Billing Cycles are used for billing Clients or Funders who are invoiced at regular intervals. They can be used with all types of Funders (invoicing models) and must always be used with Funder Batched and LHIN (CCAC)-type Funders.
When creating a Billing Cycle, you select which Visits and Premiums should be invoiced at the end of the period by setting a Start and End Date for eligible Visits/Premiums and specifying which Funders, Service Departments, or Client Groups to include. After you have created your Billing Cycle, you can generate invoices to bill your Funders for all Visits and Premiums included in the period.
In contrast to Billing Cycles, Ad Hoc Invoicing allows you to invoice a particular Client at any time and include Visits that have not yet been invoiced in a Billing Cycle or another ad hoc invoice. Ad Hoc Invoicing only works with Client Individual and Funder Individual-type Funders and is most appropriate for point of sale services or when closing out an irregular period for a Client (such as in the case of an unexpected Service discharge). To learn more, see the Ad Hoc Invoicing Overview.
View Previously Prepared Invoices and Billing Cycles
To review your previously prepared invoices and Billing Cycles, go to Accounting>Billing.
In the Invoices tab in the right-hand menu, you will see your list of invoices.
Use the filters at the top to search invoices by Client/Funder/Payor, Invoice #/Balance, Total Amount, Start and End Dates, or Status (Draft, Sent, Paid, Void, Written off, Deleted).
In the Billing Cycle tab, you will see your list of previously created Billing Cycles.
Use the options at the top of the list to filter by From and To Date, Funders, Groups, Departments, or Status (All, Open, or Closed).
Open periods are shown by default.
Prepare a New Billing Cycle
You can create a new Billing Cycle in one of two ways.
- Click +Create Period at the top of the page to start creating a new period from scratch.
- Create a new cycle based off an old Billing Cycle by selecting Create New in the dropdown next to View on the Billing Cycle in question.
If you choose the second option, the following items will be true:
- The From Date of the new period will be the same as the latest To Date for that set of Funders (this field is disabled for editing).
- The To Date represents the same number of days as the original one.
- The Back Billing Date represents the same number of days as the original one.
- The filters applied (Funders, Groups, Departments, Bill Code Groups) are the same as in the original period.
You will still be able to add and remove Funders from the Billing Cycle.
- From Date: the start date for all Visits included in the period. Unless you are creating a new period from an existing Billing Cycle it will default to today's date.
- To Date: the day after the last date to include Visits in the period.
- Back Billing Date: set this date if you want to include any late approved Visits or Premiums in the period. All Visits/Premiums that fall between the Back-Billing Date and the From Date that were NOT previously invoiced will be included. These carry-over Visits will be marked with an asterisk on the Visit Approval worksheet. To ensure back billing is effective, this Date should be set to a date on or before the start date of the billing cycle.
- Invoice Date: the date that will appear on the printed invoice. This will also be the Posting Date for invoice items to the General Ledger.
- Filters: Select Funders, Groups, and Departments to filter the Billing Cycle to only include the ones specified. Leaving these fields blank will include Visits associated with any Funder, Group, or Department that meet the date requirements.
- Restrict shift creation: checking this box restricts back-office employees from being able to schedule Visits during this period of time once the Billing Period is created. This restriction only applies to Visits of the corresponding Funders for the start and end dates of the Billing Cycle. You may want to use this setting at this time if your agency wishes to prevent the creation of new Visits during a period that is currently being processed.
Prepare Bill Items for Your Billing Cycle
Click View to open a Billing Cycle and continue with the billing process. You can also click on the Start and End Dates to open the period.
Within the Billing Cycle, you will see a series of tabs to help you review and approve all line items before generating the invoices.
1) Visits
The Visits tab contains the same view as the Visit Approval page in Workforce Management. By default, Not Approved Visits will be displayed. You can change the filter at the top to display All, Approved, or Rejected Visits.
Use Batch Actions to approve Visits in bulk. You can choose to Approve All to Scheduled, Approve All to Clocked, Approve Matching to Scheduled, Approve Matching to Clocked, or Reject All. Click here to learn more about Batch Actions.
Alternatively, you can use the Approved Hours column to enter the number of units (hours or Visits depending on the unit set on the Bill/Pay Code) that should appear in billing and payroll for the Visit. If a Visit is not yet Approved, entering a value in this column will automatically approve the Visit for both billing and payroll.
The Bill-Override column is used to override the Approved quantity as the number of units that will be billed to the Funder. If a value is entered here, the quantity shown in the Bill-Override column will be the quantity that appears on the invoice instead of the Approved amount.
The Pay-Override column is used to override the Approved quantity as the number of Hours (or Visits) that will be paid. Enter 0 if you are billing but not paying for a Visit.
Note that entering a Bill-Override and/or Pay-Override for a Visit will not automatically approve the Visit if it is not already approved. The Visit must be separately updated to be approved.
To learn more about approving Visits, see How do I approve/unapprove visits for billing and/or payroll?
2) Unscheduled Visits
Unscheduled Visits occur when a care worker clocks into a Client who is not scheduled for that time. They cannot be billed for this Visit unless it is first added to their Schedule.
Clicking Add to Schedule on this screen will add a Visit of the default duration of the Service Code to the Employee's Schedule.
In the resulting dialogue, click the Auto-approve the new visit checkbox to approve the Visit to the scheduled time rather than the actual duration of the work session.
Use Batch Actions if you wish to add Unscheduled Visits to the Schedule in bulk.
To learn more about managing Unscheduled Visits, see How do I resolve my Unscheduled Visits?
3) Visit Premiums
This tab contains a list of Premiums applied to Visits within the Billing Cycle. If a Visit is approved, any Premiums attached to it will also be approved and invoiced.
To learn more about Billing Premiums, see How do I add/edit/disable/delete billing premiums for my clients?
4) Issue Resolution
The Issue Resolution screen allows you to filter by missing items on Visits that are required for accurate billing (such as certain codes) in order to avoid billing rejections or errors.
Use the filtering options to check for invoice issues relevant to your agency's billing requirements. Click the green Filter button once you have selected the filters you need. Click the red Reset button to return to the original view.
For private billing (Client Individual-type Funders), filter by:
- Shifts missing service code. If missing, the Visit will not be billed correctly.
- Shifts missing bill code. The system requires a Bill Code in order to bill at the correct rate.
For LHIN Billing, filter by:
- Shifts missing service code. If missing, the Visit will not be billed correctly.
- Shifts missing bill code. The system requires a Bill Code in order to bill at the correct rate.
- Shifts missing activity code. If missing, Visits will be rejected as Activity Codes are required.
Note that cancelled, non-billable Visits will be flagged here as missing a Bill Code. You can filter these out by selected Scheduled instead of All Visits.
5) Invoices
This tab is where all invoices are generated for the Billing Cycle after the information in the other tabs has been reviewed and approved.
- All Invoices will delete existing invoice(s) for the given Client/Funder and replace them with new ones. Use this when a Client's Service information (like the Payment Method or Billing Contact) has changed, especially if the Client may have multiple invoices in the same Billing Cycle.
- Only newly approved visits will maintain any existing invoices and create a new one with only Visits that have been approved since the last invoice was generated. Select this option if you don't want to affect previously generated invoices.
- Visits marked for resubmission is for agencies working with the LHINs who need to resubmit Visits on a separate invoice from the original. This will maintain any existing invoices and display the Visit as being submitted in multiple invoices.
To regenerate an invoice, click the arrow next to View on the invoice line and select Regenerate.
In the resulting dialogue, choose whether to regenerate including Only visits from this invoice (default) or Visits from this invoice and newly improved visits.
- Only visits from this invoice will regenerate for the Visits and Premiums already included in the invoice without affecting other invoices for that Client in the Billing Cycle. Note that if a Client has multiple invoices (due to multiple Services) and their billing information changes, it may be better to use Choose a Client or Funder to make sure the changes are applied to all affected invoices.
- Visits from this invoice and newly approved visits will generate a new invoice with the same invoice number but incorporate changes made to both Visits already on the invoice and/or Visits approved since the last invoice was generated.
Review and Edit Invoices in Draft
To review an invoice, click on the invoice number or click View.
From the Draft Invoice, you can review the details of the Visits and Premiums included. To edit a Visit, click on either the Visit number or View.
This will open the Visit dialogue, where you can edit the Visit details.
After making changes to Visits or Premiums on the invoice, click Regenerate and select Only visits for this invoice before clicking Ok. This will maintain the existing invoice number and add the updated information but only include Visits that were previously on the invoice.
If a new Visit that falls within the Billing Cycle parameters (the Billing Cycle date range or Back Billing Date) has been approved and you wish to include it in an existing Draft invoice, click Regenerate and select Visits from this invoice and newly approved visits. This will include any Visits approved since the last invoice was generated along with any changes made to Visits already on the invoice.
Since invoices are split according to the invoicing model (Funder), Payor (the Billing Contact on the Service if the Funder is type Client Individual), and Payment Method, certain changes to the Client, Funder, or Service may affect how Visits are separated onto multiple invoices. When changes to the Service details are made, you should select Choose Client or Funder and then All Invoices to make sure all affected invoices are deleted and correctly regenerated.
If many edits across multiple Clients have occurred, the safest approach is to select Generate All Invoices again.
Export and Mark Invoices as Sent
You can export and mark individual invoices as Sent by selecting the arrow next to View and choosing the appropriate option.
You can also complete these actions from the invoice itself by clicking Export or Mark as Sent.
To mark all invoices in a Billing Cycle as Sent, you can choose to close the Billing Cycle. Once a Billing Cycle is closed, you will not be able to make changes to the invoices in the cycle. For LHIN invoices, it is recommended that you wait to close the Billing Cycle until resubmissions have been completed.
Closing a Billing Cycle has the following effects:
- It changes all Draft invoices to the status Sent so they cannot be regenerated or deleted.
- It removes the ability to generate new invoices in that cycle, including resubmissions.
- It prevents editing of the Billing Cycle parameters (for example, Start and End Date).
- It adds another access layer so that only users configured with the Closed Billing Visit Adjustments ACL can make changes to Visits in that cycle.
To close a Billing Cycle, navigate to the Billing Cycle tab and click the arrow next to View to select Close.
In the resulting dialogue, check the Restrict Shift Creation box if you wish to prevent new Visits from being created in the Billing Cycle after it is closed. Then click Save.
Void a Sent Invoice and Create an Updated One
Once the invoices have been marked as Sent and the Billing Cycle has been closed, you will not be able to add new Visits to the cycle. If you need to add a new Visit to an invoice that has already been sent in a Closed Billing Cycle, you will first need to void the invoice. You can then generate a new invoice that includes the voided line items within a new Billing Cycle with a Back Billing Date set to include the Visits from the voided invoice.
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