Introduction
In the ever-evolving landscape of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), where compliance is not just a requirement but the bedrock of operations, navigating the maze of documentation and financial management can often feel like being stuck in a hamster wheel.
Providers are always in motion, striving to keep pace with the stringent and ever-changing regulations while trying to provide the best quality care for the people they support.
Finding a system that simplifies and streamlines processes is like striking gold. For a long time, our business juggled multiple spreadsheets and systems to manage vital documents and invoicing, a method that I personally hated, specifically because it was so prone to errors and required A LOT of manual data entry to keep it going.
This administrative burden was one of the biggest motivators for creating Astalty, to make life easier for the business and our staff, and to get us back to why we started working in the industry in the first place—to help people.
Let's be honest: no one got into this industry for compliance, but this is where a lot of time gets spent as a business owner.
In this blog, I’ll discuss how Astalty has completely changed my business (Empowered Community Services) through document management, invoicing, team coordination, and streamlining workflows.
Transforming Document Management
Previously, our approach to document management was like solving a complex jigsaw puzzle. With multiple spreadsheets for tracking essential documents such as service agreements and risk assessments, our administration was bogged down by inefficiencies.
Documents, unfortunately, would get misplaced and expiry dates muddled, leading to compliance nightmares - our spreadsheet would say that the document was current, only to find when we opened up the actual document itself it had expired.
The introduction of Astalty was a game-changer, offering us a seamless way to track all Participant documents. It gave us granular control over our documentation tracking, allowing us to state whether the document had an expiration date, if the document was required for all Participants and if the document was required to be uploaded to the Participants profile.
Best of all, it can send us notifications when a document is going to expire. We also have the option to run reports across the entire organisation, which allows us to see how many documents are outstanding and which team member is responsible for that Participant and those documents.
Invoicing Made Easy
In the pre-Astalty era, we were plagued by inefficiencies in our invoicing process, with our accounting software and CRM refusing to communicate, causing endless manual adjustments.
Consider a common scenario: we issue an invoice for $100 to a Plan Manager, only to discover there's just $99 remaining in the Participant's budget. You’d think it’d be an easy fix, right? Wrong. Our process was as manual as chiselling stone tablets in ancient times.
Firstly, we’d embark on a digital expedition, Googling for a reliable PDF to Word converter like it was the Holy Grail. Once found, we’d manually change the $100 to $99, save the document, and send it back to the Plan Manager. But here's where it gets even more fun. There was absolutely no way to reflect this change in our CRM. This glaring disconnect meant our CRM was demoted from a reliable source of truth to essentially a glorified spreadsheet.
And let’s be real, if you can't trust your CRM, you’re basically playing business on hard mode.
Every manual adjustment was a reminder of the time and energy we were wasting, time that could have been spent on activities that actually add value to our business and our Participants. It highlighted a glaring need for a system overhaul. Thankfully, with Astalty this is no longer an issue with Astalty, speaking directly to Xero. We can now easily void invoices, and make the necessary adjustments and have the invoice sent back to the Plan Manager without the PDF to Word rigmarole.
More than just the ability to adjust invoices, Astalty has been a huge help to our Accounts Team when it comes to reconciling payments. For instance, all of our invoices now get sent at the same time. This means our self, plan and NDIS invoices get sent at the same time, whilst the bulk upload file is created and ready to be uploaded into PRODA.
With Astalty, the days of squinting at spreadsheets, navigating the treacherous seas of payment files from PRODA and manually marking off each payment in our CRM are a distant memory.
Now, you upload the payment file (CSV) into Astalty, which reconciles payments automatically. You don’t even have to peek at the spreadsheet to see which payments have gone through and which have declined.
Best of all, it can be done in seconds. Yes, that’s right, reconcile all your NDIS payments in seconds.
This feature has completely transformed what used to be a tedious, eye-straining ritual into a seamless process. Gone are the days of manually going through payment records line by line. Astalty has turned our payment reconciliation process into an efficient, error-proof, and reliable system.
Workflow Efficiency
Before Astalty, adding case notes and billable time was a cumbersome exercise, requiring numerous clicks and navigation throughout the software. This was a significant hurdle for our Support Coordinators, who are often juggling multiple tasks at once, requiring them to have multiple tabs open and often getting lost in the process.
The task board feature within Astalty makes it simple for the team to navigate and keep all the plates spinning from one location. They no longer need to click into each individual Participant profile and can now add case notes for each Participant, add billable time, and get live updates on funding all from one location.
Elevating Participant Service: A Game-Changer in Customer Care
The leap forward in our customer service, thanks to Astalty, has been nothing short of transformative. So profound has been the impact that we've tailored specific key performance indicators (KPIs) around the software's capabilities. Reflecting on past experiences, a recurring issue that struck a chord was discovering that some Participants had not heard from their Support Coordinator in months. This revelation was always a hard pill to swallow, highlighting a glaring gap in our service delivery. Astalty offered the perfect solution to this predicament through its innovative Participant check-in function. It allows us to set up custom 'check-in' periods for each Participant, taking into account their individual needs, funding, and preferences. This level of customisation ensures that our support is not only consistent but also tailored to the unique requirements of each Participant. The process is simple yet incredibly effective. Following an interaction with a Participant, the corresponding case note is updated, automatically resetting the check-in timer. Should a check-in period lapse without engagement, Astalty promptly flags the oversight, enabling us to run reports on a caseload and identify Participants overdue for contact. This functionality empowers our team to proactively reach out, ensuring no one feels neglected or overlooked. Implementing the Participant check-in feature has revolutionised how we manage and maintain our relationships with Participants. It serves as a digital safety net, catching potential lapses in communication before they can escalate into issues of concern.
Conclusion
The to Astalty has been completely transformative for our team. It has addressed critical pain points in document management, invoicing, workflow efficiency, and customer service. Astalty has allowed us to infuse our operations with personality, turning everyday challenges into opportunities for innovation and growth. As we begin to roll out Astalty Premium (our most powerful tool yet), the team will look for even further ways in which we can improve opportunities and customer (Participant) service.
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