This article explains how funding periods are created, managed and interacted with on a service agreement.
Funding periods in Lumary represent the periodic funding allocations outlined in a client’s NDIS PACE plan. They’re used to plan and manage contracted services within each support category.
Required packages
Available with:
CM: Lumary 24 release and later.
DC: 2.9 release and later.
In Lumary, funding periods help you:
- Plan services against the same timeframes as the client’s NDIS plan,
- Track what’s been allocated based on contracted amounts,
- Monitor what’s planned to be spent through scheduled services in Lumary or our partner platform, Skedulo, and
- Review what’s actually been delivered.
Assumed Knowledge...
- our NDIS - funding periods interpretation,
- creating an NDIS service agreement, with PACE Plan selected,
- adding a category to your service agreement, and
- adding a service agreement item to your service agreement.
This article covers the following:
- what data is required on service agreements for funding periods,
- how funding periods are created and updated,
- how allocations are calculated on funding periods,
- where to view funding periods,
- how funding periods can be front loaded, and
- how to include funding period information in Service Agreement templates.
What data is required on service agreements for funding periods
Funding periods are automatically created on service agreements when the following conditions are met:
Service Agreement requirements
- Funding Type must be NDIS.
- Pace Plan checkbox must be selected.
-
NDIS Plan Start Date (optional) – if this field is populated, funding periods will align with the NDIS plan dates.
- If this field is not populated, funding periods will be generated based on the service agreement's Start Date, which may not accurately reflect the NDIS plan periods.
CM - See create an NDIS service agreement for more information.
DC - See create an NDIS service agreement for more information.
Support Category requirements
-
Funding Period Length must be populated.
- If this field is missing, check that the correct data settings above are applied to the service agreement.
CM - See add a category to a service agreement for more information.
DC - See add a category to a service agreement for more information.
How funding periods are created and updated
Funding periods are automatically created as soon as a support category is added to a service agreement.
The allocations, committed and delivered values, and period dates are updated automatically based on the information below.
Allocation values
Allocation values are updated while the service agreement is in Draft status when any of the following occurs:
- Service agreement items are added, changed, or deleted.
- Support category allocations or funding period lengths are modified.
- Service agreement dates are changed.
Allocations in current funding periods are calculated to include rolled over (unspent) funding from previous periods.
Committed / Delivered values
Committed amounts are calculated based on funding period dates and:
- planned services on scheduled sessions and bed allocations from the current date onwards, and
- billable job service items on scheduled Skedulo jobs from the current date onwards.
- Delivery ratios, negotiated rates and rate substitution are factored into these calculations.
Delivered amounts are calculated based on funding period dates and service delivered record totals.
Committed and delivered values are updated automatically each morning at 2am by an automated process.
You can also trigger recalculation of these values for a specific service agreement by selecting Update Totals on the Funding Periods window within an NDIS PACE service agreement, when the agreement's status is Current or Rollover.
- Navigate to the NDIS PACE service agreement you wish to update the committed/delivered totals for.
- Click the Funding Periods button at the top of the agreement.
- Click the Update Totals button.
- A progress bar will show to track the calculation process, and you will receive a confirmation message when the process has completed.
- The funding period values will automatically refresh to display the updated totals. You may need to expand the categories to see the funding period details.
Period Dates
The number of funding periods and their start and end dates are recalculated and updated when any of the following occur on a Draft Service Agreement:
- The service agreement Start Date and/or End Date is changed.
- The NDIS Plan Start Date is modified.
- The Funding Period Length is modified on categories.
How allocations are calculated on funding periods
Allocations within each funding period are calculated using two methods:
1. Support category unallocated amounts
The Unallocated amount is the difference between the Support Category Amount and the total of the line items for the category. When a support category has an Unallocated amount, this is distributed across all funding periods for that support category, based on the number of days in the period.
2. Service agreement items
Each service agreement item's Total is distributed based on its start and end dates.
The system allocates the associated funding amount across the funding periods that fall within those dates, ensuring the funding is distributed according to when the services are planned to occur.
Where to view funding periods
You can view funding periods directly within the service agreement, or through reports you create to help you track and analyse funding allocations.
Indicators are shown if committed amounts exceed the funding period's remaining amount, or if delivered amounts exceed the funding period's allocation amount. If a funding period is both over-omitted and over-delivered, only the over-delivered indicator is shown.
Current funding periods have a green indicator on the left.
Service agreement category view
To view funding periods for a specific support category:
- Navigate to an NDIS PACE service agreement in any status.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to a category and select View.
- A summary of the funding periods for that specific category will be displayed.
Service agreement funding period summary
To view all funding periods within a service agreement:
- Navigate to an an NDIS PACE service agreement with a status of Rollover or Current.
- Click the Funding Periods button in the header.
- Click the name of a category to expand and view its funding period data.
- Use Expand All or Collapse All to show or hide the funding period data for all support categories.
Reports
You can also access funding period information via Salesforce reports.
- Open the App Launcher.
- Search for and select Reports.
- Click New Report.
- Under Category, select All.
- Choose one of the following Report Types:
- Service Agreements with Funding Periods – includes service agreement, support category, and funding period data.
- Clients with Funding Periods – includes client demographic data, service agreement, support category, and funding period data.
- Add your desired filters and columns to your report. Check out more about how to create reports in Salesforce.
How funding can periods be front loaded
It’s important to note that Lumary’s Funding Period features are not designed to replicate or match a participant’s NDIS plan funding period amounts dollar-for-dollar. While you can front-load a Service Agreement if needed, doing so usually adds administrative overhead and provides limited benefit.
Many NDIS plans are intentionally front-loaded by the NDIA to provide flexibility across the full plan period. This may be to support irregular SIL delivery, therapeutic variability, or general plan fluctuations. These allocations are based on the participant’s entire plan, not the services of a single provider — which means recreating them in your Service Agreement won’t accurately reflect how funding is used.
Instead of trying to mimic the plan structure, we recommend using Lumary’s Funding Period outputs as a guide:
to understand how your contracted services fall within each funding period
to confirm that enough funding appears available
to support clear, collaborative conversations with participants
Lumary’s funding period data effectively acts as a service-booking, helping participants understand when funding will be required for your services so they can plan their other supports appropriately.
This approach reduces complexity and ensures Service Agreements focus on the services you deliver, rather than replicating the internal mechanics of the NDIS plan.
If you do need to front-load a funding period, this can be achieved by adding or adjusting Service Agreement Items to increase the services that fall within the earlier period dates.
Refer to How allocations are calculated on funding periods above, and ensure that the service agreement item start and end dates align with the funding period(s) you want to increase.
How to include funding period information in service agreement templates
You can include funding period information in your service agreement templates by using Formstack Mappings to pull funding allocation data into the template.
For an example, refer to the Lumary 24 release notes, which provide:
- A sample appendix template
- Related queries used for Formstack Mappings
These resources demonstrate how to display funding period allocation data within your service agreement templates.