At First2Care, we aim to submit all invoices to the NDIA within one to two business days of receiving them. Given the NDIA then processes and releases funding within three business days of this receipt, our expectation is to have your invoices paid within five business days of you sending them to us.
However, we do sometimes require a little assistance in this by your invoices being presented in a clear and concise manner. When submitting your invoices, we have several tips and tricks for being able to ensure that they are processed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
We prefer that invoices are sent in a PDF format. This allows our system to automatically pick up much of the required details, skipping most of the manual data entry phase and speeding up the process.
In addition to the format, the details that are presented on the invoice can make for a much quicker process.
Provider Information
Firstly, it is important to note who the invoice is for and who is being paid. To achieve this, the following information should be included on every invoice: Client Name and NDIS Number, Business Name, ABN, and Bank Details. Please note – to ensure that our automated system does not pick up the wrong details, do not include First2Care’s ABN anywhere on your invoice.
Secondly, you should include the information unique to this invoice. This should be the Invoice Issue Date and the Invoice Number. Ideally, the combination of participant, provider, and invoice number are unique. Unless the invoice is an amendment, every invoice number for any given participant should be different.
Supports
Next comes the information about the supports provided. While all aspects of the invoice are important, the support description being incorrect or unclear is the cause of many payment delays. Therefore, by ensuring this is correct the first time around, payment processes should run smoother and faster.
The Description of Service and the Support Item Code allow us to most accurately identify the support provided and which budget the invoice should be processed under. The description does not need to be detailed. It only needs to provide enough information to identify the supports, if a line code is not included. The line code should match the description and can be taken directly from the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document.
Support Hours
The quantity of hours worked is a crucial piece of information for the majority of supports. In almost all circumstances, this should be provided as a quantity of 1 per hour of support given per worker. The hours of supports should be broken down further as a per day total, which each day presented as a new line.
Finally, there should be the unit price (most commonly the hourly charge) and the line totals. These line totals should then all be added together to produce the invoice total.
You may check out the example invoice here and the template/s here to ensure that you are including all the correct information.
Tips and Common Mistakes
It is always best to double and/or triple check your invoices before submitting them. However, some areas may need more attention than others. Common areas where we have seen mistakes include:
Invoice numbers aren’t unique – make sure you are correctly moving onto the next invoice number after submitting your most recent one. Repeated invoice numbers may result in invoices being deleted as a duplicate
Participant name spelled wrong/NDIS number incorrect – we may not immediately recognise this invoice as belonging to one of our participants
Incorrect item code – make sure the code reflects the support given. Errors may come from using a weekend code on a weekday, for example
No hour quantity provided/incorrect – if we don’t know how many hours of support were provided, we can’t be sure it fits under the NDIS capped price limits. This will likely only be funded for a quantity of 1 hour of supports
Incorrect date – if an invoice is future dated, we can’t process it. Likewise, if you have incorrectly put the date down as a weekday and claimed for a weekend support line code
Charged over the maximum price limits – the majority of NDIS supports have a capped limit that we are unable to fund over. Please ensure you are keeping within these capped limits
Incorrect line totals and subtotal – please double check your calculations to ensure the provided line totals and subtotals all match the quoted hourly charge and quantity of hours worked
Rounding issues – the NDIA only calculates claims to a whole cent value. If your hourly charge or quantity of hours results in claims of partial cents, this can cause small discrepancies in the total paid
Having the correct details on your invoices initially will result in fast and easy payment within our target of five business days. Any errors can cause delays as we will need to reach out to clients, representatives, or to yourselves to clarify and confirm the invoice details.
If you follow these guidelines, we’re happy because there is less data entry and investigation work needed. You’re happy because you get paid in a regular and consistent manner. The NDIS is happy because the invoices are all compliant with their requirements. And, most importantly, our clients are happy because they have peace of mind that their providers are getting paid.