DVA: Set up and configuration

This guide walks through the Settings menu for DVA providers, in the order it appears in Lookout. Each section explains what it does, why it matters for DVA and whether you need to configure it. By the end, you'll have the core setup in place to start onboarding DVA Members.

-> New to DVA in Lookout? This is the first article in our DVA series. The series takes providers through setting up and managing DVA Members in Lookout, from initial configuration through to service delivery and claims. View the full series here.

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Overview

Set up the essential DVA foundations in Lookout before you create or manage DVA Members.

DVA works differently from other funding models, so keep these points in mind:

• DVA claiming in Lookout is built around DVA community nursing, which covers clinical care, personal care, overnight care and other care.
• DVA claims run in 28-day claiming windows. Each window starts from the period start date of the Member's earliest active (unarchived) DVA referral plan.
• Lookout works out claim item numbers from the Member's completed Visits in each window. It looks at how many Visits there were, how long they lasted on average and the type of care.
• Claim amounts come from the DVA fee schedule, which Lookout keeps up to date for you. They don't come from the prices on your Visit rates.
• You can submit DVA claims to Medicare from Claiming > DVA once Lookout support has set up your DVA claiming connection with your provider number.
• DVA is built into Lookout as a standard funding scheme. You don't need to create a custom funding scheme for it.

 

 

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Before you start

To complete this process, make sure:

• You have Admin access, or the correct Access role permissions that lets you manage Settings. Most of this setup lives in the Settings area.
• You are logged into the web app on a computer, not the Lookout mobile app.
• You have your groundwork ready. This includes your provider details, DVA provider number, staff list, the DVA community nursing services you deliver and your worker compliance information.
• For each veteran, you have their DVA client file number, their name exactly as DVA has it recorded, their gender, their date of birth and their referral details (referrer name, provider number, provider type and referral dates).
  
  

Essential DVA configuration

Complete these configuration steps before onboarding a DVA Member.

Each configuration step flows as follows:

• Your team (accounts and Roles).
• Services in Care (your support catalogue).
• Rates (DVA Visit rates with their DVA External IDs).
• Membership plans in Care (bundle Services and Rates).
• Verifications (Helper compliance checks).
  
  

Non-essential settings for getting started

A standard DVA setup doesn't need the following settings:

• Subscription > Helpers: View-only information for checking your total number of Helpers and creating a new Helper.
• Custom funding schemes: Leave this unchanged. DVA is already available by default.
• Integrations: Not needed for DVA. Your DVA claiming connection isn't set up here. Lookout support sets it up for you.
• Technical: Developer settings that you don't need for day-to-day setup or use.
• Care settings: Features such as Care plan categories, Cohorts, Bulk should-knows and Custom attributes are optional. You can add them later as your needs grow.

Complete the core DVA configuration first. You can come back to these settings later if your organisation needs more functionality.

 

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Navigating to settings

• From your home dashboard, click the ellipsis (...) next to your name in the bottom left-hand corner to open the overflow menu.
• In the overflow menu, click ⚙ Settings.
• The main settings page will load.
• The settings menu is grouped into sections. Work through them in order using the step-by-step instructions below.

 

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Settings overview

The Settings overview is the home page of the Settings area. Think of it as your DVA setup progress board. It doesn't hold any settings itself. Each item on it is a shortcut to the section where you do the actual setup.

What you'll see

The overview groups your key settings into cards, each showing how far that area has been set up.
For example, it shows:

• How many Staffers you have and whether Roles/permissions are set up.
• Whether your Membership plans and Services exist.
• Your Rates count (Visit rates, provider travel, client transport).
• Your Finance settings, such as billing frequency.
• Rostering settings and Helper settings.

For settings that need configuring, each item displays:

• Round tick = Configured.
• Round cross = Not configured.
• A description showing the current configured value.

For optional settings:

• Blue tick in a square box = Feature is enabled.
• Blue cross in a square box = Feature is disabled or not configured.

The Settings overview is a visual dashboard that gives you a quick snapshot of your current settings, configuration status and enabled features.

 

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Setting up Lookout for DVA

Set up the foundations your organisation needs before you manage veterans, services and claims.

1. Your team

What it is: Your office and admin users, what they can access and your login rules.
DVA context: Set up the users who will run your DVA operations.

• Staffers: Add your office and admin people, such as coordinators, rostering staff and admins.
• Roles: Decide what each Role can do, then assign a Role to each Staffer. For DVA, check these permissions:
  • Financial reporting: Needed to run the DVA claims export report and the DVA referral plans report.
  • Claiming (Support at Home, NDIS, DVA, etc): Needed to import, submit, retry and track claims in Claiming > DVA.
• Login settings: Set your sign-in and security rules.

 

2. Care

What it is: Care and service settings you can reuse across your organisation. This is one of the most important areas to set up.

• Services: The supports your organisation delivers. Set these up first, because other settings depend on them.
  DVA example: Clinical nursing care, Personal care and Overnight care.
• Care plans: Reusable templates for a Member's goals, strengths, supports and risks.
  DVA example: A template for recording a veteran's nursing goals, wound care needs and safety considerations at home.
• Custom funding schemes: Leave this unchanged. DVA is already available as a standard funding scheme.
• Membership plans: Reusable templates that bundle a Funding scheme type, Services and Rates. Assigning a plan saves manual setup and keeps veterans' setups consistent. DVA example: A "DVA Community Nursing" Membership plan with Funding scheme type set to DVA, including your clinical care and personal care Services and their DVA Visit rates.
• Matching preferences: Criteria for matching Members with suitable Helpers, such as skills, language or personal preferences. DVA example: Matching a veteran with a Helper experienced in wound care.
• Referrals: Set up how referrals are structured and create email templates for sending them. DVA example: A template for recording a new referral from a veteran's GP.

 

3. Rostering

What it is: How shifts and Visits are scheduled. DVA context: Set how your Helpers are scheduled using Helper settings, Breaks and shifts, Helper leave, Helper availability and Public holidays. These settings apply to all Members, whatever their funding scheme.

 

4. Verifications

What it is: The compliance checks your Helpers must hold, and the file types you accept.
DVA context: Set up the checks your DVA workers need, such as nursing registration, a National Police Check, a Working With Vulnerable People or Working With Children Check, First Aid/CPR and a driver's licence. When you record expiry dates, Lookout tracks upcoming renewals and flags them on the main home dashboard.

 

 

5. Templates & configurations

What it is: Reusable documents, building blocks and settings that shape how your service runs. You set them up once to match how your organisation works, and Lookout applies them every time. That keeps things consistent for your team and for the veterans you support.
DVA context: Prepare the documents you share with veterans and the ones you use internally.

• Agreement templates for your DVA service agreement.
• Forms for intake, consent and home safety checks. Speak to your Lookout representative about custom forms.
• Survey templates for checking how satisfied veterans are.
• Visit cancellation reasons that match your DVA cancellation policy.

Example: You set up your DVA service agreement once. Each new veteran's agreement then starts with the right terms already in place. You also add visit cancellation reasons that match your DVA policy, such as "Veteran unwell" or "Veteran in hospital". When a Visit is cancelled, staff pick from that list, so every cancellation is recorded the same way.

 

6. Rates

What it is: Your pricing, split into Visit rates, Provider travel rates and Client transport rates.
DVA context: Create a Visit rate for each type of DVA care you deliver. Give it a name your team will recognise, such as "DVA Clinical Care".

DVA claiming depends on the External ID on each Visit rate. Lookout reads this value to sort each completed Visit into the right DVA care type and work out the item number. Visits on a rate without one of the IDs below are left out of the DVA claims export report.

Type of DVA care	Enter this in External ID
Clinical care	dva_clinical_care
Personal care	dva_personal_care
Other care	dva_other_care
Overnight clinical care (active)	dva_overnight_clinical_care_active
Overnight clinical care (inactive)	dva_overnight_clinical_care_inactive
Overnight personal care (active)	dva_overnight_personal_care_active
Overnight personal care (inactive)	dva_overnight_personal_care_inactive

To create a DVA Visit rate:

• Navigate to ⚙ Settings  > Rates > Visit rates.
• Click New rate.
• Enter a Name of rate, for example "DVA Clinical Care".
• Select DVA as the Funding scheme type.
• Select the Services this rate applies to.
• Under External identifiers, enter the matching value from the table above in the External ID field. Type it exactly as shown, all in lowercase.
• Click Save.

Once you've saved your first DVA rate, DVA appears as its own list under Visit rates, so you can find all your DVA rates in one place. Add your travel and transport rates here too.

 

7. Finance

What it is: Billing settings, payment details and tax treatment.
DVA context: Set how Invoices and Billing runs work in Finance settings, enter your Payment details and set up your Taxes.

 

8. Integrations

What it is: Connections to government portals and third-party apps.
DVA context: The Aged Care Provider Portal here is for aged care, not DVA.

 

9. Technical

What it is: Analytics, API keys, single sign-on and data feeds.
DVA context: There's nothing to set up here for DVA. Only review this section if you use single sign-on or connect Lookout to your own systems.

Unify all your business operations. Lookout integrates with over 600 apps, so you can connect all your favourite tools. Scale your business by turning complex manual processes into streamlined, synchronised workflows. Contact Lookout here to learn more.

 

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Where DVA details appear on a Member's profile

How you see a DVA Member's details depends on which Member profile your organisation uses.

Legacy Member profile

• The Funder panel on the Member's Dashboard shows the funder and the DVA funding scheme. Click Edit to update the DVA details, or click Profile and Change funder to manage the funder.
• The Current episode shows inside the Funder panel. Click View all to open DVA episodes.
• The DVA referral plans panel lists current referral plans. Click View all to manage referral plans, or click View claims to see the Member's DVA claims.

• To remove a funder or funding scheme, use the Danger zone at the bottom of the Member's Dashboard. You can also use Remove funder and Remove on Settings > Funding scheme.

Member contacts & dashboard enhancements (October 1 interface)

• The Funder panel is more compact. Click View profile or Change funder at the top of the panel, and click Edit next to the funding scheme to update the DVA details.
• The Current episode and View all still appear inside the Funder panel.
• The DVA referral plans panel works the same as in the legacy profile.
• The Danger zone has moved off the Dashboard. To remove a funder or funding scheme, navigate to the Member's Settings tab > Funding scheme and use Remove funder or Remove funding scheme in the Danger zone.

 

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Visit and claiming considerations

Your setup feeds directly into DVA claiming, so keep these points in mind:

• Referral plans drive the claim cycle. Lookout uses the period start date of the Member's earliest unarchived referral plan to build their 28-day claiming windows. Archive old plans that are no longer used for claiming. Editing or archiving a plan can change the claim start date, so check with your finance team first.
• Only completed Visits are claimed. The export only includes completed Visits that start within the claiming window.
• Item numbers are worked out for you. For clinical and personal care, Lookout compares how many Visits of each type there were. Whichever type has more Visits sets the core item, and the other type is added as an add-on item. If the numbers are equal, clinical care is treated as the core. Overnight care is claimed one Visit at a time, based on how long the Visit is booked for.
• Worker type comes from the rate. Clinical care items are exported with worker type RN, and personal care items with NSS. The worker type isn't taken from the Helper who delivered the Visit. Review the export before you import it if a different worker type applies.
• Watch for long leave. If a Member's current leave goes past 28 days and their current referral plan has no end date, a banner on their profile warns that the referral plan may need renewing.
• Run the right reports. From Reports > Financial reports, run the DVA claims export report. Choose a one-week period (Monday to Sunday), and the report includes every Member whose 28-day claiming window ends in that week. Use the DVA referral plans report to see referral plans that are due to expire.
  
  

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What happens next?

Once your core setup is complete, your foundations carry through the rest of the platform automatically:

• Every new DVA Member can be given a DVA Membership plan and pick up the right Services and Rates, so you don't rebuild pricing for each person.
• Visits booked on your DVA Visit rates are sorted into the right DVA care type using their External ID.
• The DVA claims export report includes each Member's DVA client file number, item numbers and fee schedule amounts, claiming period dates, the referrer's provider number and the worker type.
• You can import the export in Claiming > DVA to submit claims to Medicare and track their Medicare status.
• Verifications start tracking your Helpers' compliance and flag checks that are close to expiring.
• Your Agreement template is ready to create each veteran's service agreement during onboarding.
  
  

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What Admins and Staffers will see

Once your DVA setup is complete, what each person sees depends on their access level.

For Admins

• Can view and manage all Settings, including Services, Rates, Membership plans, Verifications, Finance and Rostering.
• Can add, edit and archive DVA referral plans on a Member's profile.
• Can track setup progress from the Settings overview, where each card shows its status and key values.

• Can click any incomplete card to go straight to the section that still needs setting up.

For Staffers with configuration permissions

• Can view and manage the Settings areas their Role allows.
• Can select existing Membership plans, Services and Rates when onboarding Members.
• Can run the DVA claims export report and DVA referral plans report if their Role includes Financial reporting.
• Can import, submit and track claims in Claiming > DVA if their Role includes Claiming (Support at Home, NDIS, DVA, etc).

The Settings overview confirms when setup is complete. When every essential area (your team, Services, Rates, Membership plans and Verifications) shows as done on the overview cards, your organisation is ready to onboard DVA Members. If anything is still flagged, the overview takes you straight to the section to finish.

 

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Troubleshooting

I can't see a Settings section or option

• Check your access Role. Most of this setup is limited to Admins or Staffers with configuration permissions.
• Check that the feature is turned on for your organisation.
• Try logging out and back in.
  
  

I completed a step but nothing changed

• Make sure you clicked Save on each screen.
• Check for errors highlighted on the form.
• Check you followed the right order. Membership plans can't bundle Services and Rates that don't exist yet.
  
  

I can't see DVA under Claiming

• DVA only appears under Claiming once Lookout support has set up your DVA claiming connection.
• Check your Role includes Claiming (Support at Home, NDIS, DVA, etc).
• If both are in place and you still can't see it, contact Lookout support.
  
  

A Member's Visits are missing from the DVA claims export report

• Check the Visits are completed.
• Check the Visit rate has the correct DVA External ID, typed exactly as shown in the Rates table.
• Check the Member has a DVA funding scheme and an unarchived DVA referral plan.
• Check the Member's 28-day claiming window ends within the week you chose for the report.
  
  

I can't add or edit a DVA referral plan

• Only Admins can manage DVA referral plans.
• Archived referral plans can't be edited. Add a new referral plan instead.

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Still need help?

If you're still having issues, contact our support team and include:

• Screenshots, if possible
• The user's name and email
• The exact steps you took
• Any error messages you received