This article explains how to capture travel for a service when manually creating service delivered (SD) records from the Service Delivery Entry screen.
If you're not using Sessions, or if you need to claim travel for a service that doesn't have a session, you can do this from the Service Delivery Entry tab. You'll need:
- a current service agreement that allows travel claiming, and
- a service that allows travel claiming.
When including travel as part of a service, the system will use the rate of the service that was delivered to calculate the travel cost. As per NDIA rules, travel claims are restricted to:
- 30 minutes in metro areas, and
- 60 minutes in regional areas.
The NDIA has not set limits for remote and very remote areas.
To capture travel manually:
- Fill in the Service Delivered Information section of the form, as explained here.
- In the Travelling To And From An Appointment section of the form, select the travel area, as defined by the NDIS, from the Travel Area drop-down menu. The maximum travel time that can be charged for each area will be displayed next to the field once an option is selected.
The Service Delivered form you see may vary from this example depending on whether the client's service agreement or the services being delivered allow for travel. Fields will only be shown for travel that is able to be claimed. This means you may also see fields relating to travel from an appointment.
- Enter the time in minutes spent travelling to the appointment in the Total Travel Time to Appt (mins) field.
Travel time
The time spent travelling is used to calculate the labour costs associated with travelling to or from an appointment. This time will be charged per minute at the rate shown after the Total Travel Time to Appt (mins) field. This rate is calculated from the rate that is charged for the service that the travel is related to or from the negotiated rate in the client's service agreement, if they have one.
- Enter the distance in km travelled to the appointment in the Total Distance Travelled to Appt (KM) field.
Travel distance
The distance travelled is used to calculate part of the non-labour costs associated with travelling to or from an appointment. This may involve the costs associated with running a vehicle and is charged per km travelled. The rate charged per km is shown next to the Total Distance Travelled to Appt (KM) field. This rate will be taken from the default rate set by your organisation, or the negotiated travel rate for the client, if they have one.
Non-labour cost requirement
If you're planning to claim non-labour expenses, you'll need to set Total Travel Time or Total Distance Travelled to a value of 0 or more. This will ensure that an expense SD record is generated for the non-labour expenses.
- Enter the portion of the travel that will be charged to the client in the Client Portion field. If the cost is being apportioned between multiple clients, new Service Delivered entries will need to be added for each individual client.
- If any non-labour travel expenses were incurred, click on the Add Expense text link in the Travel Non-Labour Expenses section. You must also enter a zero or greater value in the related Total Travel Time or Total Distance Travelled fields in order to generate an SD record for the expense.
Travel non-labour expenses
Non-labour expenses are expenses that are incurred beyond the time taken for the service to be delivered. These fields can be used to capture expenses like road tolls or parking fees.
- Enter the description for the expense in the Expense Description field.
- Enter the cost of the expense in the Amount field.
- Enter the portion of the expense that will be charged to the client in the Client Portion field.
- Multiple expenses can be added be repeating steps 6-9.
- If you're also claiming for time spent transporting the client during the appointment, find out how to do this in our article on capturing transport.
- If you're not claiming for transport, scroll to the bottom of the form and fill in any further Comments or Case Notes, if required.
- If the client has approved the service, put a tick in the Client Accepted checkbox. Leave this unchecked if the client still needs to confirm details of the service.
- Click on the Save button.
- You will now be able to see the SD records you've created in the Services Delivered list. Individual SD records will be generated for each labour and non-labour expense for both travel and transport services. This may result in quite a few SD records being created for each Service Delivered entry that is added.
