Providing services as part of the NDIS can be rewarding and frustrating in equal measure. When your focus is your clients and you can see the benefits that they gain from accessing the services they need, the rewards are clear. But, when you have to spend time managing endless amounts of paperwork and making sure you’ve ticked all the compliance boxes, it can quickly become frustrating. And, when that administrative time is eating into the time you and your staff can spend with your clients, it can become even more worrying.

Five key challenges that can affect the quality of services you provide

1. Managing a mountain of invoices
   Depending on how many clients you have, you could be managing hundreds of complex invoices every week for your clients. The burden may be so high that, in turn, you only invoice the NDIA once every quarter or once every six months, meaning your cash flow is tied up for longer than it needs to be.And, if your staff members are working to ensure hundreds of invoices are correct and accurate each week, that’s time they’re not spending with their clients.
2. Tracking activity accurately
   Before you can even start to generate invoices, you need to know exactly what each staff member is doing. Tracking their activity can be a real challenge, especially if you’re using manual processes or spreadsheets to manage it.But, if you’re not tracking activity accurately, then how can you manage your clients’ budgets effectively, not to mention provide real-time billing information?
3. Interfacing with government systems
   The government requires data to be entered into its Provider Digital Access (PRODA) system. It needs to be entered according to the specific requirements of the system and any inaccuracies will mean you don’t get paid by the government for your services. If you’re using spreadsheets, you need to make sure each cell is configured correctly so it will be accepted by PRODA.
4. Managing recurring billing
   Managing your clients’ plans requires you to set up recurring billing for them. So, you need to be able to track exactly what you’ve done for them. But you also need to be able to determine the billing and setup costs for that week. Capturing all of your costs can be easier said than done.
5. Maintaining confidential client information
   The NDIS has specific requirements around maintaining your clients’ confidential and private information. You also have to comply with the Privacy Act, so you need to make sure you have full visibility into every piece of information you have about each client and you need to be able to secure that information so your clients’ privacy isn’t compromised. With many systems, it can be hard to see exactly what information you have for each client. But if you can’t see it, you can’t secure it.

Using automation to overcome these challenges

An automated, client-focused system, such as the one that Storata has developed based on M-Files, intelligently manages documents and information to help overcome all of these challenges. By setting up automated workflows, you can:

• remove the burden of manually managing invoices
• track billable hours and associated costs
• provide effective and accurate invoicing to the NDIS
• gain end-to-end business reporting.

This frees up your staff to focus on managing client outcomes instead of managing paperwork.

Scalable, reliable automation helps you:

• reduce invoice processing time from days to just hours
• re-focus staff on client-facing work, not paperwork
• manage invoices more regularly so you can invoice the NDIA more often
• manage cash flow more effectively with more regular payments from the NDIA.

Storata works with M-Files to deliver a content management system that intelligently links all related documents so you can get an instant view of all the client-related information you have. This has the added bonus of letting you secure that data more effectively.

It works by using metadata to categorise documents based on what they are, not where they’re saved. This means it doesn’t matter whether the documents are in a customer relationship management (CRM) system, saved on a shared drive, or stored in electronic archives. The Storata solution powered by M-Files will find the documents you need based on your search, so you don’t have to spend ages clicking around different systems in a document treasure hunt, trying to find everything you need.

Importantly, the automated workflows can instantly capture information from timesheets and activity logs so you can see a complete log of activity, keep budgets updated in real time, and understand how to better allocate your clients’ budgets for better individual outcomes.

The Storata solution provides comprehensive reporting, which can also help illuminate where your staff might benefit from better training or more streamlined processes so they can do an even better job of taking care of your clients.

To find out more about how Storata’s automated workflow and information management solutions based on M-Files can help you stop worrying about manual processes and start counting on getting your invoices paid on time, every time, contact us today.