Streamline Your Sole Trader Invoice for Management Effortlessly

Sole trader invoice for Management

hi everybody Jackie Grant here from break free consultancy so getting a lot of questions about how do I invoice and how do I know what to charge so really quickly if you haven't got it get the price Arrangement the price guide it tells you exactly how you can invoice what qualifications you need to have to invoice and the line item number to quote now the maximum there rate was set for companies to cover their admin team and their work cover and things like that sole Traders rarely get work cover because it's very hard to cover given that they're working in different environments but companies are expected to have it um just as all businesses are expected to have a well-being program where the sole Trader or not different topic so I my inbox is is just getting full with this question and another question as well on which is how do I run my business and can't I do it even though I'm a hairdresser can't I work as a support worker um potentially know the way ndis is going qualifications are required at some point which brings me to The Sheds award The Sheds award and the rate that is invoiced um or sorry is paid to a staff member is different to what is invoiced to the ndia they often don't match and often companies are struggling because there is a big difference so the way the shads award has been designed is to pay staff members based on their qualifications so having that qualification as a disability worker and aged care worker as well as the um experience that a person has had now the disability sector is one of those one of the only sectors that I've been able to find that actually allows for unqualified people to work in it that is changing and companies are being told that their staff need to be qualified as a sole Trader to invoice your participant yes you can do the maximum rate but you also have the option to be flexible in what you invoice your participants when you break it down in some instances your um not getting much more than under the sheds award but you're getting a lot more responsibility legally and duty of care so how do you invoice if you do an active overnight shift so that shift might start at 10 pm and you're active then the rate changes from midnight and it goes into the next day and it is the rate is also different from say Friday night to Saturday morning they're two different rates if you are doing an inactive so a sleepover it is a flat rate irrespective of what day it is just a straight flat rate now that's as a sole Trader as an employee that is completely different the eats by the shads award and the company sorts that out so often what is happening in some of these groups and I'm seeing the question over and over again and when people write it to me they go my employer's not paying me this flat rate okay well you have to have that discussion with them in alignment with the shads award so under ndia in the price Arrangement and it's easily found on the ndis website as well a day shift is um 6 a.m until 8 pm the evening shift is 8 PM until midnight and active overnight is midnight to 6 A.M okay it is very clear that that's what it is now if someone's shift goes from 4 pm until 9 00 pm two things should occur one the conversation should be had that once it clicks into 9pm and I'm talking sole Trader here okay I'm not talking shad's award I'm talking sole Traders um when it goes into 9 pm you let them know that that's now a different rate and you break it up ingly to what's in the price arrangement now a lot of people will say of course you can charge the whole evening shift or the whole um from the started at 8pm even though you're finishing at nine that you can charge that for the entire time the participants funding is potentially not planned for that in fact the participants funding may have been planned that that shift would finish at 8 pm and nobody kind of realized that and the participant will work better for me to finish it this time okay and what happens is when nobody's picked this up and people start over charging which is considered overcharging when you charge the whole lot all the way back you know so from 4 00 p.m until 8 PM is one rate but if you charge it at the higher rate the participant will run out of funding then you don't get paid because very rarely um when the new plan occurs that new plan is moving forward not to cover what had happened beforehand especially when they run out of funding there's no no Gap filling there the only way to get paid when a participants run out of funding is to have in your service agreement who pays when if if in the event that funding is run out or ndia refuse the invoice now moving forward there is a trial on how things will be paid and worked out to make sure that the fraud stops and the overcharging stops and that is pace and the way that will work and it is being trialled in Tasmania at the moment is that there's two ways so if the service provider is not pre-approved right so that and pre-approved for invoices to be paid will have evidence that this is what will be invoiced so a schedule of um services will be provided with line item numbers and the rates and those rates will be in alignment with the price Arrangement and the times so when something finishes at 8 pm it moves into the next stage okay and then a timesheet and invoice is submitted so evidence that that shift occurred plus the invoice and then that will be processed quite quickly because that's all been pre-approved service agreement scheduler support all it's all there and it all matches the price arrangement in ndis guidelines that that should turn around quite quickly but the one that will take a minimum of 10 working days is where that schedule of support hasn't been submitted um with a service agreement uh the services are not pre-approved so then a timesheet so evidence that the shift occurred and the invoice is submitted and it needs to all have all the details such as the line item number the rate all in alignment with the price Arrangement and the turnaround of that can be 10 business days so when you're planning your invoicing and how do I charge all of it should be in your service agreement before you do the shift because the participant has to agree to it or their if someone's signing on their behalf they're Advocate they have to agree to it before you start the shift that includes travel so if you decide to charge a person travel from your home to the shift which is not how travel allowance works then you are taking away some core funding so core support so you may find that as it gets closer to the plan finishing your hours are cut back um and that happens because of overcharging the plans are set for the actual service with the participant so if you take them out driving around of course you can charge travel wait yes the participants in the car with you um if you're charging them to drive from your house and it's you know 30 minutes or something then that is chewing up their funding and they're not with you if you charge between participants which is allowed which participant are you charging and who is agreeing to it it must be agreed upon with the participant or the informal support whoever is signing the service agreement so you work all of this out before you go ahead and do a shift now as an employee it is completely different it's got nothing to do with the ndis price Arrangement it's got everything to do with the shads award and if your company that you work for if you're feeling that you're not being paid the right rate um bear in mind what are you checking it against the best way to find out if you're being paid at the right rate is to either speak with their work or look at the sheds award because that is the award they are supposed to pay you at the other thing is before you sign a contract check that the hourly rate that they're offering you is what you feel you should be entitled to ask them about the different shifts say do I get paid differently for evening shift like how are you paying me you're paying me at a flat rate you know all of that what bracket are you taxing me at everything ask them before you sign the contract because once you sign your contract to change anything you're going to potentially have to involve Fair work um but you're at least going to have to go back to the shads award okay so two separate things shad's award and employ is employee wages and what a sole Trader or what the company invoices ndia for the participant services two separate things they do not match necessarily so the evening shift of what is invoiced to ndia is different to what the the support worker will be paid as an employee so when you ask your questions in groups maybe specify like this video is meant to help with this but maybe specify I'm an employee and the other thing just on that note to be mindful of is a lot of companies will have a confidentiality policy that you may have signed in which case you are not allowed to discuss wages and because that's considered company business in a public forum so that's just something to be mindful of that companies will have policies and procedures around what can be discussed in public forums about the business and um I have heard of people being disciplined because they've put up my boss isn't paying me the fair amount and the name is there and it's in a public forum and they've placed they've breached confidentiality clause and policy of the company so it's important to read your company's policies and procedures as well just as a side note just to protect you I'd hate for anybody to have to face disciplinary action just because I had some questions I get it we all have questions and asking them is great I get I wake up to an inbox of about 100 messages a day um around all of this how to run an ndis business questions around ndia um questions about participants questions about invoicing questions about what do I need to be registered and I'm happy to help with all of it um that's my business that's how I keep a roof over my head and if you'd like to know more reach out I have master classes once a month so this is to help you and take your time with it please take your time and read the price Arrangement it is there it is how ndia will determine whether you have overcharged or not so it is the guide that they refer to for all payments self-managed completely different topic so we're just sticking with the plan managed at the moment but self-managed people can invoice like you know be paying a lot more but they're still going to run out of funding anyway they've only got x amount of funding so yes it's good to ask questions if you're an employee think about your question first knowing that your boss may see it and as a sole Trader or somebody wanting to start up yes you can book a time with me we can go through things of how I can help you and as I said there is the master classes but it's so important that you read that price arrangement I hope this helps