As a parent with a child living with a disability, you will be making a lot of decisions on behalf of your child. During the planning meeting, your Support Coordinator will be providing you with information regarding the supports and services available for your child which are anchored to his or her goals. One of the things that your Support Coordinator will be mentioning or you may also is the management of your child’s NDIS funds. If you happen to choose self-management for your child’s plan, here are the top tips we gathered which can help parents like you on this journey.
Dealing with your child’s service providers:
· Read and review the service agreement. You have 2 options regarding service agreements, you may opt to choose to have the service provider make the service agreement and just make some revisions or you can make it and have the service provider review it. The important thing to remember is to have an agreement with what has been stipulated and each of you should have a copy.
· Ensure to validate the ABN of the service provider.
· Ensure to check pertinent documents like Working with Children’s Check, Police checks, and the likes.
Making a claim
· Print the emailed invoice.
· Log into the NDIS myplace portal.
· Make a payment request and fill out the required details.
· Click submit.
· Ensure record-keeping of all your payment requests.
Ideally, the funds should be made available to your bank account within the next 24 hrs. You may now pay the service provider/s of your child and have the option to print the transaction.
Record keeping can be done in two ways or you can opt to do it both ways. You can print or have a hard copy of all the transactions you have done in relation to your child’s plan. Another option is to do it digitally as there are a lot of convenient apps that allow you to manage your funds. Or you can choose to do both, have hardcopies while having a backup file stored in your cloud. Record keeping is important, as part of being self-managed means, you will be undergoing an audit done by the NDIA.
If you do not see yourself processing invoices, tracking funds, filing payment requests, and paying service providers, then maybe plan management is the right option for you as having a plan manager means doing all these work for you, on top of that they will be the ones audited by the NDIA.
Additional useful tips :
· Ensure to validate the invoice from service providers as sometimes there are billing errors.
· Do record-keeping both ways- hardcopy and soft copy. Why? Some receipts may fade over time, or what if it gets lost along the way? This gives you a lot of assurance that no matter what happens you have a backup file.
· Ensure to record every payment request number corresponding to each invoice in preparation for an audit.
Prefer to submit a payment request before 5 pm on a weekday, as ideally it is expected that funds will be credited the following day.
Record the payment request number with each invoice. In the event you are audited you will be asked for evidence of a claim related to a particular payment request number. It will just be easier to find what you are looking for.
Separate all your personal accounts from your child’s NDIS related information like – separate bank account, separate email, and separate calendar.
Do you need help with the management of your child’s NDIS plan? Allow us to help you focus on your child’s goals, while we take care of your child’s funds. Choose to be Plan Managed with Yogi Care and we offer nothing but expertise and unparalleled customer service.