funding records using the Plan Review feature

Once the initial NDIS Direct Client Funding record has been created, subsequent NDIS Direct Client Funding records can be created by using the Plan Review feature which is accessed via the Actions menu:

N.B. This feature can only be used if the current Funding period is still active.

Benefits to creating the next Client's next NDIS Direct Client Funding record using the ‘Plan Review’ feature include:

Creation of the new NDIS Direct Client Funding record based on the date range specified.
All NDIS Supports, settings and details are copied from the original NDIS Direct Client Funding record to the new one, including NDIS Support Budgets.
- This can then be adjusted in the new Client Funding record as required, and a link is included that shows which Funding record this was reviewed from for reference.
The Funding Source is automatically updated to the new Funding record in all Activities that align with the dates of the new Funding record, regardless of the Activity Sign Off status.
- Ensuring that all Utilisation and Expenditure is associated with the correct Funding record.
The End Date of the original NDIS Direct Client Funding is updated automatically to the day before the Start Date of the new funding record.

This is also often used in combination with the 'On Billing Hold' feature in cases where an error has occurred and the dates of the new Funding period are not known yet, but you are continuing to deliver services to the Client.

Detailed information regarding these features is outlined in the following articles linked below for reference:

NDIS Direct Client Funding - Plan Review
How to place a Client Funding record ‘On Billing Hold’ and remove this when ready to generate billing assets

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