NDIS integration

You can submit NDIS case invoices to the NDIS myplace Provider Portal using a Excel file created by the NDIS Invoice Export custom report. This enables you to submit requests for payment in bulk, rather than one at a time.

The NDIS Invoice Export report analyses a set of journaled invoices and creates an Excel file suitable for submission to the portal.

If you want to run this report please contact Case Manager support to have it added to your system.

Important information

  • The report is based on the requirements specified in the Bulk Payment Request Step by step guide v2.0.
  • To make sure that your report meets the NDIS requirements, your cases must contain the required information as explained below.
  • We make every effort to adhere to the specifications defined by NDIS, however, it is important to cross-check your data before submitting to the NDIS.

Terminology

Providers claim payments against the support items that most closely align to the services they have delivered.

As the NDIA Price Guide 2019-20 explains, each support item has a name and a unique reference number, the support item number. This number combines key pieces of information.

For example, the support item named: Assistance with Self-Care Activities - Standard - Saturday
has the support item number 01_013_0107_1_1

Setting up for the integration

When the NDIS Invoice Export report analyses invoices, it looks for the required information (LHS column below) in particular places in Case Manager (RHS below).

The report then uses this information to combine, calculate and assemble the information required into an Excel file. After you have examine the file you save it in the CSV format.

NDIS reporting item Case Manager field
RegistrationNumber Entered as your Provider number when you run the report
NDISNumber Case Claim Number
SupportsDeliveredFrom Calculated as the date of the first cost for the relevant charge code
SupportDeliveredTo Calculated as the date of the last cost for the relevant charge code

SupportNumber

[the support item number]

 The cost charge code
ClaimReference Invoice number
Quantity The total quantity of hours or units for the associated charge code

Hours

This column is always blank in the Excel file

Hours are converted to a Quantity (see row above)

For example 1h30m becomes a Quantity of 1.5

UnitPrice

The Unit charge amount for the cost

Note: this is a GST inclusive amount

GSTCode

GST information as applicable to the item or service.

Column contains:

  • P1 when items and services have GST
  • P2 when items and services are GST FREE
  • P5 when items and services not specified as either GST or GST FREE
AuthorisedBy This is a legacy data element; it is left blank (No mapping)
ParticipantApproved Legacy data element, as above
InkindFundingProgram Optional element; is left blank

The Excel file contains one row for each payment request.

The Bulk Payment Request document gives two sample scenarios when submitting requests in bulk:

  • 1 Participant, 1 service booking per week, for a month

    • This requires 1 payment request: 1 participant x 4 x unit price for the service

  • 10 Participants, each one has 1 service booking per week, for a month

    • This requires 10 payment requests: 10 participants x 4 x unit price.

Notes

  • You can see that the NDIS bulk payment process does not require the name of any support item. However, its number must be supplied.

    • The export report looks at each cost's charge code to find this number.

  • Only billable costs are included in this report.
  • Reporting of Hours and Quantity:

    • The NDIS specification allows reporting of hours or quantity in order to calculate the total cost. This report uses quantity only. The Hours column is always empty because we convert a duration in hours to a decimal amount of time. For example a duration of 1h30m will be converted to a quantity of 1.5.

Step 1 - Create report

  1. Make sure that your NDIS cases have data that conforms to the requirements in the table above.
  2. Create a journal entry and set the filter conditions so that the journal includes the required NDIS case invoices.

    3. Make a note of this journal's number.

  3. Select View > Reports from the main menu.
  4. Click NDIS Invoice Export.
  5. Enter the journal entry number from step 2.

  1. Enter your NDIS Provider Number.
  2. Click Grid.

Your report will open in a popup grid.

  1. Click the export icon at the top of the grid.

  1. This opens the report file in Excel. You can examine it and make any necessary adjustments here before saving it as a CSV file. Do not re-open this file in Excel later.

You may be tempted to just click CSV File at step 7 and then open the file in Excel to examine it. However whenever you open the CSV file in Excel it changes the format of important fields. For example, dates may no longer be formatted as yyyy-mm-dd (they need to have this format) and leading zeros may be removed. Excel 'thinks' cell values are numeric fields rather than alphanumeric fields and makes unwanted alterations. These alterations will not happen when you carefully follow the steps above.

Step 2 - Check Excel file before submitting to NDIS

  • Verify that there are no blank values for mandatory columns
  • Validate one or two cases to ensure reported data is as expected

Step 3 - Upload at the myplace Provider Portal

At the portal click the Bulk Payment Request Upload tile and upload the CSV report file.

The guide explains on page 7 that you will be informed whether the report file meets the upload validation requirements.

  • If it does, you are advised that the file has been submitted and is pending payment validation.
  • If it does not, you advised that the file validation has failed.

    • You can download an error file displaying the errors (in column A) so that you can make the required changes to the original file, rename it and re-submit it.

See the Bulk Payment Request guide for further details.

Change log

Change date Change details
10/11/2017 Initial Version