As your Plan Manager we process invoices for NDIS participants in accordance with their NDIS funding. It's part of our role to check that invoices we recieve are compliant with NDIS guidelines.
Checking invoices for compliance means making sure invoices have all the right information on them. For example, if an invoice doesn't have an ABN on it we would make sure your provider changed that invoice to add their ABN because that is an NDIS requirement.
Compliance checks also mean we make sure invoices are billed to the correct area of your NDIS plan, that the description of sevices matches what is being billed, and that the services described are funded by the NDIS.
We are not allowed to determine what reasonable and necessary supports are for you. There may be services you recieve that we need to ask questions about because we don't know how they are linked to your disability or what was being provided based on the invoice. If we see invoices for lots of supports all on one day, or repeatedly over a short amount of time, we would need to contact you to check you're reciving those supports.
Having automatic approvals means your invoices will be checked for compliance, and so long as we see no strange patterns with your billing we can pay your invoices automatically. This does leave you at a small risk of providers sending us compliant invoices for supports you haven't recieved, or not sending us invoices at all. Therefore, if you want automatic approvals you
must
check your monthly statements to make sure you aren't being overbilled or underbilled for supports.
Having manual approvals set means you can check each invoice individually after we've cleared it for compliance, to make sure the services were provided to you.
There are some invoices that cannot be automatically approved, such as Short Term Accommodation or items that are not clearly stated in your plan. In these cases we will be contacted you for your approval, which may cause some delays in invoice payments.
If you manually approve your service providers’ invoices, you will need to monitor the app closely, and approve or decline invoices in a timely manner. Any invoices not approved within 5 days, will be automatically approved for payment (provided they are charged at the correct rate and within NDIA guidelines).