This article introduces the home care package (HCP) funding journal. It provides an overview of how the journal works and includes a list of events that will automatically add new entries.
To use home care package (HCP) functionality, HCP features must be activated in your production environment.
The HCP journal enables providers to keep track of all of the income and expenses related to a client's home care package funding. It shows incoming amounts, such as client and Home Care Account contributions, and outgoing amounts, such as management fees and the costs associated with services delivered.
The journal record has a JNL prefix followed by a number, and each client should only have one HCP journal record. A client's HCP journal can be found under the Contracts tab on the client's contact record.
In this article, we'll explain:
- how the journal is created
- how and when journal entries are created
- what's captured on a journal entry, and
- how and why journal entries are locked.
How the journal is created
A client's journal is created when you record the acceptance of their initial HCP service agreement quote, which also sets the service agreement to current. This is usually done during the onboarding process, which is the recommended way of setting up an initial HCP service agreement.
If the client's transfer in balances were recorded as part of their onboarding, these will form the first entries in the journal.
How and when journal entries are created
Users can create a journal entry manually by navigating to the journal and clicking on the New button. However, most journal entries will be created by automated processes that run at regular intervals or through the recording of planned HCP services.
System administrators can also create adjustment and reversal entries.
Automated processes
Several automated processes can be used to add entries to client journals. If the Lumary settings listed in the table below are enabled, new journal entries will be added whenever those processes run. They're usually set to run at off-peak times, such as overnight.
| Setting | What it does | Frequency |
| Client Payments Bot | Creates journal entries for all HCP client contribution items. | Daily |
| Fixed Costs Bot |
Creates service delivered (SD) records for all clients with a current fixed cost service agreement item. Runs daily but will create fixed costs on a fortnightly basis. The start date of the fortnight is based on the service agreement item (SAI) start date, or the service agreement start date if there isn't an SAI start date. |
Daily |
| Commonwealth Payments Bot |
Creates an entry in each client's journal for the last month's government contribution. Can be run daily or monthly. If run daily, it creates a journal every day; if monthly, the journal is created on the last day of the month for the whole month. |
Daily or Monthly |
It is recommended that you have the Commonwealth Payments Bot configured to run daily. If run monthly, there may be issues with backdating.
Entries for transfer in balances are also automatically generated at the conclusion of the onboarding process if these amounts were provided during onboarding. If not, they can be added with manual entries once they become available.
Service delivery recording or editing
When a planned service with HCP funding is recorded, a service delivered (SD) record will be created and the cost of the service will be applied to the journal. SD records for planned services can be created in a variety of ways, including:
- manual entries from the Service Delivery Entry screen
- completion of appointments from the Sessions Calendar, and
- completion of appointments from a mobile device.
Edits made to an SD record will be reflected in the corresponding journal entry, unless that journal entry has been locked. If the entry has been locked, editing or deleting an SD record will create an adjustment or reversal entry in the journal.
What's captured on a journal entry?
Journal entry (JNE) records provide information about how and when incoming and outgoing funds had an impact on the funds available to a client's home care package.
| Field | Purpose |
| Journal Entry Name | The name of the journal entry (JNE) record. |
| Journal | A link to the client's journal. |
| Date | The creation date of the record. |
| Account | Shows whether the transaction affects contributions made by the client or Commonwealth. |
| Debit | Shows amounts that decrease the funds available to the package, for example, the cost of services delivered. |
| Credit | Shows amounts that increase the funds available to the package, for example, client or Commonwealth contributions. |
| Particulars | A description of the transaction. |
| Site | The site that manages the client's package funding. |
| Change | The overall amount that the entry increased or decreased the funds available to the package. |
| Service Delivered | A link to a related SD record if the transaction included the delivery of a service. |
| Linked Journal Entry | A link to any related journal entry, for example, if an adjustment or reversal is applied to correct an earlier entry. |
Locked
A locked date is set on a journal when a client's statement is generated. The locked date will be the same as the end date of the statement. All entries earlier than that date are locked to ensure that journal entries reflect what's been recorded on the distributed client statement.
The most recent locked date will show at the top of the journal. Entries before that date are locked and cannot be modified unless unlocked by a system administrator. New entries can be modified until they are included in a statement, at which time the locked date will be set to the end date of the new statement.
If an SD record is edited or deleted from the Service Delivery Entry screen for locked journal entries, adjustments and reversals will automatically be created in the client's journal.
Users should avoid changing the service on SD records with locked journal entries. We're currently working on functionality to support this type of change, so keep an eye on our release notes to find out when this becomes available.
Find out more about creating a manual journal entry.