General questions - Last updated 02/12/25
What happened to projected balance?
Answer: Projected balance will no longer be applicable for Support at Home. Live tracking has superseded the HCP projected balance. Live tracking is where you’ll be able to see budgeted and forecasted amounts for each quarter, including Members ongoing and AT-HM allocations. Learn more in our Budget tooling article.
Why do some SaH transition Members display the client contribution amount as 0%, while others do not show it at all?
Some client contribution details are currently missing due to gaps in the data being returned through the current Services Australia process. Currently, Lookout is set up with the following logic:
- We check whether there are any current or upcoming client contributions for the funding source.
- If contribution information is returned, we display it.
- If no contribution information is returned, nothing is shown.
Can we still use account transactions for client reimbursements?
Answer: Account transactions can not be used to capture Support at Home expenses. They need to be entered via the Invoice Import functionality. To capture a reimbursement, please use your Corporate Helper as the Helper, and enter the Member per other invoices. Don’t forget to select ‘Line paid externally’.
What is the difference between “HCP (Support at Home transition)” and “Support at Home” funding schemes?
Answer: The funding schemes “HCP (Support at Home transition)” and “Support at Home” are intentionally separate. This distinction exists because they follow different program rules.
A membership with the funding scheme “HCP (Support at Home transition)” remains a single membership that behaves like HCP before 1 November and like SAH after 1 November. The “Support at Home” funding scheme, on the other hand, applies only to new memberships created in Lookout after 1 November.
We are exploring ways to make this distinction more straightforward in the coming weeks. In future, when filtering for “Support at Home” memberships, results will include both transition and new SAH memberships to simplify reporting and management.
How should I claim when a visit spans across two schemes (HCP and SaH)?
Answer: If your visit overlaps the time boundary between the HCP and S@H schemes, the cleanest way to claim is to split the visit between the two schemes:
- Claim under HCP for the time up to 23:39 on the 31st.
- Claim under S@H from 00:00 to the end time for the 1st.
This approach ensures your claim is clear, follows the scheme guidelines, and avoids any overlap or confusion between claim periods.
Where can I see a full list of Support at Home service codes and reference data?
Answer: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/support-home-invoice-sample-files?context=20
Can we get clarification about the SaH services included in the CSV builder?
Answer: We’ve made a slight change so that when you select an ‘External ID’ (the claiming code) when creating a Support at Home rate individually, i.e., not using the CSV builder and importing, you won’t see the Support at Home Services that don’t have a ‘per visit’ or ‘per hour’ unit type. This is to avoid confusion and to be consistent with the options in the CSV builder.
Our reasoning for this decision was that you’re unlikely to have a set price for Assistive technology and Home modifications, so these are not relevant when setting up rates for visits.
Instead, we think that Assistive technology and Home modifications will most likely be organised through purchase orders. With this in mind, we’re working on another project to improve purchase orders and invoices, where you can select your Support at Home service code for claiming. Here you’ll be able to select from the whole list we’ve received to date from the government, including wraparounds. This is a separate project from the Support at Home rates, which is focused on rates for visits. This work is still in development - stay tuned for news about when this will be released!
Will you also be covering bulk invoice upload for those of us who don’t use Purchase Orders currently?
Answer: We are aware of this workflow and are currently working on a feature to bulk import purchase orders into Lookout, including specifying the Support at Home service code and distinct supplier and service prices.
We have already updated the bulk invoice importer to handle specifying the Support at Home service code. The intent is that you will be able to perform either of these activities as a part of the Support at Home claim.
Do the current travel/transport charging mechanics remain active for other funding programs if organisations choose to use?
Answer: Yes. Travel (provider travel and client transport) is still supported for all other funding programs, like NDIS, for example.
Does the tool recognise Public Holidays per State/Region? How are public holiday dates ingested into the system so it knows when to apply?
Answer: Yes, Lookout will automatically recognise what public holiday applies on a state basis. Some more regional ones may require custom set up. We are looking to extend our public holidays smarts to extend to understanding when rates apply for only a portion of the day, rather than for 24 hours as well.
Do we need to update visits in bulk via Lookout?- If so (via Daily Snapshots), would it be possible to Filter on Helper Engagement Type (Contractor or Employee), so all Contractor Visits can be edited to have the Contractor Rates, etc.
Answer: Yes, we recommend using our bulk tooling to update visits, invoices and POs and transition them under SaH. We don’t currently have a filter for Helper engagement type, but can look at adding this in.
To migrate visits, do we need to wait until other settings are completed (like the Membership Plan)?
Answer: No, you don’t have to wait. Our smart rates feature will automatically detect which rate variant or segment applies to each membership plan, even if those membership plans are set up later.
This means you can begin transitioning your visits to their corresponding SaH service types now if you’re feeling confident, and the system will apply the correct rates once your segments and membership plans are in place.
So do all Members need to be individually selected to map, there is no broader way to select multiple Members to map to a new Plan at once?
Answer: There is a select all option in the top left of the Membership index that allows you to select all results on that page. Filters on the left-hand side also allow you to focus on results such as community and location.
At this stage, the select all on the Membership index is limited to 25 results at a time. We are working to increase this.
Here’s how the numbers break down:
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Active Membership Plans: This is the total number of membership plans in your instance across all funding schemes.
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Currently Assigned Plans: This reflects how many of those plans have at least one active (non-archived) Member currently assigned.
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HCP Membership Plans: The number of membership plans linked to the HCP funding scheme. This may include standard, brokerage, or self-managed plans depending on your setup.
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SaH Membership Plans: The number of Support at Home (SaH) membership plans that have at least one active Member assigned.
Will there still be the ability to add additional services to the job for late cancellations and escorted transport?
Answer: Visits and Purchase Order Line Items will continue to support multiple service tags, but they can only have one external ID (which is the SaH service ID/rate) for claiming. Therefore, if you currently add additional service tags to visits as a part of your workflows, you will be able to continue doing this.
At the moment there is no relationship between services and rates/products. To clarify, are you saying that the system will now have a forced relationship?
Answer: Yes. Under Support at Home, rates must be directly linked to a specific Support at Home service/code. You won’t be able to create a rate for S@H without specifying which SaH service ID it applies to. No service ID, no claim. This is a requirement from Services Australia.
Does the tool recognise Public Holidays per State/Region? How are public holiday dates ingested into the system so it knows when to apply?
Answser: Yes, Lookout will automatically recognise what public holiday applies on a state basis. Some more regional-specific ones may require custom set up. We are looking to extend our public holidays smarts to extend to understanding when rates apply for only a portion of the day rather than for 24 hours as well, but at this stage it’s whole days only. Consider using the bulk visits tool to adjust rates on these exceptional days.
Does that include hospital leave and respite leave entry?
Answer: Lookout will retain it’s current functionality to capture and track Member leave across the programs. It is our current understanding that leave will no longer need to be reported via the Aged Care Provider Portal so we are not planning any integrations for this feature at this time.
Currently, a visit can have multiple services. Are there any recommendations moving forward?— Will this visit just be assigned to 1 Service only (is the system going to restrict this only for SAH members?— Will there be an option for 1 visit to be broken down into several Services (Visit was 3 hours: 1 hour for DA, 1 hour for Personal Assistance, 1 hour for Meals)?
Answer: At the moment the tooling will only allow you to remap to one SaH service per visit. You can still assign multiple of your own custom service tags to a visit, such as “Domestic Assistance”, “Shopping Support”, and “Meal Preparation”, to capture the full scope of what occurred during that visit. These are managed under Settings > Services, where you can create and customise services, attach ‘must-dos’, and define how they appear to your team.