Our Process for Invoices

Step One – Submit your invoice

• You can email your invoice to us at accounts@ontimeplanservices.com.au
• Your client may prefer that you email your invoice to them, and they will email it to us.
• You can email your invoice to us as well as the participant.

Step Two – Processing

• We process your invoice within 1-2 business days of receipt.
• If there are any errors or questions about your claim, we will email you.
• We cannot claim payments that do not meet NDIS guidelines, or have errors on the invoice.
• See our tips below on how to speed up processing of your invoice.

Step Three – Approval by the participant

• Once processed (from a correct invoice), we send your invoice to the participant or nominee for approval.
• They usually have four days to approve your invoice or ask questions about it.
• Some participants will approve straight away, others may take a few days. Some will not approve within the four days, and your invoice then ‘times out’ and will get sent to the NDIS.
• Occasionally, your invoice is ‘on hold’ until we get approval from the participant. This means it could take longer than four days to submit it to the NDIS.
• If a participant does not approve your invoice, we cannot claim it from the NDIS. In this case, we will let you know, and you can speak with the participant to sort it out.

Step Four – Submitted to the NDIS

• We submit approved invoices to the NDIS daily, on our regular business days.
• The NDIS may review your claim before they process the payment. In this case, there will be a delay while they contact you to request further information. https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/working-provider/getting-paid#pre-payment-claim-reviews
• Most claims are paid by the NDIS without a prior review. However, a review or audit can happen at any time, usually from 6-24 months after payment.
• Payment is made to us by the NDIS generally two to three business days after claiming. They can take up to 10 days. We then pay you. We cannot pay you until the NDIS has released the funds to us.

Step Five – Payment

• We email you a remittance advice once we have made payment.
• We cannot reference your invoice number on your bank deposit. Instead, it will show our reference number. You need to use the remittance advice to reconcile your payments.
• Your bank may release the payment straight away or may hold onto it for a day. Please check with your bank if you have received the remittance advice, but no payment within two days.
• Please reconcile your payment so we do not get reminders for paid invoices.

Common Issues

Emails not being received by either party

• Check that the ‘reply to’ address from your invoicing system is correct.
• Our emails may be stuck in your Junk or Spam folder. Please make sure to add accounts@ontimeplanservices.com.au to your ‘Safe Senders’ or ‘White List’.
• Some email providers use a focussed inbox or have tabs. Our emails may be ending up in your ‘Promotions’ or other folder. Please check those folders regularly.
• If you are sending your invoices to the participant, they may not have forwarded them to us.
• You may have a mistake in our email address – please check it carefully.

Invoices that have been declined

• You are providing your service to the NDIS participant, not to us. We cannot approve your payment, only they can.
• If there is a disagreement over the service, you will need to speak with the participant. Our role is to make the claim from the NDIS and to pay you. It is not to convince the participant to approve your invoice.
• If your invoice is declined and you change it, we need to follow the steps above again. That includes asking for approval for the amended invoice.
• Even if your invoice is correct, we cannot override the participant’s decision. If you do not come to an agreement, you will need to settle the dispute via your usual resolution processes. We are not a party to any debt collection procedures, so you will need to let the participant know, not us.

Payment issues

• Please check that your bank account details are on each invoice and are correct. Our system will be able to check that the details match what we have on file. If your bank details are in the email, or not stated, we cannot check.
• Check with your bank if you have received a remittance advice but no payment. If your bank has no record of the payment after 2 days, then please get in touch with us at accounts@ontimeplanservices.com.au
• Have you received a payment but no remittance advice? Look for a reference number in your account. Payments we make have “OTP” at the beginning, followed by the date of payment and a unique number at the end. You can email or call us with this number and we can resend the remittance advice.
• The amount we have paid you may not be the same as what was on your invoice. We will email you if this happens, and it could be because:
  • Your math was incorrect.
  • You were claiming a higher rate than what we could pay.
  • The participant may have run out of funds.
  • You may have claimed for a service twice and we removed the double up. Usually we would check this with you first.

Unavoidable delays

• Mondays are our busiest day. If your invoice is sent on a Monday, it may take an extra day to process.
• If you have errors on your invoice they need to be corrected. Make sure you email your amended invoice to us – we don’t know when you’ve changed it otherwise. Your invoice will go back in the queue and this delays payment.
• The NDIS may reject payment. This can happen for a few different reasons. We then troubleshoot the problem, correct it if we can, and try again. This can delay payment.

Want to get paid faster?

Our system uses automation and artificial intelligence to speed up processing. The more our system can do automatically, the faster your invoice will get processed. Tips to speed it up:

• Attach your invoice to your email, don’t just send a link.
• Have all necessary information on your invoice, every time. See our page on ‘Invoice Requirements’ for what you need to include.
• Correct support item codes for each line of your invoice will speed things up.
• If your invoice is a photo, our system can’t read it and we have to process it manually.
• We cannot open attachments in the Apple HEIC format, or .pages attachment.
• If the photo is in the body of the email, rather than an attachment, it may not come through properly.
• Handwritten invoices may be difficult to read and we may need to check your writing with you.
• If you are attaching a document, make sure it can be ‘scanned’. This means that you can highlight an entire line of your claim, and only that line. See below for an example.

If you are not using an invoicing system, you can send your invoice in a word processing or spreadsheet file. You can download this sample Word template that meets all our requirements.